Seafood Cioppino Secrets!!!

This recipe began its long journey towards perfections nearly 15 years ago when a not so favorable restaurant experience led us to declare "we can cook better Cioppino than this with our eyes closed and both hands tied behind our backs"! Since then we have been through various iterations sometimes trying to do too much, sometimes a bit lazy with the base, but through it all we bring you what arguably is the best dish of this type that you will ever prepare and experience. We apologize for the length of this video offering, but the dish is just involves so many steps that it was difficult to shorten.  As always, our narration cannot cover all the details so here are some additions you need to know: all of the seafood is fresh and this is the perfect time of year for it because the ingredients are all available; do not cut corners on the base by using a canned paste or puree, the flavor will just not be the same; when you are simmering the base you will need to add water to achieve desired consistency (pretty brothy); you will need to taste the base multiple times and add more seasonings to be dead-on to your preference; boil the wine off after adding to get the alcohol part out that can leave a bitter aftertaste but don't worry, if this does not happen just right the anecdote is a little sugar.  You will need to add salt as you taste along, we like the sea salt kind, tastes better.  Start 3 hours early and get the base done before your guests arrive.  When you have the base right it will taste great by itself and only get better when you add the clam and mussel juices; it should be a orange/broth color when done correctly. Prepare all the seafood in advance by washing and patting everything dry; scrub the steamer shells, de-shell and de-vain the prawns (do not buy previously shelled prawns), de-beard the mussels. (All the seafood for this entree were acquired at www.geminifish.com) Find someone who loves you to help on this stuff otherwise it does become a long day in the kitchen :) If you are serving hor d'oeuvres and salad ahead of this you will need to start the seafood portion for the cooking process when your guests are on their salads, this presents the proper timing.  From the video you can see that the preparation of each seafood is in a precise order (do not violate this, much trial and error fine-tuned this all) for reasons that will become obvious to you.  We slice to desired mouth feel and presentation as we chef, so you will be very active during this last 15 minutes, so do not become distracted; if you can multitask, namely drinking wine, slicing, searing, seasoning, de-glazing, adding to dutch oven, all while entertaining your guests so be it; otherwise get some help.  When you are finally all in you are done!  The lightly seared garlic-peppered lime de-glazed sea scallops come straight from the pan onto the top of each platted dish that has been "warmed; then comes the parsley and voila, there you have it.  For those of you that need cook by numbers, we will add those soon!  If you have any technique questions please  ask them in the comments and we will respond; sometimes many subtle things that are done in the process are obvious to us but not to others so ask away :)  Oh, almost forgot the featured wines are: 1) 2009 Quilceda Creek Palengat Proprietary Red Wine http://www.quilcedacreek.com/wines.aspx?SID=63&SSID=618BF0FD-1D3D-4304-B269-F2DD915BAC0D&CID=68  & 2) 2007 Long Shadows Pirouette http://www.longshadows.com/pirouette  This is RJ Kirk with Cafe 1853, Enjoy!