Mariscada: A fantastic Portuguese dish

New Jersey has an especially large Portuguese population, and that group offers a wildly underrated cuisine that ranks among my favorites. One of the few redeeming features of Newark, N.J., is the large concentration of Portuguese restaurants. If you find yourself on a layover in Newark Airport, go pick one, and by all means get a pitcher of sangria. There aren't a lot of recipes out there for my favorite dish, Mariscada Salsa Verde, and few that remind me of the real version of this sumptuous meal, but after a long time of pondering the artistry in making this favorite, I'm quite sure this is indeed the one I've eaten in my native New Jersey dozens of times.

Paella is much better known than Mariscada, but I vastly prefer this dish because the broth has more flavor, I simply like the pure Mediterranean seafood taste and it isn't as dry as Paella. Mariscada is basically a seafood stew served over saffron rice. I've made this several times and it works very well. If you try it, let me know how it goes. I know many people have been googling this recipe, and I'd like feedback from fellow enthusiasts. The above left is how my finished products looks. My sangria is to the lower right, and all that takes is a combo of wine, triple sec, brandy, sprite, orange juice, apples and oranges.

Mariscada Salsa Verde (Serves 4-6):

Six cloves of garlic chopped
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 pound mussels cleaned and debearded.
1 pound scallops
1 pound shrimp
1 to 2 pounds littleneck clams
2 cups white wine
4 cups shellfish stock (see below)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
Salt to taste

Extras (I've tried these additions. They help, but can add significant expense.)
lobster pieces like claws
splash of sherry
saffron threads

Put two cups wine, 4 cups water, 5 mussels, 4 scallops, 5 whole shrimp plus shells of remaining pound, 4 clams, chopped cilantro, 3 chopped garlic cloves and 1/2 chopped onion in crock pot, put on high for three hours to make the shellfish stock. Leave it alone and don't worry about it.

When that's done and you're ready to eat, saute remaining garlic and onion in olive oil in a two quart saucepan until fragrant. Put strainer over pot, pour in broth from crock pot, discard shells and solids from strainer. Add remaining shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams and bring to a low boil. Add salt to taste. Simmer about 10 minutes. Serve over saffron rice.

Update: This gets hit on Google 10 times per day. I would like to hear how it went over if you tried it.