Seafood Medley with Ginger Beer and Chives

This new recipe is best introduced with a poem:

the gentle Kingstonian simmer

as pungent ginger steams across the kitchen

in biting culinary contrails.  a trio of fruits

from the sea shallows, you can picture

a Blue Mountain dusky mist

both primeval and fresh.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter

1/2 cup Reed's Ginger Beer

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp. dried chives

16 oz. extra large shrimp, peeled and deveined

16 oz. mussels, debearded

12 oz. calamari, sliced into rings

To Make:

Begin by melting butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add ginger beer, garlic, and onion, stir once or twice, and let simmer for five minutes, until onion begins to soften.  Add salt and pepper to taste and chives, and stir well.  Toss in shrimp and calamari, mix well with other ingredients, and continue to cook on medium heat for about five minutes, until shrimp begins to turn bright pink and calamari starts to be tender.  Add mussels, cover, and let cook for eight minutes more, until mussels are all opened and the flavors of the ginger beer stew have mixed well.  

Serves 4-5 as a main course.  Serve with homemade honey wheat bread for dipping into the stew, and steamed broccoli on the side.  A 12 pack of Red Stripe, the national beer of Jamaica, would likely be a crowd pleaser also.