Creamy Fish Chowder

Creamy and satisfying - a full meal in a bowl, fresh fish Chowder

Chowder
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Evocative, creamy – it feels like a holiday in California or Boston just thinking about this substantial seafood soup. There are so many recipes, the New England version which is mainly clams or the Pacific coast version which is more fishy. You can thicken the soup with potatoes or with a flour/milk mixture. I like to cook this soup for an easy weekend lunch – it’s tasty, filling but not too heavy, so you can go for a good walk with the family afterwards or have a board game if the weather’s bad, without your lunch making you drop off to sleep.  I’m lucky enough to live near one of the UK’s best fishmongers (thanks, Evans of Didsbury!) so I can take my little containers down to the shop and ask for a handful of clams or mussels and a handful of fish pie mixture and get just what I want. But if you are reliant on a supermarket fish counter, don’t hesitate to ask, and don’t hesitate to substitute some types of fish for the others here. I prefer to save my smoked fish for a kedgeree rather than overpower the delicate fresh flavours but a robust smoked haddock chowder is also a classic so if you try it, let me know the recipe and I’ll use it on this page another time.
 
Serves 4. Timings 30 minutes.

• 250g clams or mussels in their shells
• 4 scallops, roe discarded and the white flesh diced small (these are expensive so you can leave them out but they do add a lovely silky texture to the fishy mixture)
• 300g fish pie mixture – chopped mixed fish, with some salmon, some white fish, maybe some tuna in the mix, all skinned and boned. My fishmonger makes this from offcuts as he cleans fish for eating in fillets, so it is economical and a good mixture, but you can buy fish pie mixture frozen in bags also. Chop all pieces into tiny dice, about ½ cm on an edge.
• Pinch of saffron strands
• 2 shallots (about 50g) peeled and chopped
• ½ a leek (about 50g) chopped
• 350g potatoes (about 3 medium ones) – peeled and chopped into tiny tiny dice
• 3 tablespoons heavy double cream.
• ½ lemon, fresh parsley

Wash the clams well, scrubbing if they need it. Discard any that are already open. Put them in a pan of cold water to cover them plus a centimetre, and the pinch of saffron. Bring to the boil. The clams will have opened. Strain the liquid into a bowl, through a fine sieve or one you have lined with muslin – you don’t want any of the possible bits of sand in your soup.  Take the clams out of their shells, discard the shells.

In a heavy pan, big enough for the whole soup (I use a Le Creuset casserole pan) fry the chopped shallots and leek for a few minutes until looking towards transparent and cooked. Add the liquid from the clams, and the potatoes.  Simmer for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are starting to go really soft and losing their edges. Add the chopped fish, stir in, and keep at a low simmer for a minute or so as the fish cooks. Add the clams and the scallops if using and cook for another minute to cook the scallops. Season carefully – the liquid from the clams will have been quite salty. Add a good squeeze of lemon.

Turn down the heat and add in the cream, stirring carefully and not letting the soup heat up again, you don’t want to curdle.  Add the chopped fresh parsley and serve, maybe with another slice of lemon if people want to add their own.

Fragrant and fortifying!