Fish Chowder

Recipe by Sara Hale

Another casualty of coronavirus in my world was the Annual Round the Island Sailboat Race and Chowder Picnic in Maine. I didn’t get to go every year, but Stephen usually did, and we were definitely feeling the loss. We decided to make a fish chowder, but oddly, we didn’t miss the hotdogs that are always part of the picnic…

The chowder was phenomenal. Here’s a link to the recipe I didn’t follow:

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/fish_chowder/

To be honest, I followed the recipe how I usually do: I looked at it, saw that I didn’t have some of the ingredients, saw that it didn’t call for some of the ingredients I intended to use, and got down to it. I’ll recreate what I did here; you can go check the actual recipe if you like–it’ll likely have photos and important info and tips.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 T. olive oil
  • 1 Robinson Family Farm Bacon-Pork Patty
  • 1 medium red onion, chopped
  • 1 pound potatoes, washed and cut into bite sized chunks (I would have used more if I had it)
  • 1/2t. celery seed (I would have used 1c. celery if I had it)
  • 1 medium sweet pepper, chopped (any variety)
  • 2 ears of corn, shucked (save the cobs for the stock!)
  • 1 Qt. clam broth (I happened to have this in my freezer)
  • 1/2 qt. potato broth (I also happened to have this in my freezer because Stephen thought he was going to use it for making bread, ha ha, right.)
  • 1t. J.O. seafood seasoning (I threw the 15 year old Old Bay out a couple years ago, but a friend from Maryland gave us this last year, yay!)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more as needed
  • 12 oz. Pacific cod, cut in chunks (I would have used a whole pound if I had it)
  • 1T. dried thyme
  • 1c. heavy cream, or more if it needs it.
DIRECTIONS

Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium high heat and add the onion and crumbled pork patty. Saute about 10 minutes minutes until or until browned.

Add the broths, corn cobs, potatoes, thyme, salt, pepper and J.O. Seasoning. The potatoes (and corn cobs) should be just covered. If not, add more broth (chicken? seafood? water?).

Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer  10-15 minutes, until potatoes are soft, but still  a little firm. Add the cod and cook about five minutes. Remove the corn cobs and turn off the heat. Slowly stir in the heavy cream (if you use milk or half and half, you’ll want to heat it first so it doesn’t curdle). Adjust spices as needed, and add low heat if necessary, but do not let it boil.

Serve with a crusty bread, or just a spoon. It’s even better the next day.