Irish Seafood Chowder

creamy chowder loaded with mixed fish and shellfish

Makes 2.5 quarts · 626 kcal per serving

Ingredients

• 500 g Seafood Medley
• 400 g Potato
• 50 g Butter
• 150 g Leek
• 80 g Onion
• 80 g Celery
• 10 g Garlic
• 30 g All Purpose Flour
• 500 g Fish Stock
• 300 g Milk
• 250 g Heavy Cream
• 2 g Bay Leaf
• 2 g Dried Thyme
• 4 g Salt
• 2 g Black Pepper
• 15 g Parsley

Method

1. Base: Melt the butter and sweat the leek, onion, and celery with a pinch of salt until soft but not colored, ~8 min, then add the garlic for a minute more. Stir in the flour and cook 1–2 min to lose the raw taste.
2. Simmer: Pour in the white wine and let it bubble away, then add the fish stock, milk, potatoes, bay, and thyme. Simmer gently until the potatoes are just tender, ~15 min.
3. Seafood: Stir in the cream, then add the seafood medley, thawed and drained; a frozen mix sheds a lot of water and will thin the chowder. Keep it at a bare simmer, never a boil, so the pieces stay tender and the cream does not split. It is ready when everything is opaque and hot through, ~5 min. Squid and mussels toughen fast, so take it off the heat as soon as it gets there.
4. Finish: Fish out the bay leaf, stir through the parsley, and season carefully with salt and pepper; the stock is already salty. Serve hot with brown soda bread.

Notes

Built around a supermarket frozen seafood mix rather than buying five kinds of fish.