Did I mention that I prepare my posts well in advance? Here’s proof!
I know I’m a (lot) late for St. Patrick’s Day, but perhaps you will bookmark it for next year or any time. The Friday before St. Patrick’s Day I saw a lovely post for Beef and Guinness Pie at my friend Karen’s Back Road Journal and even though I can’t tell you how tempting it was, I had to resist making it as we’d already had beef a few times that week and I usually like to keep it to once per week, maximum three times per month. So when she suggested we pop over to Colin Bofin’s blog, an actual Irish dude in Ireland, I was all over it! Colin prepares a Guinness Stew that has the most irresistible dumplings and I’m certain that his home has incredible aromas when he prepares this dish. Still having had too much beef that week, I started to wonder through Conor’s blog and I came across a lovely Irish Seafood Chowder and Scones. I couldn’t help but think that I had found my St. Patrick’s Day recipe. Thanks Conor, I’ll be stopping by your blog for inspiration again.
Colin made his own prawn stock from scratch (actually, they look more like our langoustines) but I remembered I had a bag of lobster carcass in my freezer and I knew I had the ingredients for my stock. At the time, we were still off eating fresh salmon because I wasn’t sure what the influenza implications were, so I used a tin of salmon instead. I also omitted the potato and cut down the carrot just because I’m still trying to reduce my carbs. The broth is a luxurious, creamy, velvety broth with much resemblance to the Provençal Fish Soup I made in October 2011; I cannot resist adding tomatoes and saffron to fish soup, it’s such a compelling flavour combination for my taste.
“Irish” Fish Chowder
Makes ~1.5 litres of stock
Ingredients:
- ~542 g lobster carcass (or you can use the actual beast with the meat). Use only larger bits of shell (the smaller one’s may jam up your blender) or wrap the entire carcass in cheese cloth to contain
- 260 g celeriac, chopped finely
- 250 g onion, chopped finely
- 160 g carrot, grated
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cloves of garlic, smashed
- 1 tomato
- 200 g skinless, boneless canned salmon (or use fresh)
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 tsp saffron
- 2 L water
- sea salt to taste
- 1-2 tbsp canola oil
- 50 g per serving mixed seafood, such as shrimp, calamari, crab, whitefish, mussels and such
Directions:
- Soak the saffron in 1/2 cup of white wine. Set aside.
- Heat the canola oil in a large stock pot. Sauté the onions, garlic, carrot and celery root. Turn the heat down.
- Add the lobster carcass, bay leaves, salmon and saffron wine and stir well.
- Drain the oil or water off the salmon and add it to the pot.
- Cover with 2 L of fresh cold water and turn the heat up.
- Gently simmer for about 1 hour or until vegetables are soft and the broth is fragrant with the ingredients.
- Strain the liquid into a large bowl with high sides.
- Remove all the bits of shell from the strained vegetables. Return the vegetables to the broth and blend until smooth and creamy with a good heavy duty immersion blender. Strain through a fine sieve, reserving the pulp. Add cup of the strained soup to the pulp and blend again with the immersion blender, you will be surprised how much more of this pulp can be blended down fine enough to be pushed through the sieve. Press through the fine sieve again into the reserved strained soup. Return this liquid to the soup pot and begin to boil it down to reduce to about 1.5 L. What you want to end up with is a thick, flavourful chowder.
- When you have the consistency you want, add the mixed seafood (about 50 g per person) and cook through. Ladle the hot chowder into lovely rimmed bowls and pile 50 g of mixed seafood into the centre of each bowl, serve with warm oat scones and butter (pop over to Colin’s blog for the scone recipe).
Eva, what a feast! Both the chowder and the scones look highly impressive. As someone who eats lots of seafood (mainly squid and shrimps/prawns), I think I must try this soup soon (oops, chowder 😉 ).
I’m heading to Colin’s blog. I have a very dear friend in Ireland and she brought me recently some wonderful cheese varieties (a whole bag), which were all perfect (made by a small cheese producer). It got me suddenly interested in Irish cuisine…
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Thank you so much for your lovely words Sissi, it’s always such fun reading your comments. How great that your friend brought you a selection of Irish cheese, I would love to try some. Are they mainly sharp hard cheeses or soft mild? I’ve never tried Irish cheese but I bet it would go well with a Guinness.
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Eva, thank you so much for kind words. I’m glad I don’t bore you 🙂 She has brought me at least 7 or 8 different pieces! Some were blue (a bit like stilton), some were similar in texture to brie, some a bit like cheddar (but real cheddar, not the waxy, plastic industrial stuff). I think all were made with raw milk, so the taste and smell were amazing! My husband loved every single of them and he is THE cheese connoisseur at home, so if you ever go to Ireland, look out for cheesemongers (I don’t think supermarkets sell good quality cheese).
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How nice, I adore a variety of cheese like that. What a lovely friend you have indeed.
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Eva, this looks absolutely wonderful – I can almost smell that rich, beautiful stock cooking!
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Thanks so much Donalyn, the aroma was indeed spell-binding, I really enjoyed the smooth texture and strong flavour of this chowder against the seafood.
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Hi Eva, a chowder is one of my comfort foods. We have a Scottish Cullen Skink which is very similar. I much prefer your shellfish orientated recipe though. My wife just discovered Ina Carten at the weekend while I was stranded in Cancun.
She made a wonderfully decadent chowder, so I have decided to give it the David treatment. Do you know what a chowder actually is?
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Hi David, Ina Garten is a wonderful cook and has such an approachable way of cooking. She does have some extremely calorie laden dishes though.
I always thought a chowder is a thickened soup with milk or cream, although there is a tomato based version from Manhattan. I took liberties with mine, but that’s what I do ;)!
Is your wife with an airline as well? Lucky her to be stuck in Cancun this time of year!
I look forward to reading about your David-ized version.
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Luckily my wife has a more stable job, Eva. She’s a doctor. It is then annoying when you get stuck down route, especially when you have things planned at home. Joys of aviation though.
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But it’s more exciting than most jobs!
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That looks divine and so full of flavour-you can see that from the colour! 😀
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Thank you kindly Lorraine, the broth was richly packed with flavour but because there is no cream in it, it wasn’t heavy. Although it seems like a lot of work in making the broth with the carcasses, it’s well worth it, you get a wonderful, densely flavoured end result.
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Well in my heart, every day is St. Patrick’s day ;-). Your velouté looks velvety delicious Eva – so smooth and uniform and what a pretty color too. I’ll definitely take an oat scone (or two) to go please with a dollop of melting – oozing – butter indeed… they look so yummy!
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Thanks so much Kelly, there is something so mesmerizing about saffron and shell fish, the colour and strong earthy flavour really enhances the sweetness. And those scones, particularly with melting butter, they sure didn’t last long.
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Late or not, it’s gorgeous! I will take it 🙂 I LOVE, seafood, literally drool on it, even on a full stomach. And this looks divine. Bookmarking!
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Mm, way too many people chuck out shellfish “carcasses” when they’re done and, like you say, you can get loads of flavour out. Each year on our Swedish crayfish day in August we’re sure to save the heads and make a stock out of it. Same when we’re peeling shrimp. No reason to chuck it away when it can be so delicious!
The soup (chowder!) looks lovely Eva, and I love how perfectly rounded those scones are – very cool. Thanks for calling them scones, and not “biscuits” too :D.(would these classify as what is sometimes called a “biscuit” in the US anyway?).
By the way – I noticed that you introduced the other blogger as Conor, and then started calling him Colin, and everyone else here seems to be calling him Colin… was that intentional, or am I missing something, maybe?
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Thanks Charles, the carcasses do make a lovely broth, indeed a lot of flavour. I save the shrimp shells too!
Thank you for noticing my blunder, I do appreciate it and have corrected it. And I thought I had re read that post a billion times, apparently not. Thank you for calling me on it.
I suspect that because Canada was once a colony of Britain, many of our words stem from yours! I googled biscuit recipe and it seems they are one and the same as scones. Our scones here come in various shapes and sizes, sometimes I make square ones too, depending on how I intend to consume them.
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What a great array of recipes my friend, I would love to especially try those oat scones 😀
Cheers
CCU
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Thanks CCU, I suspected you might ;)!
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Such a beautiful chowder, Eva. Seems like a pretty luxurious dish to be found on a St. Patrick’s day/Irish menu, perhaps because I think of those meals being more hearty meat and potato/cabbage types.
I wonder if could avoid having the shells from the crab I used a while back (and raw shrimp shells) jam up my blender when pureeing the vegetables, by putting them into a cheesecloth bag since, with my luck, I’d probably break my blender. 🙂
I think it’s time to visit my Chinese grocery store for a bag of frozen seafood mixture.
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Thank you so much Maria, yes I would strongly recommend putting all the shells into a cheese cloth bag I would really hate to be the cause of a problem with your blender. It’s such a flavourful chowder, I would definitely recommend it.
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What an incredible looking bowl of chowder, Eva! It has that velvet-y look and the color really does accent those of the seafood. I, too, saw Karen’s stew recipe and have yet to make it. And Conor does have a wonderful blog, doesn’t he? It’s brimming with plenty of good recipes.
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Thank you kindly John, I do enjoy both Karen’s and Colin’s blog, both introduce us to new recipes presented in a most beautiful way. I really love how reading all your beautiful blogs give me such inspiration which had in turn gives us new recipes really jazzing up our meals!
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This looks so delicious Eva! I love that it’s a red chowder. The seafood in the center makes it all the more appetizing too. Not being a corn beef and cabbage fan, this will certainly make for a more appetizing St. Patty’s next year! 🙂 (If not some random day before next March!)
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Thank you kindly Kristy, it would work well with just shrimp or prawns too, very yummy indeed.
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I wish I had a lobster carcass I’d eaten off of to make this velvety broth–hm…I should tell J that that’s reason enough to buy me lobster! lovely chowder + flaky scones =)
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Thanks SM, it’s a great way to squeeze a bit more out of the expensive crustacean.
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The seafood chowder looks divine, Eva. Lovely to serve with those healthy oat scones.
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Thank you Angie, it was very tasty and the oat scones had a very nice texture and oat flavour to them.
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I do like the sound of those scones oozing with butter. What a great looking chowder. You sound so organised with your posts – that is my goal! xx
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Thanks Charlie, I have the luxury of time with no children so it’s immensely easier for me. The chowder was delicious, velvety and the seafood was wonderful. I still have some of the chowder without the seafood in my freezer.
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Beautiful presentation! I just love how we find inspiration in places just newly discovered. 🙂
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Thank you Judy, the blogging world has certainly opened an entirely new chapter in my cooking repertoire, we eat so mucho the interestingly than we did 15 years ago, and I have many of my blogging friends to thank for it.
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Eva, that dish is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. What a lucky find. I’m off to check out what else lovely Colin has.
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Hi Maureen, I think you’ll live Colin’s blog, with no nonsense recipes. He’s also very good at exploring new things. Thank you for your lovely words about my dish.
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lol I was just going to say “but st.patricks day should be over”. not that I know the dates but I had a feeling that I saw all green recipes already in 2013. No matter if st.patty’s day or not, I would love love love to make your fish chowder Eva! We don’t get salmon here and if we do its completely over priced. What fish can you recommend instead? thanks Eva =D
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Hi Helene, yes I’m posting a little late! I think trout would work well as I’ve heard that it’s a similar pink fleshed fish but not as rich as salmon.
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