|
Back to recipe contents
Capt. Charlie's Seafood Chowder
I found a new recipe for my fish!!!!!!!! It was right in front of
me all the time; the yellow pages of the phone book. Look under
restaurants and find one that advertises that they will cook your
catch. The best of both worlds. You get to catch the fish, have a
great day on the water, eat your fresh catch, and then the best
part, NO CLEANING UP AFTER DINNER! Boy, what a life. Well, there
really are restaurants in coastal areas that will cook your
catch, but if you still insist on the old fashioned way, here's
another recipe for you to try:
Like most of my recipes, the amount of ingredients differ
depending on the volume of food you intend to make and also on
the taste that you prefer. They are flexible so you should be
too. Just experiment and have fun.
Start the chowder by melting a stick of butter in a pot. The size
of the pot depend on how much you intend to make (I can't tell you
everything). To the butter you should add one diced onion and one
stick of celery diced and stir (this is called sautéing). When
the onion is transparent and the celery is soft you are ready to
add the other ingredients. If you have some shrimp you could add
them to the butter at this time. By the time you stir them once
or twice, they will be cooked enough. If you have some oysters,
put them in now. The butter is hot and just bubbling, the shrimp
are not quite cooked and you probably added the oysters, so now
is the time to add your fish. Any nice mild white fish will do.
As soon as you have added the fish you should add milk, enough to
not quite cover all your ingredients, and stir until the milk is
warm and almost bubbling. If you have some scallops, put them in
now. OK, here is the great part, add heavy cream (whipping cream)
at least as much by volume as the milk that you added. This will
thicken as it warms and it really makes the chowder rich, rich,
rich, rich........ OK, you under stand I guess. Be sure that you
turned the heat down before you added the milk because you do not
want to scorch the milk or the cream. Add salt and pepper to
taste.
You could stir constantly over a very low heat to keep it from
scorching, or you could use a double boiler and then you wouldn't
have to stir so much. If you don't have a double boiler, you can
make one by putting a large pot of water on the stove and
bringing it to a boil and on top of this pot place a round bottom
bowl, either stainless or Pyrex, and put your ingredients in the
bowl. Congratulations, you just made some fantastic chowder and
learned how to make a double boiler, all in the same recipe.
If you don't like some of the ingredients that I mentioned, then
leave them out or if you have some other seafood that would be
good, add them..crabmeat, lobster, whatever. Be creative and
enjoy the fruits of the sea.
Good fishing, good cooking, and good eating,
Capt. Charlie
Back to recipe contents
|