Seafood Chowder

The first time I ever visited San Francisco I fell in love with clam chowder, to the point I remember it being the favorite part of the visit, and I was 15 years old. Fishermans Wharf. Just the creamy blend of seafood with potatoes in a rich and thick warming soup left a mark on me. If you can get fresh everything, especially clams that will make it extra special, but if you can’t then use the next best thing you can get, I used canned clams with extra seafood and it still tasted great.

Ingredients – serves 4

·      1 x 185g can Chopped clams

·      2 cups mixed seafood, any white fish, shrimps, muscles etc

·      1 cup brown onion chopped

·      2 cloves Garlic finely chopped

·      4 cups of raw potatoes peeled and cut into cubes

·      2 stalks Celery chopped

·      ½ cup bacon chopped

·      1 liter fish stock

·      1 liter milk

·      1 /2 cup cream (or coconut milk)

·      1 tbsp flour (or cornstarch)

·      1tbsp butter/ or olive oil

·      Pinch of salt and pepper

1 tbsp of chopped parsley

Method:

Heat butter or oil in a large pan, add the onions, bacon and saute over a medium heat for a couple of minutes or until onions are soft, stir in the garlic and flour and stir together. Next add the diced potatoes, celery and cook for a further minute. 

Add the fish stock, milk, clam juice and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Add the chopped clams and the mixed seafood or fish.  Leave to simmer gently for another 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and leave to sit for a few minutes then stir in the cream.  Serve hot, with fresh crusty bread and butter.

Note Dairy-Free -  if you want to make this a dairy-free recipe, simply use unsweetened non-dairy milk like almond milk or soy milk etc.  You can replace the cream with some coconut cream if you want a really creamy chowder.

Note Gluten-Free -  The flour is just used to thicken the sauce, so if you want to make this gluten-free use cornstarch instead.  Mix 1 tbsp of cornstarch with a 1 tbsp of water to a paste, stir this into the soup after you’ve added to the seafood and leave to thicken.