Seafood Chowder & Pepper "Wine"

~   Menu   ~

Seafood Chowder without ...

Hot and Potent Pepper Wine!

Croutons

A glass of Sauvignon Blanc

You know when you have a little this or that leftover and it's 'not worth keeping'?  Well it is, so there!

I keep several collecting boxes in my freezer; bread scraps, meat scraps and fish scraps, for instance.  This last collection came delightfully into play today when I made myself some Seafood Chowder. 

This was a good idea I had when I was cooking at the Tamarind Club in Tortola.  In theory it was a cunning plan to use up all the fishy scraps we had left over after preparing whole fish for other dishes.  Sadly it became so popular, especially after I had My Other Good Idea, that we were making gallons of the stuff two or three times a day. 

Seafood Chowder

Useful Pinterest friendly
image ~ give it a go!

2 medium onions - coarsely chopped

2 carrots - coarsely chopped

2 celery stalks - coarsely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil.

3 medium potatoes - peeled and thinly sliced

fish stock or water

a collection of fish scraps

~   Gently sweat the onion, carrot and celery in the oil till softening and just starting to colour.

~   Add the potatoes and add just enough water or stock to cover. 

~   Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover and cook till the potatoes are tender.

~   Whilst this is cooking prepare your fishy scraps.  As I say this was originally a use up recipe and we had, to my mind, three categories of fish to use up: 1) raw fish, 2) raw shellfish, 3) cooked fish and shellfish.  So, whatever you have of these categories, cut into similar sized pieces but keep separately in their groups. 

~   When the potato is tender mash with a potato masher (grumpy or not!) so that they are almost smooth but a little chunkiness remains.

~   Taste and season and add milk or cream or a mixture to make a rich thick soup.

~   Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and add the raw fish scraps.

~   Return to only just boiling, add the raw shellfish, return to only just boiling one more time and  add cooked fish and shellfish. 

~   Immediately turn off heat and allow the chowder to sit a few minutes to allow the last addition to heat through. 

~   If using later REHEAT GENTLY.

This is such a brilliant method for making soup that I have written an entire soup cookbook, containing 60+ delicious soup recipes based on one easy flexible key recipe together with instructions for stock making, guidance on adding herbs, spices and other flavourings plus additional recipes for roasted garlic, pepper coulis, frazzled leeks, compound butters and other garnishes and accoutrements.

My Other Good Idea was to serve the chowder with a pretty glass bottle of “Pepper Wine” for drizzling purposes.  In this case, as is often the way in the Caribbean, pepper means chilli and wine means rum.  A little really contrasts with and enhances the creaminess of the soup.

Caribbean Pepper "Wine"

Just bung some dried chillies or even pepper flakes in a bottle of rum and wait a few weeks.  After this went on the menu there was no going back!

Soup Fritters!

This chowder featured in possibly the most bizarre thing I have ever cooked – soup fritters.  We had a very on/off function pending and, eventually, it was off,  Then suddenly one Sunday afternoon, half way through a busy brunch, I was told it was on again.  Eighty people were due in a couple of hours hoping for up-market nibbly bits.  I would have liked to panic but didn’t have the time. 

Save to Pinterest so you don't forget!

What I did do was make fish cakes out of the remains of the seafood chowder.  I can’t remember how but if I had to do it today this is what I would do.  

Strain the chowder, reserving all lumps, and bring the juices to a boil.  Thicken quite substantially with a beurre manie (flour and butter munged together) and whisked in.  Cook a few minutes and cool a while.  Mix in reserved fish etc. and enough breadcrumbs to make a malleable consistency.  Taste and flavour up – lime zest and hot sauce spring to mind.  Spread onto a cooled shallow dish and chill to firm.  Roll into balls, flatten, coat in breadcrumbs (panko are great) and shallow fry to crisp and golden.   They were such a success people asked for the recipe but I was too embarrassed to tell them.

Kedgeree ~ I'm always surprised when it's delicious!

~  Menu  ~

Smoked Bass (and other fish) Kedgeree

Glass of Secret White

A Sticky Caramel Florentine thing from Greggs the Bakers

(cheating, I know, but it was a delicious gift)

Firstly may I say how very sorry I am not to have posted for so long – almost 2 weeks.  My main reason is that I have not one but two frozen shoulders (I hope I don’t get any more!) and have been trying to keep off the computer in case all that typing when getting my book ready caused it.

I can’t stay off the computer forever though, who could?  So here I am. 

My second reason for not posting is that I haven’t been eating as interestingly as usual not having my “well stocked storecupboard” to hand and we are somewhat out of sync Up North.  

Normally I have all sorts of leftovers to play with but it has taken some time to assemble a collection.  I say “assemble a collection” purposely because assembling collections of leftovers is something I very much advocate; whenever I have scraps of meat, fish, bread or fruit etc. I add them to my appropriate collection in the freezer till I have enough to make something delicious.

A week or so ago we went out for fish and chips which is such a great thing to do in these parts.  My “small” haddock was far too large to eat in one sitting (and you should have seen my real man’s “standard portion”, fnarr frnarr!).  I ate what I could and then had a doggy bag.  Sadly we have no dog so I froze my leftovers till inspiration struck.

I recently cooked some smoked sea bass and couldn’t eat it all so added the leavings to my frozen haddock.

My creamy salmon and leek pie (mashed potato topping) a couple of nights ago was also too much for me so last night I defrosted my frozen fish scraps and munged some of them together with the leftover salmon and leek pie including the potato. The mixture was firm enough to form into a cake which I coated with the old panko crumbs and fried.  This was a yummy dinner with roasted tomatoes, petit pois and roasted garlic mayonnaise.  I was, however, left with a few scraps of thawed haddock and smoked sea bass to use up so for lunch today I had ….

Kedgeree

It always surprises me when Kedgeree is nice!  It doesn’t sound very promising; curried rice with smoked fish, cream and boiled eggs.  Well firstly I totally agree with myself about the boiled eggs and never include them in kedgeree but apart from them this is a delicious combination.  Guidelines only …

~   Cook an onion like this – The Best Way to Cook Onions 

~   Stir in a teaspoon of curry paste and cook a minute or two.

~   Add cooked basmati rice and toss all together till hot.

~   Toss in cooked smoked fish (and unsmoked fish if necessary) and a spoonful of double cream till heated through.

Instead of eggs I added some leftover petit pois.

So, in short, I had two very delicious meals from leftover scraps of fish that many people would throw away!  What prannets - they should read my book!

In Other News …

We are still Up North and the weather is still, in the main, very good.  Last week we went to York which as you probably know is well worth a visit.  I wandered around and looked at stuff whilst my darling spent the day at the National Railway Museum - I told you he's a real man. 

We met up at lunchtime and being outside the city walls had no idea where to eat so dined at the museum and were both pleasantly surprised.  Yes, both of us simultaneously pleasantly surprised in the food department, which is quite an accomplishment.  

He had Yorkshire Sausages with all the normal trimmings and I had a Goat Cheese and Roasted Tomato Tartlet with all sort of salads including quinoa and barley and tiny new potatoes in a whole grain mustard dressing.  Not at all the sort of thing one would expect in such a place – so well done them!

We actually chose a stupid time to visit York; a sunny Saturday in half term!  For this reason I didn't go to Jorvik as planned not into Betty’s, in both cases because of the queues.  I didn't go into The Perky Peacock Coffee Shop either but I did envy them their premises.

“An Everlasting Meal" by Tamar Adler - a Review

I am a member of The Kitchen Reader – a great foodie online book club.  Every month we read a designated book, food writing rather than recipes, and review it on our blogs.  When I saw that October’s book was, “An Everlasting Meal – Cooking with Economy and Grace” by Tamar (good Cornish name!) Adler I was in two minds whether to read it or not.  On the plus side it is Just My Sort of Thing being about the use of leftovers, both incidental and planned, on the minus side I didn't want it to influence my own book  in any way.  

Everything worked out perfectly however because although I ordered the book some while ago it only arrived yesterday – two days after sending my own manuscript off to my publishers.

Even better because of its late arrival I had a good excuse to lie around all day reading!  And what did I think?  Read on …

I was hooked pretty well from the start when Ms. Adler said in the introduction how much she loves M.F.K. Fisher’s book “How to Cook a Wolf” and had modelled “An Everlasting Meal” on it.  Well, as M.F.K. is one of the World’s bestest food writers ever (see here for my review of her “The Art of Eating”) this sounded promising.

I find I agree very much with pretty well everything else she says too with one very minor exception.  She states in her section on eggs (written so enticingly I immediately had an egg for lunch!) that Frittatas in Italian and Tortillas in Spanish are called “egg pies” in English.  Well I have been English for bloody ages and have never heard of such a thing in that respect but only, on only perhaps, when referring to a quiche like dish!  Pernickety of me or what?

Tamar Adler’s writing style in unusual and attractive, she says that “beets … have their own way of being” and that “Capers are odd and wild as birds”!  Her chapter “How to Paint without Brushes” on learning about food from its touch, its smell and its sound is spot on.  As she so rightly says, something is ready when you taste it and “don’t wonder”.  Of course this does take time but is so very, very worth it.

“An Everlasting Meal” is different to my own leftovers book; it is a really good read, something to take to bed with you and enjoy (maybe just jumping up occasionally to cook an egg) whereas my own is a handbook to keep in the kitchen and refer to whenever a leftover occurs. Our thinking, however, is very much the same and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants so learn how to cook from the soul.

On the same theme here is someone else I agree with …

“This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!”

Julia Child

About my Egg ...

I've had a few torn flour tortillas in the fridge for a while so made myself a baked egg in a tortilla nest. Its easy – grease a ramekin and encourage a torn tortilla into it to form a cup. Break in an egg and top with a spoonful of cream (or in my case leftover Alfredo sauce - easy recipe for this gorgeous sauce here). Pop in a medium oven till the edge of the tortilla is crisp and golden, the white is set and the yolk is still soft. I baked a couple of tortilla wedges alongside, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt.

Speaking of Cookbooks ...

My book mentioned above was published in March, 2013. Originally titled The Leftovers Handbook a second edition is now available and is called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers. In it I give all the information, ideas and recipes I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers.

Just a Quickie to say …

... I sent my manuscript off this morning (but see below for News from the Future) a day early!  

Bit of a bugger really because now I have no excuse for avoiding all the other things that need doing.  For weeks I have been saying “Well I’d like to help but …” and now I have to sort out cupboards and clean things.

So the first thing I did was have lunch …

~  Menu  ~

Potato & Salmon Hash

Bit of Salad

Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise

Small Glass of Secret White

I bought some bargain potatoes the other day called Blue Belle.  They put me in mind of the Apache potatoes I had a few months ago but l are not the same. 

The label said they are excellent for baking and how right it was.  

I baked several, specifically so that I could play with them once cooked, but they had such lovely creamy, fluffy interiors and such tasty crispy skin that  things didn't go according to plan; we ate all but one small one. 

Today I made a hash with it together with a little leftover salmon.  It was dead simple I just diced and crushed and mashed the potato in a little oil, added the salmon when it was crisp and served it in a terribly fancy way so I could take a photo (which I am not very pleased with!).

I’m just watching Nigel (Slater of course) on the telly – he’s one of my absolute favourite famous cooks but I think he must have been reading Sudden Lunch!  He’s making sudden suppers from what he finds in the fridge!  Good man.

Incidentally I saw poppies in flower yesterday - in the snow!  

News from the Future

My book was published in March, 2013. Originally titled The Leftovers Handbook a second edition is now available and is called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.  In it I give all the information, ideas and recipes I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers. 

Read more here!

Frittering my Lunch Away!

I feel that if I am serious about being a writer I need to have these punny titles occasionally, I do apologise.

~  Menu  ~

Fritter Testing Platter

Fizzy Water

Nothing Else!

Some while ago I suddenly made Cauliflower Cheese Fritters and wrote in the relevant post that I supposed 100g of any leftover could be similarly treated. Today I put it to the test with random stuff out of the fridge.  

Pin for future reference!

Useful All Purpose Fritter Batter

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp baking powder

seasonings ~ sweet fritters, require sugar, of course

1 egg

a little milk 

approx 100g of leftovers

~   Mix together the dry ingredients.

~   Stir in the egg and enough milk to make a thick batter.

~   Stir in the leftovers.

~   Fry by the spoonfuls in a little hot oil till crisp and golden on both sides.

I divided the batter in four and added the following - from the back ...

1.    25g of grated Cornish Crackler and a pinch of mustard powder. 

2.   25g of diced courgette cooked with garlic and a spoonful of Parmesan.  It is drizzled with balsamic glaze.

3.   A few more bits of diced courgette which I cooked with about 20g of finely diced chorizo and Exotic Peppercorn Mix (as it says on the grinder!).

4.   25g mashed chickpeas and ¼ teaspoon curry paste.

Doesn't look bad, does it!  Conclusion – yes, that works.

As you can see in the last few days running up to my book’s deadline I am busy checking a few things here and there.  I did find a recipe which I had inexplicably written in a combination of imperial, metric and American measurements.  It reminded me of my funny brother-in-law once saying something was an inch yard and a thick wide. 

All this picking at the thing is daft really because I think it’s about as good as I can do. Once I've sent it off I think I shall have a meal entirely made of brand new ingredients just to celebrate!

News from the Future

My book was published in March, 2013. Originally titled The Leftovers Handbook a second edition is now available and is called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers. In it I give all the information, ideas and recipes I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers.

Read more here.

A Delicious Sandwich of Roasted Things!

~  Menu  ~

Toasted Duck & Butternut Squash Sandwich

Grattons 

White Wine Spritzer

We had roast duck for dinner the other night, duck is my favourite meat and I wasn't disappointed. My real man ate both its legs and I ate one of its breasts.

The following night I made Roasted Butternut Squash and Duck Risotto which worked out well (for how to make risotto see here, and for how to roast squash see here) which is more than I can say for its photo – not shown!

Today’s lunch was obvious as soon as I opened the fridge; a toasted sandwich filled with leftover squash in roasted garlic mayonnaise and the last of the duck breast.

The biggest problem I had was I really couldn’t decide on red or white wine but was a good girl, I didn’t have both.

My real man and I also enjoyed nibbling on a few grattons – duck skin cooked in its own fat till crispy, at which stage I did wish I'd gone for the red.

My Leftovers Cookbook

As you may know I am nearing the deadline to submit my book manuscript and so was um … disappointed to discover that the word count on my computer has been ignoring all the words in text boxes which is how I have chosen to display my more major recipes. This has put me 12,000 words over the limit. On the plus side (slightly) I also find that bullet points count as a word so I can offset some of these against the other problem.

Apart from saying rude words I am dealing with this situation by editing the duck out of it. Not really, more like editing the bottargo and jackfruit out of it.

I have always fancied being a food writer – working at home, cooking and eating and sitting around writing about it. The reality is a little different; this constant typing has given me bursitis in both shoulders and a squint!

Read more here.

However ...

News from the Future ... my book was published in March, 2013. Originally titled The Leftovers Handbook a second edition is now available and is now called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.  In it I give all the information, ideas and recipes I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers. 

In Other News

I would just like to say how very, very, very (you can see why I fancy myself as fluent!) pleased I am to hear that Paul Ainsworth has received his first Michelin star. His restaurant, No. 6 in Padstow, is my favourite place to eat out of a more than our fair share of excellent restaurants. Congratulations to Paul and his staff.

The Sheer Sausaginess of Glamorgan Sausages!

Today I had something I haven’t eaten for years – Glamorgan Sausages. Despite the fact that back in the day we put them on the menu quite frequently I was surprised at the sheer sausaginess of them.  Although made almost entirely of just cheese and bread the texture is decidedly meatesque.  So here’s the cheap, quick, easy and sausagy recipe.

Glamorgan Sausages - for 2

120g fresh breadcrumbs

100g grated Cheddar

2 spring onions – finely chopped

1 egg yolk

a pinch of mustard power

salt and pepper

another egg - beaten

more breadcrumbs or, even better, panko crumbs

~   Mix everything together and munge into 6 small sausages.

~   Dip in the beaten egg, coat in the crumbs and shallow fry till hot, crisp and golden.

I ate them with a goodly dollop of my favourite tomato and chilli pasta sauce which I use for a myriad of things.

And then I had lunch pudding.  I bought a cheap bag of salty popcorn in the supermarket the other day so just melted butter, brown sugar and tad of vanilla essence together, tossed in the popcorn to coat and ate the result with a cup of coffee.

See here for a gorgeous thing to do with popcorn plus some appropriate

music to listen to while making it!