Hey CHC Members!
Shannon Eldredge here, former trap fisherman and board member for the Harvesters, coming at you with a guest blog spot this week!
My mom taught me how to make chowder. I don’t have a clear memory of when. I liken it to
osmosis…pretty sure I just absorbed the know-how from years of watching her make my great-grandfather’s old school clam chowder recipe. It’s one of the built-in benefits of growing up in a generational fishing family!
Once you know how to make a basic chowder, you can get creative and whip one up without
thinking about it. Your basic ingredients are fat, onions, potatoes, fish stock and the catch of
day. Add a salty pork product like pancetta or chorizo, some colorful peppers or tomatoes, and maybe a touch of cream, and you’ve got a go-to recipe that’s sure to please!
Having a solid fish stock at the ready is key. Back when I was fishing on the weirs, Russell and I would frequently bring home some of our catch to make big batches of fish stock for future uses such as fish tea, risotto, and chowder. It was a great use of whole fish or fish racks after cutting fillets. Since retiring the family business back in 2021, we didn’t have the daily luxury of our own fresh fish to process and make stock. So when CHC came out with it’s own Fish Stock, I was pumped to try it out with my fav recipes.
Here's a recipe for a Spicy Summer Fluke Chowder that I made the other night using CHC Fish Stock and a pack of Summer Flounder caught with love by the Amaru family on f/v Joanne A III out of Stage Harbor.
Spicy Summer Fluke Chowder
2-4 servings
Ingredients
2 links sweet Italian sausage, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium red onion, sliced long & thing
3 mini red/orange/yellow peppers OR 1 medium red pepper, sliced into long thin strips
2 tbsp fat (I use bacon grease, butter or extra virgin olive oil)
2-3 yellow gold potatoes, skinned and diced into ½ cubes
2 tbsp tandoori seasoning (I use Sahadi brand)
1 tsp Aleppo pepper seasoning (Sahadi brand again 😊)
1 tbsp red Adobo seasoning
½ white wine (I use cheap rose)
1 quart of CHC Fish Stock (this stock is the bomb dot com)
1 lb of CHC Summer Flounder (thanks to Jason and the crew of f/v Joanna A III!!!)
Directions
Cut sausage into 1 inch cubes, leaving casing on and sautee in a heavy pot. Cook over medium heat until the sausage is rare, but seared on the outside. Remove sausage from the pot, leaving the small browned bits in the pan.
Turn heat off before you put the next set of ingredients in the pan, so the fat doesn’t burn. Place fat, onions and peppers into the pan and saute over medium heat until cooked thoroughly and onions are translucent.
Turn heat down to medium low. Add seasonings and stir vigorously for 30 seconds. Add potatoes and stir to coat with the seasonings.
Add wine, turn heat back up to medium and let the liquid boil down until slightly thickened.
Add CHC Fish Stock. Bring to a light boil. Turn heat to low, cover and let simmer until a fork easily pierces the thickest potato, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, rinse the Fluke and cut into 1 inch cubes.
When the potatoes are done, add the Fluke and sausage back into the chowder. Let
simmer until the Fluke turns bright white and is cooked, about 5 minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste and garnish with your favorite herbs…and enjoy!
