Fish Chowder

My first job out of college was in Boston, in the financial district downtown. My local friends did their best to initiate this wide-eyed Californian into New England traditions of every sort, especially food.

We feasted on as many menu items as we could afford at the Union Oyster House and the No Name Restaurant, and $5/lb lobsters I would buy from the Italian fish monger across the street from where I lived in the North End.

One dish I could never get enough of was “chowdah”. Clam chowder, fish chowder, seafood chowder, whatever, I loved it.

The word chowder is thought to come from the French “chaudiere”, which is basically a large pot or cauldron used to cook stews like this. There are many regional varieties of chowder.

New England style chowder is white, with cream and potatoes. Traditional New England recipes call for starting out rendering fat from salt pork and then making a roux with flour.

Other recipes skip the salt pork, but use a lot of butter. Most recipes called for a highly flavorful fish stock.

For this particular fish chowder, which we all agreed turned out exceptionally well, we are using olive oil and butter instead of bacon or salt pork. We are skipping the flour and are instead using cream and the starch from the potatoes to thicken the stew. In place of fish stock, we are using flavorful clam juice instead.

Recipe from the archives, first posted 2009

Fish Chowder Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 2 medium yellow onions, chopped (about 2 cups)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (optional)
• 3 large Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 2 cups clam juice
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay (optional, can use a little paprika and a dash of cayenne)
• 1 1/2 to 2 lbs cod*, or other firm white fish, pin bones removed, fillets cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

* Here in the west we get Pacific Cod, considered a sustainable fish by Seafood Watch. Pick the best, most sustainable option available to you.

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