Fish, sweetcorn and potato chowder
A kosher New England chowder: a substantial buttery soup, thickened with flour and partly blended sweetcorn, with tender potatoes and generous pieces of white fish cooked just until pearly, finished with butter, chives and smoked paprika.
Method
- Pat the fish pieces dry with kitchen paper, season with 2 g salt and refrigerate. Salting during the preparation firms the flesh and seasons it to the centre. Slice the onion and leek, then wash the sliced leek in plenty of water and drain. Cut the celery into 1 cm dice, reserving the leaves to finish, and crush the garlic. Drain the sweetcorn over a bowl without rinsing, reserving the liquid. Put the kettle on.
- In a heavy 3-litre saucepan, heat 25 g butter and the oil over a medium-low heat until the butter foams. Add the onion, leek, celery and 3 g salt and sweat for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, without colouring, until soft and translucent. Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and cut into 1 cm dice. Add the garlic, thyme and 2 g smoked paprika and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant, then sprinkle in the flour and stir for 1 minute, coating the vegetables without browning.
- Gradually pour in the boiling water, scraping the bottom to dissolve the flour, then add the sweetcorn liquid, crumbled half stock cube, bay leaf, potatoes and 3 g salt. The water should just cover the potatoes; add another 50–100 g hot water if needed. Bring to a simmer over a medium-high heat, 1–2 minutes, cover three-quarters of the pan and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes, until a potato cube crushes effortlessly against the side. Crush about ten cubes against the side with a spoon. While the soup cooks, chop the chives and toast the bread.
- Remove the bay leaf. Pour in the milk and add all but 100 g of the sweetcorn. Put the reserved 100 g in a measuring jug with a ladleful of soup, blend until smooth with a hand blender and return to the pan. This corn-chowder technique thickens and sweetens the soup. Heat over a medium heat for 4 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom. As soon as the surface steams and small bubbles appear at the edges, reduce the heat to low. Never let it boil. Taste, add up to 2 g salt as needed and grind in pepper: the soup should be well seasoned. It should coat the back of a spoon, leaving a clear trail when you draw a finger through it.
- Stir once, scraping the bottom, then arrange the fish pieces in one layer on the soup and push just below the surface; do not stir again. Return to a gentle simmer over a medium-low heat, about 1 minute, cover and cook over a very low heat for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave covered off the heat for 3 minutes, letting the soup's heat finish the cooking. The flesh should be just opaque at the centre and separate into large pearly flakes with gentle pressure from a spoon. If the centre of a piece is still translucent, return to a very low heat for 1–2 minutes.
- Serve in large shallow bowls, spooning in the soup first, then gently ladling the fish pieces on top to avoid breaking them. Finish each bowl with 5 g butter, which melts into beads on the surface, a pinch of smoked paprika, chives, a few celery leaves and two turns of the pepper mill. Serve with the toast. There is enough for seconds; keep the remainder covered in the saucepan with the heat off.
Variants and their steps remain below the recipe.
Fish-free
- Fresh white fish fillets (hake or Nile perch) → Tinned cannellini beans (400 g tin) 240 g (1 × 400 g tin, drained and rinsed; 120 g per serving)
- add Kashkaval cheese (250 g piece) 60 g (grated, 30 g per serving; or grated gvina tsehouba, yellow Gouda-style cheese such as Emek, for an even smoother melt)
- For one fish serving and one fish-free serving, at step 1 season just 200 g fish with 1 g salt. At the end of step 4, pour half the soup into a 2-litre saucepan with a lid and use a separate ladle. Add 120 g drained, rinsed white beans, cover and heat at a gentle simmer for 6 minutes while the 200 g fish cooks in the 3-litre saucepan as in step 5. Off the heat, add 30 g grated kashkaval in three additions, stirring between each until melted smoothly into the soup. Finish the bowl as in step 6, with butter, smoked paprika, chives and pepper. The remaining tinned beans keep in the refrigerator for 3 days.
- For two fish-free servings, at step 5 add the 240 g beans to the soup instead of the fish and heat, covered, at a gentle simmer for 6 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the 60 g kashkaval in three additions until melted and smooth.
This is cheese and corn chowder, the other great chowder classic, rather than a compromise: the same base and finish, with melted cheese in place of fish and beans for protein. The stock uses half a vegetable stock cube and no fish, so both servings start with the same soup and remain dairy.
Lighter version
Thickening with corn and flour keeps the soup substantial, but it loses some of its buttery aroma and silky feel. The fish flavour, sweetcorn sweetness and smoked paprika stand out more, with less bread for dipping.
- Unsalted butter, 82% fat (200 g block) : 20 g
- Bread (baguette or country loaf) : 60 g
At step 2, sweat the vegetables in 15 g butter and the oil; at step 6, finish with a small 2–3 g knob of butter per serving.
Less butter and half the bread; the flour and blended sweetcorn keep the soup velvety.
On your plate
Recipe
1022 kcal · protein 60 g · carbs 115 g · fat 32 g
Quantities per person
- 200 g Fresh white fish fillets (hake or Nile perch)
- 225 g Potatoes
- 142.5 g Tinned sweetcorn
- 75 g Leeks
- 50 g Yellow onions
- 30 g Celery
- 5 g Garlic
- 17.5 g Unsalted butter, 82% fat (200 g block)
- 2.5 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 6 g Plain wheat flour
- 1.5 g Smoked paprika
- 0.5 g Dried thyme
- 0.15 g Dried bay leaves
- 175 g Water
- 2.5 g Vegetable stock cubes
- 225 g Fresh milk, 3% fat (1 litre carton)
- 5 g Fine salt
- 0.75 g Black peppercorns
- 5 g Chives
- 60 g Bread (baguette or country loaf)
Fish-free version
1047 kcal · protein 40 g · carbs 128 g · fat 38 g
Quantities per person
- 225 g Potatoes
- 142.5 g Tinned sweetcorn
- 75 g Leeks
- 50 g Yellow onions
- 30 g Celery
- 5 g Garlic
- 17.5 g Unsalted butter, 82% fat (200 g block)
- 2.5 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 6 g Plain wheat flour
- 1.5 g Smoked paprika
- 0.5 g Dried thyme
- 0.15 g Dried bay leaves
- 175 g Water
- 2.5 g Vegetable stock cubes
- 225 g Fresh milk, 3% fat (1 litre carton)
- 5 g Fine salt
- 0.75 g Black peppercorns
- 5 g Chives
- 60 g Bread (baguette or country loaf)
- 120 g Tinned cannellini beans (400 g tin)
- 30 g Kashkaval cheese (250 g piece)
Cooking tips
Use one saucepan for two fish servings, and a second small one for a meal with one fish serving and one fish-free serving. For more flavour, replace 100 g white fish with 100 g salmon pieces, cooked in the same way. If you already have an open carton of cream, use 50 g in place of 50 g milk for a rounder soup; there is no need to buy cream specially. If everyone at the table eats fish, homemade fish stock can replace the water and stock cube: ask the fishmonger for a fish frame and simmer for 20 minutes. Never do this when also making a fish-free serving, as both use the same soup base. Reheat leftovers over a very low heat without boiling, just until steaming: the fish should not cook again.
New England fish chowder, made kosher with butter and smoked paprika for smoky flavour, and partly blended sweetcorn as in corn chowder.
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