Thursday, June 24, 2010

Jacques Pepin Seafood Chowder

This recipe is from Jacques Pepin's More Fast Food My Way, one of his cookbooks and I recently saw him prepare this on his PBS cooking show. I followed the recipe but did add a few baby red potatoes which I had boiled, peeled and cut into cubes. I used fresh cod as the fish fillet. And of course we had to have our chowder with some Oyster Crackers.

Ingredients





2 T good olive oil
1 ½ cup trimmed, split and sliced leeks
1 T coarsely chopped garlic
2 ½ cups bottled clam juice
1 ½ cups water
1 cup coarsely chopped white mushrooms
¾ t salt
1 ½ cups diced (1/2 inch) zucchini
1 cup instant mashed potato flakes
¾ cup 1-inch pieces peeled uncooked shrimp
1 cup 1- inch pieces boneless fish fillet
2/3 cup half and half
About ½ cup crabmeat, for garnish (optional)

Directions

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat.
When hot, add the leek and garlic and sauté for about 1 minute. Add the clam juice, water, mushrooms, and salt, bring to a boil, and boil for about 2 minutes. Stir in the zucchini and sprinkle the potato flakes on top, mixing them in with a whisk to prevent lumping. Bring to a boil and boil for about 1 minute. ( The soup can be prepared several hours ahead to this point.)
leeks and garlic sauteing:

Whisking in potato flakes:

At serving time, bring the soup back to a boil, add the shrimp, fish, and half- and- half and bring back just to a boil. The fish and shrimp will be cooked through. Divide among 4 bowls and sprinkle about 2 T crabmeat, if using, onto the middle of each serving. Serve immediately.

8 comments:

  1. Hilary, this looks so good, and I love the idea of thickening the chowder with potato flakes. Copied and pasted, and can't wait to make this very soon!

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  2. Thanks Regina........ya know, I did not LOVE the addition of the potato flakes. No one else noticed but I could taste a difference and probably b/c I knew they were added. I understand the addition of the flakes to the recipe - to speed things up. Next time I make this I'll be adding potatoes in the beginning to help thicken the stock.

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  3. Wish I could come over for a bowl!!! It looks great!

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  4. Hi, Hilary, this looks delicious and I am so glad to see your blog!

    Francie

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  5. This is delicious. I didn't put in the clam juice nor the zucchini and it was just as delicious without them. I loved this chowder and will make it many times. Thanks for posting it.

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  6. I would boil and mashed the potatoes to thicken if desired. I never use potato flakes for anything els and don't want them cluttering up the pantry

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  7. I loved this chowder! I hesitated to add potato flakes but in the end I did. I had to add fish stock as the amount of potato flakes made the chowder too thick for my liking. It was outstanding and I will make it again:-)

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  8. I made this soup exactly as specified. It was bland. I had to add a few thyme sprigs, 1/2 tsp extra salt, and some cayenne. After these adjustments it was delicious.

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