With spring around the corner and St. Patrick’s Day a few days away, we decided to make our last winter soup, Irish seafood chowder. As a soup lover, I’ve eaten a number of different creamy seafood soups, bisques, stews or chowders in the states and abroad. When we went to a Ireland in the fall of 2019, I hadn’t realized the depth of my love for the Irish seafood chowder. We probably had it 4 or more times during our trip, whether it was lunch or dinner. I enjoyed it, but Carol was obsessed. I think she had it once a day. I believe my favorite was in Cong at Pat Cohens.
In trying to find the right recipe you have to make a decision on the seafood you want to use. One or two types of fish is normal, a shellfish like shrimp or scallops, and mussels or clams. Many of the basic ingredients are the same, fish stock, potatoes, onions, leeks, celery, carrots, milk or heavy cream. But the spices can differ, star anise, saffron, bacon, thyme, tarragon or just salt and pepper. A couple of recipes required smoked haddock, so I ordered it and PEI mussels from Maine to ensure I got the right fish. We got fish stock from Hill’s Seafood, and everything else from my regular grocery stores. I used a combination of two recipes. One a recipe from a seafood restaurant, Out of the Blue, in Dingle, Ireland. After touring the Blasket Islands, we found this little restaurant in Dingle and had a yummy lunch. The other recipe looked creamier and more like Pat Cohen.
I am thoroughly enjoying this weekly food adventure, and mom is also. One of the initial decisions we make when buying ingredients is will we have enough for leftovers? Do we have to double the recipe? We accidentally tripled the Pad Thai last week, so we had 2-3 extra days. But as two single girls, not having to cook a couple of nights is an extra bonus.
What’s your feeling about leftovers? Love them or hate them?
Once again most of the work was prepping the vegetables cutting the fish. That’s the part that mom complains about, all the work we have to do. Sautéed all the vegetables, added the fish stock, Puréed some of the sauce, added milk, some heavy cream, cream cheese and cornstarch, returned it to the pot, and added all of the seafood. The cream cheese was an odd thing to add, but it gave it a nice creamy consistency.
Mom’s review: it had a very nice taste, nothing overwhelming but a lot of flavor.The only messy part was getting the mussels out of the shell. The smoked haddock what is a good addition, and felt like the secret ingredient to the Irish flavor.
Would we make it again? Yes, a with a few modifications. And we have leftovers.
Traveljunkies 
Ok, several comments this week.
1 – as an observer, you sound like you had more fun on this one!
2 – PEI mussels are not from Maine by dear; they’re from PEI (tee hee)
3 – Leftovers – YES. I love to look in fridge and see ready made lunch/dinner
4 – what the heck is star anise; I think anise is like licorice right?
We did have fun. Yes I know where PEI muscles come from. Star anise is from the fruit of an evergreen in China. It looks like a star, and is used in savory dishes, and tastes like licorice, fennel or cloves.