Context and chowder
I just saw the post. THE post. You know the one. It’s the one that makes all food bloggers question their life choices at the deepest possible levels. “Just give me the recipe.”
There is, however, a difference between a Dickensian glut of superfluous words - and photos - intended to satisfy SEO requirements, and a writer providing context. Context is the history teacher who surrounds dates with details, telling the why and how behind the what. Context teaches us why ingredients come together in the way they do. Context transports us to a time and place that make a recipe make perfect sense.
So here’s some context. The first time I made fish chowder was with a friend, in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. A hard rain fell outside for hours, the salt smell off the ocean was no longer the cooling scent of summer, but the damp chill that allowed a crisp fall day to penetrate warm layers and still chill at the bone. It was the kind of day, when we are still a bit soft from summer’s warmth and think about keeping our fleece on even after coming indoors.
It seems like we cooked for hours, glasses of wine in hand, but, I know, having made many pots since, that it barely takes 45 minutes to finish (although it does taste better the next day). When the soup was finished the kitchen had been warmed by the stove and the rich soup, hearty with potato, big chunks of whitefish, and cream warmed us from the inside out.
Let the chunks of tender pumpkin I’ve added to this recipe inspire an image of a bright pumpkin, sitting atop wet, fallen leaves on a rough granite step outside the backdoor of a white clapboard house.
Now take a bite.
Pumpkin Fish Chowder
Serves 6
I’ve always thought of fish chowder as the perfect way to warm up on a wet fall day when you can feel the first chill of the season calling for a return to sweaters and long pants. Adding hearty pumpkin to the starchy potatoes makes this a little richer and the perfect way to use these farm-fresh, seasonal squash. Note: it looks like a lot of ingredients but most of them are seasonings. This goes together so quickly and easily.
Ingredients:
1/4 lbs Pancetta or bacon
2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups roughly chopped Maitake or thinly sliced Crimini mushrooms
2 large red potatoes, cut in 1/2” dice
4 cups pumpkin like Fairytale or Cinderella, cut in 1/2” dice
3 celery stalks, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups water
1 lb cod filet or other white fish cut in 2” pieces
1 cup cream
1 cup whole milk
Cayenne pepper
Nutmeg
White pepper
Sherry vinegar
1/4 cup chopped, fresh parsley
Directions:
Warm a heavy soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook Pancetta or bacon until crisp and fat is rendered. Remove from pot to paper towels. Chop when cool.
Return pot to medium heat with olive oil. Add onions and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and mushrooms and cook, until the mushrooms are softened, 3-4 minutes.
Add potatoes and sauté 5 minutes. Add pumpkin, celery, thyme, bay leaves and white wine. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan, until wine reduced to 1/4 cup.
Add water and cook until potatoes are just tender, about 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium-low, add fish, on top of other ingredients, cover and cook until fish is opaque, 5-7 minutes. Remove lid, add cream and milk, return heat to medium and cook 5 minutes longer, being careful not to let the liquid come above a simmer.
Season soup to taste with a pinch each of Cayenne and nutmeg, salt, white pepper and a splash of Sherry vinegar. Serve garnished with parsley and reserved, chopped Pancetta.
