Dear Husband had a week long conference in Dublin and of course, Dear Daughter and I needed to go to keep him company. It morphed into a 24 day adventure through four countries, but that is a different story. Ireland was amazing although I will say that Cate and I did little traveling. We were happy where we were. I rented a townhouse near a subway station (which had its ups and downs....close to the metro...noisy trains beginning around 5am). We had many tours scheduled but many were cancelled due to COVID or lack of staffing. We did not let that hamper us in any way.
I am not exaggerating when I say that in the 8 days that we were in Ireland, I had Irish Seafood Chowder on 7 of those days. Cate and I would sleep in and then head to an adventure at mid-day - which always included a lunch...and on my side...always included Seafood Chowder. We had a food tour scheduled for the first day, when Jamie did not have to work...but it was cancelled. Looking at the subway map, I found that the seaside town of Howth was a short trip - we went there for lunch. We walked down the pier side looking at boats and the plethora of restaurants, found one, who took us without a reservation, and started our Irish adventure. Later that afternoon, after exploring, I headed into a fishmonger and disappeared for nearly 30 minutes as the owner took a liking to me and created some special marinade for sea bream. I suspect he does it regularly, but I loved the attention.
Cate and I managed a trip to the Giants Causeway, listened to the legend and that trip is a whole story in an of itself. We blended our own whiskey at the Jamison Distillery and brought it home to see which one Jamie preferred, toured St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Dublin Castle, the Guinness Factory with Jamie's colleagues, dined at a Michelin starred restaurant for my birthday (where the sommelier was from Brittany which started lots of conversations...many in French...which Cate could understand). Almost daily, we visited the pub at the end of our street - named for one of the 16 who was killed during the Easter Rebellion, learned how to read Irish license plates, saw the Book of Kells and the Library...and shopped at our favorite European stores.... Yeah, Jamie had nothing to worry about...Cate and I had it all under control and had a blast.
But now we are home and for our first big dinner, I decided to make Irish Seafood Chowder....yes, it was 90+ degrees outside but I did not care. And it turned out wonderful...and the local bakery actually sells Irish Wheat Bread only on Fridays...so it was a sign that I needed to make it. I am having difficulty loading the photos - and I won't ask the family to rank order mine vs. the Irish...needless to say...it must have met mission as everyone is excited about the leftovers...
Irish Seafood Chowder
1 pound of mixed fish...I used Haddock, Cod and a lightly smoked Salmon (I think it is important to use some sort of smoked fish)
1/2 pound shrimp
1/4 pound crab
3 pieces of bacon, chopped
1 stalk celery
2 small potatoes, chopped
1 small white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
2 cups of whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cup of seafood broth - I had my own (I typically save shells and bones from seafood and when I have enough - I make stock...do the same thing with chicken bones)
1T flour and 1T butter
Easy - peasy. Cook the bacon, and then transfer to a plate. Saute the celery, potato and garlic in butter (or maybe the bacon fat). In a separate pan, cook the fish in the milk for about 10 minutes. Drain but keep the milk. Add the milk to the vegetables along with the seafood broth and cook about 10 minutes. Then add the cream. Combine the flour and butter and add to the broth in order to thicken it a bit. Once a bit thickened, add the fish, the shrimp and crab. Finally add the bacon. Season to taste.
It is that easy...and that good.
So we had a bit of Ireland in the house on Friday...