My Secret To Making The Best Irish Seafood Chowder Recipe You'll Ever Make | The FOOD-DEE BASICS

What's up foodies? With St. Paddy's Day right around the corner, I want to make something that reminds me of my last trip to Ireland. Seafood chowder. I was in this little pub called Arthur's, had one of the best seafood chowders I ever had, and I want to recreate that. Now being from Newfoundland, Canada, I grew up on the coast, and oh boy did I have my fair share of seafood chowder growing up. So this is definitely a recipe that's near and dear to my heart, and definitely one of my favourites. So let's get into it. Alright foodies, first we are going to start by taking a dutch oven or a large pot and placing it onto a burner and setting it to medium high heat. Toss in 150 grams or 5 ounces of cut up smoky bacon. Add in a splash of water, it's going to help render out the fat and promote even browning. This is the technique I use any time I need to make bacon bits for a salad. Now, you're going to want to cook your bacon bits until they're brown because once we add in those onions, they are going to stop browning. At this point, I usually add in 50 grams of butter here to make a roux, but since the bacon I use has more fat than usual, I decided not to add my butter. If I had to add the butter in, it would have been too much fat. Now toss in 200 grams or roughly 1 medium sized onion, finely diced, and give that a stir. Season with some salt, and then add in 100 grams of celery or 1 large stalk, 200 grams or 2 carrots that are small diced. You're going to want to sweat these off for about 4-5 minutes, and then we're going to add in 3 cloves of crushed garlic, and 1 tablespoon of thyme. Lemon thyme works really well here if you can get your hands on it. Let that cook for 1-2 minutes, then add in 2 tablespoons or 50 grams of flour, and mix in, and cook for 2 minutes. Alright, if you want to keep this chowder gluten-free, all you need to do is omit the butter and the flour, and what we're going to do is add an extra potato to the recipe. At the end, we're going to take some of that potato out and some of the liquid, blend it up in a blender, and add it back in, and that will thicken up our soup for us. This is the traditional way to thicken a chowder, but in this recipe, we're using a roux. And that's how you do it if you want to keep it gluten-free. Let's get back to the recipe. Now we're going to toss in my secret ingredient, a pinch of saffron. This is going to give it a nice yellow color, and it pairs really well with the seafood. Pour in 250 milliliters or 1 cup of your favorite white wine. As you stir, it'll start to thicken. Then you're going to add in 1 liter or 4 cups of fish stock, and 250 mils or 1 cup of milk. Give it all a stir to bring it all together, then add in 700 grams or 6 medium-sized Yukon gold or yellow flesh potatoes that are cut into bite-sized pieces. You're looking for roughly about half an inch cube here. I find that Yukon gold potatoes are a great choice for cream soups. Oh, and I also forgot, we need to add in 300 milliliters of clam juice. The clam juice is going to help enhance the flavor of the seafood. Toss in 2 bay leaves. Now bring this bad boy to a boil and reduce your heat and simmer for 30 minutes until your potatoes are fork tender. Note, you're going to want to stir this every 5 minutes or so as it can easily burn to the bottom of your pot. Once your potatoes are cooked, pour in 250 milliliters or 1 cup of heavy cream and stir. Now for the seafood. Toss in 1 can of oysters, 250 grams or half pound of Atlantic codfish that has been cut into bite-sized pieces. Now, you can use any white fish here, but I am from the Rock, also known as Newfoundland, Canada. And where I come from, cod is king, so that's what we're going to use today. Now I seasoned my cod about 20 minutes before I add it to the pot. I did this so it firms up and it doesn't flake apart on us. Now follow up the cod with 250 grams or half a pound of salmon, and you guessed it, it's Atlantic salmon, although you could use sockeye here as well. Finally, add 250 grams or half a pound of large shrimp, tails removed, and cut into bite-sized pieces. Then I realized I should have used a bigger pot, and lessons have been learned. But let's move forward anyways. Now cover and let that simmer for 5 minutes until your fish is fully cooked. Go ahead and remove your bay leaves, knowing you put two in there, but you can't seem to find the other one. Now grate in the zest of one lemon. This is going to help cut the richness of the chowder and give it a nice light flavor. Then season with salt and pepper to taste, and dish up a bowl of chowder and let's dig in. Alright, here we go, here we go. I love seafood chowder. It's definitely one of my comfort foods. It's not a hard recipe to make. A few simple ingredients, super easy to do. If you want your chowder a little thicker, take a few of the vegetables and some of the broth, put it into a blender, blend it on high for a couple seconds until it becomes thick. Add it back into your chowder, mix it in, and your broth will be a bit thicker. Like I said, seafood chowder is definitely one of those recipes I grew up with. I love it. It's a comfort food for me, and I'd love for you guys to try it. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe down below. Foodie out!