Treading the Fine Line.

Soup and I admittedly have a bit of a strange relationship.

For the most part, I love it for all its soul-nourishing, easy-to-slurp-down-with-a-spoon-in-one-hand-and-bread-roll-in-another ways- especially on a dreadful, rainy day.

But sometimes- just sometimes- for all that goes into a bowl of soup (the ingredients! the time!), soup just feels a little..blah. Especially when you’ve had two hours over the stove to dream about how delicious your potful of soup would turn out.

And that, sadly, was in short how I felt about this seafood chowder when we sat down to finally devour it for dinner. Much as I loved the textures and flavours of the soup, it honestly just didn’t feel like it was worth all that time.

But then, a night in the fridge changed all that.

One night was all it took for the richness from the seafood and the wine to mellow and come together.

And with a generous splash of balsamic vinegar, a dollop of tomato paste and a whole lot of freshly ground black pepper, it was akin to the culinary equivalent of an awkward ugly duckling turning into a graceful swan.

So while I might still have a complicated relationship with soup, I definitely know where I stand with this one.

Seafood chowder [adapted from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa's Parties!]

Ingredients
500g prawns, shells reserved
250g white-flesh fish
250g crabmeat
250g clam meat
3 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
1/4 cup plain flour
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Butter

Seafood stock
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 bulb of garlic, peeled and minced
5 1/2 cups of water
1 cup of white wine
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 tbsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Handful of thyme sprigs

1. To make the stock Heat a glurg of olive oil in a stockpan over medium heat. Add the shells from the prawns, onions, carrots and celery. Saute for 10 minutes or till lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook till fragrant.
2. Add the water, wine, tomato paste, salt, freshly ground black pepper and thyme.
3. Bring the stock to boil, then lower the heat to simmer for 1 hour. Strain the stock through a sieve, discarding the solids. Top up with wine or water to make 6 cups of stock, if needed.
4. To make the chowder Cut the seafood into bite size pieces.
5. In a large pot, melt a knob of butter. Add the carrots, onions and celery. Saute for 15 minutes over medium heat until the carrots are tender.
6. Add the plain flour. Reduce the heat to low and cook for a couple more minutes.
7. Add the seafood stock and bring to boil. Add the seafood and simmer until the fish is just cooked.
8. Season with balsamic vinegar, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve with sliced toasted baguette drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. Serves 6

Posted by thecoffeesnob on September 20, 2010

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