RECIPE: New England Fish Chowder

I told you how I ran out to purchase 20 boxes of Starkist SeaSations the other night. These are the best tasting frozen fish fillets we've ever eaten. Gorton's Grilled selections come in a close 2nd. So I really like them just nuked in the microwave according to the package directions, but I wanted to eat them all week long and didn't want to have a "Groundhog Day" experience with meals all week. So I scanned some sites and found a couple of interesting looking recipes.

Let me preface by stating I have never had Fish Chowder. Nor have I had Mediterranean Fish Stew. Both were interesting sounding recipes that I thought I could tweak and "guinea pig" my family. I spoke to a girlfriend on the phone today and she said the Fish Chowder sounded disgusting. Well Tara, it turned out really yummy to all of our surprise! You can find the original recipe HERE. Here is my tweaked version for my family:


New England Fish Chowder

• 2 oz salt pork, diced or 3 or 4 slices of bacon
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 4 large Red potatoes, small diced
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1 tsp Old Bay seafood seasoning
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 4 cups (1 quart) vegetable stock
• 2 cups milk
• 4 Starkist SeaSations Savory Lemon & Herb fish fillets (2 boxes), slightly thawed and seasoning rinsed off, each fillet cut into 16 pieces (about 1" cubes)

Heat Dutch oven over medium heat, add salt pork and saute until crispy; remove them and drain on paper towels. Add onions to rendered pork fat and saute until golden brown. Add potatoes, celery, carrots, Old Bay seasoning and butter. Stir to combine all ingredients in the pot. Then sprinkle flour over the mixture and stir. Let cook for 1 minute. Pour in vegetable stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Add milk and slightly frozen fish then simmer for 10 minutes. Serve chowder sprinkled with crispy salt pork. Serves 6-8.

VERDICT: We really liked this alot. I didn't like the crispy salt pork so I removed it from my serving. And you know my picky eaters? They had seconds!

So don't judge a recipe by it's title, give it a try and then you can judge it for yourself.

Enjoy!