Fish Chowder

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West of Ireland Fish Chowder

We live on the west coast of Ireland, where Irish fish chowder is a regular on the menu in the local pubs and restaurants.

This is my own easy fish chowder recipe using ingredients I can pick up in the Irish Aldi or Tesco down the road.

chowder ingredients — *Seafood Chowder Ingredients*

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What is in Irish Fish Chowder?

For this Irish chowder recipe, I used two fresh ‘seafood pie mixes’ from Tesco’s. They consisted of 320 grams each of mixed fresh fish containing 50% white fish, 25% salmon and 25% smoked white fish.

Aldi’s also sells a seafood mix, which is a slightly smaller package (250g). But this is also perfectly suitable and contains a mix of fish like Haddock, Cod, Pollack and Hake with some salmon, also with some smoked fish in it. The smoked fish imparts a lovely smokey flavour to the chowder.

I have used both ingredient mixes in the past to make this dish. Just adjust the milk quantities pro-rata to suit the fish amounts, depending how chunky you like your fish stew.

fish soup chowder mix — Delicious fresh seafood mix

Variations to Irish Fish Chowder Soup

Fresh fish is obviously better if you can get it – just make sure you use a nice mixture of fish that complement each other. Mackerel, being a very oily and strong-tasting fish, would not really fit very well in this dish, for example.

I also used some frozen King prawns and some Irish crab meat, to fill the dish out. But really you can use pretty much what you want, as long as the tastes go together. Atlantic prawns, mussels or clams ould all complement this meal nicely.

Seafood chowder in Ireland can consist of many varieties of seafood. But commonly you will find that restaurants will use the fresh fish and shellfish that they can get locally. Hence salmon, haddock, hake, cod and pollock will often be found in an Irish chowder.

But really you can use whatever you can get your hands on locally. If using fresh fish, just try and make sure all the fish has been properly de-boned. There is nothing worse than a fishbone stuck in the back of your throat!

fish chowder — *Irish Seafood Chowder with buttered sourdough*

My point is that a Galway seafood chowder recipe may be very different to a Dingle seafood chowder recipe or even a Donegal seafood chowder recipe. The recipe will follow the fish, but they all taste great and are super creamy.

seafood soup — *Irish Seafood Chowder with buttered Irish Wheaten Bread*

Just make sure the fish is the kind with nice meaty type flesh, like haddock or salmon that does not need lots of cooking until it falls apart. Some of the farm-fished white fish out there today are also less suited to be used in a chowder I think, because of this.

recipe seafood chowder — *Irish Seafood Chowder*

Irish Wheaten Bread

In the West of Ireland, chowder is nearly always served with soda or wheaten bread to mop up the juices. Ideally, a good Irish salted butter like Kerrygold would be used to butter the bread. We are so very lucky to have such superb quality dairy products in Ireland.

If you ever travel the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland you will definitely find chowder and brown Irish bread in the pubs you stop at along the way. If you like fish and seafood, you will love this recipe.

This is a really tasty recipe, and if you have any leftovers you can keep it in the fridge for a day and reheat it. It tastes even better a day later.

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe and try and make it at home. It is a perfect family treat for St. Patrick’s Day!

If you do try it, please let me know how you get on in the comments section below, and how you improved it. What seafood did you use?

How to make Irish Seafood Chowder

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Yield: 6

Irish Seafood Chowder

This delicious and filling Irish seafood chowder is a common meal in the pubs and restaurants of Ireland. Serve up with some buttered Irish Wheaten or sourdough bread - unbeatable!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

640g mixed fish (white and pink fish, smoked and non smoked. I used a mix of haddock, cod and salmon)
130g King prawns (frozen)
70g cooked Irish crab meat (optional)
500ml Milk
100ml double cream
400ml vegetable or fish stock
2 potatoes, peeled
1 onion
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
4 rashers streaky bacon (or smoked pancetta)
1 garlic clove, finely sliced
1 tbsp flour
Ground Black Pepper
1 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

Cut the bacon (or pancetta) into small pieces and fry in a skillet until browned. Remove from pan and store on a plate.
Defrost the prawns and dry them (I do this in a bowl with warm water and sieve the water away, patting them with some kitchen paper).
Chop the potatoes into small 10mm cubes and finely dice the onion, garlic and celery. Place them together in a saucepan and fry them in some butter on medium heat for about 2 minutes.
Then cover the potatoes and onion in the vegetable (or fish) stock and bring to a simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked.
At the same time, put the fish in a pan and add the milk. Bring to a simmer and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes until the fish is cooked. Then sieve the milk into a jar and put the fish aside.
Add the sieved milk to the potatoes, onions and celery and bring to a simmer. Then add the cream and stir well.
Mix 1 tbsp of butter with 1 tbsp of flour and add to the simmering mixture. Stir until it starts to thicken.
Then add the fish, prawns and crab meat to the soup. Taste the sauce, and season with pepper to taste. Allow time to heat up the seafood, before serving.
Finally, add half the bacon to the soup and some of the chopped parsley and stir well.

Notes

Serve up with some chopped parsley and the rest of the crispy bacon garnish, together with some traditional buttered Irish Wheaten bread.

The quantities above are enough for 6 generous helpings.

Feel free to add mussels, clams or other suitable seafood if you wish.