Seafood Chowder on Galway Bay
Easy Irish seafood chowder recipe with tender potatoes, flaky white fish, and a variety of shellfish. A perfect recipe for busy cooks who want a taste of Galway Bay.
I grew up in Seattle. Living by the coast meant I had the opportunity to sample many "best" clam chowder, fish chowder, and seafood stew recipes. Most of the time, these "best" chowder recipes are excellent but the absolute, hands down, best seafood chowder I have ever eaten was in an eccentrically decorated cafe 4,000 miles from home.
That day, cold as it was, is how I would like to spend my time far more often, creating memories with dear friends. The rustic meal we shared was exactly what we needed to warm from the inside out and I will never forget the delightfully unusual setting. We probably only spent about €6 on dinner but we made a memory to last a lifetime.
Serve Irish seafood chowder with traditional Irish brown bread.
Traditional Irish Seafood Chowder
Ingredients
- 4 ounce bacon diced
- 2 medium leeks sliced in ½ inch rounds
- 4 large celery stalks halved and diced
- 2 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes diced
- 1 pound Sunchokes peeled and diced (may substitute an additional pound of potatoes)
- 2 - 8 ounce bottles of clam juice
- 3 cups 2% low fat milk room temperature
- 12 ounce evaporated milk
- 1 pound firm white fish cut into 1-2 inch chunks - use 2 pounds if omitting shellfish
- 1 pound assorted shell fish with shells removed - shrimp scallops, clams, squid, mussels, etc.
- 1 parsley
Instructions
- Cook the bacon in large dutch oven or soup pot over medium high heat until it has turned brown and crispy. Once the bacon has browned remove it to a paper towel lined plate. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of the rendered fat.
- Add leeks and celery to pot and cook them until they begin to soften (about 5 minutes), stir frequently.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the potatoes, sunchokes, and clam juice. Simmer the vegetables until the potatoes and sunchokes can be easily pierced by a fork - about 15 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to medium low and add all of the milk, then return bacon to the pot and add with the seafood.
- Simmer the chowder on low to medium low heat, make sure it does not begin to boil. The chowder is ready when fish has cooked through, about 15 minutes. The fish should be flaky and any shrimp should be fully pink.
- Toss in a handful or two of finely chopped parsley and add salt and pepper if desired. Keep the chowder on low heat until ready to serve.
Just wanted you to know that I've included your recipe in a collection of Irish foods on Simple Living and Eating. I will be pinning and tweeting it this week too. http://www.simplelivingeating.com/2014/03/ode-to-ireland-irish-recipes-healthy.html
Thank you for sharing. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Just returned from a 10 day dream in Ireland. Flew into Shannon, toured around and flew out of Dublin. Have traveled quite a bit and have never been any place so hard to leave. Desperately wanting to re-create some of the culinary delights while the memories are fresh and it never occurred to me to ask for recipes while we were there. I'll give these a try! Thank you for sharing.
Oh how wonderful! Late summer is a beautiful time to visit. Happy cooking and reminiscing. Sláinte!
Love seafood chowder! Looks like a good recipe too!
Great blog, btw, very inspirational!
Thanks! Glad you found some good stuff here! :)
Yum! I might just have to make some sort of chowder coming up soon, if only to dip some thick, warm bread into it.