New England-Style Salmon and Shellfish Chowder
Word Bank
You know, I first learned to cook with my mom, Miss Hilda, in the great province of New England, where some of the world's best chowder is made. At an early age, I knew as I watched my mom work her magic in the kitchen that she was born to cook. Now, this is a New England style salmon and shellfish chowder, and it's one of her favorites.
Start with your (1) or salt pork and (2) that baby down until the bacon is crispy. Once it's crispy, we're going to add four tablespoons of (3) . Now, when I make chowder, I like using butter as opposed to oil because it's much cleaner and you can really taste it. And what we're going to do now is add 1 and 1/2 cups of (4) , the one cup of (5) .
I love using a combination of onion and leaks. We want to season it the first layer with a little bit of salt and pepper. Then we're going to add 3/4 cup of (6) , and the half a cup of (7) . I'm using a red bell pepper today. We're going to add some aromatics. Two (8) , two tablespoons of (9) . I don't put the garlic in too soon so it doesn't get bitter. The teaspoon of (10) .
Once the vegetables begin to caramelize, about 8 minutes. Now, we're going to add the four tablespoons of the (11) . So equal parts of the butter and equal parts of the flour will be the thickening agent or what is also called the (12) . We're just sort of keeping an eye so it doesn't scorch. Now to that we're going to add about six cups of (13) .
It'll never be at its full thickening ability until it comes to a boil. We want to incorporate the roux into the broth and let it come up to a simmer. Now, sometimes when I was cooking with my mom, she would leave it as a broth base or she would add a milk product, whether it was half and half milk or (14) , just to give it a little richness. So, this is about two cups of (15) .
We're going to let it come to a simmer now and let it cook a bit before we start adding our (16) and our (17) . Add our (18) blanched (19) . And that's about a pound. And let that potato just sort of cook a bit, letting the starch come out of it.
And now we add our beautiful seafood in here to make this a very special New England style chowder. This would be a big treat at home. So, we're going to let this simmer real nice, just until the (20) begin to start opening and the salmon's going to cook. This is truly one of the most comforting homemade chowders that I love to make.
It's rich. It's creamy. You don't really want to miss it. This is a good one. If you can't find wild salmon, you could use (21) . You could use clams instead of muscles. It's really the love that you want to give. Look at how beautiful that is. We're going to let this simmer and then I'll serve up a bowl.
So, as you can see, the muscles are beautiful. Just open the (22) perfectly cooked just like Miss Hilda would make. You don't want to overcook the seafood. So, we'll go in for a nice bowl of our muscle shrimp and (23) chowder.
Garnish it with just a little bit of fresh (24) and some (25) or some folks call them scallion. The rawness of the green onion when you start eating the soup, it's just absolutely perfect. This is truly one of the most comforting homemade chowders for me. It's rich, it's creamy, and it reminds me a lot of my mom, Miss Hilda. Enjoy.