Red alert! Because creamy was never THIS creamy before… massive overload!! My good god, you are going to love this one!! This creamy fish chowder with cod, tomatoes and homemade prawn reduction is just awesome and definitely one to die for.
I love a good chowder!
And I am absolutely convinced that this fish chowder is one of the best soups I have ever made so for, cross my heart. This creamy fish chowder will never get any better than this.
So put your apron on and try this beauty!
I have to admit that this creamy fish chowder is actually made with a bunch of leftovers.
Fish Chowder
Do you often end up with leftovers too?
What I like to do is try to come up with another meal that doesn’t look or taste like a leftovers’ meal. And that is what this fish chowder is all about!
So I threw a Spanish style tapas dinner for friends and two of those dishes were garlic prawns in olive oil and a delicious cold salt cod and tomato salad. To prepare the garlic prawns I needed peeled prawns so I kept the heads and shells aside.
I turned those into a flavorful broth of this fish chowder. And what was left of the salt cod salad ended up in this creamy soup.
Creamy Fish Chowder with Salt Cod & Tomatoes
I make this prawn broth slash prawn reduction very often actually.
You should definitely try it as well!
I can never throw away food so I always try to turn them into another snack, lunch or dinner meal even. This prawn reduction has been the base of my crunchy shrimp croquettes, my prawn bisque spaghetti sauce and my prawn head soup with soba noodles.
Rest assured: I got a lot more prawn ideas up my sleeve!
Prawn Heads
Good to know…
Once you have peeled the prawns, you can keep the shells and heads for another day. I would say two days max. If I know that I won’t have the time to incorporate them into a dish, I make the prawn broth anyway.
Afterwards you can freeze it for later.
But let’s focus on this creamy fish chowder with salt cod, tomatoes and cream prawn broth for now. What a rich and tacky delicacy this one is.
I wish I made more of it!
Prawn Broth
I hope from the bottom of my heart that you will enjoy this fish chowder as much as we did.
Bon appétit!
Enjoy!
For The Homemade Prawn Broth
First let's make a delicious prawn broth for our chowder!
- 12 raw raw prawn heads and shells
- 1 meidum fresh tomato chopped
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- 2 cups water (480 ml)
- ¼ fish bouillon cube
- 1 large garlic clove chopped
- ½ small onion chopped
- 3 tbsp olive oil
-
Add the olive oil, garlic and onion to a large pan. Place it over medium-high heat until hot. Stir fry the onion for 3 minutes. Then add the raw prawn heads and shells to the pan.
-
Stir well and bake the prawn heads in the oil for 3 minutes. They will become fragrant. Then add the water, the tomato, tomato paste and season with the fish bouillon cube.
-
Bring the prawn heads to a good boil. Then turn the heat lower and simmer them for 20 minutes. Take the soup off the heat and let it cool down. Then blend or mix the prawn soup very well for 2 minutes until all of the ingredients are turned into a very fine pulp.
-
Pour this pulp through a large and fine sieve (you can place a cheesecloth in it as well) over another large pan and gently stir and press the soupy pulp until you end up with a slab of prawn pulp. Press it well using the back of a spoon to get as many of that fantastic liquid out of it as possible.
-
Discard the prawn pulp. You should end up with about 1 ⅔ cups (400 ml) of prawn reduction. If you have a little more, don’t worry. If you don’t have enough, just add an extra portion of milk or cream until you reach about that amount. Keep the prawn reduction aside until needed later on.
For The Creamy Tomato & Fish Chowder
Creamy was never THIS creamy before… This fish chowder with cod, tomatoes and homemade prawn reduction is just awesome.
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 3,5 oz salt cod (100 g) , chopped into bite-size bits
- 1 medium fresh tomato chopped
- 1 cup whole milk (240 ml)
- pepper
- salt
-
Melt the unsalted butter in a large and high pan over medium heat and then add the plain flour.
-
Whisk the flour and butter well until you start seeing bubbles come up.
-
Turn the heat a little lower and stir constantly for another 2 minutes. Make sure the flour and butter mixture doesn’t start to burn or your sauce will taste smoky and burnt in the end. Then pour in half of the whole milk.
-
Turn the heat high now and stir vigorously for 20 seconds. When the flour batter thickens, pour in the rest of the milk. Keep stirring for another minute. Then pour in half of the prawn reduction.
-
Stir well again. The sauce should become very runny and glossy. Then pour in the rest of the prawn reduction. Stop stirring and let the prawn soup simmer and cook for another 4 minutes over high heat.
-
Chop the remaining tomato into small bits (you can deseed it first if you like). Then add both the chopped (salt) cod and tomato to the prawn chowder.
-
Stir the chowder well and check the seasoning. Add extra pepper or salt to taste if necessary. Scoop the chowder into bowls and serve piping hot.
Easy Smoked Trout Fish Chowder with Cabbage & Potatoes
It is your lucky day!
Here is another fish chowder that I made a while ago.
What a lovely warming smoked trout chowder this is! One grey and rainy morning I saw a couple of unhappy potatoes and a knob of leftover green cabbage laying in my fridge like they had given up.
It sure looked like I had to do something with them, just anything.
So I had this instant craving for a creamy wholesome and filling soup for lunch that day.
Smoked Fish
My husband happened to go into town for a trip to the baker’s shop and I sent him to go fetch some smoked trout for me at the supermarket next door. I was sure the smoked fish would make my chowder soup complete.
That smoked fish idea was an instant hunch as well but it worked out wonderfully in the end. A real must! Cabbage, potatoes and smoked trout in a creamy thick and flavorful soup: a great fish chowder!
Oh by the way, if you love smoked fish: then you should certainly try out my smoked trout quiche!
Enjoy!
Easy Smoked Trout Fish Chowder Recipe
Cabbage, potatoes and smoked trout in a creamy thick and flavorful soup: a great fish chowder!
- 7 oz smoked trout (200 g)
- 10,5 oz green cabbage (300 g)
- 10,5 oz potatoes (300 g)
- 2 medium garlic cloves
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (480 ml), warm
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 1 1/2 cups cream (360 ml)
- a handful fresh dill chopped
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- pepper
- salt
-
Peel the garlic cloves and chop them up finely. Add them together with half of the unsalted butter to a high and large pan. Place the pan over medium heat.
-
Let the unsalted butter away melt gently and let the garlic gently fry for 2 minutes. Stir regularly. Slice the green cabbage finely and add it all to the pan with the garlic.
-
Stir the green cabbage well and let it bake for 4 minutes. Stir regularly. In the meantime brush and rinse the potatoes (I left the skins on but you can peel them if you prefer) well under cold running tap water. Chop them up into nice bite-size chunks. Add the potato to the stir fried green cabbage in the pan as well.
-
Give all the vegetables a very good stir and let them all cook for another 4 minutes. Then pour in the warm chicken or vegetable stock.
-
Add the cream as well. Sprinkle the soup with the flour.
-
Stir the ingredients well and bring them all to a rolling boil for 5 a good minutes. Turn the heat lower. Simmer the cabbage chowder for about 10 to 12 minutes. The potatoes should be tender. Then stir in the freshly chopped dill and the remaining butter. Season with a good dash of pepper and salt.
-
Take the chowder off the heat now. Gently flake the smoked trout between your fingers and add the trout chunks to the cabbage and potato chowder.
-
Stir the chowder carefully. Check the seasoning and add extra pepper or salt to taste if necessary. Let the chowder rest for another 5 minutes. Then scoop the creamy trout chowder into bowls and serve it piping hot.
Fish Chowder & Fish Soups
I love chowder.
Never made a classic clam chowder though.
How about you?
What I love are fish soups and chowders. Tell me what is the very first classic fish soup then that pops up in your mind right now? I am pretty sure that it must be a French bouillabaisse fish soup!
This amazing French fish soup is super delicious and delicate.
Bouillabaisse
And highly popular!
Bouillabaisse originally comes from the French city of Marseille in the French Provence region. The Mediterranean Sea is right at its feet. It is hard to understand that long time ago bouillabaisse was actually a poor man’s meal. At the end of the day fishermen would boil the leftover unsold fish. The cooked fish was one meal, the broth served as another meal with grilled bread.
Does that sound familiar to you?
Croutons & Rouille
With the traditional bouillabaisse come croutons and also two more sides: grated cheese and a creamy rouille sauce. The latter, rouille is a reddish type of French mayonnaise that is often served in combination with fish and seafood. It mainly consists of bread, cayenne pepper, garlic, egg yolk, olive oil and saffron.
I love rouille!
But the most important fact here is that bouillabaisse is not only a fish soup: it consists of two different dishes actually.
Classic Bouillabaisse Fish
The cooked fish and the fish broth also.
A classic bouillabaisse contains 6 specific types of fish.
Monkfish, scorpion fish, john dory, conger eel, red gurnard and weever fish. Fair to say that not all bouillabaisse soups contain all six: scorpion fish is not always available.
You can of course add other fish to this beautiful fish soup everywhere because finding these six types of fish at the same time is one hell of a challenge! The hubs once went to Marseille and he was blown away by the prices for a good bouillabaisse.
Marseille
Is it worth it or is it all a rip-off?
That is hard to say. All I can say is that on the day that I prepare my first bouillabaisse, I will certainly add other fish. Whatever I can find here in Spain.
All recipes are very nice. Well known preparation along with good images. Thanks for nice recipe. .