Fish Chowder with Wine and Bacon

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This is one of my favorite soups of all times. It’s so light and full of flavor, and I crave it on early spring days or cool summer evenings. It makes me think of lunches at small cafes at the Bulgarian seaside, or a well earned meal after hiking for two days in northern Minnesota. The beauty of this soup is that the fish is the star, and it is gently poached in the flavorful broth. I absolutely love the texture and the mild flavor of the Whitefish, and I think that it is the perfect fish for this soup. When cooked gentility in the broth, the Whitefish becomes buttery and velvety, and it’s such a wonderful compliment to the rest of the ingredients in the soup. 

I absolutely love Julia Child, and the original recipe of this fish soup is from her show “In Julia’s Kitchen With Master Chefs” with Jasper White. The original recipe was made with homemade fish stock. I modified several parts of the original recipe per my taste, and instead of homemade fish stock I used clam juice and water for the base of the soup. I found that calm juice flavors the broth just right, not too fishy or too bland compared to if you just used water. I do have to say that homemade fish stock would be absolutely wonderful for this soup, however I often find myself limited to the fish and the fish parts I can get at my local market, but this would never stop me from finding ways to make this beloved fish chowder even when limited by geographic location or ingredients..

Fish Chowder with Wine and Bacon

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 5 strips bacon
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch cubes (about 3-3.5 cups)
• 1/2 cup white wine (Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grgio)
• 1 (8oz) bottle of clam juice
• 3 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1.5 pounds Whitefish (Pollock, Haddock, Sea Bass, or another white type fish works well too) skin removed
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• zest of one lemon
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil  

Directions:

1. Chop the bacon in small pieces (about 1/4-inch). Heat 1tbs olive oil in a Dutch oven or a large pot, add the bacon and cook in until crispy by stirring from time to time so it doesn’t burn. Remove the cooked bacon with a slotted spoon, place on a paper towel-lined plate and set aside for later. Add the onion to your cooking pot with the leftover oil and bacon fat, and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and the wine, stir and cook for additional 1 minute to allow the alcohol to escape. Add the clam juice, 3 cups of water, bay leaf, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer on low for about 20-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. 

2. When potatoes are cooked, turn the heat off and remove the bay leaves. Cut the fish into large chunks (about 4-5 inches), do not worry the fish will break into smaller pieces when stirred around in the pot when cooked. The large chunks will prevent the fish from turning into a mush. Add the fish gently into the soup. Make sure the fish is nestled well and covered with liquid. Let it sit with heat off and undisturbed for 30 minutes. The hot liquid will gently cook the fish into a buttery, soft texture.  

3. After 30 minutes add the cream, lemon zest and lemon juice, and gently stir the pot. Taste and add more salt, pepper and lemon juice if needed. 

4. Ladle the soup into serving bowls, top with freshly chopped parsley and the reserved cooked bacon bits.  Enjoy!

Pan roasted fingerling potatoes

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The potato. The simple and dearly beloved potato. It can be fried, baked, boiled, mashed, pureed. It can be added to soups and stews, it can be made into dough and shaped as pasta or bread, it can be added to pizza, sandwiches or salads, but most importantly, it can be enjoyed on its own.

When you think about it, you can’t really mess up cooking potatoes (unless you leave them raw or burn them badly). They are quite forgiving when it comes to cooking.

I have to admit that I am a crazy potato eater. I love, love potatoes and I can hardly get tired of them. And, more often than not, I have to restrict myself from eating them regularly. I have my potato phases when I will eat cream of potato soup or potatoes in salad for 2 weeks (yikes!!!). That is why it shouldn’t be a surprise that my mission for several years was to perfect pan fried potatoes. It seems like an easy task; just throw sliced potatoes into a hot pan with some oil, but very often they will come out soggy or slightly uncooked. The texture I was always looking for was a crunchy and crispy skin on the outside and creamy and soft flesh on the inside. 

The technique you will find below does exactly that. The desired texture is achieved by boiling whole small potatoes, smashing them with the flat side of a knife while still warm, and pan frying them in a very hot pan until golden and crispy. By boiling the potatoes they get cooked and their moisture is retained. Smashing the potatoes exposes their soft flesh and creates little nooks and crannies that become crunchy edges during the frying process. The final touch of tossing the hot potatoes with smoked paprika and finely grated fresh Parmesan creates a crispy and very flavorful skin and adds just the perfect amount of seasoning.

I can proudly declare that these potatoes are super-duper awesomly delicious. In fact, I was so happy how they turned out that if you look reaaaaaally close into some of the pictures you can see my little anxious fingers trying to snatch some of them.

Enjoy!

 

Pan Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Ingredients:

Serves 4

• 1 lb fingerling or small baby potatoes
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 large shallots or 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced 
• 7 tbsp olive oil*
• 4 eggs
• 1.5 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

Directions:

1. Wash the potatoes, place them in a medium pot and cover them with cold water. Add salt and heat the pot over medium-high heat until it starts boiling. Lower the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until soft (to check, pierce one potato with the tip of a knife and if there is no resistance, the potatoes are ready).

2. Drain the potatoes and let them cool for 10-15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile heat a cast iron skillet** over medium-high heat, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and sauté the shallots and garlic until soft and translucent (about 2 minutes). Transfer the mixture into a small bowl and set aside. Wipe clean the skillet by using a paper towel and keep for using later.

4. Place one potato on a cutting board and using the flat side of a large knife (or a kitchen towel) and the palm of your hand, gently press to flatten the potato to about 1/2 inch thickness. Repeat with the remaining potatoes. Don’t worry if some potatoes break apart, you can still use them.

5. Heat the empty (this is important) cast iron skillet over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until you see light smoke coming from the surface. Add 2 tbsp of oil into the pan and add a single layer of potatoes (about 1/3). Slightly lower the heat if necessary (if the pan is smoking), and fry until the edges become golden brown (about 3 minutes). Flip the potatoes and fry them for additional 2 minutes.

6. Place the potatoes into a medium mixing bowl by using a slotted spoon.

7. Repeat with the remaining potatoes.

8. While the last batch of potatoes is cooking, poach the eggs using the technique described in this post.

9. With the heat off and while the pan is still hot, return the potatoes and the shallots mixture into the pan. Add the smoked paprika and the Parmesan cheese. Toss until the potatoes are evenly coated and mixed with all the ingredients. Add black pepper and salt if needed.

10. Distribute the potatoes into 4 plates. Add a poached egg on top of each potato plate and sprinkle with extra grated Parmesan cheese.

*Olive oil is not recommended for high-heat frying. I use it in spite of this because I like its taste. If you prefer, use canola, sunflower or grape seed oil instead.

**Using a heavy (or cast iron) skillet is important because it will retain the heat for a long time, reducing the frying time and ensuring nicely browned potatoes.

Mahi mahi with avocado cucumber sauce

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I got up in the morning and was very excited to hear the birds on the trees right by my apartment. I opened the window and for the first time this year I smelled the freshness in the air and in the melting snow. I felt restless and excited, so I put my rain boots on (lots of puddles on the sidewalks), my coat and my red polka dot scarf and I went on a search for fresh spring ingredients.

Minnesota is no Italy or even NYC, so my local farmers market does not offer much local fresh foods in the winter (aaah, yes and the winter here lasts on average until May). So I went to my co-op. I wanted to cook some lake fish with greens (after all we are the land of 10,000 lakes), but to my disappointment I found that the only local fish I can find is not fresh but smoked and pretty much all the greens and veggies were a produced in Mexico or California.

So, I could either go home defeated or grab some Mexican produce and make a Mexican inspired dish. I did the second.

I am obsessed with cucumbers and yogurt, the Bulgarian speaking in me, so I grabbed those plus some avocados, cilantro, lime, mahi mahi fish and fingerling potatoes and I headed home. I wanted to make a cold cucumber and avocado soup to go with the fish, but as it often happens, I ended up with something else.

I have made cold soups before with much less ingredients and they tasted so good and fresh, but this one kept coming bland and tasteless. I changed the proportions over and over again and I kept making it over and over again – still bland. So I went back to the store and grabbed some green apples, fresh mint and tomatillos (for all of you who haven’t tasted tomatillos – they are green tomatoes that taste like apple and lime, but they have the texture of tomatoes; they are used in Mexican cuisine). Back in the kitchen, I added all of  the new ingredients back to the soup, and sure enough, the soup became more flavorful and complex. I was happy with the result but as I kept tasting it, I realized that the texture was resembling more of a blended juice than a soup. Cream soups are velvety and smooth and that is because they either have milk or butter. Those two were out of the question in my soup because the milk would curdle from all the acid ingredients and the butter would not melt in the cold soup. I could add some more yogurt, but I didn’t want the soup to thicken or become more tangy. So I decided to add just a bit of coconut milk – sure enough that fixed it and I was one happy bird.

As a reward for all of that hard work, I poured myself a bowl of soup and when I finished half of it, I thought that it might work better if it was served as a sauce to the fish, rather than as a soup. 

I pan seared the fish for a couple of minutes. Fish is so delicate and perfect in nature. When overcooked it tastes rubbery and dry, so about 3 minutes on a non-stick skillet is enough.

I added some cumin seeds to the fingerling potatoes since cumin is widely used in Mexican cuisine, and I baked them together. The toasted cumin added a magical flavor to the perfectly baked potatoes, and it was a match made in heaven to the avocado-cucumber sauce.

Buen provecho!!!

And don’t forget to tell me how it turned out for you.

Mahi mahi with avocado cucumber sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Avocado cucumber sauce
• 1 1/2 ripened avocados
• 1/2 English cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 2 tomatillos, chopped
• 1/2 green apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup cilantro leaves
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
• Sea salt
• Pepper

Mahi-mahi and potatoes
• 1 1/2 lbs mahi-mahi fish
• 1 lb fingerling potatoes
• 1 teaspoon raw cumin seeds
• Sea salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients for the avocado cucumber sauce in a blender and blend until smooth (about 2 minutes). Set aside if using right away, or refrigerate if using in several hours. You can make the sauce up to 2 days ahead.

2. Meanwhile place the mahi-mahi on a plate to become to a room temperature. If the fillets are large cut them into pieces that are about 4x3”.

3. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. While the oven is heating, place a baking dish/sheet to heat. Place the potatoes and cumin in a mixing bowl, add a liberal amount of olive oil (3-4 tablespoons), salt and pepper, and toss together until the potatoes are nicely coated. Remove the hot baking sheet from the oven (careful, it will be hot!), add the potatoes and spread them around with a spoon. Lower the heat to 425 F and bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven. The potatoes are ready when they are tender on the inside.

4. When the potatoes are ready, heat a large non-stick pan over medium-high heat (do not add oil). The pan needs to be very hot. Season the fish on both sides, first with a generous amount of olive oil, then with coarse salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the hot pan and add the fish. Do not move or constantly flip the fillets, otherwise they will form a crust*. Sear the fish on one side, so that each fillet is cooked 2/3 of the way (watch the thick side of the fish, it will start to change from light pink (or opaque) color to white; this is how you can monitor how cooked the fish is). This will take 2-3 minutes. Then flip the fillets and cook for an additional minute.

5. Place each fillet on a plate, add a generous amount of the avocado-cucumber sauce and the warm fingerling potatoes. If desired, add a spoonful of plain Greek yogurt.

 * Three things happen when a crust is formed through searing. First, the high heat and the crust lock all the juices inside the fillet and prevent it from drying out and becoming overcooked and rubbery. Second, the fillets are easier to flip. Third, the crust adds extra an flavor and texture to the fish.