Friday, February 16, 2018

Dulse Chowder a la Sam Sifton

I am a big fan of writer Sam Sifton’s recipes, which appear regularly in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. I’ve even added a few of them to my favorites.

But this past weekend I found a happy surprise in the magazine section: I’d beaten him to the punch with my use of dulse! (That's seaweed, remember?) Oh, I’m sure he’s known about it and been cooking with it for years, but I shared the stuff with you first!

His recipe was for a seafood chowder, and if you think about it, combining seafood and seaweed makes perfect sense. But I had some reservations about using some of his choices. For one thing, he called for clams, and I have never had a clam dish that did not include some sand. My teeth don’t like sand.

He also used bacon. Now, I love bacon, but I think it might overwhelm the delicate flavors here, so I swapped in salt pork. And he added fish. I like fish, but not quite as much as he wanted. So I decided to cut back on the fish (I used fresh cod), and doubled the amount of scallops (also fresh and local), which are suitably delicate in flavor and texture.


Dulse Chowder

Ingredients:


2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup salt pork, diced
2 tablespoons dulse flakes (soak them first)
1 medium onion, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and halved, then sliced
2 parsnips, peeled and halved, then sliced
2 medium-size all-purpose potatoes, cubed
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups clam or fish broth
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
2 cups heavy cream
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 pound firm white fish fillets, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pound sea scallops, sliced into rounds if very large
1/4 cup chopped parsley


Instructions:

In a large pot, put 1 tablespoon of the butter, and turn the heat to medium-low. Add the salt pork and cook, stirring occasionally, until the fat has rendered and the pork has started to brown, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pork bits from the fat, and set aside.




Add the dulse and the onion to the fat, and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft but not brown, about 10 minutes. 




Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter, then stir in the carrots, parsnips, potatoes and wine, and continue cooking until the wine has evaporated and the vegetables have just started to soften, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. 




Add enough broth to just cover them. Add the thyme sprigs and the bay leaves.




Partly cover the pot, and simmer gently until the vegetables are tender, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

When the vegetables are tender, add the cream, and stir in the reserved pork bits. Add black pepper to taste. Let come to a simmer. (Do not let chowder come to a full boil or it will curdle.) Remove the thyme and the bay leaves and discard.




When you’re ready to serve, slip the fish pieces and scallops into the liquid allow them all to cook into translucence in the heat, approximately 5-7 minutes. 




Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve, garnished with the chopped parsley.




The dulse gives the chowder a slightly sweet flavor which pairs well with the scallops (which should be barely cooked and very tender). The hardest part of making this dish (apart from finding dulse) is all that chopping, but it’s worth it.



Many a Twist (Crooked Lane Books), available now!

This is a dish that should be on the Crann Mor menu! It's earthy and exotic at the same time.


www.sheilaconnolly.com

2 comments:

  1. I just started this and I bet it is fancy enough for Crann Mor!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I enjoy hearing your logic on the adjustments you made.
    Nice job.

    ReplyDelete