Shrimp and Fish Chowder for a Writing Rockstar @lucyburdette

 

LUCY BURDETTE: A couple of weeks ago, we had my writing idol Ann Cleeves of Shetland and Vera fame visiting Key West as the honored guest of the Friends of the Key West Library. I fussed and worried about what to feed her on her first night off the plane, and with the hub’s help, settled on local fish and shrimp chowder. I first made Melissa's Clark’s chowder from New York Times cooking as written. The second time around I added shrimp, corn, and celery. It was delicious both ways, but this is what we served our guest.

Ingredients

3 to 4 slices bacon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Two leeks

Two stalks celery

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 cup white wine

2 cups fish or clam stock

1/2 pound fingerling potatoes

Pinch of thyme

One cup water

2 cups whole milk

5 ounces white fish

1 pound pink shrimp

One cup corn

Cut the bacon into small piece pieces and fry this until brown. Remove the bacon from the pan, add the butter.

Ahead of time, you will have cleaned and chopped the leeks and celery. Sauté this in the melted butter for several minutes until soft. Add the paprika and sauté this as well.

Add the clam juice or fish stock to the pan along with one cup of water and bring this to a simmer. Add the sliced potatoes and simmer these for about 20 minutes until soft. If the timing is off for dinner, you can make the dish up to this point and let it sit until you’re ready to cook the fish.

Add the milk and corn, and bring this to a simmer. Slide the fish and shrimp into the pot and simmer together until the fish is opaque. Serve with a homemade biscuit or roll and a green salad.

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series including USA Today bestselling A POISONOUS PALATE and A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS. 

Book 15 in the Key West series, THE MANGO MURDERS, will be in bookstores on August 12!

And the new trade paperback edition of A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS is out now!

Singin' Hinnies Explained

Have you ever had an experience where various pieces of your life, past and present, all seem to come together? I had one of those at the writers’ conference Malice Domestic this past year.

I love Ann Cleeves’ books, and the broadcast shows that are based on those books. She and Brenda Blethyn, who plays the title character of the show Vera (but who doesn't look at all like the character she plays), were guests of honor for 2018, and they were both great. 

I was seated and waiting for another author talk, when Ann Cleeves came into the meeting room and sat down next to me. Now, I may be an author with plenty of credits to my name, but I’m still in awe of my idols. Somehow we got to talking about why police officer Vera always calls suspects and people she may not know well “pet.” I asked Ann if there were other terms of endearment used in Northumberland, where the series is set and produced. She said, “hinny.”

And I was struck by lightning. “As in ‘singin’ hinnies?’” I asked. She said yes. Eureka! Past and present collided!

What the heck are singin’ hinnies and why do I know? Flash back to my high school days, when a friend handed me a Mary Stewart mystery and told me I had to read it. I did, and then I read every other one she wrote (although I stopped with The Crystal Cave). And in one of them, she referred to a baked item as a “singin’ hinny,” which is apparently a traditional local pastry in England. I never forgot the term, although I couldn’t remember which book it was from (it turned out to be The Ivy Tree) and why it figured in the plot. And now it was time to make them.

They’re sort of light, slightly sweet English muffins, with raisins or currants and cream and a few other basic ingredients. The eldest recipe I have for them comes from my British and Irish Cooking cookbook, which I bought when I first had an apartment in Cambridge in another millennium. But in fact there are plenty of recipes, which are all similar but slightly different. If you believe Wikipedia, they are also called bannocks, griddle cakes, or scones, in the north of England, and in Scotland they are known as “fatty cutties.” The ‘singin’” part is said to come from the sizzling of the lard or butter in the dough when you cook it on a griddle. (Regrettably mine didn't sizzle.)

So here’s a simple recipe!

Singin’ Hinnies

Ingredients:

3-1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup rice flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup cream
3/4 cup milk
2 Tblsp melted butter

Instructions:

In a bowl, combine the flours, salt, sugar, baking powder and currants.

Mix the remaining ingredients together.

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and blend into a soft dough (do not overwork or it will get tough).

Roll out the dough 1/4-inch thick on a lightly floured board.

Cut into 3-inch rounds and prick each evenly.

Place a griddle (which I just happen to have) or sturdy frying pan on the heat and oil lightly. Place the rounds on the griddle and cook until one side is golden brown, then flip them over and cook the other side.

You can serve them toasted or merely buttered and served warm.

Among the variations you can use cold butter and/or lard, lemon zest, plain flour only (no rice flour). You can also roll out a single round piece and cut into quarters, then cook.

And I can't forget to mention the holiday novella, Tied Up with a Bow, which combines a rather unusual street decoration (based on a real one in Leap, Co. Cork), and an unexpected gift.

Available now!

www.sheilaconnolly.com