chowdah

hello! it is pretty hard to believe, but it seems that winter is pretty much petering out - it was a pretty quiet and sneaky winter to begin with, and now its slipping out without ever really making itself known. i barely got to break out any tights at all, all winter long!regardless, end of winter means that striped bass season is about to start - which means i have a lot of freezer space to clear out. sams been making fishing trips nearly every week, so i have vacuum sealed bag upon bag of various kinds of fish taking up precious room (room that i would really like to have for, say, ice cream.) so i decided to make a big batch of fish chowder last night to clear it out a bit. striped bass chowderserves, like, 10 or something. this is a lot of chowder. 2 leeks, sliced thin and rinsed well1 yellow onion, diced2 T butter5 small potatoes, peeled and cubed1 bunch of carrots, scrubbed well and chopped4 celery stalks, cubedseveral sprigs of parsley, some reserved for dressinglots of black pepper & saltcrushed red pepperthyme1 fillet of striped bass - mine was probably a pound and a half or so, cut into bite sized cubesa couple cups of corn (i used frozen organic sweet corn.)3 cups of chicken brothabout a half gallon of whole milksplash of creamstart your leeks and onion sauteing in a big soup pot in the butter on low heat; once theyre soft and transparent, add the chicken broth and turn the heat to medium. add your potatoes and carrots, your celery, most of the parsley, thyme, and peppers; turn the heat to low and add about half the milk, and let it simmer for a good long while, until the carrots and potatoes are soft and the broth has thickened a bit. add the corn and the fish, and the rest of the milk, and cook until the fish is cooked through. add the cream and season with salt and pepper to your liking; garnish each bowl with fresh parsley. serve with a nice crusty bread, warmed in the oven. id advise you make this one quick, while its theres some semblance of a chill in the air; this will freeze well, too.have a wonderful week, loves!xo audrey