Dublin Bay Prawn Festival - fried hake & greens; seafood chowder

Dublin Bay Prawn Festival @ Howth

The last couple of months, I've been on a seafood binge.  You'd be amazed at some of the bargains you can get at the budget supermarket section, if you're willing to go pescetarian.  And I pretty much have during the last two months.  It beats red meat and junk food.

At the end of April I went up to the northernmost point of Dublin Bay to Howth, and their annual Prawn Festival.  This was definitely not a budget trip, but it was delicious, and it *did* still give me some cheap ingredients, and ideas.

Oysters, langoustines (Dublin Bay prawns), and a host of great entertainment in a wonderful little town. Couple of non budget foodie pictures first...

Howth's finest rock oysters served with red wine vinegar and shallots, tabasco, and lemon & black pepper.

Moules mariniere.  A.k.a. Mussels in cream sauce

Langoustine po' boy

This fella was NOT on today's menu, but he did look cool.

 So after my day out, I got a budget haul of fish from the supermarket the next day.  First, about a kilo of hake for €2. If you're not familiar with hake, it's not as sweet as cod, but has a similar texture.  "The chicken of the sea" the fishmonger told me...

Fried fish, soft steamed egg and greens.

The hake first of all, did me a very simple fried fish supper consisting of:

• The fish itself, dredged in flour and seasoning.  Fry that.   
• Now put a saucepan of water on to boil, and get a metal colander or steamer for...
•  Steamed veg - 1 bunch of asparagus for €0.80 and some sprouting broccoli for about €0.75.  Using a steamer if you have one, or just boiled in water if not.  
• Cut the stems off the Cook those for about 10-15 minutes until tender. 
•  A couple of soft boiled eggs, added to the steaming water pan 3-4 minutes before the veg is cooked.  
•  Good pinch of salt but lots of pepper on there, a few herbs from the garden, a little butter, and this is done. 

I expect you could make a nice dressing for this and make it even better.  (Mental note, plan budget sauces post...)

Fried Hake, sizzling up until just opaque.

Steamed veg and soft-boiled egg.  The egg's burst a bit there, I should have turned the heat down(!)

Fried hake, boiled egg, served with sprouting broccoli and asparagus

So today's main recipe is something very special:

At Howth, for a small donation to the RLNI, a cause very close to my heart since my first job was writing software for them, folks at the festival could watch a fish filleting demonstration, and take home the leftovers.  Lots of nice , almost free, fish fillets were produced.

My interest was in something a little more obscure...


Langoustine shells

Trust me, these are going to taste amazing, given the right treatment!

  I took home 3 big bags of shells in order to make myself some fish stock for a bisque and for a seafood chowder, which is today's recipe.

Chowder Ingredients

• Fish (obviously) - So I had my hake, but I also got:
• smoked cod, 1 nice fillet reduced €1.20
• two big haddock for about €1.90 
• 4 Potatoes. - Chop into quarters and boil.  Once cooked and drained, I like to leave two of them in small chunks, and puree the rest with a little milk, using the good ol' SupermarketValue hand blender I showed you a few weeks ago.  That gets you a nice creamy texture base to work with.  
• Mirepoix - the holy trinity, well, quaternary today, of veg: 
• The white of a leek 
•  1 carrot
•  the top half of a stick of celery
•  half an onion.  
• Half a tin of sweetcorn.  Can't have a chowder without sweetcorn. 
• Parsley and cream to finish but before that....

  Fish stock:

Fish stock ingredients

• 1 big bag of prawn heads, crab shells, oyster shells, leftover fish, etc.  Make sure it's fresh of course, you don't want to break out in hives or have to go to casualty... 
• Any leftover fish scraps you have (I used the leftover hake and haddock skin) 
• 1 vegetable stock cube.  
• Mirepoix veg:
• 1 carrot
• the top (green) half of the leek
• Te bottom half of a stick of celery minus the root, chop that off 
• 1 good big splash of brandy  (don't worry, it's worth it...) 
• Herbs.  Usually I'm using about 3 tbsp of dried herbs but if you have fresh; dill, parsely, and (a little) oregano go well with fish.
• Half a pan of water plus a good slug of cider or wine.  Today I used cider.

Fish stock method 

• Add about a tablespoon of oil to a frying pan until it's screaming hot.  Start to fry the seafood shells.  This will give it a really intense flavour.   
• Now, *carefully* add the brandy to the fried prawn shells.  It will sizzle like crazy and, if you're lucky enough to have a gas stove, you could flambee the brandy off ... just ... be aware you may start a fire!  
• Meanwhile get the vegetable side of things going by throwing in the chopped carrot, celery and leek in with some oil to soften
• Now add your water/liquour and the stock cube
•   You want it to reduce down to a very intense looking and tasting, and smelling, liquid.  

Also, open the windows.  Did I mention that you should do that before you start, unless you want to make your home smell like a cannery...

I like to give the shells a bit of a bash with a blunt instrument while this is all boiling down.  You'll notice in the picture, the Dublin Bay prawn has those long thin claws and while they are not worth the effort to pick the meat out of, they are nothing but pure flavour if you smash them up. When cool, filter through a colander and muslin if you have it, into a sterile Kilner jar. 
 

The finished prawn / fish stock

Not as clear as I'd like.  You can avoid cloudiness by reducing the cooking time so the bones don't start to cook, but I didn't really mind too much to be frank. If you let it settle it'll look a lot better, and you can just carefully spoon off what you need, or filter it if you don't want the sediment.

Now to the main dish... 

Chowder Method 

• Soften the chopped carrot, leek and celery in a tablespoon of oil in a hot pan.   
• Take the veg stock, and add a few tablespoons of fish stock to it. 
• Taste the results - very important!  The fish stock and the stock cube will make this dish quite salty, but the potatoes we're about to add will draw the salt out, so you shouldn't really need any extra.  However, taste and taste again.  
• Add a little black pepper.  And/or chilli powder or hot sauce.  You should have gathered by now I like my spicy food... 
• Add the boiled potatoes, pureed potatoes, the chopped veg, and the sweetcorn to the stock. You now have a vegetable and potato chowder with some really nifty fish taste to it. 

Now it's time to add the hake, smoked cod, and haddock.

Chopped fairly chunky, this will now be ready in about 10 - 20 minutes, depending on chunk size.

Fish doesn't take well to overcooking so please keep your eye on it and don't take my timing as foolproof.  When it just turns opaque in the centre of a chunk, it's ready to serve.  Remove from heat.

• Now it's time to let it cool for a few minutes...
• ...and add the cream and the parsley garnish.  We add the cream at the end so it doesn't split.

*munch*
Oh my word... if this isn't one of the best things I've made to date...  Silky, filling, sweet - and the home made fish stock just gives it the edge it needs.  Definitely worth the effort pulverising and boiling up all those prawns.  Cruise liner dining, on a Holyhead ferry budget.