CLAM CHOWDER WITH SALTY COD
How I love making and eating this dish! It is a simple recipe, and it blends a thick creamy chowder of clams with a pan-fried salt cured cod fillet. The trick with this dish is to not overcook the clams, which you achieve if you remove them from the heat once they have opened the shells when you steam them. The chowder itself is made from a shellfish stock which you should make ahead, or use the clam liquid from the steaming process (this will give a lighter tasting chowder though). For more information on how to make a chowder go here. You can make it ahead of time and then just finish everything by frying the fish and doing the spinach. Observe also that salt-curing the cod takes some hours as well, and is best to prepare the day before. And one last thing: rinse the clam shells before you cook them, or you will have to eat sand along with the clams.
4 servings:
4 cod fillets, one per person
100 g sea salt
2 tbsp curry
500 g clams, fresh
50 g/2 oz butter
200 mL/1 cup white wine, Sauvignon blanc is suitable for this
2 tbsp olive oil
100 g smoked bacon
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
100 g celeriac, diced
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 potato, diced
500 mL fish or shellfish stock
50 mL/2 fl oz cream
50 g/2 oz butter
optional: 1 tsp curry
salt, black pepper
200 g spinach
30 g/1 oz butter
salt to season
To salt-cure the cod, make sure you have evenly thick cod fillets. Put them on single plastic foils, rub them on both sides with curry, then sprinkle the salt over one side, turn them over and sprinkle on the other side. Wrap them in the foil and put into refrigerator for 1 hour, then turn them over to the other side for 1 more hour. Then, rinse them from the salt in a bowl of water, changing it twice, and lastly put them into ice cold water for half an hour. Then dry them with a paper towel and refrigerate for the next day.
For the clams, rinse them thoroughly first. Then take a deep pan and melt butter in it on medium heat. Throw in the clams and the wine and place the lid on the pan so the clams get steamed. Once almost all of them are open (some are usually dead and won't open) remove the pan from the heat and over a colander that you place over a bowl so the clams are catched in the colander, and the nice liquid collects in the bowl. Let the clams cool and then remove them from their shells and refrigerate until serving.
The chowder now: cook the bacon in its own fat for about 5 minutes in medium heat so it gets crispy, then remove it. Add olive oil, curry, then sweat the onion, carrot, celeriac, garlic for about 3 minutes, without browning them. Then add potato, clam liquid that you collected, and the stock. Bring to simmer and cook until the chowder is reduced by half. Then add the cream and reduce for another few minutes so the chowder gets thicker. Season with salt and pepper. Throw in the bacon and clams, and butter, before the serving (you can reheat the chowder quickly later when you get the fish and spinach ready).
For the fish, just pan fry it in olive oil over high heat for about 2 minutes per side, or until the fish is just cooked through (almost fully opaque with just a small translucent line in the middle). For the spinach, take a pan with butter on moderate heat and throw it in and let it just wilt, then put it directly on a plate.
Serve everything hot!