Fish chowder

Serves:

A steaming bowl of this creamy fish soup is the perfect meal to come home to after a long day. Full of veggies, you can use any white fish you like though gummy flake or ling work well. Make sure you have plenty of crusty bread on hand too!

Ingredients

• 150g bacon, chopped
• 20g butter
• 1 leek, sliced
• 1 fennel bulb, outer leaves removed, sliced
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• 1L chicken stock (gluten free)
• 3 large potatoes (500g), peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
• 2 teaspoons thyme or lemon thyme leaves
• 400g firm white fish fillets (I used gummy flake)
• ½ cup cream or light evaporated milk
• 400g can corn or 1½ cups frozen corn
• 2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Method

Heat a large heavy-based saucepan over medium heat and cook bacon until crisp.

Transfer to a plate.

Melt butter in the saucepan and cook leeks and fennel until soft.

Sprinkle flour over the vegetables and cook for a minute.

Add sherry, then stock and bring to the boil.

Add bacon, potatoes and thyme to the pan, simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.

Add fish, cream and corn and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Stir through parsley and serve.

Notes:

• If you don’t have fresh thyme or lemon thyme (one of the few herbs that thrives under my non-green thumbs), use one teaspoon of dried thyme.
• You can use light cream or evaporated milk, just add right at the end before serving to prevent it curdling.
• If your children are more adventurous with seafood, add prawns, scallops, oysters or mussels.
• We don’t usually have sherry in the house, so I use whatever I can find (Cointreau on this occasion!).
• Recipe created by Melissa Hughes for Kidspot.

Serving Suggestions

Note