Fish soup/clam chowder shortcuts?

[HaroldTheStallion]

Does anyone have any simple easy shortcut recipes for making soups, stews etc with fish or seafood - clam chowder, that kind of thing please? I'm having cravings but the recipes I see online look a bit expensive and complicated. Does anyone have any tips please such as buying frozen packs of seafood to add to an easy base?

Failing that what's your favourite ready made seafood soup and where do you buy it? I got a fish soup in a jar from waitrose the other day and it was OK but I'm not seeing a lot of options out there.

Frozen fish is the best for this. It's so cheap. I wish I'd discovered it before.

I do a Mediterranean-type fish stew with sliced onions fried for about 10 minutes - don't let them colour - sliced garlic and then a tin of chopped tomatoes, fennel seeds if you like them (I do), bit of cayenne and water and a fish stock cube but if not chicken. New potatoes. Let it simmer. The potatoes will take at least 30 minutes to cook. When tender add your frozen fish. Supermarkets sell seafood selections with squid, prawns and mini scallops and sometimes mussels. Or you can get individual bags of raw prawns and bigger scallops. Fillets of white fish cut into chunks are good. If the prawns are ready cooked add them for a minute because they will get tough. Lots of chopped parsley. Crusty bread

The seafood won't take very long to cook. It's ready when the raw grey prawns go pink.

Not a stew but I also like another Mediterranean-style thing - cod with tomatoes and chorizo on potatoes - which is easy and cheap.

Parboil slices of potato for about 5 minutes and layer them in a greased oven-proof dish. Bake them in the oven at 200 or Gas 6 for about 10 minutes until they are coloured.

Meanwhile make a tomato sauce with fried chopped onions, chopped garlic unitl soft and then add sliced cooking chorizo for a couple of minutes. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, olives (I don't like them so I use capers), and thyme. You might want pepper but not salt because of the chorizo. Bring to boil and simmer until it's no longer watery. Put it on the potatoes and then put defrosted white fish fillets on top.

It will probably take about 15 minutes after that. Chopped parsley to serve.

You can do the fish from frozen in which case it will take about 35 minutes but you might as well get it out to defrost while you're making the other stuff. The whole thing should take 30-45 minutes.

Thanks very much, @limitedperiodonly your suggestions sound delicious and I will definitely give them a try.

That's all right @HaroldTheStallion. I bet you could make a decent clam chowder by adapting a google recipe with tinned clams. You can get them in Chinese supermarkets if there's a Chinatown near you. Just heat them through briefly or they'll go like rubber. Or just substitute frozen seafood.

I love fresh fish from the fishmonger. He does the best stuff but it is expensive. so I save it for where the fish is the main event or I can't get it like a whole fish or something. For most ordinary dinners and stews, curries and pies I always use frozen. Smoked mackerel and tinned fish is good too. You can make a really good crab linguine out of tins of crab and tomatoes. You just need fresh parsley and a quarter of lemon to make it look posh.

Smoked haddock chowder OP.

Saute onion, when translucent add chunky diced potato, stock. Bubble away. Plenty of pepper. Add frozen fillets smoked haddock (at least one PP) and frozen sweetcorn. Very gentle simmer till cooked. 5? 7 mins?
If I'm feeling fancy, I take the fish out then give the soup a light blitz so it has creaminess but retains texture and identifiable veg. Fish back in, it'll flake itself.
Stir in cream /parsley.
NB. In the absence of cream I sometimes put a spoon of cream cheese, just philly or own brand at the blitz point.

DD2 talks about it as 'mouth burn' soup because its so unbelievably savoury and irresistible she just shovels it in whilst it's still lava like, ignoring the blustering pain.

• blistering (ffs)

I’ve used tinned cooked clams for clam chowder.
Chowder only takes around 30mins to make. Mine is low fat, and is a white chowder:

You fry 1 diced onion and 1 diced large potato in butter until onions are cooked (potatoes will still be firm)
You then add to gently warming up milk based broth (60% milk, 40% water)
Add tinned cooked clams
Add fresh parsley to taste (dried parsley ok, just not as nice)
Add a small tin sweet corn (optional)
Grind & add some fresh pepper to taste
Gently simmer for 15mins

Serve with crusty bread.

You could have a go at cullen skink, which is the Scottish equivalent of chowder, involving smoked haddock, milk, potato, onions and leek. This is a good article pulling together the best bits of various different recipes. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/jan/05/how-to-cook-perfect-cullen-skink

I make a sort of Cullen skink with smoked haddock, a little bacon, snipped and fried gently with chopped onion, cubed potato, fish stock and a small tin of sweetcorn. . I poach the haddock gently in milk and use that milk with water added. Flaked cooked fish is added at the end, just to heat through. Ditto the sweetcorn.

Well, I was all set to go out and get the ingredients for the Mediterranean fish stew and the Cullen skink when I came down this morning and found someone in the household left my freezer door open overnight 🙃...so I'll be using up what I've got first and then will give them a try. I'll report back! Thank you again.

@limitedperiodonly I tried the Mediterranean fish stew today and had it for my lunch - it was absolutely delicious. I made it exactly as you described and the parsley, fennel and cayenne really made the dish. Thanks again, this recipe is definitely a keeper. Next I'll try the chowder s and cullen skink.