Budak Timur: seafood chowder

Monday, 29 May 2017

seafood chowder

i decided to hold on my cheese making adventure since i dont have cheese cloth and thermometer for cooking but the real reason is that i still have my block of cheddar cheese that im slowly consuming. no point having too much cheese when my cheese consumption is not high. it will only lead to moldy cheese.

so instead of making cheese i decided to make seafood chowder for my next culinary adventure. seafood chowder is basically seafood soup but the soup is very creamy. ive been planning to make one for a long time already since i have mussels and cream in the fridge idling.

it started off with me going to mydin buying fish for the first time on my own. i dont really care bout fish before so never buy it.so here i have a variety of fishes in wet area and which one should i choose. my preference would be fish with big bones only so terubok is definitely a no go. it must be big too since small fishes will only make my work harder. in the end i decided to pick tongkol (mackerel tuna) because its size is medium and there are some of the fishes that doesnt have red eyes. most of the big fishes have red eyes already indicating they're not fresh anymore.

so here are the ingredients i used to make my seafood chowder.

1 big onion diced

2 carrots diced

2 celery sticks diced

turkey roll (as a substitute for bacon because haraammm)

butter (i dont know how much im supposed to use. just go with instinct)

chicken stock (since my house never have any fish stock)

water 1 lL (happen to know because a measuring jug just appear nearby when i needed to use water)

3 oyster mushrooms (why not. its been sitting in the fridge begging to be cooked)

2 poetaytoes cubed

1 pack of mussels (always better to use fresh one)

2 salmon slices cut to small chunks.

1 whole tongkol

cooking cream (also pour as much as i like until i start thinking whether i poured too much or not)
black pepper (a splash of saltbae style)

so yeah prepping food always takes time. i did my food preparation 30 min before breaking fast. peel chop dice the first 3 veges and then i move on to fillet a tongkol. i was a bit worried since i dont really know the bone structure of tongkol but it turned out fine . managed to fillet it like a pro.....ish. also removed the bones from my salmon slices with knife and tweezers. by the time i finish cutting my fishes into small chunks it was already time to break fast so pause and go to have dinner.

then i continue with the cooking part after finishing my dinner. cut the turkey roll into small pieces. i just use several slices according to my liking. melt the butter in the pot and toss the turkey roll in. then toss in the diced onion and sautee (tumis) for a bit. after that i add the celery and carrots and give it a quick stir. any free moments i used to peel and chop the potatoes into small cubes. oh yeah i also added some rosemary and thyme just for the sake of using them. after that i added the potatoes, stir a bit and and add water with chicken stock.cover the pot and bring it to a boil to cook the potatoes. and then it's already time for me to go to terawih. since im supposed to let it simmer when the water is boiling i just turn off the heat added the cream, mussels, and fishes and just cover the pot and leave for terawih with my hand still smelling fish. im just using the heat from the soup itself to cook the fish. cant risk leaving the stove on for an hour.

did a bit of taste test before going to terawih and it was good. anyway that was a mistake because i cant focus in terawih and i drooled during the prayer hahahaha. so after i came back i just reheat the pot again a bit and then time to chow down. uhhhhh the taste of seafood chowder... so rich and creamy and full of seafood goodness *kreygasm

I could make the chowder thicker and creamier for improvement. also move variety of seafood can be added. nevertheless, got approval from my parents haha. overall, success!!!