An easy recipe for seafood chowder with sausage and lobster arancini from Chef Erin Henry at Piatto Pizzeria and Enoteca in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Last month I was invited to judge the chowder competition at the PEI International Shellfish Festival. It is one of the biggest festivals on PEI. It is also an amazing time of the year to visit. Weather is fantastic and there are no crowds.
And this job was perfect for ME! I grew up eating my grandmother’s Nova Scotia chowder every Friday but in Toronto it’s tough to find any chowder at all, unless Loka is serving this potato mussel chowder recipe.
I love chowder.
In the Maritimes every locals restaurant will have chowder. It’s common to have a cup of chowder and a half sandwich as a lunch option. But not everywhere has great chowder. You have to know where to go.
I have no preference over a thick or thin chowder. It’s all about flavour and consistency. So I was so excited to try the best chowder on PEI. Over two days I tried 16 different chowders, and while in Prince Edward Island I tried 5 more on my own.
Did I mention I love chowder?
Chef Erin Henry has won the competition in previous years. She’s originally from New Brunswick but has lived on Prince Edward Island for 12 years. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of Canada, she staged at the Michelin- starred Gravetye Manor, competed in culinary competitions in Europe and now works at Piatto Pizzeria and Enoteca.
While she didn’t win I really loved what she did and asked for the recipe. Chowder is an inexpensive rustic dish that traditionally uses seafood scraps to make a meal at home.
In fact, in the Maritimes it’s possible to buy “chowder mix” in the grocery store seafood department. It’s just a bag of leftover scraps of fish, seafood and if you’re lucky some shrimp or lobster. From there you add the onion, carrots, celery, potato, cream and seasoning.
When I moved to Toronto I searched high and low for seafood chowder mix but none of the fishmongers knew was it was. That can make seafood chowder much more expensive.
The presentation is beautiful. It took this rustic dish and gave it a new look that anyone in Toronto would rave about.
And Chef Erin didn’t forget the lobster. It’s in the arancini (fried stuffed rice ball). While she’s the chef of an Italian restaurant she knows in the Maritimes it’s important to serve seafood chowder with something. .
At a very basic East Coast restaurant you’ll get saltine crackers or maybe a roll, somewhere a bit nicer will make fresh biscuits. It makes sense at an Italian restaurant you’d get arancini.
This would be incredible at a dinner party to make in advance. I hope that Piatto considers serving this dish, at least as a special, because it’s really delicious and I’d love to eat it again.
PEI Seafood Chowder with an Italian Twist
NB: I’ve made minor changes to some of the wording in this seafood chowder recipe to be more understandable for home cooks. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment.
This recipe is long. Don’t stress out. It’s a long but easy recipe.
Chef Erin was so thorough with the instructions on how to make the arancini. But you can do this in stages. Make the risotto, pesto and the first three steps of thechowder the night before. The next day make the arancini, finish the chowder and serve to guests.
- 1tbsp olive oil
- 1lb Italian sausage, uncooked
- 2large 2 large yellow onions, diced
- 1tsp chili flakes
- 2cloves garlic, mince
- 1/2 fennel bulb, diced
- 3lbs small new potatoes, halved
- 1/2cup white wine
- 12cups whipping cream
- 3lbs cooked PEI mussel meatcooking broth reserved
- 1lb cooked PEI bar clamscooking broth reserved
- 1/2lemon juicedzest half the lemon before juicing and set aside
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- chopped fennel fronds to garnish
- Lobster arancini to garnishsee recipe below
- sun-dried tomato pesto to garnishsee recipe below
- orange nasturtium flowers (optional)
- 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4cup yellow onion, diced
- 1/2tbsp garlic, minced
- 1cup arborio rice
- 2tbsp dry white wine
- 1 cup 1 cup HOT homemade seafood stockErin uses fennel, onion, celery, garlic, bay leaves, parsley, peppercorns and halibut bones
- 1cup lobster meat, choppedequals 1/2 lb
- 1/2cup butter, cut into cubes
- 1/3cup Grana Padano, gratedor Parmesan if you can't find Grana Padano
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1/2cup sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/2cup olive oil
- 6leaves fresh basil
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot. Once hot add sausage, onion, garlic, chili flakes and fennel. Cook, stirring, for 10 minutes, until sausage is cooked through.
- Deglaze by pouring white wine into pot and using a wooden spoon to scrape up the bits on the bottom of the pot.
- Add potatoes, reserved mussel and clam broth (about 4 cups each) and cream. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender and cream begins to thicken.
- Just before serving, add mussel and clam meats. Stir in lemon juice and zest and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Garnish with chopped fresh fennel fronds, nasturtium flowers (optional), sun-dried tomatoes and arancini.
- Heat oil over medium heat in a medium heavy-bottom saucepan. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until translucent.
- Add the rice and stir well to coat the rice in oil.
- Add the wine and stir well. Let the wine absorb into the rice before adding more liquid.
- Use a ladle to add the hot stock 1/2 cup at a time. Stir constantly and let the liquid absorb into the rice before adding more liquid.
- You may use between 400 and 500ml seafood stock, depending on your rice. Keep adding liquid and tasting the rice. Stop adding liquid when the rice is no longer crunchy but still a bit chewy.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients (including lobster and grana padana) and let cool completely. Refrigerate overnight if possible.
- Form the risotto into 1 1/2 inch balls or use a 1 oz portion scoop to portion the risotto onto a baking sheet.
- Use your thumb to make an indentation in each ball, push in a piece of fresh mozzarella and fold the rice around it.
- Use your hands to roll the arancini into round balls.
- Working in batches of 6, roll the arancini first in flour, then in egg mixture, then in breadcrumbs. Return to the baking sheet.
- Blend everything together in a food processor until very smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Can’t find seafood stock and don’t want to make it? Substitute vegetable stock.
If you make this seafood chowder leave a comment to let me know how it went!
Disclosure: Tourism PEI sponsored my visit to Prince Edward Island. I was so excited to come out to judge the competition and asked to stay longer to write a guide to seafood on the island. They did not request that I write this seafood chowder post, I just couldn’t leave the island without the recipe.
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Classic PEI Seafood Chowder with an Italian Twist is a post from: Bacon is Magic