This Winter, Rē is offering a mini Soup Series, where we are sharing some of our favorite soup recipes.... and a story to go with them Soup'n'Story Time! We have to admit - this was difficult to choose from. Soup means so many things. Warmth. Comfort. Hope. Left overs and freshness and community. Recovery from being sick or a meal for a potluck. The perfect food for regeneration! And it is so delicious!
Please do feel free to share with us one of yours!
This week, our board member Michele Mansfield shares a delicious fish chowder recipe.
From Michele:
When I was six months old my parents moved to Kennebunk, ME for my father’s work. My mom, without a car and far from her small New Hampshire town overflowing with family, was kindly taken under the wing of a “dyed-in-the-wool” Mainah named Stella Wildes. Stella had been a school cook and was related to or knew half the fishermen in town. She taught my mom many things, but including where to go on the docks to buy the freshest haddock, and how to bone and fillet them when you got home. It was from this fish that she would make the simple, but oh so tasty fish chowder below. It is a recipe without strict quantities, but I’ve put some rough guesses as to the amounts beside each ingredient.
As I put my thoughts together to write this, it struck me that soup is in so many ways a food that nourishes the community. From the European folk tale, “Stone Soup”, where a hungry traveler with an empty pot “tricks” the town folk into contributing small amounts from their larders to make a delicious soup that all could enjoy, to Stella Wildes, and elders all over the world who pass on their knowledge of local food customs to the next generations, to bringing people together in community around bowls of soup, as I’ve done in my neighborhood and with The Rēgenerative School.
Soup = Community!
May you find nourishment in this soup with family and friends!
Ingredients:
Equal parts diced onions and cubed potatoes (~ 2 cups each)
Whole haddock* fillets (I use two large fillets or 1.5-2 lbs)
1/2 stick of butter
Milk or cream of your choice (add to desired soup thickness)
Bay leaves (2)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Optional: salt pork or similar cut in 1/2” pieces and fried until crispy for garnish.
*If haddock is not available, substitute other firm white mild fish.
Directions:
Melt butter in a heavy bottomed stock pot.
Add onions, potatoes, salt, and pepper and cook over moderate heat until onions are soft.
Later fish filets on top of potatoes and onions, put lid on pot and steam fish until it is opaque and
just cooked through.
Add milk of your choice and simmer on low, to let flavors mingle, stirring occasionally to prevent
milk from burning.
Serve with salt pork cracklings for garnish.
Michele Mansfield
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