Smoked mussel and cockle chowder

Posted by petra08 on April 26, 2017 · 4 Comments 

The sun was shining and the tide was way out so we all went to the beach to go cockle hunting. I love when the water is way out and the beach is exposed. It gets more than twice as wide and it is great to walk on the sand.

 

 

There are two ways of foraging for cockles. You can walk just where the water starts and look for little spouts of water created by the cockle as it digs in to the sand, this is the hard way, or you can find them on the sand where the tide has just withdrawn from and just pick them.

I came home with a small amount of cockles. I had some cream in the fridge left over from another dish and I thought it would be nice to make a chowder.

I had too few cockles and no bacon to make a chowder. I did briefly think of using sweetcorn but decided to use my fastest go to food, tinned, smoked mussels.

M picked the first leek of the year from  the allotment for me and I decided to use it in the chowder.

 

 

Smoked mussel and cockle chowder 

preparation time 10 minutes 

cooking time 10 minutes 

serves 2 as a starter 

Ingredients

• 1/2 dl of cleaned cockles
• 1 tin of smoked mussels, use the oil they come in as well
• 1 potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 leek, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 1 dl or 1/2 cup of cream
• 1 1/2 dl or 3/4 cup water
• salt to taste
• oil for cooking

Garnish

• parsley
• dill
• fennel fronds

Rinse the cockles and steam them open.

 

 

Heat a little oil in a pan and add the leeks, don’t let them brown. Cook for a few minutes and meanwhile roughly chop the smoked mussels.

 

 

Add the mussels with the oil, the garlic and the cockles. Fry for a couple of minutes and add the cream, potatoes and the water. Taste with salt and let simmer until the potato is cooked through. Garnish with herbs and serve.

 

 

 

Any dish with that much cream is bound to be delicious and it was. The smokiness from the mussels was even nicer than bacon. It was a bowl of seafood comfort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under Allotment/Veg, Amuse bouche, Fish & Seafood, Foraging for food, Garlic, Herbs, Leek, Main course, Mussels, Onion, Potatoes, Recipe, Starter · Tagged with chowder, Cockel chowder, cockels, seafood chowder, smoked mussel chowder, smoked mussels