So What Makes It A Chowdah?

Supper, Thursday May 4: leek and seafood chowder;

garden salad.

The first picture is the harvest from the greenhouse that was turned into salad. I really like the color of the lettuce on the right. It is most appropriately called Merlot. If you like radishes you should try nasturtiums. The flowers taste like radishes and they will grow damned near anywhere. Garden, flower bed, hanging pot, it is not a picky plant.

So what is chowder? It is a debatable definition. So start here: a soup made with potatoes and seafood and/or corn with cream or milk thickened with crackers or roux. So if it fits this it is definitely a chowder. That means the soup above is a chowder: leek, carrot, celery, potato, fish stock. Simmer til vegetables are soft then puree. Now add small diced potatoes, corn, sliced leek, then simmer lit tender finally add oysters, catfish, half and half, milk, roux. simmer til thickened. 

Now that is definitely a chowder.  Where the definition gets dicey (Ha!) is in its broader application. For instance Manhattan clam chowder is not a chowder by that definition. It's a clam and vegetable soup. Try telling that to a New Yorker. Another example is Bermuda chowder. They call it chowder but no milk, no potatoes, no corn. 

I'll just stick to calling seafood and cream soups chowders. No argument there.