By Nina M. Scott and
Katy van Geel
Continuing the culinary adventures of our Five-College Learning in Retirement class, newcomer Penny Geis bravely hosted our first real luncheon, featuring her family’s haddock chowder, fresh popovers, cider and samples of dandelion wine. Dessert was fresh strawberries.
Penny lives in a large 1880 brick house (built for Lucius Dimock, one of the owners of the Nonotuck Silk Mill in Leeds), which has been subdivided into seven condos. The interior woodwork and etched glass doors are spectacular.
Her remodeled kitchen was the mansion’s former drawing room, high-ceilinged and sunny.
Preparing lunch was a shared event, with all of us peeling and chopping potatoes, mincing onions and herbs, slicing haddock into just the right-sized pieces. Meanwhile, Penny was riding herd on her popovers, baking in an old, well-tested pan.
The chowder’s recipe, known in her family as “Uncle Al’s Chowder,” actually stems from Penny’s great-grandmother Thomas. Uncle Al lived on Cape Cod, but taught Penny how to make the chowder near Scarborough, Maine, where the family summered; they would walk together to the Fishermen’s Coop and buy haddock “fresh caught this morning.”
This recipe has never before been shared outside the family.
Makes 12 generous portions
Ingredients (Note: quantities are approximate)
2 onions, diced
Butter
8-10 potatoes — enough to fill your pan halfway. Use half starchy potatoes like Russets that break down when cooked, and half firmer potatoes like Red Bliss that hold their shape when cooked.
2 quarts half-and-half cream
2 cups heavy cream
Fresh tarragon and chives, chopped
Splash of dry sherry
4 pounds haddock loins: “Caught fresh this morning” is an admonition that’s an important part of this recipe’s history. Do the best you can. (Flounder, sole or cod can make good chowder, too. Just be aware that Uncle Al and Great Grandmother Thomas may both appear to haunt you.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Oyster crackers to garnish
Directions
In a large soup pot, sauté the onions in butter just until they’re translucent.
Peel and cut up the potatoes into the size you like in your chowder; add to onions. Pour water into the pot about one-third of the way up the sides of the potato layer; cover the pot. You want just enough water to steam the potatoes so it’s easy to mash them.
Cook on medium high heat until the potatoes are soft. Mash them manually with a potato masher, just a few times on one side only of the pot to thicken the chowder milk and yet retain distinct cubes of potato in the chowder.
Add the half-and-half and heavy cream, enough to cover the potatoes. Heat, but do not boil.
Add tarragon and chives and a generous splash of sherry.
Slice haddock loins into ½-inch slices across the grain. When the chowder is hot, add the fish. It’s done when the fish becomes opaque; be sure not to overcook it.
Taste for salt and pepper; adjust seasoning.