Bay Scallop Chowder Recipe – Creamy Scallop and Bacon Soup

Learn how to make a Bay Scallop Chowder Recipe! Go to http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2014/10/bay-scallop-chowder-uglicious.html for more information, and many, many more recipe videos. I hope you enjoy this easy Bay Scallop Chowder recipe!

Hello this is chef john from foodwishes.com with bay scallop chowder that’s right i was in the mood for a little seafood literally and not only are base gallops one of the smallest seafood options at the store they’re also one of the most delicious and extremely easy to cook especially in a

Recipe like this but anyway this came out incredibly well my only complaint i pretty much hated how it looked but anyway we’ll get into that later in the meantime we’re going to start with one of my favorite first steps of all time cooking bacon so we’re gonna put a heavy

Duty skillet on medium heat with a little bit of olive oil in there and we’re gonna go ahead and cook a couple strips of bacon that we’ve sliced in pieces and we’re pretty much gonna cook this bacon all the way we don’t necessarily need it crispy but we do

Want most of that fat rendered out and for some fairly significant caramelization to happen which is what we have right about here at that point we’re going to throw in some diced onion and we’ll give that a stir and we’ll saute that for i don’t know three or four minutes maybe five

Until those onions soften and kind of get a little bit golden brown and by the way don’t worry about throwing in a pinch of salt like we usually do we’re going to be really careful with salt in this recipe and the bacon does have enough salt in it to draw a little bit

Of moisture out of those onions which should be enough to deglaze that bacon goodness from the bottom of the pan and once our onions look good we’re going to go ahead and toss in a little bit of diced celery and a couple cloves of minced garlic and

We’ll stir that in and we’ll just cook that for like a minute as usual we don’t want that garlic to brown so we’ll stir that in and saute that for just a minute at which point we’re gonna add our liquid and we’re gonna use two kinds well actually three but two for now

I’m gonna dump in some clam juice and also a little bit of chicken broth and ideally that’s unsalted chicken broth or low sodium because i mentioned earlier being careful about the salt the bacon has salt clam juice is generally kind of salty but anyway we’re gonna add those

Liquids we’re gonna crank our heat up to medium-high because we do want this to simmer and while we’re waiting let’s go ahead and stir in a cubed potato and i’m gonna use a yukon gold i love the texture for me it’s the perfect soup or chowder potato

And usually i like the color although ironically the color sort of added to the problems i had later regarding this dish being sort of aesthetically challenged but anyway we’re going to stir in those potatoes like i said we want to bring this up to a simmer and we’ll definitely be

Adjusting our final seasonings later but i’m going to put a little pinch of freshly ground black pepper in here and a little pinch of cayenne and once this mixture does start to simmer go ahead and back your heat down to maybe medium maybe medium-low we just want to

Maintain a nice gentle simmer until those potatoes are just about cooked and we don’t need them falling apart at this stage all right they still can be a little firm we just don’t want them crunchy and by the way because scallops have that rich sweet flavor i want the

Liquid in this tower to be more brothy than thick but if you do just smash some of those potatoes and you’ll see that will significantly thicken things up but anyway the viscosity is up to you you are the boss of what i don’t want to

Seem like a sauce and at that point i’m going to add one finely diced red fresno chili so yes i do like my base scallop chowder like i like my well basically everything else with a little bit of spice to it and at this point we’re also gonna throw in a big

Splash of cream and we’ll stir that in and then all we’re gonna do is simmer that mixture for another maybe five or six minutes until the cream produces just a hair and those potatoes are perfectly perfectly tender and this is basically what mine looked like when it got to that stage we

Can also at this point give it a little check for salt like i said we haven’t added any yet so if you need to add a little pinch here go ahead and then before we add our scallops i’m going to add one more thing a little fresh lemon

Zest in fact we get that question a lot when do you zest when do you use juice when do you use both okay when we want lemon flavor but we don’t want the acidity of the juice that’s when you just use the zest and on the other hand

When we’re looking mostly for a hit of acidity with maybe a little bit of lemon flavor we go for juice but anyway we’ll stir in some lemon zest at that point we’re pretty much ready for our base scallops and here they are you buy those frozen and you thaw them and they should

Pretty much look like this but if there’s a little bit of that milky liquid in the bowl that’s fine as long as these are wild caught with no additives or preservative brines then you’re good to go and that’s what i have here and you’re going to stir those in

And like i said it’s only going to take a minute or two for these to cook and i believe i was on medium heat here but if you feel like you need to crank it up a little bit go ahead basically as soon as they go from that

Raw sort of translucent look to more of a white color that’s pretty much it they will feel just a little springy under the spoon or finger and as soon as that happens you’re done you have to turn off the heat and serve these okay if you cook any kind of scallops too

Long they will turn into small chewy rubbery nuggets that quite frankly no one will enjoy so as soon as you think yours are good turn off the heat and then before we serve this i am going to stir in some fresh tarragon i think that sweet herbaceous flavor is

Incredibly important to this dish so please find some tarragon and as soon as that’s mixed in and we’ve tasted for final seasoning we’re ready to serve up and up to this point i was so happy it was smelling amazing it was tasting amazing but as soon as i ladled it into

The bowl and garnished with a little extra tarragon i realized i didn’t like how this looked it just looked kind of dingy to me all right because we cooked that bacon and onion first this mixture wasn’t even close to your more traditional white chowder colors and when you combine that with the green

From the celery and the gold from the potato i just did not find this to have a very appetizing color although a few people that saw this told me i was overreacting that it didn’t look that bad but of course i knew them and when it comes to food don’t believe anything

Friends or family tell you but anyway above and beyond its questionable appearance this was absolutely delicious those bay scallops are so sweet and tender especially when you only cook them briefly and forget about the scallops anytime you’re eating bacon and potatoes that’s usually a good experience right so all know i was

Extremely happy with this except for like i said i’d love to figure out how to make it more beautiful and by the way if you’re saying it might have helped if you seared the scallops first no i don’t agree and if you read the blog post you’ll hear my theory why

But anyway there you go fresh bay scallop chowder so if you’re a fan of clam chowder and or bay scallops i really hope you give this a try soon so head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy you