Last night I had some friends over to debrief a collaborative project from a few weeks ago. I was delighted to receive some lovely flowers and plums from one of my guests!

For dinner I served an improvised fish chowder and simple salad.  Because tis is a fast soup — one hour to table — I do a few things to maximize flavor. Like any soup, it will be better the second day, but caramelizing the onions and carrots, crushing the garlic, and using canned tomatoes all deepen the flavor enough for immediate serving. If you don’t have time to do this, but want to enhance the flavor quickly, you can cook the ingredients and put them through a blender or food processor before adding the fish.

Improvised Fish Chowder

1 lbs cod
1 lbs shrimp
2 large onions
1 medium sweet potato
6 medium carrots
2 large leeks
5 cloves garlic
2 28 oz cans diced tomato
1 can white beans
12 c. water
fresh thyme, salt and pepper to taste

Chop onions, carrots, and sweet potato to 1/2 inch cube.  Add salt and pepper to taste as you build the layers. Caramelize the onions and carrots until golden.  Add garlic and leeks, saute until leeks are softened. Add water, tomatoes, white beans and sweet potato and simmer until sweet potato and carrots are tender.  Add thyme and allow to steep until ready to serve. Ten minutes before serving, bring back to the boil, then add cod and shrimp. Bring to boil and turn off the fire. Allow to sit until the fish is tender.

Garnish with fresh pesto and fried corn tortilla strips.  The pesto I made for this soup was made by grinding 2 c. loose basil, 1/3 c. pecans, 1/3 c. olive oil, 3 large cloves of garlic and sea salt to taste.