I have little to complain about upon reflecting on the six weeks I’ve spent vacationing in Greece. Despite the cloudy and rainy past couple of days the weather has been sunny, hot and the beaches were clean, not as crowded and the food, ever-inspiring. If if weren’t for yesterday’s cool & rainy day I may have never came up with this dish.

Inspired by a New England clam chowder, this soup was made with mostly local Greek ingredients – chiefly the fresh fish and seafood. One George went fishing and brought us a basket of fish which included some small scorpion fish. They look a little like red mullet but they have spiny fins that protect this bottom feeder from predators. The fins’ sharp spines contain a venomous mucus which can cause swelling and extreme pain. With some care, snip all the fins (also around the gills) and the fish is safe to handle. I pick-up the fish from the belly and I use kitchen scissors to snip-off all the fins. The scorpion fish is now fit to eat, most commonly used for fish soups and my friend Yianni swears that when the fish is big, grill and you have one of best meals ever. Today’s catch are small and we’re using scorpion fish for chowder.

Another George here in the ‘hood likes to go snorkeling and he’ll often bring us some shellfish, usually these pretty venus clams. They have a sand sac and once steamed open I shuck the white and bright orange sweet meat and discard the dark-coloured sac. The venus clams also contain a delicious broth and this was the base for a delicious chowder with one eye on a childhood family vacation in Cape Cod and the other on using what’s at hand – local, fresh ingredients.

There are onions, carrots and selino (that’s Greek for celery), fresh bay and lemon thyme from our garden, grated potato to help thicken the chowder and not one ounce of heavy cream. I’ve used equal parts milk and evaporated milk, some wine and the dish is finished-off with fresh ground pepper and chopped fresh parsley.

Scorpion Fish & Venus Clam Chowder

(serves 4-6)

4 slices of bacon, finely chopped

3 dozen live venus clams (or other local fresh clams), well rinsed

3 cups of water

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion (or leek), peeled and diced

1 large carrot, passed through a box grater

1 cup diced selino (or celery)

1 large potato, peeled and passed through a box grater

2-3 bay leaves

small handful of lemon thyme sprigs (grate some lemon zest if using regular thyme)

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 cups of milk

1 1/2 cups of evaporated milk

3 large baking potatoes, peeled and diced

approx. 1/2 kg. scorpion fish or red mullet or snapper (carefully remove fins, scaled and gutted)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

salt and pepper to taste

1. Place a large pot on your stovetop over medium heat and add your chopped bacon along with some water and allow for the fat to render and water to evaporate. The bacon will now crisp up in its own fat, remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.
2. In the same pot, add the clams along with the water and cover. Steam until the clams just open and empty through a strainer to reserve the broth. Discard any sand in the strainer and shuck the meat from the shells and reserve.
3. In the same pot over medium heat add the olive oil, onions, carrots, celery, grated potatoes, bay and thyme and sweat for 7-8 minutes. Now add the wine and reduce for 2-3 minutes then add the clam broth, milk and evaporated milk, diced potatoes and bring up to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Now add the scorpion fish (wrap in cheese cloth so pin bones don’t fall into soup) and simmer for another 5-6 minutes.
4. Remove the fish and reserve and now add the reserved clam meat, bacon, chopped fresh parsley, cover and turn off the heat. The clam meat will cook through from the residual heat. Adjust seasoning with salt and fresh ground pepper.
5. Place some fish in each bowl, serve with some crusty homemade bread smeared with some walnut Skordalia. Serve with an Alpha Malagouzia white.

* The Switch-Up: want to skip the dairy? Beat 2 eggs with the juice of 1 lemon and while whisking, slowly add 3 ladles of soup broth to amalgamate then slowly stir back into soup pot.