Recipe: Ned’s Naramata Inn + Ocean Wise Chowder

February is Ocean Wise Month and the Naramata Inn is one of 36 restaurants celebrating all month long by participating in the National Chowder Chowdown Festival.

Their featured Ocean Wise chowder is already sold out at the inn, but that’s no problem for folks at home who can replicate this delicious and hearty soup with chef Ned Bell’s recipe.

Ingredients

Shellfish and Broth:

• ¼ cup whole butter
• ½ diced white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ bottle white wine
• 1 lb fresh BC clams (Little Neck, Savoury or Manila)
• 1 lb fresh mussels (Outlandish Shellfish Honey Mussels or Salt Spring Island)

Chowder:

• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 1 small diced medium onion
• 2 cups Chilliwack corn kernels
• 2 tbsp kosher salt
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ bottle white wine (we use Naramata Bench white wine)
• 1 lb diced potatoes (we use Medley Organics from Summerland)
• 1 litre whole milk
• 1 litre cream (we use D Dutchmen Dairy in Sicamous)
• 2 lbs Road 17 Arctic Char diced into 1”-2” cubes OR 2 lbs wild BC fish: choose any of my favourites here, or a combination. You can use fresh or frozen, diced into 1” inch cubes: B.C. salmon, B.C. halibut, B.C. hake, B.C. sablefish or and B.C. ling cod

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Method

Make broth and cook shellfish:

1. Over medium-high heat in a medium-large pot, sauté the onions and garlic in the butter for 2 minutes, then add the clams and mussels and sauté for a further 1 minute.
2. Add the white wine and cook for 2 minutes or until the clams and mussels are cooked and the shells pop open.
3. Remove from heat and stop cooking immediately. With a basket strainer, strain the broth from the shells, keeping both the broth and the shellfish. Remove the clams and mussels from their shells, and set aside.

Make the chowder:

1. In a medium pot over medium heat, sauté the onion with the canola oil for 2 minutes. Add the salt & corn and sauté another for 5 minutes.
2. Add the salt and flour to the pot and cook for 2 minutes. Add the white wine, cook for 2 minutes. Add the diced potatoes and add the shellfish stock (see above) and cook for 3 minutes.
3. Add the milk and cook for 3 minutes, then add the cream and cook for a further 3 minutes.
4. Finally, add the fish and already cooked shellfish (see above) and simmer for 3 minutes.

To serve:

Ladle the chowder into a bowl, and top with some chopped fresh herbs and foraged sumac. Enjoy with some warm, crusty sourdough and some wonderful Naramata Bench white wine.

About Sumac:
We don’t use lemons and limes at the Naramata Inn, we focus on hyper local and hyper seasonal ingredients and as such we forage, make or create other flavours to use in place of citrus. Verjus made from pressed and fermented fresh green grape juice, fresh chopped Sorrel and foraged Sumac all stand in and perfectly represent the Taste of Place we are looking for her in Naramata. As we like to say, you can only have this dish or meal here.