St. Patrick's Day Countdown: Irish seafood chowder
Written by Ciaran on Mar 04, 2026 | 0 Comments
We’re counting down the days to March 17th with an offer and a potato-stuffed recipe for you every day until St. Patrick's Day! Check back in with us each day to see what’s up next!
Gemma's Favourites
As an island out in the fertile waters of the North Atlantic with over 8,000 km of coastline, it is surprsing that seafood doesn’t always feature strongly in Irish national cuisine. That is apart from the ubiquitous fish and chips, another one of Gemma's favourites, and another staple, seafood chowder.
The My Irish Jeweler team in 2022 visiting Howth Harbour. This is Gemma's favourite place for an after work treat of (fish and) chips and it's also THE place in Dublin to go seafood shopping!
Now we know we may be stretching the bounds of what counts as a “potato recipe” here or maybe even an “Irish recipe”. The word chowder, after all, comes from the French word for a cooking pot, it's a staple dish in Brittany, and potato doesn’t feature in the name!
But we feel it still deserves a mention in our 17 recipes. Firstly, because you can find seafood chowder on the menu in every corner of the island everywhere from a tiny pub to a Michelin starred restaurant. It also uses all the fantastic local ingredients you find here in Ireland from the unbelievable fresh fish and seafood like "cockles and mussles," to the rich butter and cream, to the potatoes. Finally it deserves a mention because it is delicious!
Plus some of the key ingredients feature in a very famous song about Dublin, and have even been immortalised, along with a famous fishmonger, with a statue in Dublin’s fair city.
Poor Molly Malone has endured some abuse over the years, but she, her cart, and her baskets of cockles (clams) and mussels, are back in place on Suffolk street looking very ... “alive-alive-o,” after being refurbished.
Photo Credit: David Hillas (CC BY-SA 2.0)
It is also an unrecognizable dish from the much thicker offerings that you often find on the other side of the Atlantic. A traditional Irish seafood chowder is a much lighter broth, with no flour used to thicken it up. That is the job of the potato!
The fresh fish is all important too. So perhaps this is not a recipe to attempt unless you know you can get your hands on some good fresh fish?
A local Dublin chef, from the aptly named The Seafood Cafe, does a great job of demonstrating some of the more complicated elements a really delicious chowder, smoking the fish in particular. If you don’t feel up to that at home, you can always buy some smoked fish and skip that step, or just use fresh fish. This version of the The Seafood Cafe chowder would make a spectacular St. Patrick's Day lunch or even a light dinner!
Ingredients
- A splash of oil (rapeseed or similar with a neutral flavor)
- One stick of Irish butter (around 100g)
- 1 finely chopped large shallot
- 1 finely peeled and chopped celery stick
- 1 leek, well cleaned and cut into 1 inch slices
- 12 washed and quartered baby potatoes
- 200 ml water
- 200 ml full fat milk
- 200 ml cream
- Small shallot studded with 6 cloves and 2 bay leaves
- 200g smoked filleted fish, with skin if possible to stop it breaking up too much while cooking
- 15 well cleaned large cockles, 15 well cleaned large mussels (or one or the other if you can only get one. Both will probably have the chorus of Molly Malone in your head for the day)
- Handful of chopped chervil or fresh parsley
Method
- Melt half of the butter (around 50g) with a splash of oil in a large saucepan.
- Add the chopped shallot, celery, leek and potatoes and cook over a medium heat for 15 minutes until everything has softened slightly but not browned.
- Pour over 200ml water, bring the pot to the boil and then turn heat down to a low simmer.
- Pour the milk and cream into a wide pan and add the clove and bay leaf studded shallot. Bring to the boil then turn heat right down to a low simmer.
- Add the smoked fish fillet to the milk, whole if you can, with skin on.
- Poach the smoked fish in the milk and cream mix for 5 minutes until the fish is just cooked.
- Take the pan off the heat and carefully remove the skin from the fish, breaking it into large flakes in a separate bowl. Keeping the fish to one side and reserve the the creamy broth too.
- Add your cockles and mussels to the simmering vegetables and turn the heat up, covering with a lid.
- Cook on high for 2-3 minutes or until all the shells are open. Take off the heat and get rid of any of the unopened shells. Shell about half of the remaining cockles and mussels, keeping the meat. Pour in the retained milk and bring back to the boil for 2 minutes.
- Add remaining half as stick of butter (around 50g) and stir gently. This will thicken the broth slightly.
- Add the flaked fish and cockle meat then season well.
- Let sit for 2 minutes so the fish warms through but don’t over stir so the flakes stay big.
- Stir in the parsly or chervil and serve in warm deep bowls with brown bread genrously spread with good Irish butter.
What's Next?
Check back in with us tomorrow for Day 5 of our St. Patrick's Day countdown, or open Door Number 4 of our 17 Days of celebratory offers!
Wear your Irish connections with pride
Choose a symbol of Ireland like an Irish harp and bring a note of Celtic harmony to any outfit.
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Ciaran
My Irish Jeweler
Born in Co. Antrim and reared in Dublin, I was fascinated with Gaelic culture from an early age. I suppose it's not surprising given my mother inherited a grá for the Irish language from my grandfather, an Irish school headmaster. And that grá continues! My brother and sister are now Gaelic teachers here in Ireland, my niece is an award winning Irish dancer, and I proudly work to share Irish culture through our Irish and Celtic Jewelry at My Irish Jeweler!
I love researching and reading about the history of Irish design. It's at the core of what we do here at My Irish Jeweler. I find much of it so interesting that I have to share what I find. I hope you enjoy it!
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