The difference between chowder and gumbo soups is simple. Both originated in the early French settlements in America but the gumbo was the more luxurious version eaten by the rich descendants of nobility made with the finest ingredients while the chowder was eaten by the riff-raff and made from whatever they could find.
The bays and beaches of Galloway are a wonderful place to find shellfish, though few people seem to bother, buying their shellfish frozen in plastic bags at the supermarkets. However, an expedition to a local bay produced enough tasty shellfish to make sure that the resulting broth deserved the gumbo designation.
This was one expedition that Sharon could not join as wheelchair wheels, wet sand and rocks don't go together. Never mind, she stayed with her mother and they enjoyed listening to an Alan Bennett audio book which they said was hilarious. The wheelchair pusher and nephew Cameron headed off for the coast, after checking the tide tables to make sure that the tide would be out.
A walk out across the wet sand and a bit of digging produced no razor clams or cockles, which, according to locals, fill the bays. Maybe a proper cockle rake, a bit like a garden rake but made of wood and with longer prongs is needed. Never mind there were lots of fascinating things to investigate, including bright green sea grass, bubbled seaweed, pools, a sand eel, transparent shrimps, purple anemones and small but feisty crabs that rose up with claws waving when disturbed.
There was also plenty of good food. Big limpets, an inch or more across were cemented to rocks. You need to be a bit sneaky to knock these off. If you tap gently, they just grip the rock even more tightly – like limpets. The trick is to take a handy small rock and knock them sharply at the side and base of the shell without warning. Do it quickly enough and they will be easy to remove. It takes a bit of practice, but the technique is well worth learning. Barnacles are the tiny little shells that also grow on the rocks and sometimes on the limpets. The limpets are cone shaped and about an inch high as well as across.
In the bay there there were winkles all around. In London a pint of winkles after a night out bought from a stall outside the pub was the perfect end to a happy evening. You can still find a good winkle and jellied eel stall in Bethnal Green Road today. They are traditionally sold in the liquid measure of a pint or half pint, for some reason. Winkles are little sea snails usually black. They can just be picked up from the sand or off the rocks and stones. Mussels are a great treat and plenty of these were gathered in. They liked hiding amidst the long fronds of seaweed.
The sun shone and there were scudding white clouds overhead. All along the shoreline the trees were in various shades of dappled rich green proud of their new Spring foliage. A well-stocked picnic pack contained a big container of boiling water for tea and plenty of cheese and pickle sandwiches as shellfish gathering requires that the strength be kept up. After a refreshment break the the bucket and plastic bags were filled and it was time to head back to shore. A single fisherman, walking out to the oncoming waves, was the only other person spotted during the whole morning.
Then it was back to Hillcrest House guest house, run by Sharon's sister Deborah and husband Andrew, to get the harvest ready, after showing to Sharon. Winkles – steeped in salted fresh water for half an hour and then boiled for two minutes. Mussels, scrubbed first and simmered until the shells opened (do not use any mussels with open shells prior to cooking). The limpets take a bit of preparation. Scrub and boil the limpets for a few minutes. After cooling, take a limpet in one hand and use a small sharp knife to cut out the meat. Discard the guts and other bits and just keep the large foot. After the mussels have cooled, remove the meat and set aside with the limpets. Take a pin or toothpick and winkle out the winkles. There is a little shell “door” across the entrance to the shell which you throw away. Nip off the sand-filled end of the animal.
Now, take all your cooked shellfish meat and chop very finely. Get a big pot and put in some stock, a couple of cubed potatoes, a couple of bay leaves, a bit of greens (we used asparagus ends), salt and pepper and simmer until the potatoes are really soft. Then, turn the heat down and add the chopped shellfish meat and a good amount of cream. Stir and serve with fresh bread.
That's how you make a great shellfish soup – and who cares if it is a gumbo or a chowder?
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