Hook Line & Schooner’s chowder recipe brings ocean flavors home

There’s no ocean near Smyrna but we get our seafood fix at Hook Line & Schooner. Their Manhattan Seafood Chowder is absolutely the best in Georgia. How do they make it?

— Erin Parker, Smyrna

Hook Line & Schooner’s Manhattan Seafood Chowder

• 1/4 pound diced bacon
• 1 cup diced onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup diced fennel bulb
• 1/4 cup diced celery
• 1/4 cup diced carrots
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, with juice
• 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
• Generous 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
• 1 cup Chablis or similar dry white wine
• 2 cups diced peeled russet potatoes
• 1 (8-ounce) bottle clam juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 4 (3-ounce) pieces skin-on tilapia fillets
• 8 jumbo shrimp, peeled with tails on
• 8 mussels
• Slices of grilled French bread, for serving

1. Make chowder base: Cook bacon in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until bacon is cooked through but not crisp, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes.
2. Add onion, lower heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, 4 minutes. Add garlic to Dutch oven and cook, stirring constantly, until garlic is fragrant and onion is translucent, about 1 minute more.
3. Add fennel, celery and carrots and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes.
4. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, 5 minutes.
5. Add wine and raise heat to high. Bring to a boil, then add potatoes, clam juice, salt and pepper. When mixture returns to a boil, turn heat to low and cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Turn off burner; cover Dutch oven with lid to keep contents warm.
6. When potatoes are tender, cook seafood: Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add tilapia skin-side down and cook about 3 minutes per side, or until fish is opaque throughout. Transfer tilapia to plate. Do not clean skillet.
7. Add shrimp and mussels to skillet and cook, turning shrimp once and giving mussels an occasional shake, about 3 minutes. Shrimp is done when it is pink throughout. Mussels are done when shells open. (Discard any that don’t open.)
8. While shrimp and mussels are cooking, divide chowder base between four soup bowls and top with tilapia. When shrimp and mussels are done, add to bowls and serve immediately with grilled bread.

Serves 4.