I love classic seafood chowder it’s a great way of showing of all of our local fish that we have on our doorstep. At the Portaferry hotel Gary Bell loves to serve this dish in a very dramatic fashion and bring a little of the seaside to our customers table.  Serve on a big board draped with seaweed and netting for two people to share with fresh wheaten bread and crispy fish skin seasoned with salt and vinegar.

I know this is quite excessive at home but it works equally as well served in individual bowls with plenty of wheaten or crusty bread.

1tbsp olive

500g mussels

500g cockles

300ml white wine

50g butter

6 slices of streaky bacon, rind removed, cut into 5mm dice

4 onions finely diced

50g flour

500ml fish stock

500ml milk

3 large potatoes cut into 5mm dice.

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Pinch of cayenne pepper

500g smoked haddock

500g gurnard

250ml single cream

Freshly chopped parsley, scallions and chives

Heat 1tblsp of olive in a large pan, when hot add the mussels and the white wine, cover and bring to the boil, cook for 1min, add the cockles and cover again. Cook over high heat for a further 2-3mins or until all of the cockles and mussels have opened and are cooked through.

Place a sieve over a large bowl. Remove the pan from the heat and strain the cockles and mussel. Place them onto a tray and reserve the liquid.

Heat the butter in large saucepan and brown the bacon well until it is crisp and golden.

Add the onion, cover and sweat for a few minutes over a low heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add the fish stock and the reserved mussel liquid gradually. Add the milk and potatoes. Season well with salt, pepper and cayenne.

Cover and simmer until the potatoes are almost cooked, approximately 5-6 minutes.

Cut the fish into small cubes. Add to the pot as soon as the tip of a knife will go through a potato.

Simmer gently for 3-4 minutes, stir in the cream and add the shelled mussels and cockles, bring to the boil and when boiling, remove from the heat.

Taste, correct the seasoning, sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley, scallions and chives.

Serve in a deep dish with plenty of bread and butter.

550g ‘00’ flour

4 whole eggs

6 egg yolks

1tblsp olive oil

Salt to taste

2-3 tbsp olive oil       

250g wild mushrooms, cleaned thoroughly of any grit                                       

50g button, finely chopped

1 shallot peeled and finely chopped                       

1 clove of garlic peeled and finely chopped                                                         

1tsp fresh tarragon

1tblsp butter

1tblsp truffle oil                                                                                                                                                                            

400g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and chopped

1tblsp olive oil

1 finely chopped shallot

170g button mushrooms

140g mixed wild mushrooms

150ml white wine

2 crushed garlic cloves

200ml crème fraiche

½tsp of thyme leaves

Salt and pepper

1tsp truffle oil

8 x 80-100g portion of turbot fillets

Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper

2tblsp olive oil

50g butter

200g girolles

1pkt baby spinach

Parsley cress

Place the flour on a board or in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth. Using the tips of your fingers, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. Knead the pieces of dough together – with a bit of work and some love and attention they’ll all bind together to give you one big, smooth lump of dough!
You can also make your dough in a food processor if you’ve got one. Just place everything in, blend until the flour looks like breadcrumbs, then tip the mixture on to your work surface and bring the dough together into one lump, using your hands.
Once you’ve made your dough you need to knead and work it with your hands to develop the gluten in the flour, otherwise your pasta will be flabby and soft when you cook it, instead of springy and al dente.
There’s no secret to kneading. You just have to work the dough hard with your hands, squashing it into the table, reshaping it, pulling it, stretching it, squashing it again. It’s quite hard work, and after a few minutes it’s easy to see why the average Italian grandmother has arms like Mike tyson! When your pasta starts to feel smooth and silky instead of rough and floury, then the dough is ready. When ready wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour before you use it. Make sure the cling film covers it well or it will dry out and go crusty round the edges.

Heat two tablespoons of the olive oil in a pan over a low heat and gently fry the wild mushrooms for 30 minutes, or until very tender. Set aside to cool, and then finely chop.

Return the pan to the heat without the wild mushrooms, adding more olive oil if needed. Add the button mushrooms and fry for 2-3 minutes, and then add the cooked wild mushrooms, shallots, garlic, tarragon and tablespoon of butter. Cook for a further 2-3 minutes, stirring well, then set aside to cool. Pulse the mixture lightly in a blender and add the truffle oil, season to taste and set aside.

Make sure you do not puree the mixture, leave a bit of texture in the mixture.

Make sure your pasta machine is clamped firmly to a clean work surface before you start (use the longest available work surface you have). Make sure your work surface is completely free, from kitchen objects, as you will need plenty of working space once you start making the pasta, and starting with a clear space to work in will make things much easier.

Dust your work surface with some ‘00’ flour, cut the pasta into 4 and press the first quarter out flat with your fingertips. Set the pasta machine at its widest setting - and roll the pasta dough through it. Lightly dust the pasta with flour if it sticks at all. Click the machine down a setting and roll the pasta dough through again. Fold the pasta in half, click the pasta machine back up to the widest setting and roll the dough through again. Repeat this process five or six times. It might seem like you're getting nowhere, but in fact you're working the dough, and once you've folded it and fed it through the rollers a few times, you'll feel the difference. It'll be smooth as silk.

Now it's time to roll the dough out properly, working it through all the settings on the machine, from the widest down to around the narrowest. Lightly dust both sides of the pasta with a little flour every time you run it through. When you've got down to the narrowest setting, to give yourself a tidy sheet of pasta, fold the pasta in half lengthways, then in half again, then in half again once more until you've got a square piece of dough. Turn it 90 degrees and feed it through the machine at the widest setting. As you roll it down through the settings for the last time, you should end up with a lovely rectangular silky sheet of dough with straight sides. If your dough is a little cracked at the edges, fold it in half just once, click the machine back two settings and feed it through again. Roll it down to the thinnest point where you can clearly see your hand or lines of newsprint through it.

Lay the sheets out flat and cut out 8 large circles with a pastry cutter. Place a tea spoonful of the cooled mushroom mixture onto each disk, brush the rim of the disks with a little egg wash and fold in half over the mixture to form a half moon. Press down gently so the pasta sticks together. Now roll the pasta around your finger to form small tortellini’s. place the tortellini’s onto a floured tray and leave ready for cooking.

Place the Jerusalem artichokes into a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until tender, then drain. Cool. Place the Jerusalem artichokes into a food processor with the butter, cream and lemon juice and blend to make a smooth purée.

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan, add the chopped onion and fry over a gently heat for 7 - 10 minutes or until the onions are soft and translucent. Whilst the onions are cooking, slice the mushrooms to your desired thickness. Add the mushrooms to the onions, together with the crushed garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Pour in the white wine and bring the mixture to the boil.

Reduce the heat slightly and cook until the sauce has reduced and is almost completely evoparated.

Stir in the crème fraiche.

Bring the sauce to the boil once again and cook for 5 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Add the thyme, salt and pepper and taste.

Blend the sauce and pass through a fine sieve. Set aside ready for later

Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add the tortellini’s and cook for 3mins or until the pasta is cooked through but still retains a little bit. Remove from the pan and drain. Season to taste and toss in a teaspoon of truffle oil. Keep warm.

Place the sauce into a small pan and bring to the boil, adjust seasoning and remove from the heat. Add the butter and blend with a stick blender to produce light foam. Set aside and keep warm.

Cook the girolles and the spinach in a little butter and season to taste. Keep warm.

Season the turbot fillets all over with the Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Place a large pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. When hot add the turbot fillets and cook for a minute or 2 depending on the thickness of the fillets. Make sure there is a beautiful golden crust on the fish, then flip the fillets over, add the butter and remove the pan from the heat.  Spoon the foaming butter over the fish and allow to sit in the hot pan for 2-3mins or until the fish is just cooked through. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen roll.

Place 2 mounds of spinach on each plate. Place a fillet of turbot on each mound of spinach.

Place 2 tortellini’s on the plate and scatter over the cooked girolle mushrooms.

Spoon the sauce over the plate and scatter with parsley cress.

Serve at once and enjoy!!!!!