The fresh ginger won’t knock you over the head with its intensity in this stew. It adds warmth and its distinctive gingery flavor to the pot, but it’s a fairly subtle flavor. The fish is still the main star – which it should be, considering how expensive seafood is! Because I live in New England, where firm-fleshed white fish rule the seafood case, I have my choice of halibut, haddock, hake, pollock, and more. Choose firm-fleshed white fish that’s local to your area, if possible, and not fished out; use guidelines from Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch to check your area. There’s very little prep for this stew, except for grating the fresh ginger on the smallest holes of a box grater (a Microplane is terrific for this). Chicken stock adds more flavor to the dish, but use bottled or powdered clam broth, if you like; dilute it more than the directions say so the juice doesn’t overpower the soup. The fish stew is wonderfully refreshing on the spring table, when we’re all looking for lighter fare and anything that doesn’t take too long to cook. It also makes a great dinner party main course if you need something easy and last-minute for guests. Ginger is juicier and less fibrous in spring, but you can use any fresh ginger you find. As written, this recipe has you cook the potatoes and the sauce in separate pots so they cook at the same time, which gets dinner on the table sooner. If you’d prefer to cut down on the number of dirty pots instead, you can cook the potatoes and sauce in the same pot: Cook the potatoes first (in a steamer basket with some water in the bottom of the pot and the lid tightly on), then remove the potatoes, pour out the water, and make the sauce. Add the potatoes and return the sauce to a boil. Simmer 2 minutes.
