Creamy Southern Seafood Or Fish Chowder

Total Time: 1 hr 5 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 2 large onions, diced fine
• 1 ham hocks or 3 slices bacon
• 1/2 cup wheat flour or 1/2 cup flour
• 4 cups diced potatoes, diced small (i used new potatoes, but peeled russets or red potatoes will work)
• 1/2 cup butter (olive oil will work, though heat slowly with flour)
• 2 small carrots, diced small
• 8 ounces frozen corn
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 celery ribs, diced small
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4 lb tilapia fillet, cubed bite sized
• 1/2 lb shrimp, pealed and deveined
• 1/2 lb salmon fillet, skin and bones removed (use any combination of seafood you like, so that it adds up to about 2 lbs, clams and scallops would)
• 2 cups soymilk or 2 cups milk
• 1 cup vegetable stock (fish or chicken stock can be substituted)
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (optional)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon old bay seasoning

Recipe

• 1 cook ham hock, bacon or salt lamb until some fat is rendered, and then remove meat. salt lamb is more traditionally new england, but i just wanted a little smokey lamb fat in my dish so i went with the ham hock.
• 2 pour off as much fat as you like and add butter or olive oil.
• 3 in large pot add stock, milk, ham hock, bay leaves, pepper, thyme, old bay, salt and diced potatoes and bring to a simmer. if using bacon or salt lamb, you can wait to add until the end.
• 4 sprinkle flour over butter and mix until light yellow (blonde) in color and flour is lightly cooked.
• 5 add onions, carrots and celery to roux and cook down for about 15 minutes until onions have lost a lot of their water and carrots are soft. the mixture should be quite thick, and will need to be stirred frequently at medium high heat.
• 6 add garlic to onion mixture and cook for a few more minutes.
• 7 once potatoes are starting to soften, but are not yet done, add onion and carrot mixture and stir.
• 8 bring mixture to a boil then reduce heat to medium to simmer. at this point of the mixture looks too thick you can add some more vegetable stock. i like to taste at this point to adjust salt etc. as well.
• 9 mix in corn and cook until corn is warmed.
• 10 add seafood mixture to pot and mix in lightly.
• 11 add cream and cheese and mix in until just smooth.
• 12 at this point turn the pot to low or medium low, and as soon as the seafood is cooked it's ready to eat.
• 13 this is definitely better the next day or after it's sat for a while, so you can leave it on a very low heat for a few hours or stick it in the fridge and reheat on the stove slowly the next day.
• 14 you can remove the ham hock, or pull some of the meat off of it and add it inches.
• 15 serving it up with some crusty bread was perfect!