Seafood Vegetable Chowder

For my wedding favors, I made all my guests little cookbooks with a consolidation of recipes from family and friends. One of them included my dad's New England Clam Chowder recipe, which is delicious. So I took the main parts of his recipe and added crab with tons of veggies to make it a Seafood Vegetable Chowder. It was awesome.

4-6 servings

4 slices of bacon

1 large russet potato, peeled and diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 large yellow onion, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 large zucchini, diced
1 large jalapeno, seeded and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tsp minced fresh rosemary
1 Bay leaf
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
2 cups of half & half
1 small can of corn (about 8-10 oz)
10 oz of clams with juice (I used canned whole baby clams, but you can use minced clams too)
5 oz crab meat (you can usually find fresh crab in your meat department)
A dash of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper, to taste

In a large pot over medium high heat, cook bacon until crispy. When the bacon cools, roughly chop; set aside. Remove bacon from pot and onto a paper towel lined plate; set aside. In the bacon grease, add potatoes, carrots, onion and celery; sauté for 5 minutes to brown veggies. Add zucchini, jalapeno, garlic, rosemary and Bay leaf. Sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Mix in butter and flour and coat veggies. Add half and half, corn, clams and crab meat. Add a dash of red pepper flakes and cooked, chopped bacon. Cover, turn heat to low and cook until potatoes are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with sliced sourdough bread, or in a sourdough bread bowl. Garnish with extra bacon crumbs.

 

Do you enjoy a little heat? Try a few dashes of Tabascosauce in your chowder. Yum!