Recipe Creamy Seafood Chowder with Roasted Garlic and Saffron

[JAS_OH1]

This is my family's absolute favourite. Over the past few decades, I have made seafood chowder for my family every year during the holidays, sometimes twice. The recipe ingredients vary from batch to batch, but it's always delicious and a huge hit. This year it appears I will be putting it into containers to give to my stepdaughter and her boyfriend and to my inlaws instead of us all being able to enjoy it together, due to COVID worries. Ah well.

I made a batch of this chowder last night using the homemade seafood stock I made yesterday afternoon, and that's what we had for dinner last night. You can buy seafood stock or even use chicken or vegetable stock if you don't have time to make your own. Any of the vegetables or types of seafood can be substituted according to preferences. This chowder can be served with crackers, but it's best served with a loaf of crusty bread for dipping (I baked one yesterday afternoon for that purpose).

Creamy Seafood Chowder with Roasted Garlic and Saffron
Makes about 2 gallons of chowder (10+ servings, depending on appetites). Cooking time approximately 3 and 1/2 hours (not including time to make the stock).

Ingredients:
1 quart of seafood stock (recipe here): Recipe - Seafood Stock
1 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 cup diced celery
1 cup diced potatoes
1 cup corn kernels
1 cup diced asparagus (reserve for last half hour of cooking)
1 clove roasted garlic, peeled
1 tbsp flour or cornstarch
Salt
Pepper
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
3 bay leaves
1 cup half n half
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup parsley (for garnish)
1/4 cup chopped green onion or chives (for garnish)
1 pinch of saffron
1 and 1/2 pounds lobster claw meat
1 pound shrimp, peeled, devined, and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 pound crabmeat (I used clawmeat)
1/2 pound Langoustine lobster tails, peeled
1/2 pound mild white fish cut into pieces (I used tilapia and walleye pike)
1 lemon

Preparation Method:
Reserve 1/4 cup of the seafood stock, set aside. In a large pot, drizzle some olive oil and butter. Sautee any uncooked seafood until done, remove from the pot and set aside. Put the roasted garlic in the pot and smash it with a fork. Add the seafood stock, carrots, onion, celery, corn, red bell pepper, bay leaf, and potato. Cook without lid for 2 hours on the stovetop at medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Reduce the heat to low. Take the reserved seafood stock and mix in the flour (or cornstarch), blend until there are no lumps, then stir it into the pot. Add all of the seafood, then the half n half and heavy cream. Cook for an additional hour until the chowder is significantly thickened, stirring often. It's okay to add more half n half or cream if needed. Add the asparagus and cook for an additional 1/2 an hour on low heat. Salt and pepper to taste, then stir in saffron.

Add parsley and green onion for garnish when serving, along with lemon wedge and crusty bread. Enjoy!

Notes: the amount of salt is going to vary depending on the the brine of your seafood and stock. I used about 1 tbsp of Himalayan pink salt, but any good salt will do.

 

[Burt Blank]

This ticks all my boxes. I can smell and taste it. Additionally your prep is excellent. I particularly like how you sculpted the bread to look like Yorky cobra ! Bravo!

 

[Morning Glory]

It looks splendid. My one query - why cook seafood for 1½ hours? This goes against all my instincts.

 

[JAS_OH1]

It looks splendid. My one query - why cook seafood for 1½ hours? This goes against all my instincts.

I get what you are saying, and normally I would not do that (seafood baked/broiled/grilled, for example), but because it was cooking at such a low temperature with so much liquid it did not affect the texture. The chowder needed the extra time for all the flavors to pull together. I kept tasting it and it wasn't quite right. And then it was! The lobster claw meat actually became more tender with the prolonged cooking time. I stirred gently so seafood pieces remained intact overall.

 

[JAS_OH1]

This ticks all my boxes. I can smell and taste it. Additionally your prep is excellent. I particularly like how you sculpted the bread to look like Yorky cobra ! Bravo!View attachment 50890

Thanks Burt! I normally do NOT prep everything before cooking, I generally just cut things as I go along and I rarely measure anything or pay much attention when cooking something like this, which makes it hard when writing a recipe. I must admit it was a lot easier during the cooking process to have everything prepped beforehand. I suppose I should have included "prep time" in with "cooking time" but that's going to vary from person to person depending on knife skills and how much alcohol they had to drink beforehand

I, like many other people, have to constantly taste the food to make sure it's "right", and when you know, you know!