Fruits de Mer Chowder

I no longer live on the Texas Gulf Coast and can’t get the wonderful fresh seafood I was accustomed to for 30+ years.  Most of what I can get up here in Central Texas is either frozen or canned.  Sigh.  But you work with what you have.  I wanted to make a new seafood chowder this week so I picked up some frozen and canned seafood at the local grocery store for this purpose.  You can, of course, change out the seafood in this recipe, but you’ll need to recalculate the nutritional info if you do.   Gulf Redfish, if you live on the Gulf Coast, is delicious in ANY chowder, in my opinion.

This recipe is high in sodium (due to canned items and the fact that seafood lives in well…….the sea, which is salty).  To reduce the sodium load in this, drain the canned seafood juices into a large measuring cup (missing out on all that flavor, sigh).  You can even rinse the solids in a colander to lower sodium a little more.  Then just add an equal amount of homemade chicken or seafood stock for the amount of drained off seafood liquid in your measuring cup.  You can either freeze the drained off seafood juices for parceling out in future chowders or discard.  Your call.  This is not suitable for Atkins Induction Phase unless you omit the wine.

INGREDIENTS:

5 thick slices bacon (6 oz.), cut coarsely

3 oz. onion, chopped

12 oz. crawfish tail meat (use fresh if you can get it.  I used frozen)

2 small lobster tails (5.5 oz. meat) shelled, coarsely cut up

1   4-oz. can whole mussels (4 oz.) with juice (or fresh if available)

2  8-oz. cans whole oysters with juice (or fresh if available)

1½ c. white clam sauce (canned, I used Progresso brand)

1½ c. homemade seafood or chicken stock (no-sodium)

½ white wine (I used Riesling) [omit if still in Atkins Induction Phase]

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ c. parsley, chopped

¼ tsp. black pepper

Few drops fish sauce (Thai Kitchen or Red Boat)

1 c. diakon radish (or turnip or red radish), chopped

1 c. heavy cream

1/8-¼ tsp. glucomannan or your favorite thickener

DIRECTIONS: Brown bacon in soup pot over high heat.  Add onion to pot when bacon is nearly done.  Sauté until onion is caramelizing.  Add all other ingredients but lobster, cream and thickener.  Bring all to a boil and lower heat to lowest setting to allow a slow simmer for about 30 minutes.  Add cream.  Simmer 10 more minutes.  Add glucomannan slowly (I dust on with an old salt shaker), stirring after each addition to allow time to thicken up.  When thick to your liking, remove from heat and serve with a nice salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 8 bowls (about 1¼c. each), each one contains:

348 cals, 27.5g fat, 7.55g carbs, 0.60g fiber, 6.95g NET CARBS, 22.7g protein, 1049 mg sodium (use the tips I gave above to lower sodium)

 

 

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