Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas seafood chowder

I sure enjoy anything with seafood in it. I was inspired this year to try something a little differnt and this was what I came up with! We really enjoyed this rich chowder and I hope your family will too!

3 T butter
3 T bacon grease
1 diced red onion
1 stalk celery cut very small
1 white potato peeled and diced
1 small sweet potato peeled and diced
3 T flour
2 packets of seafood concentrated flavoring
2 cups water
1 tsp thyme 
Salt and paper to taste
1 can of minced clam in clam juice
1/2 C fresh crab meat
1 lb peeled deveined large shrimp cut into haves
4 oz. of fresh white fish ( I used tilapia)
1/2 cup of  creamed corn
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups of half and half
Minced fresh parsley
In a very large soup pot put the butter and bacon grease. Turn up to about medium heat and add the onions, celery and let simmer till soft. Throw in cubed potatoes. Stir and let sauté for about 5 min. Add the seafood concentrate,water, thyme, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Let simmer about 10
minutes till potatoes are soft. Add the entire contents of the minced clams can, the shrimp, the fish and the crab meat and stir then cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. Add the creamed corn. Stir and break up fish into the soup. Pour in the heavy cream and half and half then turn down to low. Let soup warm through but do not boil it. I let mine sit for 20 minutes on low and let the Cajun crawfish cornbread bake!
Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve hot!

Merry christmas and may you and yours  be blessed in the new year!

Cajun crawfish cornbread

You could make a meal on this stuff alone!

1 stick of butter melted but cool
1 small red onion diced small
1 small bell pepper diced small
1 can of green chillies
1 lb of crawfish tails
1 cup sharp shredded cheddar( I also added 1/2 cup of chipotle cheddar cut in small cubes, found it at target)
1/2 cup sweet corn
1 good pinch cayenne
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cup yellow corn meal
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a very large bowl, put the first 10 ingredients and stir to combine. Add the eggs and buttermilk stir 
and add the rest of your ingredients and stir to combine well. Pour into a large buttered and hot cast iron skillet and bake almost 28 minutes. Remove from oven when golden on top then slice, butter, and enjoy!