So are you a chowder fan? The kind with seafood in it? Lobster perhaps?
I love seafood. In any form, but especially chowders! One of my most favourite food memories, is of eating an amazing seafood chowder in Nova Scotia when I was a teenager on vacation with my family. I remember eating this creamy bowl of amazingness while staring off into the Atlantic Ocean. Dreamy.
Since that time I haven’t really had chowder (none very good anyway). I live smack dab in the middle of the prairies, so there’s not much seafood to be found around these parts. (But we are famous for our beef!)
But as luck would have it, a package of frozen lobster meat ended up in my freezer recently. I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I mean lobster is like gold. You can’t just use it in anything…these things have to be thought out properly. It’s lobster. Must treat it royally.
Then I saw it. The perfect dish for this delectable meat. The Barefoot Contessa’s Lobster Chowder. Perfection.
This soup is creamy. Hearty. Rich. And full of lobster goodness.
And don’t be fooled…this dish is NOT hard to make at all. In fact, if you work efficiently, you could have it on your table in an hour…1 and 1/2 tops.
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1 cup chopped onion
- ¼ cup cream sherry
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 4 cups whole milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 lb of lobster meat (the kind I used was pre-cooked)
- 3 cups of corn (fresh or frozen)
- ¼ pound bacon, large-diced
- 2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, cut into large chunks (about 2 cups)
- 2 onions, chopped (about 1½ cups)
- 3 celery stalks, diced
- ½ tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
- 2 tsp chopped fresh chives (or finely chopped green onion)
- ¼ cup cream sherry
- To make the soup base, melt the butter in a soup stock pot, then add the onions and cook until soft (but not browned).
- Then add the sherry and paprika. Mix well and cook for about 1 minute.
- Add the milk, cream and wine.
- Then simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, making sure to stir often.
- While the soup base is simmering, in a separate pan cook the bacon until brown and crisp. Then remove the bacon from the pan, and set it aside.
- To the same pan that you cooked the bacon, add the potatoes, onions, celery, corn, salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- After this time, add the potato/corn mixture to the milk soup base in your stock pot.
- Add the lobster meat and sherry.
- Simmer for about 15 more minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
- You can add the chopped bacon as a garnish at serving time, or you can add it directly to the soup at the same time you add the potato/corn mix. We prefer to add it to the soup and let it simmer with the rest of the ingredients. We like the extra flavour it adds to the soup.
Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa
Serve this up with some crusty bread, and dinner is a treat!
Garnish with some chives and it looks like a dish in a fancy restaurant! Except that I forgot to do that for the photo…it really looks so much nicer with chives…sigh…oh well
Mmmmmmm And remember, lobster isn’t just for fancy restaurants! ;)
Have a delicious day!
Yummy Linking: Craftberry Bush, The Frugal Girls, Liz Marie Blog, Whipperberry, Taste & Tell, Funky Junk Interiors, What’s Cooking with Ruthie, Under the Table and Dreaming
Hi I'm Jo-Anna! I mom. I blog. I cook. I craft. I like pretty things.
