Various cold seafoods pictured.
Steamed whole crawdads pictured.
Pull all of your crab, lobster, crawdads, clams and shrimp meat from shells and reserve all shells.
Create your seafood stock by boiling shells, wine and bay leaves for 15 minutes on high. Make enough for 8 cups. You may not need all stock depending upon how thick or thin you'll want your chowder. Strain your stock twice in a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth
At the same time, parboil your potatoes for 7 to 10 minutes to soften them before adding to your chowder. It's a real time saver. Small chop.
Again, at the same time in a seperate pan, sauté your onions and celery in butter until translucent. About 2 to 3 minutes. Then, add flour and mix well until dissolved.
Simmer chowder for 30 minutes. Stir regularly.
Add your seafood to your chowder in the last 5 minutes of simmering.
Serve chowder piping hot with crispy warm French bread for dipping and seasoned croutons. Also, Sherry to drizzle over the top if desired.
Or, crispy garlic crustinins.
Enjoy!
