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crab and corn chowder

* adapted from a Rachel Ray recipe

ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 Yukon gold potato, peeled and diced
1 red potato, peeled and diced
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 dried bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning blend
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups skim milk
1 cup half-and-half cream
2 cups corn kernels, scraped fresh from the cob or frozen
1 cup peas, fresh or frozen
8 ounces cooked lump crab meat
green onions, sliced, for serving
Tabasco for serving
jalapeno havarti cheese, shredded, for serving

instructions

1. Heat a deep pot over moderate heat. Add oil and butter. As you chop your vegetables, add them to the pot: potatoes, celery, onion, and red bell pepper. Add bay leaf to the pot. Season vegetables with salt and pepper and Old Bay seasoning.

2. Saute vegetables 10 minutes, then sprinkle in flour. Cook flour 2
minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in broth and combine. Stir in milk and
combine.

3. Bring soup up to a bubble. Add corn, peas and crab meat and simmer soup 25 - 55 minutes.

4. Adjust the soup seasonings. Remove bay leaf. Test potatoes for doneness (if not done, continue to simmer). Ladle soup into bread bowls or soup bowls and top with sliced green onions, Tabasco and shredded jalapeno havarti cheese.

Old Bay Seasoning Recipe:
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
6 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon whole cardamom
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
4 whole cloves
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon mace (a spice made from the dried fleshy covering of the
nutmeg seed)

Grind above ingredients together in spice mill - keep in clean, dry
container.

Changes, hints, tips and thoughts for this recipe:

• I added the wine and the peas -- to try to boost flavour and to add to the soup and make it slightly more robust...it worked (well, the wine did, the peas didn't do much, really)

• Old Bay seasoning is sometimes really super easy to find at the grocery store and sometimes impossible. I didn't have any on hand so I just made a batch...and now I have some!