Lake Charles Chowder
I was digging into some of my old recipes from my paternal Grandmother
and found this one which I haven’t used for over 10 years. I made up
a batch this week to see if it tasted as good as I remember and, my word!
It was better than I remember! I’d forgotten about the flavors that infused
within the seafood when it is all put together in a marinade BEFORE cooking.
In this one, the ingredients ARE the chowder. There is no way around the
ingredients and no substitutions either if you want the best tasting food
on earth. You can make your own fish stock by using:
4 qts water mixed with 3 large cans of clam nectar
Add 3 each of carrots, celery stalks and white onions, all chopped into chunks
Boil for 1 hour, remove the vegetables and set the stock aside.
For the chowder, you will need the following:
3 Tbsp butter
4 cups sliced okra
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
2 chopped large onions
1 cup chopped celery including leaves
3/4 cup each of chopped green and red bell peppers
1/2 cup chopped Jalapenos
2 large carrots, chopped
12 chopped garlic cloves
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp black pepper
3 bay leaves
3 Tbsp Cajun seasoning
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tin tomato paste
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sunflower oil or olive oil
1 lb cooked crayfish meat
3 lbs cooked medium shrimp
1 lb white meat fish like snapper
Cooked white rice.
Before you begin, place the seafood in a marinade consisting of 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1/8 cup light soy sauce and 3 Tbsp hot sauce. Let sit for 3 hours or more.
Cook okra in the butter/oil blend in a large, heavy stainless steel pot over medium heat, stirring and scraping until some of the sliminess is gone; about 10-15 minutes.
At same time make roux by blending 1/3 cup flour with 1/3 cup oil keep stirring on mid heat until brown to darkish brown.
In another pan fry, onions, celery, garlic, peppers, lemon, the seasonings and herb mix for 10 minutes. Add tomato and tomato paste and cook over low to medium heat for about 15 minutes.
Add okra and roux together, then add to veggie mix for 15-minutes, stirring and scraping often.
Very slowly blend the stock into the mixture.
Simmer about 30 minutes. Add crab and shrimp and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. Add crayfish meat and shrimp into the mixture, then add green onions.
Place in rice a soup bowl. Pour desired amount of the gumbo over cooked rice.
You can play with the amount of heat (spiciness) to your liking by adjusting the amount of Jalapenos and hot sauce you use, but this absolutely can’t miss. This is a large volume for a fairly big crowd my suggestion is to freeze the leftovers until you are ready for it and then reheat and add more seafood or what you would like.
This is a meal on its own, especially when you add your favorite Cornbread recipe to the meal. Enjoy.
