Crab Chowder

Sunday evening we made Crab Chowder and it was awesome. In case you’re hankering for some crab chowder here’s what we did…in a large stockpot cooked 2 slices of bacon that had been chopped. Scooped the bacon out and let rest on a paper towel. Chopped an onion and a stalk of celery and 2 cloves of garlic and then added those items to the bacon fat. Then we drizzled in some sherry. Cooked for a few minutes and then added 2 yukon gold potatoes that were in 1/4 – 1/2 inch dice. To that we added chicken broth about a ½ cup. Then we cooked for about 15minutes with the lid on to get the potatoes soft. After the potatoes were soft, we added 3 cups of milk (1/2 half and half and 1/2 2% milk). Then we added some celery seed, old bay, cayenne, cilantro and white pepper. We used at least 1/4 teaspoon of each with a little more on the white pepper-the can was almost done with so I just shook it all in there. Meanwhile I went over the crab meat (lump crab) and made sure all the shells were long gone. The crab was then coated with old bay. Then we added the crab and a little more sherry to the pot and for the next hour we cooked for 15 minutes and then let rest for 15 and then cooked for 15 and then let rest for 15. And, (I know we’re done with the hour) we cooked for a little longer until we were sure we were at the chowder consistency. Then we topped with bacon and parsley. Very, very good.