Receta Lobster Chowder...
October and Chowders go hand in hand. Some parts of the country already have snow and here in the Northwest the rains have returned, the leaves are falling and we've switched our furnace button from cool to heat. And chowder is on my mind. Actually France is on my mind, did I mention we're going there? Did I mention that yours truly will be taking an all-day cooking class at Paris Le Cordon Bleu?!?! Go ahead and gasp, I do every time I think about it! The excitement is making me crazy - so to keep calm, and carry on, I made chowder.
Potatoes, lobster, cream...another trifecta. This is the boy's annual birthday request and since it's a bit expensive, we usually only have this on his birthday...but I think we're going to have to add this to our special occasion menus because it would be perfect on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve or Valentine's Day or perhaps to enjoy on the last night at home before leaving for Paris!
For you Northwesterners...if you've had the Lobster Chowder at Duke's Chowder House then you know just how incredibly good Lobster Chowder can be...and this, my friends, is exactly like Duke's. The secret ingredient in this chowder is Sambuca, an anise-flavored liquor that is velvety-smooth. It's not strong or over-powering so you'll still be able to taste the sweetness of the lobster. You can also use Pernod, also an anise flavored liquor, which is what Duke's uses but it's ten times as many Euros, I mean dollars as Sambuca and since the lobster tails sent the cash register cha-chinging, I opted for Sambuca, the poor-man's Pernod.
- Lobster Chowder - Pots and Pins
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 large onion, minced
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 1/2 cups cooked lobster meat (about 4 lobster tails)
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup Sambuca (two mini-bottles)
- 3 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 3 cups half-n-half
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
Melt butter in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft, about 7 to 8 minutes. Stir in flour and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for 2 to 4 minutes. Cover with lid and remove from heat. In a separate pot, bring vegetable broth and Sambuca to a boil, add potatoes, reduce heat to medium and cook for about 8 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender. Remove 1 cup of vegetable broth and slowly add to onion/flour mixture, stirring constantly, bringing back to a boil. Once it is boiling and the mixture has thickened, add remaining vegetable broth/potato mixture to the onion mixture, stirring until well combined. Slowly bring back to a boil. Stir in lobster, half-n-half, salt and pepper and chopped dill. Heat through but do not boil. Serves 4 to 6.