Another busy day in our household so out came the crockpot again! Got two busy renovation guys to feed, so I found some halibut and large shrimp in the freezer and bought a carrot, an onion, 3 celery ribs and two stalks of lemongrass, plus a dozen oysters to make a large crock of Seafood Chowder.
Everything tastes better with bacon so I prepped some frying bacon, celery and onion in my frypan and fried the veggies to transparent and glossy, then dumped them into my crockpot. I had some coconut milk warming on the low setting to set the base for this cream soup.
It will cook on low all day with the lemongrass adding its unique flavour to this soup. I bruised the lemongrass stalks with my mallet to release the f
lavour from the stalks, into the soup. Just before I put the fish in about one and a half hours before serving, I will pull out the lemongrass stalks as they are inedible. A little sprinkle of smoked paprika adds a nice finish to round out this Seafood Chowder. I do not generally follow recipes to the exact ingredient but rather I adapt them and add my own spin. Lots of fun!
The oysters are fresh but were reduced 30% because they were close to their expiry date for optimum freshness so they were a good buy. Both the guys love oysters so they will add a very rich flavour to the soup. For all you Paleo people out there, this recipe is 100% Paleo and I adapted it from a recipe that does use dairy for the soup base. Coconut milk is perfect and is creamy and just a bit sweet without a heavy coconut taste to compete with the fish in the chowder.