Yesterday’s soup was based off of a recipe called Christmas Chowder that I saw on the Food Network’s web site. For some reason I’ve been on a huge seafood kick (I blame Cooking Light for publishing that Lobster Risotto recipe, lol) so we have another seafood recipe to enter into the books. I made a number of changes to it so I am just going to post my recipe. You can see the recipe I based it off of by clicking the link above.
INGREDIENTS: 
- 1 lobster tail, approximately 1 pound
- 1/2 pound medium shrimp, shells still on
- 1/2 pound (or more if you desire) king crab legs
- 1/2 pound of lump crab meat
- 2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
- 4 ounces high-quality smoked slab bacon, diced
- 3 medium leeks, white part only, rinsed and diced
- 5 cups of seafood stock (recipe below)
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Sea salt, for seasoning
- Old Bay seasoning (to taste)
- 1 tablespoon fresh chives
DIRECTIONS:
Seafood Stock: 
Peel the shrimp and put the shells in a large stock pot. Set the shrimp aside. Pick all of the meat out of the king crab legs and place the shells in the stock pot. Set the crab meat aside. If you haven’t cooked the Lobster yet, cook the lobster, let it cool, and then take all of the meat out of the shell; set aside. Break the lobster shell into smaller pieces and throw into the stock pot. Add in about a cup of dry white wine, a few chopped carrots, onions, peppercorns, salt and 5-6 cups of water. I simmered this for about 45 minutes – 1 hour.
Strain the stock through a cheese cloth. If you don’t have a cheese cloth, use the finest strainer you have. Once you are done straining, there may be some sediment in the bottom of the stock. I just used a ladle to transfer it in a measuring glass so that the sediment would stay at the bottom.
Seafood Chowder:
In a large dutch oven, cook the diced bacon over moderate heat until golden and nearly crisp. Add the diced leeks to the bacon fat, stir, and cook about 4 minutes, stirring often. Add in the 5 cups of seafood stock and continue cooking over moderate heat for a few minutes.
Add the potatoes, stir, cover the pot, and continue cooking, until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes depending upon the potato variety and the thickness of the slices. Keep the chowder base hot as you prepare the lobster meat and cream mixture.
Heat the butter in a wide skillet. Add the lobster meat, crab meat and shrimp. Season with black pepper, and saute over moderate heat 3 or 4 minutes until the meat is firm, opaque, and pink. Pour in the heavy cream, and rapidly bring it to a simmer. Pour the lobster and cream mixture into the chowder base, and stir gently to combine. Taste for seasonings, and adjust with sea salt, black pepper, and old bay seasoning. Garnish with chives.
If the soup isn’t thick enough, you may want to add a corn starch + water mixture to the soup so that it thickens up.
I thought this soup was good. I wish it was a bit creamier, but it was still very good. Next time I’ll probably play around with it some more to make it more creamier. I loved the flavor that the smoked bacon gave it. There was so much seafood in this chowder that each bite was loaded with crab, lobster and shrimp. Perfect for seafood lovers!
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