Trader Joe’s has some great frozen seafood items, and at reasonable prices too. One such item is their Seafood Blend, which contains shrimp, scallops and calamari rings. Below is a recipe for seafood chowder that I created around this product. It turned out a little thinner than your traditional chowders, but the flavor was still good. You could substitute any mixture of seafood and/or vegetables you might have on hand. This is a nice, hearty recipe for a winter meal.
Seafood Chowder, serves 6
1 package Trader Joe’s Seafood Blend (or 1 lb assorted seafood, i.e. shrimp, scallops, clams, whitefish)
1 yellow onion, finely diced
1/3 cup diced carrots
1/3 cup frozen corn kernels
1/3 cup diced celery
4 sliced bacon
2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
4 cups water
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp curry powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1. In a large stock pot, saute the bacon until crisp. Drain, let cool. Then crumble into pieces.
2. Using bacon fat, cook onion, celery and carrots until onion is translucent. Add frozen corn, water and potatoes. Cook for 10 minutes, or until potatoes are slightly tender.
3. Add bag of seafood blend, cook for another 8 minutes or until fish is opaque.
4. Add salt, pepper and curry powder, cream and milk. Stir until heated through.
5. Garnish with parsley and bacon.
