Shrimp and Fish Chowder for a Writing Rockstar @lucyburdette

 

LUCY BURDETTE: A couple of weeks ago, we had my writing idol Ann Cleeves of Shetland and Vera fame visiting Key West as the honored guest of the Friends of the Key West Library. I fussed and worried about what to feed her on her first night off the plane, and with the hub’s help, settled on local fish and shrimp chowder. I first made Melissa's Clark’s chowder from New York Times cooking as written. The second time around I added shrimp, corn, and celery. It was delicious both ways, but this is what we served our guest.

Ingredients

3 to 4 slices bacon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Two leeks

Two stalks celery

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 cup white wine

2 cups fish or clam stock

1/2 pound fingerling potatoes

Pinch of thyme

One cup water

2 cups whole milk

5 ounces white fish

1 pound pink shrimp

One cup corn

Cut the bacon into small piece pieces and fry this until brown. Remove the bacon from the pan, add the butter.

Ahead of time, you will have cleaned and chopped the leeks and celery. Sauté this in the melted butter for several minutes until soft. Add the paprika and sauté this as well.

Add the clam juice or fish stock to the pan along with one cup of water and bring this to a simmer. Add the sliced potatoes and simmer these for about 20 minutes until soft. If the timing is off for dinner, you can make the dish up to this point and let it sit until you’re ready to cook the fish.

Add the milk and corn, and bring this to a simmer. Slide the fish and shrimp into the pot and simmer together until the fish is opaque. Serve with a homemade biscuit or roll and a green salad.

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series including USA Today bestselling A POISONOUS PALATE and A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS. 

Book 15 in the Key West series, THE MANGO MURDERS, will be in bookstores on August 12!

And the new trade paperback edition of A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS is out now!