East Coast Seafood Chowder

Step 1

Place a large pot over medium heat. Add in a tbs of oil and then drop in the diced bacon. Saute until bacon browns.

Step 2

Next up, add the diced potatoes, diced leeks, diced onion, and bay leaves to the pot. Let that sizzle away and enjoy the smells coming out of the pot!! Stir frequently. You don't want any of the vegetables taking on any colour.

Step 3

After about 4 minutes of sautéing the vegetables, pour in the nova scotia white wine. You should get a really nice sizzle here. You want to wine to hiss and bubble as we are burning off the alcohol and deglazing the pan. Stir constantly, and again, enjoy to smell.

Step 4

Now it's time to pour in the milk and cream. You want the mixture to come up to a light simmer but keep an eye on the pot as you don't want the milk to come to a boil or it will split. Nice and gentle cooking here. Keep stirring every now and again. The goal here is to keep the temperature up for long enough to cook the potatoes. Once the potatoes are soft you are all good!

Step 5

Now that the potatoes are cooked let's start adding in the seafood. Add in the diced smoked haddock, full fresh haddock filets, lobster, scallops, mussels, and any additional seafood you would like to include. Adding all of this cold seafood will drop the temperature of the milk so give it time to come back up to temperature. Once a light simmer has been reached, allow the seafood to poach until you can easily flake apart the fresh haddock. Once that happens you know you are in the clear.

Step 6

Last step is seasoning. Be sure to taste the broth and adjust as needed. I like to add 2-3 solid pinches of salt and a lot of fresh cracked pepper. Right before serving I also add in the fresh dill and some lemon zest to brighten everything up.

Step 7

Enjoy!