No roux. I think some of the thickness comes from the potato starches. You have to stage cook everything letting the onions slowly simmer and then bringing the cream up to a slow simmer and then letting the potatoes cook before adding any of the seafood. It gets everything cooked to the right consistency without having a bunch of mushy or over done seafood (rubbery scallops/clams)
I can smell it from here. Delicious stuff. Made clam chowdah on Christmas eve along with some stuffed mushrooms (crab based) and wings for the kids. Tonight : crab cakes with a remoulade sauce. The rest will be takeout and baked goodies done by the wife and kiddo. How is the local seafood down there as compared to up here? Scallops are ridiculous, I only eat them when my uncle barters for them straight off the boat. Sooooo good, even more so expensive.
Gulf shrimp are quite a bit cheaper down here than any comparable shrimp I tried to buy when I was in the Cape. I'm so far inland that everything we get is previously frozen, but have the advantage that certain types of seafood will go onsale because they have to move it. Things aren't regionally traditional foods like scallops(normally $18/lb) and swordfish will go in the mark down tray and I swoop them up for cheap. You have to realize people down here think Catfish is actually "seafood"
I learned the Mainer way quickly while I lived in Bethel. When talking to folks after moving there I told them where I was from. A few people thought I said "Wiscasset", and not Wisconsin. . I went to school for communication, and was a radio DJ in college. TV and radio stations love Midwesterners because we don't have an accent. Now, if you get too far up north, or by Minnesota/ North Dakota then there is a real accent.
I've got many aunts, uncles, and cousins in tomah and sparta. They speak some weird mix of "English" there.
Boy u ain't kidd'n…. My wifey is a UW LaCrosse Wisconsin alumni and a "HARDCORE" Badger fan….. I can't be in the house when Greenbay and Minnesota are playing, I go outside and drink beer
Agreed for the most part... Grouper or Red Snapper would probably have something to say about it - if fish could talk
When my Dad took me fishing as a kid you'd have to say "here fishy fishy fishy" and then they would bite
And I thought I was crazy lol.. I have had fish down south and it was good.. Home port was Norfolk, VA
"Ayuh", I agree that Gulf Shrimp are the best!! I'm not sure that I trust farm raised "responsibly raised" shrimp. **Whatever that means.** I will pay extra for the USA Gulf Shrimp. Now, for lobster, up north in the cold Atlantic waters is where the real deal lives. I love seafood chowder with lotsa' good bread. Mmmmm, mmmm, good. The recipe looks very similar to what I usually do.
All in jest Ray. I first moved from Maine to RI, to NC(that's down south), to VA, to AL and several short hops in between
I'm a hardcore Green Bay and Badger fan as well. UW Stevens Point grad here. I moved to Maine in 2000, and back to Sconnie a year later. Long story, but I enjoyed the time I had there, and spent a ton of time in the outdoors there.
