Crab and corn chowder

Last night the co-signer had to make pickles. She had begun the task the day before with a lot of cucumbers (about 8 pounds). The cukes were sliced and were sitting in cold areas to crisp for a little while. We ran out of time on Sunday to deal with them, so we waited until yesterday to can and pickle them.

While the co-signer dealt with the pickles, I was asked to come up with a chowder recipe for some crab we had in the refrigerator. We bought a 1 pound can of crab meat at Trader Joe's in Issaquah about a week before and had used some of it in salads last week. We still had about three fourths of the pound left. Cooking it a little in soup seemed prudent since it was a little old.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 rib of celery, chopped
2 pounds of potatoes, skinned (if larger; not if baby) and sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 quart stock
2 cups corn (we used a can from Trader Joe's)
3 cups milk
three fourths a pound of crab meat
Worcester sauce
Brother Bru Bru's hot sauce
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper
sweet paprika

Melt the butter with the olive oil over medium heat. When hot add the onion, celery, potatoes, and cumin seeds. Cook until the onions begin to soften. Keep an eye on the pan and stir as necessary so as not to get anything stuck on the bottom. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then turn to low and put a lid on it. Cook until the potatoes are just softened. Add the corn, milk, crab, and a couple of dashes each of Worcester and Brother Bru Bru's. Next, add salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne. Heat on medium low until just heated through - about 5 minutes. Add a pinch of sweet paprika and ladle into bowls.

This turned out very well. The one thing that the co-signer would change is to mash some of the potatoes up in the soup to make it thicker. Another method to thicken it would be to add flour after the onions have softened, cook for a couple of three minutes, then add the stock.

For a side dish, the co-signer toasted some bread with garlic powder and butter. Once toasted slightly, she topped each slice with basil, tomato, and mozzarella (fresh). She then put that back into the oven until the mozzarella melted. Yummy!