Smoked Corn, Ham And Crab Chowder

Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 5 -7 crab legs, cooked, cleaned, picked through and shells reserved (use your judgement, you want about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of crab)
• 200 g smoked ham, cubed (if you are buying store bought, ask them to cut it all in one thick slice)
• 1 ear of corn, smoked
• 1 beefsteak tomato, smoked
• 1 head garlic, smoked
• 3 shallots, finely diced
• 1 celery rib, finely diced
• 1 jalapeno, finely diced
• 1 chipotle chile in adobo, finely diced plus 1 tsp adobe sauce from can
• 10 ounces bottled clam juice
• 8 cups water
• salt and pepper
• crouton (optional)

Recipe

• 1 put the crab shells and 8 cups of water in a stockpot. boil it down until you have about 4-5 cups. strain into another pot, discard the shells and set aside.
• 2 in the original pot, sweat off your shallot, celery and jalapeno pepper for about 3-4 minutes, until soft.
• 3 take your head of garlic and squeeze out all the cloves into the pot. mix until well combined.
• 4 remove the kernals from the ear of corn using a knife and add the corn.
• 5 take the tomato in your hand and squeeze it into the pot. rip the tomato into bite size pieces, discarding the hard core.
• 6 add the ham, chipotle, adobe sauce, clam juice and reduced stock.
• 7 bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. simmer for about 30 minutes.
• 8 add the crab, mix well. simmer for another 15 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste. serve with croutons if desired.