I wanted to make some more seafood soups so I decided to play around a little bit. I decided to make a non traditional crab soup. This is different from Maryland Crab Soup in that it is a blend of different styles of soups. I took the concept of a cream of crab, a chowder, and Maryland crab soup, then combined them. I ended up with a surprisingly light soup that is velvety, creamy, as well as loaded with vegetables and crab meat.
I had a surplus of vegetables in my garden including tomatoes, long beans, as well as a fair amount of carrots to use. Feel free to swap up the particular ones, just make sure to include some sort of potato, some corn, and some sort of bean, be it Lima, green, or long. The celery in here shifts the soup more towards a chowder style vegetable, and the carrots just add that extra crunch.
To keep the texture of the vegetables I wanted I started this by creating a poaching broth. I used this to blanch the vegetables, then after as the liquid base. If I had shells I would have add them here, cooked them for a while, then blended and strained the broth. Instead, I bought some crab base at one of my local Asian markets and started from there.
Once the vegetables were cooked, and the broth was fortified I made a roux and added corn, onions and tomatoes. Using the broth and turned this into the base of the soup. Once this was cooked to my liking, I finished the soup with more crab meat and the blanched vegetables.
One thing to note with using crab meat. You always want to gently go through it to remove any shell or cartilage fragments. Since I've been cooking I can hardly remember a time when I've used crab meat, and not found a piece to remove.
Enjoy.
Ingredients
Broth and Base
chicken stock 2 qt
Old Bay 2 T
Avenue Spice 2 T
water 1 Qt
crab base 4 T
corn cobs 4 ea
lemon, zested and juice 1 ea
oregano 3 sprigs
salt as needed
Poaching Vegetables
carrots, sliced 1 lb
celery, sliced 1 bunch
potatoes, peeled and medium chopped 2 lb
long beans, 1"-2" segments 1/2 lb
Soup
butter 1/4 lb
flour 1 cup
crushed red pepper 1 tsp
bay leaves 3 ea
tomatoes, diced 2 ea
tomato sauce* 12 oz
corn, kernels removed 4 ea
onion, diced 3 ea
cream 2 cups
sherry 1/2 cup
sherry vinegar 3 T
mustard 3 T
lemon, juiced and zested 1 ea
crab meat, lump, cleaned 2 lb
broth, strained all
water as needed
salt as needed
pepper as needed
Avenue Spice 1 T
*My neighbor had brought me a jar of tomato sauce she had made from her garden vegetables. A can of store bought, or neutral homemade, sauce is perfect for this.
Garnish
chives, parsley leaves, and jumbo lump crab meat, oyster crackers if desired
Method of Procedure
Combine your ingredients for your poaching broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 40 minutes and season to taste with salt.
While you broth is simmering, prepare your vegetables.
Skim out your corn cobs and your oregano.
Blanche off your carrots, beans, and celery at a time to bring each one to your desired texture. Remove and shock with ice. Each vegetable should still have a crunch to it when finished.
Cook your potatoes longer than your vegetables, about 8 minutes depending on the size of your cut, until tender and no crunch. Shock with ice and reserve your broth for the soup.
Heat your soup pot and add your butter, onions, bay leaves, and crushed red pepper.
Once the butter has melted and the onions have softened, add your flour and stir until you get a light blonde roux.
Add your corn and diced tomatoes and continue to stir on medium heat for another 5-10 minutes to get the base set.
Add your sherry and sherry vinegar and cook until reduced by half.
Add your mustard, lemon juice and zest, cream, tomato sauce, and poaching broth then simmer until thickened.
Season to taste with Avenue Spice.
Add your cleaned crab meat and simmer for an additional 30 minutes until all the flavors have married.
To serve heat your vegetables and potatoes with a portion of the crab soup and plate.
Finish with some jumbo lump crab meat and chives.
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