CREAMY SOUTHERN SEAFOOD OR FISH CHOWDER

Steps:

• Cook ham hock, bacon or salt pork until some fat is rendered, and then remove meat. Salt pork is more traditionally New England, but I just wanted a little smokey pork fat in my dish so I went with the ham hock.
• Pour off as much fat as you like and add butter or olive oil.
• In large pot add stock, milk, ham hock, bay leaves, pepper, thyme, Old Bay, salt and diced potatoes and bring to a simmer. If using bacon or salt pork, you can wait to add until the end.
• Sprinkle flour over butter and mix until light yellow (blonde) in color and flour is lightly cooked.
• Add onions, carrots and celery to roux and cook down for about 15 minutes until onions have lost a lot of their water and carrots are soft. The mixture should be quite thick, and will need to be stirred frequently at medium high heat.
• Add garlic to onion mixture and cook for a few more minutes.
• Once potatoes are starting to soften, but are not yet done, add onion and carrot mixture and stir.
• Bring mixture to a boil then reduce heat to medium to simmer. At this point of the mixture looks too thick you can add some more vegetable stock. I like to taste at this point to adjust salt etc. as well.
• Mix in corn and cook until corn is warmed.
• Add seafood mixture to pot and mix in lightly.
• Add cream and cheese and mix in until just smooth.
• At this point turn the pot to low or medium low, and as soon as the seafood is cooked it's ready to eat.
• This is definitely better the next day or after it's sat for a while, so you can leave it on a very low heat for a few hours or stick it in the fridge and reheat on the stove slowly the next day.
• You can remove the ham hock, or pull some of the meat off of it and add it inches.
• Serving it up with some crusty bread was perfect!