I have had a hankering for some oyster stew, but was trying to figure out how to give the stew a little more Dave friendly feel... so I decided to make it more of a chowder than a stew. The catch is the consistency of the stew and that is up to you in my opinion. I like mine a bit thicker, but not too thick. So add more milk/water
I mean oyster stew is pretty basic so why not jazz it up a bit? So this is what I did :
Oyster Potato Chowder
1 pint oysters, cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup oyster juice maybe more, up to you
2 large potatoes, diced, boiled to tender
6-8 slices of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1/2 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
1 clove garlic - pressed
2-3 cups of FF milk- plus 1/2 cup water
1 package of instant mashed potatoes
Old Bay Seasoning
hot sauce
celery seed
1 tbsp butter
1. Boil potatoes until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Fry bacon until crisp.... remove to crumble. Reserve 1 tbp bacon drippings and saute onion and celery in the bacon grease- add pressed garlic clove at the end so as not to burn garlic. (Is there anything better than garlic/onion/celery in bacon drippings? I mean, come on!)
3. Add 3 cups of FF milk and water to boil and add the instant mashed potatoes. This is where it gets a bit tricky because you need to watch the consistency of your chowder/stew. Bring it down to medium to low simmer.
4. Add in the potatoes and onion mixture. Add seasonings Watch your consistency again... add oyster juice now.
5. Now add the oysters , butter, and bacon pieces... let them simmer in the stew until the edges curl up... then simmer at low.
Serve with oyster crackers (yes, you must buy them when making oyster stew/chowder) and hot sauce to taste. Garnish with more bacon!
