Foodie Friday: GF Seafood Chowder and Cheesy Biscuits

I was inspired (after seeing these recipes from Gina, Gluten Free a couple of weeks ago) to try my hand at making a seafood chowder. Then, when Jaymz and I were at the farmer's market on Saturday, we splurged on some really delicious-looking fresh Oregon crab meat, so I was extra excited to make the chowder.

For this soup, I used the crab meat along with some canned clams, and it turned out so much better than I had anticipated. I hadn't initially planned on making anything to go with it, but Gina's recipe included a roll, so I thought, "Why not!?"

It's the first GF cream-based soup I've tried (though I did recently make cream of mushroom soup, and I determined that it actually needed no milk/cream for texture or taste). Though I did add the optional flour to this soup, I found that it was totally unnecessary for thickening or texture. Next time I'll skip it.

For the chowder, you will need:

3 celery stalks, halved and then chopped thinly
Several (about 5-6) small white potatoes, peeled and diced
A medium onion, diced (I used a red onion.)
2 cups of assorted seafood (Your choice—I used crab and clams.)
1 cup cooked corn
2 cloves of garlic, diced
2 Tablespoons butter
2 cups chicken, fish, or vegetable stock
¾ cup white wine
½ teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon pepper
1½ cup milk
½ cup half and half
¼ cup GF all-purpose flour (optional)
salt to taste

• Sauté the onions and garlic in the butter over medium heat:
  
• While you're doing that, heat the stock and wine over medium heat, adding thyme, bay leaf, pepper, corn, celery, and potatoes.
• When the onions and garlic are tender, add them to the soup pot:
  
• Cook on low-medium heat until the potatoes are tender. (For me, this took quite some time, though I had the temperature turned down pretty low.)
• When the potatoes are cooked, add the seafood (including any juice/water in any canned seafood you used). Bring to a boil for a couple of minutes to cook the seafood, then turn the temperature back down to medium.
• Add the milk, cream, and (optionally) flour, stirring until it begins to thicken and it's heated through:
  
• Add salt to taste.
• Serve immediately! (But don't eat the bay leaf, of course.)

These biscuits were a complete experiment. I based my recipe on the one mentioned above, but I didn't have any tapioca starch, so I mixed some GF flours that I had. You could use only GF all-purpose flour, but I was interested to see how the fava/garbanzo flour would affect the texture and flavor of the biscuit. This is the first time I've tried any "from scratch" GF baking, and I'm really proud of the results.

For the biscuits, you will need:

1 cup GF all-purpose flour
½ cup fava/garbanzo flour
½ cup butter, melted
¼ cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ cup shredded cheese (I used a mix of Parmesan and Mexican blend)

• Preheat your oven to 375°F.
• Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until a smooth dough is formed.
• Drop by heaping spoonfuls (2 Tablespoons or more of dough) onto a greased baking sheet.
• Bake for 20 minutes. (Yields 8 biscuits.)

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Linked up at Food on Fridays at Ann Kroeker, Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free,  Food and Health Carnival at Lisa's Gluten-Free Advice and Healthy Living, and Seasonal Sunday at Real Sustenance.