Seafood Chowder with Spaetzle

We wanted something different, some warmth during the still cold months but something not as heavy as red meat.

I have been wanting to try out Kiwi chef Fleur Sullivan's recipe when she did it on Masterchef Australia a couple of months ago.  Please follow to the link to the original Master Class recipe.

I did use some gourmet marinara mix instead of the shell fish because it's easier for the children and used what I have on hand.  The marinara mix consists of prawns, calamari, mussels and king fish fillets.

For the Chowder:
100g butter
100g plain flour
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine
2 tsp Hungarian paprika
600g gourmet marinara mix
chopped parsley and oregano
1 fennel
1 carrot
half of onion
1 glove of garlic
1 lt fish stock

For the Spaetzle:
250g plain flour
160ml milk
1 large egg
pinch of salt.

Method:

For the Chowder, melt butter in pan, sweat the vegitables, add in flour and cook and stir till it's sandy, add tomato paste and wine, make sure there's no lumps,  and slowly add the warmed stock to make roux, keep stirring to make sure there's no lumps.  Add herbs and spice, and then bring the sauce to boil and add the seafood mix, allow to cook quickly.

For the Spaetzle, mix ingredient to make a very wet dough, let it sit for a while when making chowder.  Boil a big pot of water with a bit of salt when chowder is almost ready, and put dough into the ricer (my potato ricer has got 3 discs and one of them is the spaetzle setting) and squeeze into the simmering water.

When cooked, drain and stir through some olive oil.

Serve....