Clam Chowder - New England

Click to Enlarge	Clam Chowder - New England U.S. Northeast
	Makes Effort: Sched: DoAhead:	14 cups ** 1 hr Yes	Clam Chowder is perhaps the most famous of all New England recipes, and this recipe, unlike some canned versions, has actual clams in it! I have served this at parties and it's been very well received.

24
1-1/4
4
24
10
8
2
1
1
3
2
1/4
1-1/2
1/4

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oz
oz
oz
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T
c
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Clam meat (1)
Potatoes (2)
Salt Pork (3)
Clam Juice (4)
Onion
Celery w/leaves
Garlic
Chili Serrano (5)
Bay Leaf
Thyme sprigs
Butter
Flour, opt. (6)
Half & Half
Pepper

Prepare CLAMS as appropriate for type - see Note-1.
Peel POTATOES and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Hold in water acidified with citric acid or lemon juice until needed.
Dice SALT PORK about 3/8 inch.
Chop ONIONS and CELERY medium small. Crush GARLIC, slice and chop small. Crush CHILI lightly to split it open. Mix all together with Bay Leaf.
Put Potato dice in a pot along with the Clam Juice and Thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are soft. If not using russets crush a few cubes to thicken the soup.
Place Butter and Salt Pork in a sauté pan and fry gently until the pork renders and starts to become crisp. Stir in Onion mix and continue to fry stirring until onions are translucent and threatening to color.
If using flour (see Note-6), stir it in and fry stirring over gentle heat about 2 minutes, making sure it does not brown at all. Then slowly whisk in reserved clam liquid (from pot, cans or stock per Note-1).
Combine Potatoes and their liquid with the Onion Mix, then stir in Clams and Half & Half. Adjust liquid with stock or clam juice if needed and season with Salt and Pepper. Simmer for about 5 minutes to blend flavors.
Serve immediately or cool quickly and refrigerate for future use. Just bring back to a simmer when needed.

NOTES:

Clams: Officially you should use live New England Hard Clams but here in Southern California the only live clams widely available are the tiny Manilla clams (Japanese littleneck). Less available are Mexican farmed cherrystone size hard clams, but either variety is unacceptably costly for soup. On the other hand, we have a wide variety of frozen clam meat in the Asian markets, and canned clams are widely available. Canned is easiest. Prepare each as follows.
- Live Clams: Scrub clam shells thoroughly, discarding any that are not tightly closed. Put in a pot with about 1-1/2 inches of water on the bottom, bring to a boil and steam just until the clams open. Open the clams completely catching any liquid in them and adding it to the pot. Remove the meat and chop to the size desired, discarding the shells. Strain the liquid to remove any grit it may contain. You should end up with just about the same amount of juice as the amount of water you started with.
- Canned Clams: Recipes always say to use "chopped clams", but around here all we have is "baby clams", which are actually just the right size for chowder right out of the can. Drain the clams keeping all the liquid.
- Frozen Clams: Those found in Asian markets are of very high quality, but unfortunately you don't get any clam broth with them. You will have to make this up with more clam juice, or some fish or shellfish stock. A famous recipe for Rhode Island clam chowder includes chicken broth 3 to 1 with clam juice, so that's acceptable too. Frozen clams are almost always large enough to require chopping to the desired size.
In all cases you should end up with nearly 1 quart of juice.
Potatoes: In New England russet potatoes are used and these are fine for a soup served immediately. For a more durable chowder, like for a party, Yukons or whites work well.
Clam Juice: Snow's seems to have a near monopoly on this stuff around here, though I have found one store with Crown Prince, which I think is a little better. Bottled clam juice is a lot more watery but less salty than the juice from canned clams or from freshly steamed clams.

Salt Pork: This is historically correct, but today bacon is often used instead with some change in flavor.
Chili: This is absolutely non-authentic, but I'm in Southern California where a soup without chilis is all but unthinkable.

Flour: Most New England clam chowder recipes call for thickening with flour. This is, in my opinion, superfluous and degrades flavor so I don't use it - just crush a few pieces of potato for thickening. Commercial clam chowder is generally heavily thickened to cover the fact that it has rather little clam in it.

U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch