Let me bring you up to speed. In September, the family and I moved from the conservative, blue collar, fish fry, steel city known as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the state of conservation, rainbows and GMO-free range Teriyaki and Phó. That's right. I now reside in Washington. Olympia, Washington to be exact. Quite the cross country move, I know. And no, I don't have any ganja recipes... yet. Long story short, I wanted to get my hands on some seafood! I live near the Pacific Ocean now, baby. Fresh seafood is hard (and expensive) to come by in Pittsburgh. My oldest spawn loves her some clams. We always buy enough clams to eat fresh... but mom loves her some chowdah. Soup's on, ya'll!
This recipe is creamy, sweet, savory, and delicious. Perfect for the winter days ahead and pretty easy to prepare. Find a nice, crunchy bread to dip it into.
Kert's Clam Chowdah'
Serves 2-4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
- 1/2 pint of cream
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 3 pieces of thick sliced bacon- chopped
- 1/2 cup frozen corn (or class it up with the fresh stuff)
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 cup leeks chopped
- 4 medium white potatoes, diced
- 1 shallot finely chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 2 small carrots, chopped
- Pinch of whole fennel seeds *optional
- bay leaf
- 1lb freshly steamed and chopped little neck clams or 2 cans o' clams (reserve the juice)
- salt
- pepper
- fresh thyme
In a large sauce pot, on medium heat, add your bacon. Once the pieces are cooked and crunchy, remove them from the grease and let it drain on a paper towel- set aside for later. Lower the heat a tad and (to the bacon grease) add the shallots, leeks, celery, carrots and bay leaf. Stir it around a bit for a minute or two, raise the temperature to medium-high heat and add the clams, clam juice, stock, fennel, corn, peas and potatoes. Let that simmer together for 15 minutes. Once the liquids have reduced, add the cream. Let that sit, stirring occasionally, on a low simmer, for another 15-20 minutes until it has reduced and thickened slightly. TASTE IT! The bacon and clam juice add a bunch of salt to the soup already, but, you may want more? If it needs it, put some in thurrr. Feel free to fish out the bay leaf, but, in my house- whoever gets it in their bowl gets to do the dishes. No brainer. Leave it in there.
Ladle the chowder into your bowls and top with the crunchy bacon pieces, fresh thyme and freshly cracked pepper. You need a big hunk o' bread with this, too. Make sure you've made your own bread made from freshly pressed durum wheat and aged Sicilian sourdough as well as freshly picked thyme... and invited all of your sassy gay friends. If you don't have homemade bread and only mediocre gay friends, store-bought is fine... I guess?
