Old Topic, 3 lbs of fresh clams, lets make New England chowder

Clam Chowder

 

Weight or Volume                                                                        Ingredients

4 pounds                                                                                  Cherrystone clams

½ cup                                                                                       White wine

1 ½ cups                                                                                  Water

1 ½ pounds                                                                              Bakers, diced

4 cups                                                                                      Manufacturing cream

 ¼ pound                                                                                  Roux, cold

½ pound                                                                                   Carrot, diced

½ pound                                                                                   Red onion, diced

½ pound                                                                                   Celery, diced

2 tablespoons                                                                           Garlic, fine chop

1 ½ teaspoons                                                                          Oregano, chopped

1 teaspoon                                                                               Thyme, chopped

½ teaspoon                                                                              Basil, chopped

1/16 teaspoon                                                                          Red chilies, chopped

¼ teaspoon                                                                              Nam pla

to taste                                                                                     Salt

to taste                                                                                     Black pepper, fresh ground

           

Procedure:

Combine the wine and  water. Bring to a boil. Add clams and cover. Cook over medium high heat until clams open. About 8 minutes. Remove the clams and refrigerate. Strain broth through etamine. Add enough cold water to bring broth up to 3 cups. When the clams are cool, chop. Combine cream and potatoes and bring to a boil. Cook until tender. Drain off cream and save. Refrigerate potatoes. Combine carrots, red onions, celery, and garlic and sauté until golden brown. Add oregano, thyme, basil, and chilies and sauté briefly. Deglaze with clam broth. Add reserved cream and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Bring up to a boil and add roux. Cook until desired consistency. Add clams, nam pla, and reserved potatoes. Adjust seasoning with s&p.

What's "manufacturing cream"?

 

Haven't MADE clam chowder in a LONG time, but love it.  For me, it's pretty much a toss-up whether it's "New England" or "Manhattan" style.  If it's RED, I think of it as vegetable soup with clams... similar ingredients... carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, tomato-something.  I like to start off with a few strips of bacon to crisp up and get some nice brown stuff on bottom of Dutch oven or soup pot.  I prepare clams pretty much the same as in the nicely detailed recipe above... like to strain broth thru several layers of cheese cloth... any errant grit is a total turn-off for me. 

 

I know you have FRESH clams, and this might be heresy... but I've had nice results with canned clams and broth.

Manufacturing cream has a higher fat content than heavy cream in most areas but that can vary based on the individual dairy farm. Heavy cream will work just fine and of course you can always increase the fat content with butter. I'm not sure I've ever seen manufacturing cream sold at retail.

A key step for me would be starting by rendering diced smoked bacon in my mirepoix and utilizing clam broth or perhaps fume instead of water (or straight chicken stock) which seems fairly common.

 

Dave

Smart & Final carries it in California, around $8/half gallon
 

 

I ran across this today and I thought it might be of interest.

 

Dave

 

http://networkedblogs.com/vXRzZ

 

@ duck fat Ive seen that recipe in one of the books I have.
I modified it to make a s.w. style clam chowder
86 the potato and add 1.5 cups cheddar, 3chipoltles extra fine mince 4tbsp chipoltle adobo sauce (I prefer Embassa for both since they're canned together) and doubble the bacon