Secrets to the Best Clam Chowder – December 28, 2008

*Again, this post is uber late. I hope to finish the posts for 2008 by the end of 2009. Baby steps, lol.

** By the time I finished making the chowder, we were both starving and wolfed down our bowls. The only "final result" pictures were taken when I was putting the leftovers away.

I have discovered some secrets to making the most addictive New England-style clam chowder. Of course, I’m going to make you read the entire post to figure them out.

As a kid, New England-style clam chowder from a can was my favourite soup of all time. Yes, it even beats crab and fish maw soup. It was one of the most comforting smells of my childhood. We stopped buying that particular brand of soup (don’t know what it was called, but we bought it in three-packs from Price Club), and I had to eat Chunky New England Clam Chowder. Disappointing.

Years later, my mum decided she would make it from scratch. She used to make it when she worked at a deli *slash* pastry shop all the time. While I watched her pull a few ingredients together to make a glorious pot of happiness, I realized it wasn't difficult to make from scratch at all.

The ingredient list is long because I make up recipes as I cook. I’ve been experimenting with my chowder for the past year and a half, and so far, this rendition has given me the best results. Of course, I don’t use exact measurements when I cook (unless I’m making pastry or cookies), so all of this is pretty much made-up anyways. Feel free to omit or substitute ingredients to your taste/convenience.

From start to finish, the chowder takes almost an hour and a half to make. This is no quick dinner fix, y’all.

Warning: this recipe makes almost 8 cups of chowder!!! You’ll need two large pots to make it all work. If you want to see if the recipe suits your taste, I suggest you halve the recipe. Proceed with caution.

4 cups potatoes chopped into ½ inch cubes, preferably red potatoes
Enough water to cover the potatoes, plus a half-inch
1 tbsp powdered chicken stock (yes, the neon yellow one with bright green flecks)
3 slices bacon, minced
2 tsp butter
1 large onion, diced
2 tsp minced herbs (I’ve used different herbs each time, and somehow, the chowder turns out tasting the same every time. It’s a mystery.)
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¾ cup half-and-half cream (10%)
1 cup milk (if you use skim milk, increase the half-and-half to 1 cup. This is definitely not a low-fat recipe.)
1 bottle of clam juice
1 can of clams
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Start boiling 2 cups of water with the powdered chicken stock, while peeling and chopping the potatoes.

A note about the potatoes: I prefer red potatoes for the texture. When raw, they are firm and waxy, making it easy to peel and chop. After they are cooked, they become creamy without losing their shape. Also, they don’t melt when you boil them for a long time. I like that they stay chunky and keep their bite (toothful?) in the chowder, even after freezing and reheating.

2. Add the potatoes to the water, and fill the pot with enough water to cover the potatoes, plus half an inch.

3. If you’ve prepped everything and everything is in place (mise en place), take some time to chill. The potatoes will take at least 15 minutes to cook, so sit back and have a coffee. If you’re like me and you prep while you cook, start mincing the bacon and dicing the onion.

4. Check on the potatoes after 15 minutes. You want to make sure that a fork will easily pierce through a chunk of potato. When it’s ready, drain and reserve the water.

5. Find the pot you want the chowder to end up in, and heat it up to medium-high with the butter and bacon, stirring occasionally.



6. When the bacon begins to brown and turn crispy, crank the heat to high and toss in the onions with the herbs and a pinch of salt. The idea is to brown some of the onions for some flavour.

I mentioned earlier that it really doesn’t matter which minced herbs you use, or if it’s fresh, frozen, or dried. I swear, it really doesn’t. Use the herbs that smell comforting to you. This time, I used rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil, and parsley. The last time, I used rosemary, oregano, and sage. The differences in taste were subtle at the end, since the focus is on the flavour of the clams.

7. Add the flour after the onions soften. Stir vigorously, and turn the heat down to medium.

8. When the mixture starts to turn golden (but before it turns brown), add the cream slowly. Be careful, the mixture will bubble, hiss, and splash. Stir continuously while pouring the cream.

9. Add the milk, nutmeg, clam juice, and half of the strained potatoes. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well.

10. While the cream mixture is heating up, mash the rest of the potatoes with some of the reserved potato water until it resembles a loose batter. An easy substitution would be to mix leftover mashed potatoes with some potato water until it reaches the loose batter consistency. This is to help thicken the chowder without resorting to reducing ungodly amounts of cream.

11. Once the cream mixture is bubbling, add the mashed potato mixture. Stir well, since the mashed potato will sink to the bottom and burn, if you’re not careful.

12. Turn the heat down to medium-low while the chowder starts to reduce and thicken. It should simmer for at least 20 minutes.

13. Check the consistency of the chowder. If it is too thin, reduce further. If it is too thick, add more of the reserved potato water.

14. Check the taste of the chowder. If you’ve been doing it properly, you should have seasoned the chowder almost every time you added a new ingredient.

15. Just before serving, add the clams and turn off the heat. The clams should never be boiled because it will make them tough and chewy.

16. Do a final taste test and make adjustments accordingly. Make sure you stir well and cover the pot for 10 minutes.

17. Ladle into bowls and serve with crackers or warm bread.



You can do a lot of tweaking with the recipe and adjust the chowder to how you like it. I like a sinfully rich chowder with large chunks of potatoes. The mashed potatoes are the perfect way to cut more cream out of the chowder without sacrificing its luxurious mouthfeel.

Since this makes a giant pot of clam chowder, you can refrigerate or freeze the leftovers. I always freeze a large container or two for those lazy lunch days. You can gently reheat it on the stove (remember not to boil the chowder, unless you want chewy clams) or microwave. If you use a microwave, stop it every 30 seconds and stir thoroughly until it is heated through. I find that the chowder is a lot thicker after reheating, so keep some milk on hand to get it back to your desired consistency.

And I really don’t know what the deal is about the herbs. Seriously, I have tried at least four different combinations of herbs, and the end result has always tasted like clam chowder. You will notice small differences in the aroma of the chowder, but it’s almost like an afterthought.

My secrets to making a successful pot of clam chowder come down to a handful of things: patience, low heat, mashed potatoes, and adjusting while you cook. Not really so secret if you think about it.

Happy chowder-ing!

Months-late Christmas Post - December 25, 2008

I can’t believe I forgot to blog about Christmas. Now that it’s been two months, I’ve lost a bunch of details. Here’s a super quick rundown of the dinner.

This year, we only had a medium-sized turkey and a large ham. No roast beef, sadly. This is a shot of the meat platter for the kids’ table. (Side note: I got bumped back to the kids table this year because we had some relatives come in from Toronto. Lame.)

After discovering the convenience and general awesomeness of frozen baguettes, we have had them at every family meal that required bread. These are the first of a dozen baguettes we baked.

I didn’t make the mashed potatoes this year, but they tasted awesome. Creamy but light, it’s hard to go wrong with loads of butter.

My mum’s famous stuffing X2. Our younger brother, Richard, made it with mum's guidance. There was cubed bread, celery, mushrooms, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, cheese, and some boiling water.

Normally, we make the gravy ahead of time and add the delicious meat juices just before serving. We did the same this year. This was the gravy with mushrooms and slivered onions, but minus the turkey juice.

We had two salads—a Caesar salad and the family-favourite heart of palm salad. My uncle's dressing is made with a mix of mayo, malt vinegar, salt and pepper. It's a really punchy dressing that really complements all the veggies.

While us kids *pout* ate in the kitchen, the adults *rolls eyes* ate in the dining room.

We had mini cheesecake squares for dessert. There was maple pecan for sure, but I can't remember the other flavours. I believe they were from Costco. No pictures of these, sorry.

This Christmas was a lot less hectic than previous years. Most of the time was spent playing on the Wii (Raving Rabbids) and watching movies (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, creepy Johnny Depp remake). I was only home for three days (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day), so the holidays went by quickly for me. I think I’ll have to book some more time off for next year. Christmas should never be rushed.

Fin.

The Mystery of Kare Raisu's Popularity

This is just a note – not really a post. I’ve noticed over the past year that this kare raisu (read: curry rice) recipe post seems to be the most popular post of the blog. We’ve generated more hits (including image searches) on that one post than all of the others combined. Google keeps sending people our way. I thought it was pretty strange, seeing as the recipe is not really a recipe. I just followed the instructions on the package of roux and made a few adjustments. Funny how Google works.



There are more posts about home-cooked meals on the way, so stay tuned!

Trip to “La Belle Ville” Part 2 – August 24, 2008

*Continued from before. I’ve only got two shots of the same picture, so here’s the second one. I’ll even include my palm on the left side of the frame for free. ;) I’m going to rush through the next few posts so that I can get to the more recent stuff. I hope to be caught up in two weeks, but that depends on how my schedule works out.*

Old Montreal was beautiful. If I recall correctly, it was sweltering hot. Of course, we were walking around just after lunch, so the sun was at its prime.

I lined up to get some ice cream in one shop, only to find out that the place next door had no line. Major bummer.

There was a Nouvelle-France festival going on. It was pretty interesting looking, but the boys didn’t feel like sticking around. I made a mental note to myself to drop by with history-buff friends.

We walked to a museum or convention centre by the water, and cooled off in the air-conditioned food court. I got a yogurt smoothie because I was just DYING from the heat and humidity.

Eventually, we decided it was just too hot to walk around without any shade. Our friend suggested hitting up rue Ste-Catherine for some trendy shopping. Since having a job and being able to pay for my frivolous spending, I have NEVER shopped on Ste-Catherine. I was in heaaaaaaaaaven! Classy little boutiques, brand-name stores, reputable restaurants, and even strip clubs on every block! It was packed with tourists and locals alike. I got a cute little hat from the Gap, not that I couldn’t get it another Gap at home. It was special because it was the first hat I’ve ever bought for myself. And because it’s the only souvenir I have from this trip.

It started to rain, so we quickly made our way back to the car. I was heartbroken. If I had the choice, I would have continued to shop for the rest of the day.

Then I had the great idea to visit Krispy Kreme. The boys had never experienced the joy that is a freshly glazed donut, straight off the Krispy Kreme conveyor belt. We drove around the mall three or four times before we decided to ask someone at the movie theatre. I was so disappointed when the box office cashier told me that it had gone out of business. No donuts for us that day. Sigh.

Now that our little adventure to the land of cushiony donuts failed, we were bored. Keep in mind that this trip was a Sunday daytrip, so there wasn’t much else we could do at 5:00 in the afternoon. We ended up at a small pool hall *slash* bar *slash* lounge. I think it was called Sharky’s, or something close to that. We played for a few hours and had a few beers, but soon, our stomachs were too hungry to be ignored.

We went to a little pho place. I wish I could remember more, or had the foresight to pickup a business card or takeout menu, but alas, I was hungry, damnit! I remember I ordered the special (with all sorts of little bits of beef), and it was good. The soup wasn’t too sweet, and the noodles were cooked to the perfect chewiness. The meat stuffs were good, too. The flavour wasn’t cooked out of them, making each bite deliciously beefy. I only ordered a small bowl, so I had plenty of space for some Vietnamese dessert. It was the one with coconut milk, red bean, yellow bean, and noodly jello things. I love almost all Vietnamese desserts, so I guess it doesn’t mean much when I say it was DEEEEEEEELICIOUS.

Since it was getting late, we dropped off our friend and headed back to Ottawa. It was pouring rain at this point, but we still made it back home within two hours. It was one of the best daytrips we’ve taken because of friends, food, and good weather (not so much at the end of the day). Next time we go to Montreal, I’m going to try to find the proper names of the places we visited.