Manhattan Clam Chowder. Tomato based, a little bit spicy, herby & smokey. This is such a beautiful soup!
Little know fact about me. I used to eat New England clam chowder at nearly every restaurant that offered it. It was my favorite. Then something in my body changed and for the past twenty years, I cannot digest dairy with shellfish. I won’t go into the terrible details!
But I love clams. I love a good soup. I hadn’t had the tomato based cousin in maybe thirty years!
A good friend asked me to make it, so I played with the recipe and made this HUGE stock pot worth of Manhattan clam chowder for him to share with his family.
Here is the scaled down version for all of you!
Ingredients:
1 bottle of clam juice
1 can of whole clams
1 can of chopped clams.
1 16 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 bouillon cubes
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 finely chopped onion
3 finely chopped carrots
3 finely chopped celery stalks with the leaves
4 -6 diced Yukon gold potatoes
8 strips of thickly cut bacon
1 tbsp of tomato paste
1/2 cup wine (I had red)
1 tbsp dry thyme
1 tbsp dry oregano
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
Salt & pepper to taste
Directions
Cut the bacon into pieces and fry the bacon at the bottom of the pot. When cooked, drain the bacon. Add the wine to deglaze the pot. Add the onion, garlic, carrots & celery. When these have softened, add the tomato paste. Add in the canned diced tomatoes. Fill that same can with water and add that. Toss in a bay leaf.
Add the potatoes & clam juice. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer till the potatoes have softened.
Add the canned clams with their juice & the bacon.
Let that simmer for 45 minutes or so.
Salt & pepper to taste.
At the end, add the dry thyme, oregano & fresh parsley. Salt & pepper to taste.
Serve it with fresh lemon juice.
Kali Oreksi!
on xenia street 