New England Clam Chowder
Thick, milky, faintly briny, and absolutely the thing to eat while staring out of a window at weather. Small potato dice is the whole trick to getting it done inside twenty minutes.
- Total time
- 19 min
- Serves
- 2
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 10 in the basket.
How you make it
Tap any open clams on the worktop and throw away every one that does not close, then steam the rest in a covered pan with 100ml water over high heat for 4 minutes.
Lift out the clams, discarding any that stayed shut, strain their liquor through a fine sieve and keep it; pull most of the meat from the shells.
Fry the bacon in the rinsed pan over medium heat for 3 minutes until the fat runs, add the onion and cook 2 minutes until soft, then stir in the flour and cook 1 minute.
Add the potatoes, the reserved clam liquor and the bay leaf, and simmer covered for 7 minutes until the potato is tender to a knife tip.
Pour in the milk and cream and bring to a bare simmer, never a boil, then return the clam meat and warm through for 1 minute only.
Remove the bay leaf, season with the pepper, taste before adding any salt, and finish with the parsley.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. New England Clam Chowder is sitting in the American kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the American kitchen
Portions that need two hands and no apology.