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| New England Clam Chowder |
Not only is this restaurant authentic New England clam chowder, it’s quick, easy and on the table in less than 30 minutes!
I learned to make cream soups from a friend who used to cook in a popular diner. She told me all cream soups are basically made the same and are made in less than 30 minutes. Restaurant cooks don’t have time to really fuss she said. One I make all the time is cream of ham & potato.
This soup is about as authentic as it gets. It has great thyme undertones and is as smooth as silk made with heavy cream.
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| Creamy, authentic and quick! |
Don’t let the heavy cream upset you–there’s only about a cup in there. But if you must, you can use something lower in fat, but don’t use anything less than whole milk! A cream soup should be made with cream. In fact, my chef friend used nothing else but heavy cream in her cream soups. Milk is OK, but certainly not as good as the real deal. Half and Half cream would be a decent lower-fat substitute, but never and I mean NEVER use low-fat milk–it will taste absolutely gross.
Just consider that soup such as this is not an every-day indulgence and unless there’s a health problem, it’s not bad to live it up every so often. 🙂
To turn this into Manhattan clam chowder, substitute canned diced tomatoes (along with the can juice) for the cream and a few drops of Tabasco and some crumbled bacon.
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3-4 small potatoes, peeled and diced (about ½-inch cubes)
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ tsp thyme
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground pepper (use white if you can)
- 1 can (10 oz) baby clams & the liquid
- ½ cup clam juice
- enough water to top up can liquid to 1 cup
- 1 chicken stock cube
- 1 cup heavy cream
- For Thickening:
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 3 tbs water
- Melt butter over medium-low heat in a large heavy saucepan.
- Add the onion, celery, thyme, salt and pepper. Saute until onion is soft, stirring occasionally.
- Drain liquid from can of clams into a measuring cup. Add enough water to make 1 cup of liquid.
- Add the clams, the reconstituted can liquid, clam juice, stock cube and potatoes to the pot with the sauteed mixture. Turn heat to high and cook until liquid begins to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
- Mix the thickening ingredients until smooth. Gradually stir into the hot soup mixture in the pot--this will be VERY thick!! Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture bubbles.
- Add the cream, stirring while adding, until soup is of the desired consistency. You can use more or less cream as desired. More if you like thinner soup, less if you like a really thick soup. The one cup of cream produces a thick-ish soup.
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| New England Clam Chowder |
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