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Cathe's Clam Chowder

Category: Soups

Author: The Savvybearcat

Date: 1/1/2007

Rating:

(3.0) by 1 users

Ingredients:

6 slice Bacon (or more)
1 large Onion, chopped
24 oz Clam juice, bottle (Doxee brand)
1/2 tsp Garlic, dried, minced
1 large Potato, baking
10 oz Baby clams, canned (Orleans brand)
3 tbsp Cornstarch
1/4 cup Half & half (or more) (or cream )
1 tsp Garlic salt (Lowry's)
1/4 tsp Black pepper

Instructions:

Fry bacon in 3-quart pan until brown. Reserve 2 T. bacon grease in
pan; remove bacon to paper towel to drain well. Crumble bacon and
save it for later. (Can cook bacon in microwave and transfer 2 T
grease to 3-quart pan.)

Saute chopped onion in bacon grease until translucent. Shake one of
the three bottles of clam juice well; add to the sauteed onion. Stir
in dried minced garlic and let come to a boil. Boil until the liquid
is reduced by half, but don't let the liquid get so low that the
sauteed onion and minced garlic brown.

Shake the other two bottles of clam juice well and add to the mixture
in the pan. Bring to boil.

Scrub the baking potato well (or peel it, if you want to); cut it into
half-inch cubes. Add to the boiling clam juice and reduce heat (to
low) -- so the mixture bubbles gently -- until the potatoes are
almost done.

Meanwhile, drain the baby clams, reserving the juice in a cup. Put the
clams aside. Stir the cornstarch into the reserved clam juice,
blending well.

When the potatoes are just barely done, remove the pan from the heat.
Re-mix the cornstarch and clam juice and add to the soup, stirring
constantly as you pour the cornstarch mixture into the pan. Return
pan to heat and stir constantly until thickened. (This may seem too
thick.) Remove from heat and stir in the baby clams and the crumbled
bacon. Add half and half or cream until soup is the consistency you
want it. (If you don't want it so creamy, use milk or skim milk
instead.)

Add garlic salt and black pepper to taste; serve warm. Do not let the
soup boil once the baby clams are added; boiling will turn them into
rubber. This makes about a quart of soup, enough to serve 4 with no
leftovers.

Vicki's notes:

* The recipe that Cathe gave me in the 70s called for only two
bottles of clam juice (instead of three), 1/2 C half & half (instead
of 1/4 C), 2 T cornstarch (instead of 3 T), 2 teaspoons minced garlic
(instead of 1/2 t), 1/4 t garlic salt (instead of 1 t), and no black
pepper or bacon (just 2 T drippings for frying).

It also called for 1/4 t each lemon pepper and sweet basil, 2 t dried
parsley, 3 drops Tabasco sauce and 1/4 C sauterne, none of which are
called for in this recipe. The only things the same are the potato,
the onion and the 10 oz. can for baby clams (Geisha). (The recipe
said you could substitute a 7 oz can of minced clams if you had to.)