Cathe's Clam Chowder

* Exported from MasterCook *

CATHE'S CLAM CHOWDER

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Soups

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
6 sl Bacon (or more)
1 lg Onion, chopped
24 oz Clam juice, bottle
-(Doxee brand)
1/2 ts Garlic, dried, minced
1 lg Potato, baking
10 oz Baby clams, canned
-(Orleans brand)
3 tb Cornstarch
1/4 c Half & half (or more)
-(or cream )
1 t Garlic salt (Lowry's)
1/4 ts Black pepper

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.)



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