Clam Chowder

With the colder weather comes soup-making season. To start it off this year, I decided to go all out and make something pretty decadent - clam chowder. I had never bought canned clams before, and was excited to make something rich, flavourful and different. It was early in the Thanksgiving weekend so turkey-mania hadn't started yet. I decided to go with Michael Smith's Maritime Clam Chowder because, hey, the guy's from PEI - he must know his stuff!

I got out my Dutch oven and started with the bacon - four slices, chopped in with scissors, with a splash of water. Cook until crispy, then get rid of most of the fat. Add in one onion, chopped, and two celery stalks, chopped, with another splash of water to get the brown bits loose from the bottom of the pan. Nothing like bacon to make the kitchen smell good! I skipped the splash of white wine (didn't have any) and added 1 cup milk and 1 cup half-and-half - heavy cream would've been so rich. I also added in about 1 cup of the liquid from the clam cans, as this was written in other recipes I saw online.

With the liquid went in the other ingredients - two 5-oz cans of clams, 1 large baking potato, unpeeled and coarsely grated (to thicken the chowder, baking potatoes are best), 2 bay leaves and 1 tsp dried thyme. I think I may have added extra, because the thyme became the most powerful flavour - it smelled like Thanksgiving stuffing! Not a bad thing. Cook on low for twenty minutes, to cook the potatoes - but keep an eye on it, as I found it was still burning a little on the bottom, even though the element was on low.

Add 1 can of evaporated milk, and keep cooking for another few minutes. Garnish with salt, pepper, and parsley (if you have it) and voila - a rich, steaming bowl of clam chowder! Way better than opening a can. It tasted like cream and thyme, mostly, with soft grated potatoes and chewy clams. Very simple, with few ingredients - I highly suggest if you see canned clams on sale, grab them and keep them for a Maritime-themed night. Even better, do as they do in San Francisco and get some sourdough bread bowls - YUM