Clamless Clam Chowder

It’s August.  It’s hot.  It’s time to hit the pool.  And I’m making clam chowder! 

You could blame it on the pregnancy.  After all pregnant women crave all sorts of weird things, like pickles with ice cream.  But for me, I start craving soups in the middle of July when it’s 110 degrees no matter if I’m pregnant or not.  My aunt is the same way.  She and I could eat soups year-round.  This year I used my pregnancy as an excuse to make clam chowder in the middle of summer. The only problem with clam chowder is the clams. 

I love the creamy seafood flavor, the feel of my teeth sinking into a soft onion or carrot, and the occasional soft crunch of a cracker.  It’s the perfect flavor-texture combo for me.  But then my molars hit a nauseating, chewy, rubbery clam.  It never breaks up into smaller pieces no matter how long I chew it.  It only flattens out into a rubbery unpleasant mess inside my mouth. 

I was about eight years old when I first had clam chowder.  Mom and I were in a fast food seafood restaurant when I bit into a big, chewy clam. 

“Mom!  I don’t want to eat this!” I whined.

“Just swallow it,” she whispered.

“Can’t I spit it out?”
“Just swallow.  We’re in a restaurant.  There’s no reason to spit it out.”

She eventually let me spit the offensive piece of clam in a napkin. 

It was a long time before I had clam chowder after that. 

When I started making my own clam chowder, I endured the chewiness of the occasional clam. Everything else about the soup was worth it.  Over the years, I got sick of the clams ruining my meal and started picking them out.  Some people told me to just make a veggie chowder.  Though I considered it, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I love the flavor the clams bring to the soup. 

I recently came up with an idea.  Why not pour the clam juice in, but leave the clams out?  It may not be as flavorful, but at least I won’t have to bite into a clam.  The idea was a success!  I almost singlehandedly ate an entire batch of clamless clam chowder in four days.  (Okay so maybe being pregnant does have something to do with me craving clam chowder in August). 

The clamless clam chowder started off with buying minced clams, straining the clams to get every drop of flavor out of them, then throwing them away.  A slightly tedious and wasteful process, but I didn’t have to bite into a clam.  Then my mother discovered bottled clam juice!  Clamless clam chowder just became that much easier, tasty, and less wasteful!

Now I can eat clam chowder without the fear that my next spoonful of creamy, vegetable, seafood goodness will contain a repulsive chewy clam.

Don't ask me how to juice a clam!

In honor of my culinary success, I am sharing this non-summer recipe with you.  Hey, maybe you’re like my aunt and I, and love soups all year round, or maybe you’re just pregnant.

Clamless Clam Chowder

Ingredients:

1 cup clam juice

4-5 cups of Veggies (you can leave any of the veggies out if you don’t like them).

Potatoes (red potatoes are the best and you don’t have to peel them)!

Celery

Carrots

Onion

¾ cup butter (1½ cubes)

½-¾ cup flour (the more flour the thicker the soup)

1 quart half & half

2 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

½ tsp sugar

Chop veggies and put in large pot. 

Pour clam juice over veggies

Add enough water to barely cover veggies.  If you add too much water your soup won’t be as thick.

Place lid over pot and turn on medium heat. 

Meanwhile in a separate medium pot melt butter.

The butter melts faster if you cut it up

Add flour and cook until blended (about 1-2 minutes). 

SLOWLY add half & half.  Keep heat on low-medium so it doesn’t burn the rue.  Turning the heat on high WILL NOT make it cook faster.

Constantly stir rue with spatula.  Once it’s thickened pour over veggies and stir to combine. 

Add salt, pepper, and sugar.  

Continue to let simmer so soup can thicken.  Try not to boil.  (I say try, because in the original recipe it says not to boil it, but no matter how low I turn the heat, it always boils a little).

Refrigerate leftovers

Cooks Suggestion:

·      This soup is great served in a bread bowl (don’t ask me how to make those), or with homemade rolls, or for something simpler, saltine crackers.

·      I like the leftovers better then the fresh soup.  The flavors have had time to soak in and meld with each other, and it’s a lot thicker.  

Can I just say YUM!

A day after eating the last of my clamless clam chowder I told a friend I wanted more. 

“I was so tempted to get the ingredients at the store today,” I told her.

“Well why didn’t you?” she asked.

“Because I need to give my stomach a rest from all that milk.”  (Slightly lactose intolerant person here!)

“Well make it next week,” she said.

“No, I’ll make it tomorrow.” 

Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s the pregnancy cravings.