Manhattan clam chowder

i stumbled across chopped clams yesterday while food shopping. i love clam chowder. new england, manhattan, i love them both. not only am i a huge soup fan but a big seafood fan as well. a cup of new england clam chowder would of been lovely but i decided on manhattan. i just wanted something simple tasting and organic. this hit the spot. the great thing about making this yourself, i hate when clam chowder is really salty and fishy tasting. this is perfect. you can taste the clams but it's not overwhelming.

i read a lot of recipes last night on how to make clam chowder. none of them thrilled me, of course they all had some great ideas. one being bacon :-) 

so folks, i experimented, and it worked! it was a wonderful bowl of soup. we had it with some warm crusty bread...yum!

? 1 leek chopped

? 1 small onion chopped

? 3 stalks of celery chopped

? 1/2 bulb of fennel chopped

? 3 cloves garlic minced

? about a tbl of fronds from the fennel chopped

? 2 slices of bacon

? 1 cup of white wine

? 2 potatoes cut up into small bite size pieces

? 3 cups chicken stock

? 2 cups of diced tomatoes

? 1 cup clam juice

? 1 cup clams

? 5 shrimp chopped

? 1 tsp old bay seasoning
?  2 tbl parsley chopped

first things first, the bacon :-) slice and fry up in a large stock pot. when brown take out of the pot but reserve all that fat and add all your chopped veg except the potatoes.

let the veg sweat for a good 10 minutes or so, scrape up all that bacon fat and move everything around in the pot. mix every so often, you know just to get in there and move things around, let the flavors of the veg come out, and soak up all that fat. 

wine, take that bottle and measure out a cup, pour it in and de-glaze. at this point i looked over and saw all that bacon and decided to break it all up even more and add it back into the soup :-) let the wine reduce till half remains, about 4-5 minutes, add your old bay and mix. then add your potatoes. mix it up, give it a minute or two to soak up all that wine and veg juice. 

at this point add all your liquid...your stock, tomatoes and clam juice. mix it up and walk away. give it a good 40-45 minutes, when the potatoes are almost fully cooked but not anywhere close to being mush. let all those flavors meld and come together. it will be perfect i promise.

now is the time to get out your clams and add them to the soup. to kick it up a notch i added a couple of pieces of frozen shrimp i had laying around. 

let the soup simmer for another 10-15 minutes. when you have 5 minutes left, throw in some parsley and the fennel fronds and mix...5 more minutes and enjoy!

can i use this post as a plee too:-) patti, you know who you are:-) send me your new england clam chowder recipe! a little birdy told me there are other recipes you should be sending me as well ;-)