Continuing The Tomato Bowl, Manhattan Style

I love clam chowder.  Love it, love it, love it.  But the chowder I love is white, creamy, laden with cream, potatoes and clams.  A  real chowder doesn’t have any flour or added thickeners, it just lets the potatoes and the cream do their thing and thicken it up just a touch.  And yet, there is a chowder out there that I’ve just never gotten into, and maybe that’s because my only experience with it came from a familiar red and white can.

Manhattan Clam Chowder?  Why that’s heresy!  I spent a summer in the Boston area, and no one who has ever had the real deal followed up by a whole lobster caught fresh off the dock and dunked in butter would dare eat Manhattan Clam Chowder and call it clam chowder…

I wanted to do something spectacular for the Tomato Bowl this week with a can of Red Gold crushed tomatoes that involved a soup or stew of some kind, and I just couldn’t get it out of my head that that soup needed to be a clam chowder.  As I thought about the Game Day food, I thought about how a delicious mug of a steamy tomatoey veggie-laden soup would be a perfect accompaniment to the heavier BBQ ribs and bratwurst.  Add in a few clams?  Well, why not try it just this one time.  I decided to just go for it, what did I have to lose?

A note about the clams used in this recipe.  I didn’t look too carefully at the grocery store, and grabbed four 6.5 ounce cans of chopped clams.  I assumed they would be bigger pieces than the minced clams next door.  Um, I can’t imagine how finely chopped the minced clams are.  Use what you can find at your grocer, shooting for around 24 ounces or so of clams.  Next time I will look for whole ones and chop them myself.

The assembly for this one is a wee bit longer:

1 tablespoon cooking oil

4 slices bacon

1 medium onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

3 celery stalks, diced

1 bay leaf

several sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

4 (6.5 ounce) cans chopped clams, drained

8 ounces bottled clam juice

1 (28 ounce) can Red Gold crushed tomatoes

4 cups water

4 red skinned potatoes- skins left on, diced

1/4-1/2 cup freshly chopped parsely

Additional salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium high heat.  Chop the bacon into pieces and add to the hot oil.  Cook until crispy and browned, and then use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon to a small bowl.  Set aside for later.

To the bacon fat, add the onions, bell peppers, carrots and celery.  Cook for a few minutes, and then add the bay leaf and the thyme, as well as a healthy sprinkle of both salt and pepper.  Cook for an additional five minutes, or until the vegetables are all softened and very fragrant.

Add the chopped clams, clam juice, Red Gold crushed tomatoes, water and potatoes.  Bring to a boil, and then turn down the heat to medium and add a lid to the pot.  Simmer gently for about 20 minutes or so.

Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as needed, and then add half of the parsley.  Cook for another 20 minutes or so.

Serve the chowder with the cooked bacon pieces and remaining parsley sprinkled on top.

This chowder was incredible.  There’s just no beating around the bush about it, this Manhattan Clam Chowder was a great big bowl of deliciousness.  The only change I will make to it is to go with the larger pieces of clam next time, but this was delightfully comforting, and I can’t wait to see if the leftovers tomorrow taste just as good.   Prior to eating it, I had been thinking about simply calling it a soup, except that wouldn’t you know, the tomatoes and the potatoes made magic together and did thicken up the broth just enough to give it that creamy chowder consistency.  I’m sold.  Manhattan Clam Chowder, while a completely different animal from Boston Clam Chowder is a delicious chowder to add to the repertoire.

Tomato Bowl 2011 Update:  So far, it looks like us Packer bloggers are in the lead, but it’s a fierce competition folks!  Those Steeler fans know how to cook!