As we're on Christmas break, it's also a great time to enjoy the snow by rarely leaving the house, cuddling in and enjoying some great warm comfort food. And, what's more comforting than a big steaming bowl of soup? I love soup, it's a great way to get your veggies, it's a super way to clean out the fridge and you can put nearly anything in it and it nearly always turns out good. I also like the flexibility in cooking methods - you can make it on the stove top, some you can bake in the over and then there's always my favorite, the crock pot!
This time I had on hand the ingredients for clam chowder. Unlike a lot of people, I happen to enjoy both white and red clam chowder. However, when I make it at home, for some reason, I always make a New England style (white) chowder. With this being the holidays, I had some ingredients on hand I don't usually keep around - specifically half and half and extra butter. So, this version is more decadent than I would typically make. However, you can use any milk product you have on hand or prefer. I think you could, probably, also use soy milk or maybe even a nut milk, but I haven't tried it myself so let me know if you have experience with this - I'd be interested to know if this works. And, you can choose to reduce the amount of butter at the end or leave it out entirely, it's really up to you.
The ingredient in this recipe that you may not be familiar with is Potato Flour. Not to be confused with it's cousin, Potato Starch, which is common to GF baking and appears in many recipes for basic GF all purpose flour mixtures, Potato Flour is actually just ground dehydrated potatoes. So it's not just the starch, it's just whole potato in a dehydrated ground form. Potato flour has a number of uses in the GF kitchen. I use it in my salmon and potato and crab cakes as a binder in place of breadcrumbs or flour. I use it to lightly coat (or dredge) those same potato cakes prior to frying to create a nice crust on the outside that's crispy and doesn't detract from the taste of the finished product. I use it in my sauces and soups instead of white all purpose flour to create a GF version of bechemel sauce - a basic white sauce that is the basis for a number of classic sauces and dishes including cheese sauce, souffle and, in this case, as a thickener for cream soups or bisques. I like the potato flour to thicken soup over, say, corn starch mixed with cold water - as is used in many asian dishes to give a sheen to a brown sauce or to tighten up any sauce from baked beans to the traditional WV hot dog sauce - as it doesn't mess with the flavor of the soup. It, of course, works really well in those soups that also contain potatoes, like this chowder.
Another ingredient that I've come to rely on in my kitchen for both ease of use and the time savings, and, well, because it just really works so well, are matchstick carrots. Matchstick carrots are the grocery store equivalent of the grated carrot. I often use them as a way to get more veggies into our diet as you can add them to anything from muffin batter to meatloaf. I also have found that the matchstick carrots tend to be a bit sweater than their full size counterpart. And, if I don't have them, I have often turned to chopping the baby carrots I keep on hand into spoon size discs. Of course you can use any form of carrot you have on hand. I haven't tried the purple or red carrots, but I presume they would work in this recipe as well.
I hope you give this soup a try, even if you use all purpose white flour to thicken it. It's that good. My darling hubby had two bowls and our four year old daughter enjoyed it as well. I serve it with a tray of mixed veggies and a little dill dip made with plain greek yogurt and a little light mayo. Sometimes I mix up a batch of GF cornbread or popovers to serve along side, but obviously the veggies are better for you, which may be a good choice if you make this recipe as written.
Lisa's GF White Clam Chowder
- 1/2 a large red onion, small dice
- 2 medium celery stalks, small dice
- 2 handfulls of matchstick carrots or 2 medium carrots, small dice
- 2 15/16 oz cans evaporated milk
- 1 cup half and half Note, this cannot be fat free half and half as it will separate when heated. You can substitute any other type of cow's milk with any percent of fat - skim all the way up to whipping cream.
- 2 tbsp Chicken Soup Base (I use McCormick)
- 1 10 oz bottle clam juice
- 2 cans chopped clams with their juice
- 2 cans minced clams with their juice
- 1.5 cup hot water
- 1.5 tbsp potato flour, not potato starch
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped fine or 1 tbsp dried, crushed in hand
- 2 large green onions, cleaned and sliced think
- 1 large baking potato, 1/2" to 3/4" dice
- 1/2 tsp ground thyme
- 1 tsp onion powder, not onion salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder, not garlic salt
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp bacon grease, or 4 slices of bacon rendered and removed leaving appx 2 tbsp grease in the soup pot
Place a heavy bottom pot over medium heat and add the bacon grease. Add the onion, celery and carrots and cook stirring often until the onion and celery are translucent. Add the dried and ground spices and stir to cook them in some of the oil which will release their flavor. Add the potato flour and stir to combine with the vegetables. Allow the potato flour to cook for a couple of minutes to reduce any raw flour taste.
Add the evaporated milk, water, and clam juice and stir to remove any lumps. Add the potato and allow the soup to cook until the potatoes are tender and the soup has thickened - appx 15 to 20 minutes over medium low heat. Stir often and pay attention to the outer ring of the pot as veggies tend to settle there and will stick and possibly scorch if you don't move them around as things cook.
Add the clams, the parsley, green onion, butter and half and half. Allow the soup to come back to temperature stirring frequently. When the soup is hot, the potatoes tender and the butter melted and incorporated the soup is ready to serve.
~Enjoy!
