chow down on some chowda

In all honesty, I can't say the word "chowder" without pretending I'm from Boston and saying "chowda". Chow-da. If you're from New England, it's what you know as the heart-warming creamy soup with lots of veggies, potatoes, and clams. If you're from Manhattan however, when you order a bowl of chowder, you're expecting a tomato-y concoction with a much less creamy consistency. But when I think of chowda I think of a rich, creamy, thick, potato-filled soup, and seeing as it was cold yesterday, I decided to make me some chowda! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

nocoupons

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
• 2 cups medium-diced celery (4 stalks)
• 2 cups medium-diced carrots (6 carrots)
• 4 cups peeled medium-diced boiling potatoes (8 potatoes)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 quart (4 cups) clam juice
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 3 cups chopped fresh chowder clams (1 1/2 pounds shucked clams)

Directions

Melt 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of the butter in a large heavy-bottomed stockpot. Add the onions and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until translucent. Add the celery, carrots, potatoes, salt, and pepper and saute for 10 more minutes. Add the clam juice, bring to a boil, and simmer, uncovered, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.




In a small pot, melt the remaining 8 tablespoons of butter and whisk in the flour. Cook over very low heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in a cup of the hot broth and then pour this mixture back into the cooked vegetables. Simmer for a few minutes until the broth is thickened.


Add the milk and clams and heat gently for a few minutes to cook the clams. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve hot.

NOTE: I actually decided as soon as I started this that I didn't want to use clams, I'd rather use chicken. I'm not a big clam person. So instead I baked 2 pounds of chicken tenders in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and added the bite size pieces of chicken right after I added the chicken stock to the veggies, another slight modification. But feel free to use whatever you'd like :)

make sure to season very well with salt and pepper throughout the process. I actually even sprinkled a little old bay over the bowls as I served them. Not bad for my first chowda attempt!