Clam chowder #clamchowder #newengland #soup #dinner #dinnerideas #bacon #roux #everydayisfeastday

I like bell pepper in this, if you’re not a fan feel free to leave it out

Hey, let’s make New England clam chowder because I hate to say it, but no one likes another clam chowder. And because you already follow me, you know that we cut a bell pepper once down the middle. We get rid of the seeds. I’m using the best kitchen tools I have to get rid of the seeds. Obviously, why would I want to further dull my knife? Then, you can do whatever you need to with your bell pepper. Since we’re going to small dice it for our soup, we’ll first cut it into small strips. Then, we’ll just run a knife through it. And we’ll add this to a Spanish onion that I have already small diced. We’re also going to small dice a potato. You can use any kind of potato you want. You can take the skin off, but the easiest way to do this is to cut the potato into slabs of about the size of a small dice. And if you’re a little bit nervous about cutting your potato into slabs, you can cut one end off, then flip your potato on its side like this. Now you have a flat surface to set it down. You can then cut it into the slabs that you need. Cut your slabs into sticks. Turn your sticks 90°. Then we’ll melt a couple tablespoons of butter over medium heat. And once your butter starts to foam, you’re going to add your onions and peppers. a decent pinch of kosher salt, a pinch of black pepper. After about four to five minutes, your onions and peppers will have softened. And this is about three to four pieces of bacon that I have chopped and then crisped. I know you can start this whole soup with the bacon. You can make that your first step. You chop the bacon, you render it, then you can build your soup with the bacon, even use all the bacon fat. Personally, I like to do it this way because I like the soup to be nuanced and taste all the ingredients in the soup. Sometimes I find if you start it in bacon, the whole entire thing tastes like bacon. About four to five minced garlic cloves. Let your garlic cook about 30 seconds. Then we’re going to add another 2 to three tablespoons of butter. Once all your butter has melted, we’re going to thicken this with what with what’s called a rue. And a r is just a fancy term for melted fat and equal parts flour. So if you remember, we had about five total tablespoons of butter. We’re going to put about five total tablespoons of flour. It doesn’t have to be exact. You can eyeball this. Stir this around until all of the flour gets saturated into all that butter. Once that happens, all of your vegetables are going to be coated in this paste, if you can see it. And now I’m going to add in some milk. I’m going to start with about two cups. A great way to add liquid to your r without getting lumps, is to start with a little bit. But with each addition of liquid, you’re going to let this mixture come to a simmer. But once my two cups of milk come to a simmer, I’m going to add two large cans of chopped clams and the liquid from the cans. This is about 3 lbs total. Bring this to a gentle simmer until your potatoes are fully cooked. It could take about 15 to 20 minutes. Also, in this same amount of time, that raw flour flavor is going to cook out of your R. As you stir this, it’s important to scrape the bottom of the pot and get into the corners of the pot because your R loves to stick and hang out in there. Then, we’re going to add about two cups of heavy cream, half and half, or even just more milk. Followed by some chopped thyme and parsley. Bring this back to a simmer. Give it a taste and follow me if you’re more of a fan of the other clam chowder. [Music]