Seattle's Best Clam Chowder

"I kinda picked up this recipe when I first started out as a cold pantry cook. I worked at this place called The Brooklyn in Seattle. Now having never made the chowder, but only prepped certain components, I built this recipe in my head based off what I saw and tasted every day. You may be thinking, “I have never heard of Seattle Clam Chowder. Only New England and Manhattan chowders." Well let me tell you, that in Seattle, downtown restaurants live and die by their chowder. This is a recreation of one of the best I have tried and or made. Oh, one other thing. This recipe is a scaled down version of my recipe from back when I was the Sous Chef at a hotel. Sometimes scaling down a huge bulk recipe doesn't convert just right, so you may need to adjust some seasoning to your own taste, and check out any restaurant supply places that are open to the public if you have trouble finding the clam base. Good Luck and enjoy. New edit. reduced salt and white pepper. Edit again. So I finally got around to making this in my home kitchen. It turned out great. You can find the clam base online. I think I bought a tub of it from Amazon. Use Minor's brand. This second edit is to scale it back to a more reasonable level. Who really needs almost 3 gallons of chowder? In the end I think you'll find that the trouble to get a hold of the clam base and to track down that much clam juice and canned clams will pay off in the end. You'll have a great chowder that you can sub out the clams, clam base and juice and make a chicken corn chowder. Or whatever you feel like."
 
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Ready In:
1hr 10mins
Ingredients:
14
Yields:
21 8oz bowls
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ingredients

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directions

  • Dice up bacon into small pieces and render in a large stock pot over med-low heat.
  • Once bacon has started to turn brown, add the onions and sprinkle with the 1 oz of salt.
  • Once the onions get soft and start to turn brown, add the leaks and celery, turn up the heat to med-high and sauté for a couple of minutes until they get tender.
  • Add the potatoes, clam base, chopped clams, clam juice, and the thyme.
  • Bring to a low simmer, and maintain the simmer until the potatoes are cooked.
  • Add the heavy cream and bring to a gentle boil.
  • When it starts to boil, add the roux 2 oz at a time, letting the chowder come back to a boil before adding more roux. Make sure you are stirring the entire time here.
  • When all the roux is added or the chowder reaches the thickness you like, add the remaining salt and pepper to your taste.
  • Please taste it before you add any additional seasoning. Don't add it all just because it lists it in the ingredients. I put the numbers in because I had to and I don't remember just how much to add.
  • I recommend serving with some good thick sliced sourdough bread and a few drops of green Tabasco sauce.

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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>I used to cook professionally, but got out of the business because it is a soul crushing, low paying job. If you want to hate cooking, run a hotel kitchen. Now that I don't have to do it for a paycheck, I cook for my friends and family as much as possible. I enjoy making everything from BBQ to Bur Blanc. I love mixing chocolate with spicy ingredients. I am rather new to baking, (only a few years) but I really love it and try to bake whenever I get a chance. I work offshore in the Gulf and I always sneak down to the galley to make stuff for the guys. I'm a huge fan of Alton Brown. I think the guy is a genius. I have tried so many of his recipes, and they all rock. Since finding this website and having a public place to post my recipes for others to review, I have become more conscientious about writing my kitchen experiments down. I still have yet to get my whole wheat pizza dough to paper, but I promise, it's on it's way. My passion for cooking has increased 10 fold since I left the biz, and I plan to keep putting new recipes here and trying my hand at new stuff. <br /><img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/Adopted1smp.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" /></p>
 
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