It would be a good idea to clean your clams
before you start, discarding any that refuse to close when rapped with a knife, and also
to peel and chop the potatoes. Keep them in cold water to prevent them
discolouring.
Slice the Bacon into strips, and fry gently in the olive oil
until it starts to go crisp, 4-5 minutes say.
Take out the bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve till later.Add the butter and the sliced onion
to the oil, and gently fry the onion until soft and translucent. Now add the plain flour
and gently cook whilst stirring for 2 or 3 minutes. We want to cook the flour without it
turning brown.
Now start adding the milk, a little
at a time at first, stirring constantly, and then bring it to a gentle simmer. At this
point, add the sliced potatoes, the cayenne pepper,
(careful, we want gentle background heat ) the bay leaf and the clove.
If you make a small slit in the bay leaf and push the clove into the slit, it will be
easier to fish out at the end.
The potatoes are going to take about 15 - 20 minutes
to cook, we need them to be quite soft, so whilst they are cooking, bring the white
wine to boiling in a pan, and cook the clams, with the lid on
the pan until they have all opened. We used two different kinds of clam, and as the
praire take longer to cook than the palourde, we cooked them first, took them out of
the pan and then cooked the palourde in the same pan.
Take all the clams out of their shells and keep them
in some cold water until we need them. Add the liquor from cooking the
clams to the chowder. Throw away the shells.
When the potatoes are cooked, crush about half of
them against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. This will help to thicken the
chowder. Take out the bay leaf and the clove and discard them.
Finally, add the clams and the cream
and warm through. Check the seasoning, add salt if necessary, and freshly
ground black pepper, and serve immediately.
We decorated ours with a little chopped chives. |
