Clam Chowder 🦪🥔🥣

Clam Chowder's defining characteristic is its "seafood flavor combined with a creamy richness." Clams lend a natural salty umami, while potatoes, onions, and celery bring a vegetable sweetness. Milk or cream thickens the broth. The resulting bowl of soup is like a seafood-infused cream of potato soup—evil yet addictive.

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🛒 Ingredients (about 4 servings)

• Fresh clams🦪: 500g (soak in salt water to spit out the sand)
• Onion: 1 (chopped)
• Garlic🧄: 2 cloves (chopped)
• 2 celery pieces (diced)
• Carrot🥕: 1 (diced, optional)
• Potatoes🥔: 2 (cut into small pieces to increase the taste and consistency)
• Bacon: 3 slices (diced for flavor)
• Butter: 30g
• 2 tablespoons of low-gluten flour (for the white sauce base)
• Liquor🍷: 100ml (optional, for freshness)
• 200ml of clams soup (filter out the sand)
• Chicken or vegetable soup: 600ml
• Milk: 250ml
• Fresh cream🍶: 100ml (makes the soup creamier)
• Salt🧂, crushed black pepper🌑: as needed
• Fresh herbs: a little (such as thyme, parsley, for garnish)

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👩🏻🍳 Detailed cooking process

1. Processing clams

• Soak the clams in salt water for 1-2 hours and wait for the clams to spit out the sand.
• Use a brush to lightly clean the shell and set aside.

2. Cook the clam soup base

• Add a small amount of water to the pot, add the clams, and cook over high heat until they are all opened.
• Remove the clams one by one, reserve the clam meat, and filter the broth (this is the super sweet essence).

3. Sauté bacon and vegetables

• Heat a large pot over medium heat, add a little butter, add bacon pieces and sauté until oily and slightly crispy.
• Add onion, celery, and carrots and sauté until onion is translucent.
• Add garlic and sauté until fragrant.

4. Whole white sauce base

• Add butter and flour, stir quickly and fry into a roux.
• Slowly pour in the white wine, scrape up the aroma from the bottom of the pot, then gradually pour in the chicken broth + clam broth, stirring while pouring to avoid granulation.

5. Add potatoes and cook until thick

• Add diced potatoes to the soup and cook over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and some of them will dissolve naturally, making the soup base thicker.

6. Add milk cream

• Pour in milk and cream, simmer over low heat, do not boil to prevent separation.
• At this time, the soup base will become white and smooth, and the aroma will be overflowing.

7. Add back the clams

• Add the previously removed clam meat into the soup and heat for 1-2 minutes (do not cook it too long or it will become tough).

8. Seasoning

• Add salt and black pepper according to taste.
• You can add a little thyme or parsley to make the aroma fresher.

9. Finish serving

• Ladle the hot and spicy clam chowder soup into bowls.
• Sprinkle some chopped parsley on top for decoration, and serve with crispbread or garlic buns🥖, perfect!

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🌟 Editor's Tips

• Freshness of clams : It is recommended to cook them on the same day as they are purchased, as they will be at their freshest and sweetest.
• Soup base essence : The soup made from clams must be filtered to prevent sand from affecting the taste.
• Thickness : Potatoes are a natural thickener. If you want a thicker soup, you can add half of the crushed potatoes and then add them back into the soup.
• Hong Kong style version : Some tea restaurants use canned clams + cream soup powder. The taste is not as fresh, but it has the taste of childhood.
• Upgraded version : You can add corn kernels 🌽 to make it a "Seafood Corn Chowder Soup" that kids will love.