California Gold Clam Chowder

flyinglentris

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I've just been informed that CookingBites is a UK web forum. Hello from San Jose, California.

Clam Chowders are US concoctions.in which potatoes, milk and clams were the basic ingredients to make a sort of soup. That's basic New England Clam Chowder. Sometimes bacon is added. Manhattan Clam Chowder adds Tomatoes.

Stews, chowders and soups are often the poor man's invents with leftovers or what's available.

I have invented a new third type of clam chowder which I'll share with you here - California Gold Clam Chowder.

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

1.5 to 2 cups water.
4 cups diced or cubed up potatoes (Idahos or Russets)
0.5 to 1 cup whole clams
1.5 cups of Half and Half or Milk
0.5 cup of Sour Cream
0.5 cup of sweet salted butter
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 to 2 pinches of crushed Saffron
0.25 cup of cross sliced scallions w. very little of the green chive parts
white pepper (amount preferred)

Optional:
4 strips of crumbled pan fried bacon.
1 to 2 pinches of salt as preferred
sprigs of fresh parseley

It is important to follow a process here or the butter will get consumed in the chowder and the visual and flavor effects will be lost.

1) Boil up the potatoes to semi-softness in the water w. salt (if used)
2) Remove about 1 cup of the potatoes, mash and return the mash to the pot after pouring off any water you might feel is left in excess.
3) Stir in Clams and Scallions
4) Reduce heat and stir in half and half or milk.
5) Stir in saffron.
- note that saffron has a sort of neutral flavor and is used here both to spice and color the chowder.
6) If bacon is used, stir it in w. a tiny amount of fat to flavor.
7) Melt sweet salted butter in a separate pot or container
8) Add lemon juice to melted butter before removing from heat
9) Stir in sour cream prior to removing from heat

Serve:

1) ladle into about 4 to 6 serving bowls
2) pour melted lemon/butter sparingly to top of chowder in bowls and use the edge of spool to partially crease in, but leave some yellow rivulets extending from center outward for visual effect.
3) garnish with one or two sprigs of parseley
4) serve with white pepper available to use by consumers

Enjoy
 
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I've just been informed that CookingBites is a UK web forum. Hello from San Jose, California.
:wave: Its UK owned and run but completely international in membership. We have quite a few active US members as well as members in Thailand, Italy, Spain. The more the merrier!

Chowder is certainly something I'm familiar with. No shellfish or fish in your clam chowder? Did you accidentally miss the clams off the ingredient list and method?

I love the idea of using saffron - one of my favourite spices. It was featured not long ago for the Spice Challenge. See here:
https://www.cookingbites.com/thread...ce-of-the-month-september-2017-saffron.10788/

note that saffron has a sort of neutral flavor and is used here both to spice and color the chowder.

Are you sure you are using real saffron? True saffron is anything but neutral in flavour. I know that particularly in the US, safflower is often sold as saffron. The former is very 'neutral'.
 
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No shellfish or fish in your clam chowder? Did you accidentally miss the clams off the ingredient list and method?

Oops! I forgot the clams. I re-edited and put them in. Thanks. It is possible to add other items like crab meat or cockles, but then you start wandering off into something that is more than clam chowder.

It's expensive and it is saffron, right down to the threads. I find the flavor no so strong as other spices and therefore call it neutral. But it is a spice and has a flavor which for example is used in paellas.
 
Last edited:
I've just been informed that CookingBites is a UK web forum. Hello from San Jose, California.

Clam Chowders are US concoctions.in which potatoes, milk and clams were the basic ingredients to make a sort of soup. That's basic New England Clam Chowder. Sometimes bacon is added. Manhattan Clam Chowder adds Tomatoes.

Stews, chowders and soups are often the poor man's invents with leftovers or what's available.

I have invented a new third type of clam chowder which I'll share with you here - California Gold Clam Chowder.

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

1.5 to 2 cups water.
4 cups diced or cubed up potatoes (Idahos or Russets)
0.5 to 1 cup whole clams
1.5 cups of Half and Half or Milk
0.5 cup of Sour Cream
0.5 cup of sweet salted butter
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 to 2 pinches of crushed Saffron
0.25 cup of cross sliced scallions w. very little of the green chive parts
white pepper (amount preferred)

Optional:
4 strips of crumbled pan fried bacon.
1 to 2 pinches of salt as preferred
sprigs of fresh parseley

It is important to follow a process here or the butter will get consumed in the chowder and the visual and flavor effects will be lost.

1) Boil up the potatoes to semi-softness in the water w. salt (if used)
2) Remove about 1 cup of the potatoes, mash and return the mash to the pot after pouring off any water you might feel is left in excess.
3) Stir in Clams and Scallions
4) Reduce heat and stir in half and half or milk.
5) Stir in saffron.
- note that saffron has a sort of neutral flavor and is used here both to spice and color the chowder.
6) If bacon is used, stir it in w. a tiny amount of fat to flavor.
7) Melt sweet salted butter in a separate pot or container
8) Add lemon juice to melted butter before removing from heat
9) Stir in sour cream prior to removing from heat

Serve:

1) ladle into about 4 to 6 serving bowls
2) pour melted lemon/butter sparingly to top of chowder in bowls and use the edge of spool to partially crease in, but leave some yellow rivulets extending from center outward for visual effect.
3) garnish with one or two sprigs of parseley
4) serve with white pepper available to use by consumers

Enjoy

What size/kind clams do you use, Little neck, top neck. manila, cherrystone, ipswich, quahog or something else? Do you add the clam juice, leftover from shucking, to the chowder.
 
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What size/kind clams do you use, Little neck, top neck. manila, cherrystone, ipswich, quahog or something else? Do you add the clam juice, leftover from shucking, to the chowder.

Unless I can get to an Asian market to get live clams, usually manilas, I use what they sell canned. Any clams about the size of your thumb or smaller ought to do. You can even chop them up, though I prefer whole. Including the clam juice is including flavor.
 
Unless I can get to an Asian market to get live clams, usually manilas, I use what they sell canned. Any clams about the size of your thumb or smaller ought to do. You can even chop them up, though I prefer whole. Including the clam juice is including flavor.

Ever consider using geoduck? It really sucks that your state is closing abalone harvest indefinitely.:devil:
 
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Ever consider using geoduck? It really sucks that your state is closing abalone harvest indefinitely.

Gosh, I haven't had abalone in half my lifetime. With regard to geoducks, you kind of use what you can get your paws on. I'm not sure how much of a flavor differential exists once the clams are smothered in the chowder. Perhaps there can be a textural difference? If I were making a Duckets Bucket sort of thing, the type of clam would be a huge factor as the Ducket's Bucket has clams, cockles and mussels in the shell cooked in water with melted butter and garlic.
 
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