In the current issue of Bon Appetit magazine, there’s a section devoted to spending less than $100 to cook one week’s worth of meals. I didn’t care that much about the theme of this spread (after all, “cheap” and “budget-friendly” are so relative, when you go from ordering in/eating out every night to cooking most nights, you’re already spending significantly less!), this clam chowder certainly caught my eye. Clam chowder is one of Adam’s favorite things to eat, and one of the best things we ate at Pike Place Market — it was so good, we kept eating it way past the point of being full, and yet we still talked about it on the whole drive back to the airport afterwards.
I read through this recipe and immediately knew it would not be the same as that chowder (which I’m pretty sure heavily featured dill), but having never tried to make a chowder before I figured what better recipe to start with than one that comes with bacon on top?
There were enough things to measure, chop and open in this recipe that I knew I’d be doing myself a huge favor by prepping everything ahead of time and doing a proper mise en place. Lately I’ve been having to frantically chop things to get them into the pot at the right point, and I didn’t want to mess this up since I had this lofty idea in my head. Turns out I actually really like doing the proper setting, and have been mostly sticking to this ever since trying it for this chowder. I’m finding that it’s worth the extra step and the slightly delayed start . . .
I just realized this is very comparable to swatching in knitting, which of course I am hugely obsessive about. When I worked in knitting stores I so often heard customers whine “do I really need to swatch?” that I eventually started replying with a simple “only if you want it to fit.” I think that succinctly sums up my stance on the matter (and probably tells you a lot about my sarcastic tendencies). Turns out my compulsive about this cooking thing, too, not just the knitting thing. Good to know.
Anyway, back to the chowder. Adam and I both love bacon, so I knew that even if this recipe didn’t come close to being as good as the Pike Place chowder, that we’d both enjoy it. But as much as I love bacon, it never ceases to amaze me how disgusting it looks when it isn’t yet crispy:
Eww. Crisp us up please!
The cooking itself was pretty standard: Sweat the veggies, add the milk (come to think of it, another step that’s kind of gross), then the chunky stuff. The only thing I did differently than the recipe, and this does not count as a variation because it was done out of necessity, is that I cooked the chowder for MUCH longer than it says to cook after adding the clams and potatoes. The potatoes were not even close to being done after the allotted time, and there was no way we were going to eat undercooked potatoes (is there many worse things? not in my book)
Actually, come to think of it, this is the 3rd Bon Appetit recipe that I’ve made that called for way too little cooking time . . . I don’t know what it is that’ causing it, but it’s such a drastic difference that I couldn’t NOT mention it. The recipe says to take about 10 minutes at the end, and I let it cook for about half an hour after bring it to a boil. Maybe I lower the heat too soon after the boil is achieved? No idea. In any case, you’ve been warned.
We both LOVED this soup, by the way. It’s not as good as the Pike Place one, but it’s definitely up there with some of the best clam chowder I’ve ever had. Next time I’ll leave out the carrots, they were too sweet for our taste. Other than that, we highly recommend it!
