Happy as a Clam

Friday is Clam Chowder Day and every Friday I spend trying my best to perfect my Clam Chowder recipe.

I start by melting the butter in a pot and I swear there is nothing better than sweet cream butter. I add flour once the butter starts bubbling, then I add the Chicken Broth which is made from Chicken Base and let it thicken up a bit.

From there I add more water, and then my half a bucket (gallon size) of diced Yukon potatoes that I’ve been letting sit in cool water all day so as to keep them from browning.

Next I heat a quart of milk in the microwave for a minute, and then pour that into my Chowder, to make it creamy and thick.

Then I open the cans of baby clams and pour them and their juice into the soup pot, and I stir occasionally for 30-45 minutes or until the potatoes become white.

Lastly, I add salt and pepper to taste and stir until the smell reminds you of restaurants on the pier.

Coincidentally, I had Linguine with Clam Sauce on my menu in the same night.

Originally I thought Clam Sauce was meant to be clams in a cream sauce, so I started to make cream sauce. Mistake #1.

I don’t know what I did wrong but the sauce was a disaster. It curdled and didn’t thicken like sauces I’ve made in the past. Maybe it was because I substituted Mozzarella in place of Parmesan which was mistake #2, because Mozzarella is more moist than Parmesan. In fact the minute I turned my back to do other things, it boiled over.

So I added a rue of corn starch and cold water to make it thicken, and surprise that didn’t work.

Running out of time, I tried using flour and that didn’t work either.

Eventually I looked up Linguine with Clam Sauce and I found out that the sauce wasn’t supposed to be creamy. Mistake #3. I could have kicked myself.

I drained the clams, seasonings and cheese out of the sauce disaster, added a bit of oil and mixed it in with the Linguine noodles, which incidentally cooked unevenly because I didn’t add salt, (mistake #4).

Regardless, I had a Turkey Plate on the menu as my other entree, which came with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, which saved me because it was delicious. I can’t even begin to tell you how juicy and flavorful the bird was. It was better than any other bird I’ve ever had at a Thanksgiving dinner.

After I slathered the bird in poultry seasoning, salt and pepper, I covered it in tin foil and stuck it in the oven for three hours. When the time came, I stuck it with a meat thermometer and it read at 165, which is exactly where I wanted it.

My other half of diced Yukon Potatoes were stuck in the steamer and cooked until they fell apart when prodded with a fork.

I dumped them into the industrial mixer with a little milk and butter and let them whip while I cut the turkey into slices.

Accompanying my Entrees were Sugar Snap Peas and Curried Pearl Onions, followed by a marble cake for dessert.

The cake comes from a pre-made yellow cake mix, which is dumped into the mixer with eggs, oil and water and beat into perfection.

I pour half the cake into the sheet-pan and add cocoa powder to the other half to add a chocolate flavor and change the color. Once I’ve beat that into a milk chocolate color, I pour that over the yellow and swirl it in the pan until it becomes marbled.