Chal's Manhattan Clam Chowder

By á-48808

I've been fine tuning this recipe over the years. The tomato paste adds richness and thickness to the soup. One of these days, I may go to the trouble to use fresh clams, but the canned clams work ok.

Ingredients

• Olive oil - enough to sauté according to the instructions
• 5 red potatoes
• 3 ribs celery
• 1 red onion
• 3 medium carrots
• 1 bell pepper
• 3 cups frozen corn
• 1 jalapeño pepper seeded and finely diced
• 2 or 3 gloves garlic
• 1 small can of tomato paste, sautéed
• 2 cans diced tomatoes, with juice
• 4 cups clam juice - I used a 51 oz can of clams from Sam's or BJ's and that's the amount of liquids in there. Snows or Doxsee is the brand
• 1 cup water, beer or Guinness
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon cayenne to taste. 1 tsp. gives it a solid kick.
• Thyme to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Chopped parsley - I grow it so I used a bunch
• Just a pinch of sea salt

Preparation

Step 1

Sauté garlic about 30 seconds and add onion, celery, pepper, jalapeño and carrot until onion is transparent. I stir a fair bit. Cooked but crisp is the goal.

While the veggies are cooking, I sauté the tomato paste in a bit of olive oil. I'm going for a deep red color, not burning it, keeping it moving. When it's a deep red, stir it into the veggies.

Add clam juice and water, cayenne, pepper, and salt. Get it to a gentle boil. Add the potato, bay leaf, and thyme. Cook until potato is soft. Add tomatoes, parsley, and clams. Throw in the corn about 10 minutes before you want to eat. I like to simmer on really low heat, covered until we're ready to eat.

We eat this with some cool baggets from Trader Joe's.