#chowda

[vanityplatesofmi]

[shittylowqualitymemes]

[youdoyoucooking]

Chowder/Chowda

Chowder is a thick, hearty soup often made with a milk or cream base. It's known for its chunky texture and is usually filled with potatoes, onions, and some type of seafood or corn.

I grew up on the beach in Connecticut so chowder was a “given” in my Mom’s repertoire. My parents had famous clambakes on the beach and any leftovers were turned into Clam Chowder the next day. In all honesty, I am not a fan of a whole squishy clam in my chowder, which is what Mom would do (she’d say something about their integrity). I like a chopped clam so I don’t have to acknowledge what they were. 

Typically chowder is a rich, creamy soup that often includes seafood or vegetables, and is commonly thickened with milk or cream. Did I just mention tomatoes? Do you know where this is going? Manhattan Chowder is not a chowder. It is a seafood stew. It’s not even from Manhattan, its history can be traced back to Portuguese immigrants from Rhode Island. Let’s move on.

You can use almost any kind of fish and still call it a chowder. Frozen, but defrosted fish also works wonderfully. Another traditional flavoring is salt pork. Mom used salt pork. It is a type of cured meat made from pork belly or pork sides that have been heavily salted to preserve them. Unlike bacon, salt pork is not smoked, which gives it a different flavor profile but it is very hard to find so I make do with bacon. I think it works fine.

If you want to make this soup ahead of time, do it up to the point of adding dairy and seafood. This can hold for several days or even be frozen (call it chowder base, look how organized you are!) The dairy and seafood can be added at the last minute right before you heat it to serve. Read through this clam chowder recipe and then decide on the spin you are gonna put on it. Are you going to play with herbs and spices? Will you use full-fat milk instead of ½ and ½? Be bold and increase the seafood amounts if that’s what you want. Pretend you are from New England and call it “ChowdA”, you’ll fit right in.

Let's start with a very simple recipe for a Chowder and then I'll show you how to create some variations and make it your own. 

Clam Chowder

Serves 6

(remember, you are the captain)

5 slices bacon, sliced into ½ inch pieces

1 cup diced onion ( or the equivalent in diced leeks)

2 stalks of celery, diced

3 cups peeled and diced russet potatoes, about 2 large or 3 medium sized potatoes, 

1/2 teaspoon salt (you may need to add more in the end, depending on your bacon)

3 tablespoons of flour

3 cans (6.5 ounces each) chopped clams with juice

8 ounce bottle of clam juice

1 cup chicken broth

2 cups of ½ and ½ (or whole milk)

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)

Fresh black pepper to taste, but traditionally lots!

Chopped Parsley for garnish 

Cook the bacon in a large soup pot until crisp. Remove the bacon but leave the fat behind. Add the onions, and celery to the pot, stirring with the bacon fat. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper to taste, and add the thyme. Cook for 5 minutes until the vegetables have softened a bit and then add the bacon back in.

Sprinkle the flour into the pot and stir to combine. Cook for 30 seconds to make sure the flour is absorbed and coating everything in the pot. You should see no traces of dry flour at this point.

Slowly pour the chicken broth and clam juice into the pot, stirring while you are pouring to smooth out any lumps and scraping up the bottom of the pot as you stir. Add your potatoes now. Bring to a simmer for 10 minutes to thicken. If you want to freeze, freeze now (Add ½ and ½ and seafood after defrosting and you’re ready to serve).

Stir in the ½ and ½, canned clams (with their juice). Bring the chowder to a very low simmer, do not let this boil. Cook partially covered for 30 minutes. Stir the chowder often so that the potatoes don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. The broth will thicken as it cooks. If it feels too thick add a splash of milk (or white wine).

Pierce a couple of the potatoes with a fork to ensure they are tender. If they need a bit more time, cover and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Serve with fresh chopped parsley for garnish and crackers on the side. To be very traditional you can float a thin slice of butter on top of each bowl of soup. It will melt into the chowder. To really elevate this soup place a tablespoon of sherry on top with the butter (look at you! You’re using sherry!).

Now you’re all about chowder and you get the basic concept. There are many flavorful things to cook in broth and some dairy. Where are you going to go from here? Where do you want to go from here?

Salmon Chowder- This is easy. Swap your clams out for 1 ½ pound of salmon filets. You could use up to 2 pounds of salmon if you feel luxurious. Lay the salmon in step 4 and at the end of step 5 they should be cooked. Take the cooked salmon from the pot, remove and toss the skin, and flake into big chunks, then return to the pot. Increase the clam juice to 2 cups (or seafood stock if you have found some) because you will not have the juice from the canned clams. Swap the thyme out for some dill. Dill is always a friend of salmon. What if you garnished this with smoked salmon? You do you.

Seafood Chowder- Seafood chowder can be just like the salmon chowder but with any assortment of seafood. A total of 2 pounds of shrimp, some cod, and maybe you have tilapia. It’s your choice. Increase the clam juice to 2 cups (or seafood stock). This would be a good time to add a generous sprinkle of Old Bay Seasoning if you have it.

Corn Chowder- This is another “leftover surprise” (anything I make with leftovers, my children call “leftover surprise”). If you have too much corn on the cob, simple strip the kernels from the cob with a sharp knife and make this. Of course, you can do this with frozen corn too. Skip the canned clams. Toss in 2-3 cups of corn. The amount depends on your taste at the moment. Swap out clam juice for chicken broth and increase that measurement to 2 cups.

Street Corn Chowder- Make the corn chowder recommendation and add a diced poblano chili when sauteeing the onion and celery. Replace the salt with Tajin (or any chili lime seasoning). When you serve it garnish with more Tajin, some chopped cilantro, and a healthy sprinkle of cotija cheese (or feta if you can’t find it cotija)

Potato Chowder- Instead of 3 cups of potatoes, increase to 5 cups and swap out clam juice for 2 cups of chicken broth. When the potatoes are soft and cooked, mash some of them with a fork against the side of your pot. Awesome in the dead of Winter. Garnish with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese.

Potato and Sausage Chowder- Make the potato chowder and add 1 pound of cooked crumbled sausage, any kind.

Sweet Potato Chowder- Make the potato chowder but swap out the potatoes with sweet potatoes. That simple.

There are no rules for Chowder. You can create what you want. Is there a broccoli or cauliflower chowder in your future?

[quotationmachine]

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: CORN CHOWDA

[suburbiashakedown]

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: CORN CHOWDA

[riordanversezine]

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: CORN CHOWDA

[cometblaster2070]

so hey yk how in literally the 4th episode of the show there's that bit where adora's like glimmer I don't think your mom likes me and glimmer's like what are you talking about my mom loves you! and then adora corrects her and says that she loves she-ra, not adora.

and do you ever think about how there's always been some sort of expectation on adora like expectation to be a good loyal horde soldier, expectation to be force captain and lead the horde to victory one day and it just segues into the expectation to become she-ra and become a paragon of goodness and strength and all.

and how adora's self-worth is actually genuinely fucking shit because she feels that she's under so much pressure from everyone around her to always be the best version of herself and how she's supposed to always be perfect and do everything perfectly and she's never allowed to make mistakes because then she could disappoint the people that rely on her. but she always feels like she's disappointing everyone and that she never does anything right and that her best will never suffice.

just like adora feeling that she herself is not good enough, will never be good enough, but maybe she-ra will; she-ra is supposed to be good enough and is supposed to be perfect, so that's what adora will be if it will make those around her happy.

(edit: might have a mini side-rant on adora vs. the expectations vs. catra who doesn't expect anything from adora and just wants her)

[reincarnated-angel]

idk where this came from but i have a new goofy vocal stim it goes like "chowdah.." as in chowder the soup. SOUP BRO

i use it as a replacement of bro. help me this manifested itself for no reason and im laughing at how silly it is

chowda, like my post or ill getcha

[pepsidogonline]

[lesbiantiresias]

Guess who just DROPPED IN... The Perfect Person for our Plans our friend the Nosey PaperBoy :)

[exsqueezememacaroni]

Got this in an ask and anonymizing it here:

flash anon has returned and i would like to say i am infact very pleased with the collection!!! i think i only had like 1-2 of those actually in my collection so thank you i am forever grateful

I was gonna delete to keep anon on anon, but I forgot I have like, a very important pic to add:

[sleepyzz0h]

I gift to u me two 'the amazing digital circus' ocs lol

Chowda is made out of balloons ya know the ones clowns would typically use (ment to be a dog but for some reason has no snoot with a skirt- and a stoopid crown lol)

And obviously Lil.Jr yes she is based of mini music man

[saintdollanganger]

got books from the library :3 got the road by cormac mccarthy, station eleven, and the amityville horror

[bigassbowlingballhead]

I have so much fresh corn, potatoes and sweet onions and don’t have a single clue what to cook with all those

[reaumantic]

fuck my other post this is what it feels like to get back into an old hyperfixation