How can you resist a yummy grilled cheese sandwich with a warm bowl of soup - especially if it's done Thomas Keller style and if you've been craving for clam chowder for the past week?
Chopped up the leeks (white & light green parts only - since it's the most flavorful) and white onions, and peeled the garlic cloves.
I used littleneck clams - Keller recommends littleneck or Manilla clams. I gave these guys a nice scrub and then prepared a bath of water & salt in a large bowl to soak them in for a few minutes.
This basically tricks the clams to thinking they're back in the ocean (sad, I know) and gets them to open up so the sand inside will clean out. No nasty, crunchy feeling while eating clams = success. I hate it when I eat clams in some soup or hotpot at restaurants and end up chewing on sand that was stuck in there. Gross.
Next, I chopped up the Yukon gold potatoes and got the sachet prepared. For the sachet, I wrapped up peppercorns, a bay leaf, thyme sprigs, and a smashed garlic clove all tied up inside a cheesecloth.
This was probably due to one of those weird female traits where we think random things are cute, but yes - I thought the sachet was cute.
I put the potatoes, cute sachet, and a little bit of salt into a big saucepan and covered it with cold water to cook.
While the potatoes were cooking, I cut up the applewood smoked bacon. Unfortunately, Whole Foods didn't have the thicker cut I wanted so I couldn't cube them. The cubes of bacon would have been so much better texturally - sadness. Anways, I cut them into "cubes" and added them into a stockpot with a bit of canola oil to cook.
While the bacon was cooking, the potatoes were tender, done, and ready to dry.
Once the bacon colored (don't want them crazy cripsy), I took the bacon out leaving the bacon fat in there to cook with. Yum. Added the leeks, onions, garlic, and a little bit of salt&pepper into the bacon fat, covered it with a parchment paper lid, and let it slowly cook. The bacon was cooked to a crisp separately to use later.
Then added butter, flour, cream, and milk to the vegetables. And by now, the clams were all clean and ready. Sadly, there are no pictures of this part - the clams were cooked with shallots, thyme, butter, and white wine. The clam juice was strained into a bowl and the clams were shelled. Next, the clam juice was added to the vegetables&cream, the dried potatoes were stirred in, and some of the clams were added.
While that was finishing up and cooking, I sliced up some Brioche and Gruyere cheese, and mandolined some fingerling potatoes.
Cooked the fingerling potatoes in canola oil, and buttered up the pan, pre-heated the oven, and made some grilled cheese Keller-style.
Time for my favorite part - plating.
Put the finished soup into and garnish it with more clams, the crispy bacon, and chives. Gather the cooled chips and plate the grilled cheese.
Uh, woops. My favorite part is actually eating - duh.
Thoughts: The bacon is definitely money - when is it not? I only wish I could have had it thicker like Keller suggested. Overall, the soup had a thinner consistency than the usual clam chowders I've had, the potatoes were amazing thanks to the adorable little sachet, leeks were yum, and the soup was gooodd. For the grilled cheese - why did I not use Gruyere until now? I loved the extra sharpness it gives and the gooey-ness when you eat it right after it comes out of the oven. The crunchy, buttery brioche was a plus. I thought the fingerling chips were good, except when I ate the ones that weren't fully crisped. They were good - but I could have just bought a bag of Kettle chips and I still would have been happy.
This basically tricks the clams to thinking they're back in the ocean (sad, I know) and gets them to open up so the sand inside will clean out. No nasty, crunchy feeling while eating clams = success. I hate it when I eat clams in some soup or hotpot at restaurants and end up chewing on sand that was stuck in there. Gross.
Next, I chopped up the Yukon gold potatoes and got the sachet prepared. For the sachet, I wrapped up peppercorns, a bay leaf, thyme sprigs, and a smashed garlic clove all tied up inside a cheesecloth.
This was probably due to one of those weird female traits where we think random things are cute, but yes - I thought the sachet was cute.
I put the potatoes, cute sachet, and a little bit of salt into a big saucepan and covered it with cold water to cook.
While the potatoes were cooking, I cut up the applewood smoked bacon. Unfortunately, Whole Foods didn't have the thicker cut I wanted so I couldn't cube them. The cubes of bacon would have been so much better texturally - sadness. Anways, I cut them into "cubes" and added them into a stockpot with a bit of canola oil to cook.
While the bacon was cooking, the potatoes were tender, done, and ready to dry.
Once the bacon colored (don't want them crazy cripsy), I took the bacon out leaving the bacon fat in there to cook with. Yum. Added the leeks, onions, garlic, and a little bit of salt&pepper into the bacon fat, covered it with a parchment paper lid, and let it slowly cook. The bacon was cooked to a crisp separately to use later.
Then added butter, flour, cream, and milk to the vegetables. And by now, the clams were all clean and ready. Sadly, there are no pictures of this part - the clams were cooked with shallots, thyme, butter, and white wine. The clam juice was strained into a bowl and the clams were shelled. Next, the clam juice was added to the vegetables&cream, the dried potatoes were stirred in, and some of the clams were added.
While that was finishing up and cooking, I sliced up some Brioche and Gruyere cheese, and mandolined some fingerling potatoes.
Cooked the fingerling potatoes in canola oil, and buttered up the pan, pre-heated the oven, and made some grilled cheese Keller-style.
Time for my favorite part - plating.
Put the finished soup into and garnish it with more clams, the crispy bacon, and chives. Gather the cooled chips and plate the grilled cheese.
Uh, woops. My favorite part is actually eating - duh.
Thoughts: The bacon is definitely money - when is it not? I only wish I could have had it thicker like Keller suggested. Overall, the soup had a thinner consistency than the usual clam chowders I've had, the potatoes were amazing thanks to the adorable little sachet, leeks were yum, and the soup was gooodd. For the grilled cheese - why did I not use Gruyere until now? I loved the extra sharpness it gives and the gooey-ness when you eat it right after it comes out of the oven. The crunchy, buttery brioche was a plus. I thought the fingerling chips were good, except when I ate the ones that weren't fully crisped. They were good - but I could have just bought a bag of Kettle chips and I still would have been happy.
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