[VermontChick]

Hey guys! I have a family gathering coming up and I'd like to make some sort of chowder, because they all love it...Fish, Clam...whatever. My problem is, I can't find a consistent recipe!! I know what I want, but I can't seem to achieve it. You know, you go in restaurants and have that really yummy white creamy chowder.

Well...I can't seem to duplicate it!! I've tried to keep the calories down by using milk and flour instead of cream..but I'm thinking I need to use the cream because my family doesn't seem to like it!!


Here are the common ingredients I seem to have gathered from the DOZENS of recipes I have tried:

Bacon(or salt pork)
butter
thyme
bay leaf
white wine (many recipes called for this)
onions
celery
potatoes
clams (duh)
clam stock
cream (?)

I'm thinking you cannot replace cream with milk when you have picky eaters. Either that it's because I've been using canned clams
I know this isn't really diet related but I'd love to hear your recipes!!

[glorib]

Hello- my mom makes a Great Clam chowder using evaporated milk- you can get fat free...usually what I do is use two or three cans of the fat free, and a two of the light or whole milk. I don't like it really thick, but you can add a little corn starch (make sure you mix it with milk first) and stir it into the milk to thicken it.

Just make sure you don't get the sweetened (condensced milk- YUCK!)

[jazzbo848]

what about fatfree half and half, potatoes as thickeners (i.e. cook potatoes in clam or chicken broth, put broth, half potatoes, and ff half and half in blender and puree) and use that as your thickend creamy base?
hth,
cheryl