Jason's Log

New England Clam Chowder

Taking input from several different sources (including Cooks Illustrated, 500 Low Carb Recipes, and AllRecipes.com), Young and I put together what turned out to be a really amazing low-carb New England Clam Chowder. The whole process took only an hour or so, and resulted in enough chowder for two nights.

The base ingredients:

1.0 cups heavy cream
1.0 cups chicken broth
4.0 6.5oz cans of minced cooked clams
0.5 lbs bacon
1.0 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1.0 pound frozen cauliflower, thawed
0.25 tsp guar gum
1.0 large bay leaf
1.0 tsp dried parsley
1.0 tsp ground black pepper
1.0 tsp dried thyme

The process:

At the very beginning, started cooking the bacon in a non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat. While the bacon was cooking up, I opened up the canned clams and poured the clam juice into a separate bowl.

To the clam juice, I then added all of the seasionings and thickener (guar gum) and mixed thoroughly.

Once the bacon was nearly finished cooking, we added the minced onion to the sam pan and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. After the onions were nice and soft, we transferred the bacon/onion mix into a large stock pot.

To the stock pot I then poured in the cauliflower, clam juice (with seasonings), and the chicken broth. I set the heat to medium and let this simmer/boil for 15 minutes, covered.

After simmering for 15 minutes, I opened the lid and turned down the heat a bit. I then added the cream and the clams to the pot. I let it come back up to a slow simmer, and let it simmer for an additional 5 minutes in the pot.

We then removed it from the heat, and served immediately.

Results and Fixups:

1. The flavor was TO DIE FOR. It was totally awesome. Rich, savory. The cauliflower fit right in. It was the same texture as potatoes, and like potatoes, offered little/no flavor of their own.

2. We should have chopped up the bacon before transferring it to the stock pot.

3. Young thought we should have added a bit more ground black pepper, although I thought the amount was OK.

This is one that we will definitely do again. And again.

Sideways Reaction

Much good praise has been heaped upon this movie, and the Golden Globe nominations seem to support it. Young and I made it out to a 4:20pm showing at the AMC Mercado in Santa Clara. Going into the movie, I knew only that it was based in Santa Barbara and had to do with wine.

I would say that I did enjoy the movie - but it was a hard movie to like. This was mostly due to the fact that I pretty much hated both of the main characters. This is despite the fact that neither seemed to have been overly romanticized - they seemed like people who really exist in the real world.

The problem is that I found it really hard to identify with or sympathize with either of them or their stories.

In the end though, I was won over by a few things:

1. The quietly inspirational conlclusion
2. The totally perfect portrayal of California wine snobbery ("No fucking merlot!").
3. The wonderful depiction of food, wine, and the enjoyment that comes from the right combination of both.

Cooking time/temps adjustments

Young and I did another round of turkey burgers this evening on the new Vermont Castings model #9030 grill. This time:

1. Preheat all on high for 15 minutes
2. Turnn all burners down to med-high
3. Grill patties for 5 min cover closed.
4. Open lid, flip patties.
5. Cook another 5 min on med-high
6. Turn burners down to med-low
7. Cook another 5 minutes
8. Remove and eat.

The burgers were more flavorful and less dry than the previous time. In the future, I may even reduce the cycle times from 5 min to 4 min to see if I can get a juicier burger while still bringin the turkey up to a safe temperature.