ClamSalm Chowder

So weather has been a little crazy lately in this part of the world, well, crazy for a foreigner because to be perfectly honest this is a pretty usual thing in Asturias. Whatever, the point is I've been a little depressed with the humidity and the grey skies. So needless to say I needed to treat myself with something warm and comforting. And luckily, the seafood around here is pretty dope. So without really knowing what to make I got some clams and some salmon. And it was when I saw the fresh dill when it hit me: a Fucking Chowder will make you feel fuzzy again.

I love dill, when I get it fresh I put it in everything, but in my opinion it works best with seafood (specially salmon), so I got the idea of a Clam Chowder but with a little bit of salmon as well. And well, it was AWESOME. So, please enjoy this ClamSalm Chowder and thank me later.

Awesome, sexy and delicious.

The Ingredients.

You will need:

• Carrots: About three medium sized carrots.
• Potatoes: Just a couple.
• Garlic: A clove.
• Celery: Two stalks should do it.
• Leeks: Not a lot, just to enhance the flavor.
• Bay: A couple of leaves.
• Dill: Fresh, a lot of it. If you have it dry, well, you can add it but to be hones I would skip it if I were you.
• Bacon: Because, bacon.
• Clams: You decide how many.
• Salmon: Some salmon to make things better, again, you decide how much.
• Cream and Milk: Yumm!
• Butter & Flour: About 1 table spoon of each, we are making a Roux.
• Salt & Pepper:  Duh!

All diced up and ready to go.

Let's get to it!

1. Get your clams and rinse them. Discard any that doesn’t close when lightly tapping them.
2. Get half a litre of water to a boil and dunk in the clams. They will star opening almost immediately making a very odd popping noise. Use a slotted spoon to take the open ones off as soon as they pop.
3. Once you are done with that you will get a cloudy liquid, reserve that, it’s the awesome clam juice we will use to flavour the chowder.
4. You can now proceed to remove the clams from their shell, you can keep some pretty shells for serving later.
5. Now get your trusty knife and dice the carrots, potatoes, onion, celery and leeks to roughly the same size. Ohh uniformity!
6. Get a deep pot and heat it up. Add the bacon and cook at medium heat until all the fat has been released but don't let it brown. We are looking to get a clean chowder.
7. It is time to add the onions, leeks and garlic (use a grater). Sweat them, again, don't let them brown.
8. Now it is time to add the butter and when it is fully melted, sprinkle in the flour and start stirring. We are making a roux, this will thicken the soup and give that sexy and silky smooth consistency. We are looking to get rid of the raw flour flavour, so keep the heat to medium and don't let the flour get brown. This will take around 5 minutes.
9. You can now take that beautiful clam juice you made earlier and pour it in the pan. You will see how the soup thickens almost immediately. Add your carrots and potatoes as well and let it boil.
10. Once the boiling starts, add the bay leaves, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.
11. Get your cream and milk and pour it into the chowder, by now it should start looking amazingly delicious, the carrots and potatoes are almost, almost there. Give it a little time.
12. Let it simmer for another 15-25 minutes until the carrots and potatoes are nice and soft.
13. About 3 minutes before serving you can get your salmon and clams in there, you just want them to get  warm, over cooked salmon is bad. In the meantime, chop the dill and have it ready to serve.
14. Ok, do it, now, plate up. A big bowl with a more than generous serving of dill and a crouton is the preferred format for this amazing soup.
15. Take a photo, share it, enjoy it. Thank me later.

Rouxing.

An already thick soup.

Now it is creamy and almost perfect. 

Seriously, how sexy is that?