Another soup from the “Simple and Classic Home Cooking” Weight Watchers cookbook, and found on page 162 in the Soups section. This is a good version of the soup made famous in the 19th Century New York restaurant Delmonico’s, which at the time was also known and referred to as Coney Island Clam Chowder and/or Fulton Market Clam Chowder. (Reference)
Recipe Retool: A little culinary magic was performed on this recipe. This version with the 1-cup serving has only 103 calories, and 1.2 grams of fat according to the original recipe, our updates may alter these nutritional amounts slightly. We made a few updates from the original recipe; here are four ingredient updates we made:
We substituted the bacon, we used Maple wood smoked bacon in place of the originally called for lower-sodium bacon.
We also used fish stock in place of the originally called for lower-salt chicken stock.
The recipe called for ¼ teaspoon of pepper, we seasoned to taste with white pepper, and your mileage may vary.
The original recipe called for 1 Tsp dried thyme, we used 2 Tsp of fresh chopped thyme.
Other Considerations: Always thinking ahead for future use, and what I might have done in the restaurant kitchen, here are a couple of other ingredient updates that we considered, but dropped this time around due to other constraints, the tomatoes and clams:
Replace the canned tomatoes with fresh stewed plum concasse tomatoes. A simple concasse tomato is a process of quick blanching tomatoes that have been scored with an X at the bottom to loosen the skin, then cooled in an ice bath to stop the cooking process, peeled, seeded, and then diced or chunked. In addition, in this recipe that would require about 3 cups of concasse tomato.
The other update would be to get some fresh clams, like a couple dozen of them, clean and steam them in white wine, and then chopping them up for the 12 ounces required. Might even add the clam steaming liquid to the soup too! Now that would make a really tasty chowda!
| Ingredients | ||
| 2 | Slices | Maple wood smoked bacon, chopped |
| 1 1/3 | Cups | Onion, finely chopped |
| ½ | Cup | Celery, finely chopped |
| ½ | Cup | Carrot, diced |
| 1 | Lb. | Potato, peeled and diced |
| 2 | Cans | Stewed tomatoes (15-ounce each) |
| 2 | Cups | Fish stock |
| 1 | Bottle | Clam juice (8-ounces each) |
| 2 | Tsp | Thyme, fresh chopped |
| 1 | Each | Bay leaf |
| 2 | Cans | Clams, minced, un drained (6-ounces each) |
| 2 | Tbsp | Parsley, fresh chopped |
| To taste | White pepper | |
| Procedure Steps | |
| 1. | Heat a large stockpot over medium-high heat and brown the bacon, stirring often to prevent burning. Add the onion, celery, and carrots, stir well and continue to sauté for 5 minutes or until slightly tender. |
| 2. | Add the potato, tomatoes, fish stock, clam juice, thyme and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender when tested with a fork. |
| 3. | Stir in the clams and their juice, season to taste with the pepper and simmer just a few more minutes to heat the clams. Add the parsley for garnish. |
This recipe yields approximately 10 1-cup (8-ounce) servings.
According to the Weight Watchers cookbook, this recipe has the following per serving nutritional values based on the original recipe: 2 points value, 103 calories, 17.7g carbohydrates, 1.2g fat (0.4g saturated fat), 1.7g fiber, 5.3g protein, 13mg cholesterol, 594mg sodium, 65mg calcium.
10 responses so far ↓
1 JB's Cooking Lady // Feb 25, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Hmmm I love Clam Chowder and this recipe sounds really yummy.
Thanks for sharing.
2 pegasuslegend // Feb 25, 2010 at 3:02 pm
oh my~ the husband loves the red wont eat the white cant wait to try, havent made this yet….looks fantastic… you should start bottling like paul newman! I’d be stocking up~
3 Gera @ SweetsFoodsBlog // Feb 25, 2010 at 3:19 pm
This is a timely recipe for these cold days and even the modified recipe is pretty low in cals.
Like also the idea of the concasse tomatoes 🙂
All the best,
Gera
4 redkathy // Feb 25, 2010 at 5:43 pm
I prefer Manhattan and hubby New England. Love the bacon substitute; I’m sure it made a huge difference, not to mention the fresh clams!
5 Ed Schenk // Feb 25, 2010 at 6:59 pm
I enjoy both versions of chowder. Nice job updating the recipe.
6 Kathleen // Feb 25, 2010 at 7:41 pm
This is my favorite type of chowder. Your recipe sounds like da bomb!!!!
7 Beth // Feb 25, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Now that looks great and I love the substitutions – fresh is better.
8 Roti n Rice // Feb 25, 2010 at 8:20 pm
I like both versions of clam chowder. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
9 Drick // Feb 25, 2010 at 9:31 pm
I have had the white version a few times and didn’t care for it too much, could have been the cook (not me) although the Apalachicola clams were the best and sweeter – I think this red chowda sounds so much better
10 Vegan Thyme (Kelly) // Feb 26, 2010 at 11:29 am
Hi Chef! I love chowder of any kind! Your adaptation looks divine! (I would have to vegan-ize, of course!) I may also have to get these Weight Watcher’s cookbooks I see you pulling from! I have one: W.W. Take-Out Tonight–I love it–so many good recipes.