Fang Food: New England Clam Chowder.

Well, today is my day off, and I wanted to make an instapot recipe that I like since the high temperature today is forecast as 63* and rainy all day. So far it is 3pm in the afternoon and it rained for about 10 minutes at 11 am. Yay, weather guessers meteorologists!

At 7pm will be the Snakepit Minor League draft, hosted by our very own imstillhungry1995. I assume no slap-edge will take place, however.

Without further ado (and yes.. I am NOT a professional chef, this is just a recipe I like and wanted to share) I actually have a pressure cooker that I am familiar enough with that I can change the settings to be about what the instapot recipes would be. I am posting just the instapot directions.

This will be the first time I have made this with the optional ingredients, but without them, it is a really good instapot recipe. I recommend using soupe boules that you can find at a grocery store or a certain chain of bread related restaurants. I am not sure I can say the names.

You will need:

• 4 tablespoons of salted butter
• 1 diced yellow onion
• 2 ribs of celery, finely chopped, leafy tops reserved. I was off at 8pm last night when I shopped so I got the days leftovers basically. I almost didn’t do this lol.
• 3 table spoons flour
• 2 cups of chicken broth or clam broth
• 3 6.5oz cans chopped clams: drained liquid reserved
• 2 bay leaves
• The recipe actually states “1 pound Idaho potatoes” But I use Russet potatoes and I’ll throw in a red potatoes or something as well. Peeled and cut into ¹⁄₄ inch cubes (lol... Ive made this several times and really just noticed it says peeled. So I will say it doesn’t matter)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon salt, ¹⁄₂ teaspoon black pepper
• ⁄₄ teaspoon Old Bay seasoning (optional) and 1/8 teaspoon Zatarain’s shrimp and crab boil concentrate. (optional)

Step one
Place the butter in the instapot and hit saute. When melted, add onion and celery and cook stirring for 3-5 minutes. Add flour to coat onion and celery. Add flour, stir to coat onion and celery.

Step two
Add broth, scraping bottom to make sure nothing has stuck and add clam juice (but not the clams) the bay leaves and potatoes. Stir well.

Step three
Secure lid, move valve to sealing position, hit keep warm and manual or pressure cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Quick release when done and remove lid.

Step four
Kit keep warm again, and then hit saute and adjust so it’s on the high setting. Add clams, heavy cream, salt, pepper and (old bay/Zatarain’s if using.) Bring to a simmer, stirring well. Once it starts to bubble, hit cancel. It is done and ready to serve.

I cut open a sourdough soupe boule and use that as a serving bowl, but you can still use a generic bowl.