Nothing is better than a relaxed Sunday lunch on a winter afternoon, nestled by the fire with a bunch of friends filling the tanks for another busy week ahead. Chilling and taking time out is so important and we don't to it enough. Together with my cheesy cream corn toasties this soup forms a comforting and nurturing lunch.
Ingredients
| 1 kg | Clams, I used Cloudy Bay Clams |
| 1 cup | White wine, for cooking clams |
| 90 g | Butter |
| ¾ cup | Flour |
| 250 ml | Milk |
| 650 ml | Fish stock |
| 100 ml | Dry sherry, I used Tio Pepe |
| 30 ml | Olive oil |
| 1 | Onion, finely diced |
| 1 | Garlic clove, finely chopped |
| 1 pinch | Grated nutmeg |
| 2 Tbsp | Chopped parsley |
| 50 g | Mascarpone |
| 1 Tbsp | Indian seasoning |
Directions
1 Heat a pan on high heat and add the Cloudy Bay clams and wine.
2 Steam covered until clams open. Once cooked, remove the clams and discardany that are unopened.
3 Take the clam meat out of the shells.
4 Place half the clam meat into a food processor and pulse until a paste. Finely chop the remaining clams, then mix with the pureed clam meat and set aside.
5 Melt the butter in a pot then add the flour, stirring continuously for 5 minutes on a medium heat.
6 Add the milk slowly, stirring continuouslyto avoid lumps. Then bring to the boiland gradually add the fish stock, then the sherry.
7 Cook for 10 minutes on low heat.
8 In a separate pot heat the olive oil then add the onion and garlic and cook untilvery soft. Add the nutmeg. Add this to the roux mixture along with the clams. Bring to the boil; add the parsley and season to taste.
9 If the chowder is too thick add more fishstock.
10 Serve with a scoop of the mascarpone that has been mixed with the Indian seasoning.
For a comforting lunch serve the chowder withcheesy cream corn toasties.
