Market Street Clam Chowder

When I was 15 years old, my family moved from western New York state to Utah.  We settled near Salt Lake City and were surrounded by the beautiful Wasatch mountains.  One of our favorite restaurants in the area was Market Street Grill in downtown Salt Lake and one of our favorite things at Market Street was the clam chowder.  My mom and I would go there just to get a bowl of clam chowder and then share a dessert.

Fast forward 5 years later, I was a student at Brigham Young University in Provo and engaged to my now husband.  He loves seafood, so I introduced him to Market Street and it became one of our favorite spots.  While planning our wedding, we would drive up to Salt Lake on weekends to meet my mom and often we would stop at Market Street for lunch.  Which of course meant more clam chowder!

After we were married we stayed in Utah for a couple more years before grad school and work took us elsewhere.  Whenever we came back to visit, we would try to make a trip to Market Street again.  On one of our visits, I found a stack of recipe cards on the front counter.  Guess what recipe it was.  That's right, clam chowder.  I couldn't believe it wasn't a secret!  Of course, I took one with plans to make it at home.

With the chilly weather recently, I've been craving clam chowder.  Unfortunately, I lost that recipe card a long time ago.  So, I did a little searching online and found this recipe again.  This time it was printed in The Salt Lake Tribune.  It's been a really, really long time.  Would it be as good as I remembered?

Recipe Link
Ingredients 
3/4 cup melted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup (1/2 inch) diced potatoes *see notes
1 cup (1/2 inch) diced celery
1 cup (1/2 inch) diced onion
1 cup (1/2 inch) diced green pepper
1 cup (1/2 inch) diced leeks
3/4 cup chopped clams, *canned or fresh
3/4 cup clam juice (from canned clams or purchased separately)
3/4 Tablespoon coarse ground black pepper
1 1/2 Tablespoons salt *see notes
3/4 Tablespoon whole thyme
6 bay leaves
1 teaspoon hot sauce (Tabasco recommended)
2 cups water
2 quarts half and half
Directions
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Combine melted butter and flour in oven-proof container. Bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile...
2. In large saucepan, combine remaining ingredients except half and half. Simmer until potatoes are thoroughly cooked (about 15 minutes).
3. Stir the butter-flour mixture into chowder and stir until thick. Mixture will be slightly less thick than cookie dough. Remove from heat and stir in half and half until blended.
4. Return to heat and warm to serving temperature, stirring occasionally. Serve immediately.
Makes 12 servings

Notes: If using canned clams, I would reduce the amount of salt to 1 Tablespoon. I used 2 (6.5 oz.) cans of clams which yielded 1 cup total, plus I had plenty of juice, too. 
Also, my husband suggested adding an extra 1/2 cup of diced potatoes.

Adapted from Gastronomy, Inc. (printed in The Salt Lake Tribune)

First, I put the melted butter/flour mixture in the oven. Then, I chopped and prepared the rest of the ingredients.

I never used leeks before, so I searched for websites that explained how to clean and prepare leeks. Here are two that were useful: Simply Recipes and a video from Real Simple.

Lookin' Good!

This is what my butter/flour mixture looked like after it baked for 30 minutes.

Here's step 3. I stirred in the butter/flour mixture and it got thick.

Pouring in the half and half.

It really wasn't difficult to make.

The Results... 
Market Street Clam Chowder is rich and creamy with a blend of hearty vegetables and tender clams. This was the first time that I made clam chowder from scratch.  It was much easier than I thought it would be and I even learned how to use leeks! 

Our son gave this chowder 4 1/2 stars (out of 5).  He really liked it!  My 10 and 7 yr. old girls gave it 3 stars.  They thought it was OK.  My 3 yr. old refused to eat her chowder and put orange slices inside her bowl and swirled them around (I'm guessing that means she didn't like it at all).

My husband and I really liked this chowder, but there were a couple of things we would change next time.  It was a bit too salty for us and we thought it could use more diced potatoes.

Overall, this is a great recipe to have on hand and if my memory serves me well, this tastes very much like the clam chowder we enjoyed many years ago at Market Street Grill.  Now I can make it at home!

I sometimes share recipes at these link parties.