My dad Ed cooked only a few recipes – spaghetti, hamburger mince gravy, sourdough bread, clam chowder – and he cooked them very well.
His clam chowder is as good as any I’ve ever had. The much-loved and lamented clam chowder that the BC Ferries used to serve wasn’t a patch on my dad’s version.
Ed’s clam chowder
- olive oil
- 6 rashers of bacon, sliced crosswise
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 2 carrots, grated
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 400g tins whole tomatoes
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 280g tin baby clams in brine
- salt and pepper
- Heat a large frying pan over a medium flame. Coat with a thin layer of olive oil and fry the bacon until browned.
- Add the onions and cook until golden.
- Stir in the potatoes, carrots and celery. Add just enough water to cover and leave to simmer until the vegetables are tender.
- Add the tomatoes to a large soup pot over a medium flame. Break them up with a wooden spoon. Add the flour, stirring to prevent lumps. Simmer until thickened, then add the contents of the frying pan.
- Cook for fifteen minutes, then add the clams and their liquid. Cook until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve with soda crackers.
Ten More Bites 
Apart from the bacon (I am a Pesce) it looks delish!
Thanks, Ben — I’m sure would be great without the bacon too…
For all the eating I’ve done with Ed, I was never treated to his clam chowder nor have I ever tried the tomato based one. I look forward to giving his version a try.
That surprises me — he made it week after week for many years… I’d go so far as to call it his signature dish. Though by the time he assumed the cooking duties, we weren’t seeing you so often — that’d be it…