Recipe - Cathes Clam Chowder

6 sl Bacon (or more)
1 lg Onion, chopped
24 ounce Clam juice, bottle
(Doxee brand)
One half teaspoon Garlic, dried, minced
1 lg Potato, baking
10 ounce Baby clams, canned
(Orleans brand)
3 tablespoon Cornstarch
One fourth cup Half & half (or more)
(or cream )
1 teaspoon Garlic salt (Lowry's)
One fourth teaspoon Black pepper

Fry bacon in 3quart pan until brown. Reserve 2 T. bacon grease in pan;
remove bacon to paper towel to drain well. Crumble bacon and save it for
later. (Can cook bacon in microwave and transfer 2 T grease to 3quart
pan.)

Saute chopped onion in bacon grease until translucent. Shake one of the
three bottles of clam juice well; add to the sauteed onion. Stir in dried
minced garlic and let come to a boil. Boil until the liquid is reduced by
half, but don't let the liquid get so low that the sauteed onion and minced
garlic brown.

Shake the other two bottles of clam juice well and add to the mixture in
the pan. Bring to boil.

Scrub the baking potato well (or peel it, if you want to); cut it into
halfinch cubes. Add to the boiling clam juice and reduce heat (to low)
so the mixture bubbles gently until the potatoes are almost done.

Meanwhile, drain the baby clams, reserving the juice in a cup. Put the
clams aside. Stir the cornstarch into the reserved clam juice, blending
well.

When the potatoes are just barely done, remove the pan from the heat.
Remix the cornstarch and clam juice and add to the soup, stirring
constantly as you pour the cornstarch mixture into the pan. Return pan to
heat and stir constantly until thickened. (This may seem too thick.) Remove
from heat and stir in the baby clams and the crumbled bacon. Add half and
half or cream until soup is the consistency you want it. (If you don't want
it so creamy, use milk or skim milk instead.)

Add garlic salt and black pepper to taste; serve warm. Do not let the soup
boil once the baby clams are added; boiling will turn them into rubber.
This makes about a quart of soup, enough to serve 4 with no leftovers.

Vicki's notes:

* The recipe that Cathe gave me in the 70s called for only two bottles of
clam juice (instead of three), One half C half & half (instead of One fourth C), 2 T
cornstarch (instead of 3 T), 2 teaspoons minced garlic (instead of One half t),
One fourth t garlic salt (instead of 1 t), and no black pepper or bacon (just 2 T
drippings for frying).

It also called for One fourth t each lemon pepper and sweet basil, 2 t dried
parsley, 3 drops Tabasco sauce and One fourth C sauterne, none of which are called
for in this recipe. The only things the same are the potato, the onion and
the 10 oz. can for baby clams (Geisha). (The recipe said you could
substitute a 7 ounce can of minced clams if you had to.)

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini