Clam Chowder | Moby Dick

Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt.
Moby Dick
Herman Melville

I love winters, I love pouring rain that lasts all day, I love thunderstorms that shake the world outside, I love hail that falls and litters the ground white. Growing up in the middle of the bush meant that all of these things were accompanied by the delights that can only be experienced when living in the middle of the trees. The sound of rain on the tin roof, the winds smacking around the tree branches outside and the lighting that would light the room up, unimpeded by buildings or city lights.

I live far away from all those delights now, but I still look forward to winter every year, to don my raincoat and go for long walks in the rain with an audio book or podcast keeping me company. For dinners of stews, curries and soups, anything that will keep you warm inside for the day. A lot of Australia likely don't get to experience the winters that I have, Victoria and Tasmania are really the key states that have such vivid seasons.

While this years' winter has not been particularly rain or storm filled, it has been bitingly cold. The description of the clam chowder inhaled by Ishmael and Queequeg was a delight to read and left me feeling indescribably hungry for something as filling as they had. As people may have noticed, everything on this blog is plant based - I don't eat animal products. The trickiest thing about this recipe was figuring out what to replace the clams with. I landed on shiitake mushrooms, while miso paste and soy sauce likely would not have been used in a traditional clam chowder recipe, it helped to make the little bites of mushroom juicy and sweet and, hopefully, reminiscent of what the clams would have added to the chowder.

*Note: I used just a generic plant based bacon from my local supermarket - if you're using real bacon, no need to add in the butter beforehand - there will be enough fat from it. I also used a coconut cream, but you could use any type of cream or even milk and it would be great. 

Clam Chowder
Makes approx. 2 large bowls
Ingredients
Clams
1 tbsp butter
200g shiitake mushrooms
1 tbsp white miso paste
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp soy / tamari sauce
Soup
2 rasher of bacon, diced *see note
2 tbsp butter1 large carrot, diced
2 lage potatoes, diced
1 onion, finely diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
500ml vegetable stock
3 tbsp plain flour1/2 cup of cream, *see note
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper

1. To make the 'clams', sliced the shiitake mushrooms, if they're quite large I would recommend dicing them a little. Heath the tbsp of butter into a saucepan and add in the sliced mushrooms once it begins to melt.

2. Add in the miso paste, soy / tamari sauce and the rice wine vinegar. Make sure you mix these in well with the butter so that it coats the mushrooms - keep them moving in the saucepan to avoid them sticking. Once they are browned and soft, you can remove them and put them to the side.

3. Add the 2 tbsp of butter to the saucepan, adding in the diced bacon and cooking until it is browned, remove from the heat and put to the side. Place the diced onion into the saucepan with the remaining melted butter and cook for around 1 - 3 minutes or until the onion softens before adding in the carrots and potatoes.

4. Add in the plain flour and minced garlic, stir it quickly so it coats the vegetables and mixes with any remaining butter in the pan. After a minute or so, add in the cream and mix well with the flour and vegetables.

5. Add in the vegetable stock - there should be enough to cover all the vegetables in the saucepan, if not use a little more. Add in the bacon and shiitake mushroom ' clams' at this stage, and leave on the stove to simmer for around 15 minutes or until the potatoes have softened. Remember to keep stirring during this time, as the soup will begin to thicken from the flour. Add a little more stock in if it gets too thick.

6. Serve immediately and enjoy!