CookEat Recipe
Bisque of Clams
A smooth clam bisque enriched with milk, cream and butter, served with golden croutons.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Use thirty-six medium live clams from a certified supplier, already cleaned and purged. Keep cold until preparation. Discard cracked shells and clams that do not close when tapped, and scrub the sound clams under cold running water. Open them with a suitable clam knife, retaining all the meats and their own liquor. Check the meats for shell fragments and strain the raw liquor through a clean fine food-safe filter to remove grit.
Step 2
Put all the clam meats and their filtered liquor in a saucepan with the one and a half quarts hot water. Cover, bring to a boil and boil for twenty minutes, until the meats are fully cooked. Drain through a sieve over a clean bowl, reserving all the cooking liquid. Pound the cooked meats to a paste and return all the paste to the retained liquid.
Step 3
Melt one ounce of the butter in another saucepan. Stir in the two and a half ounces flour and cook for one minute. Gradually whisk in all the clam liquid and paste, half a pint hot pasteurized milk and two gills cream. Add one teaspoon salt, two saltspoons cayenne and one saltspoon grated nutmeg. Whisk well and bring to a boil, cooking until the flour is fully cooked.
Step 4
While the bisque heats, cut the four bread slices into small squares. Heat the one tablespoon clarified butter in a frying pan and fry the bread for about five minutes, tossing frequently, until golden. Keep hot for serving.
Step 5
Whisk the remaining half ounce butter into the boiling bisque until melted. Pass through a sieve and then clean food-safe cheesecloth into a warm tureen, removing all coarse clam particles. Serve promptly with the croutons.
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