Ready to get your recommend daily intake of beta-carotene?  I know I am, and that fly definitly is!

While I was reading over this recipe the other day a strange feeling over came me.  Call it anticipation, call it dread, call it naivety.  As I scanned the ingredients I realized that I had never tasted, let alone cooked, with 2 of the 4 main ingredients.   Parsnips and sweet potatoes.   These arn’t exactually the first vegatbles that pop to mind when I’m thinking of, , , ,well to tell you the truth I’ve NEVER thought of them.  Not to eat. Not to cook.  Not at all.   

(The only memory I have of sweet potatoes is a line from a movie that flys through my mind every 3rd year or so, , “Sweet Potater Pie!”.  No idea were its from.)

Okay enough about my lack of culinary experiences….

 

Here is what you’ll need.  1 lb of each, carrots (a vegatable I know) and parsnips (one I don’t know).  1 large sweet potater. . ur, , potato.  1 medium butternut squash.  Flat leaf parsley, a small bunch will do.  Pepper, salt and good olive oil.

 

First thing your going to do is wash and peel all the vegtables.  See I’m peeling the parsnips!!  In the background you can see all the lovely carrot peelings.  $10.00 says my Mom is shaking her head at this very moment (some comment about cleaning up as you go along jumps to mind).

Once everything is peeled, chop all the vegtables into 1″ cudes (and by cubes I mean any random shape that happens to result from the swinging of your sharpish knives).  The vegs will shrink so don’t cut them to small.  

Don’t forget the Sweet Potater!!!   Wash! Peel! Chop!  Sweet Potater Pie!!

When you get to the butternut squash, remeber to clean out all the guts!  I chopped the top off first, just because it’s funner that way.  You should like totally do the same.

Looky here, nice clean butternut squashes.   Chop those bad boys up! 

Here we have all the chopped up vegtables.  I spy parsnips, carrots and squash!  Where for art thou sweet potater??  

Throw those veggies into baking pans, you’ll probably use two. (I’m sure I have a picture with both pans, but at the moment I’m to lazy to go looking for it! )

Drizzle 3 tablespoons of olive oil over the vegtables. 

Sprinkle pepper over the veggies.  If you like lots then sprinkle lots, if you prefer little then be conservative.

Finally sprinkle on a little salt, and toss everything together.

 

Pop those pans in a 425 degree oven and let them cook for 25-35 minutes, until all the vegtables are soft but not mushy.

 

Oh my goodness!!!  Look at those delicous roasted vegtables!

 

Yummyyy!!  *drool drool* Wipe *drool*

 

After you’ve finished salavating, spoon a LARGE helping onto a nice white plate, preferably one that you stole from your older sister.  RESIST the urge to gobble them up, , we’re not quite done.

Lets not forget the parsley.  Take a small bunch….

Wash them and remove the leaves from the . .stick part. . stem!

Chop the parsley into meadium-small pieces.

Sprinkle over the vegtables!  Don’t be stingy here, sprinkle like your saving the world.

Doesn’t that look divine!!  The verdict =  I LOVE PARSNIPS!!!  AND CARROTS!! AND BUTTERNUT SQUASH!!  AND SWEET POTATERS!!       The perfect culinary trifecta~(except there’s four of them not three,  the perfect fourfecta??)  

 Try this recipe and your life will be complete and have meaning.  (in a warped food-snob sort of way)

The time has come!   Let’s crack open that lovely cookbook.  Take a minute to breathe in the lovely new book smell!!  Now flip past all the intro, past page 5 and 6 keep going till you reach the first recipe, which happens to land on page (get this). . . . 28!!  28 pages of intro, writing, menu planning etc!! 

Now doesn’t that look delicous!!  This isn’t just any clam chowder (as my title suggests), oh no, this is East Hampton Clam Chowder!!  (Because everything tastes better in East Hampton)

Here’s what you’ll need: Milk, flour, salt (I use sea salt), pepper, potatoes, celery, carrots, clams, onions, butter and thyme!

 

First things first, we’re gonna chop up all the vegtables !!!  Hooray!  We are going to need 2 cups chopped onions (approx 2 onions), 2 cups diced celery (4 stalks), 2 cups diced carrots (6 carrots) and 4 cups peeled and diced potatoes (8 medium potatoes).  

I think now would be a very good time to point everyones attention to my cutting board.  Notice the puny size of it, the worn look of the wood  and most importantly the puny size of it (did I say that already?).  It’s truly a sad day when a cook extraordinaire must cut on such an aged board. 

On a completely unrelated note: Christmas is less then 2 months away !!!

After cutting up the vegs you should have roughly this amount!  

Melt 4 tbs butter in large heavy-bottom stock pot. If you don’t have a stock pot (like me), use the largest frying pan you can find.   Preferrably one that has been used and abused not only by you, but also by your sister who, (after beating the life out of it) decided to let it retire at your house!  (Have I mentioned Christmas is coming??)

 

Add the onions (2cups) and cook on med-low heat for 10 min.

 

Meanwhile take your fresh thyme, remove the leaves from the stick, and chop them coursely.  Your going to need 1.5 teaspoons fresh thyme. If you don’t do the fresh herb thing you can also use 1/2 tsp dried thyme.

 Add the celery, carrots, potatos, your freshly minced thyme, salt (1 tsp) and pepper (1/2 tsp) to the onions and saute  for 10 min.

 

Now, take you clams. (I bought baby clams by mistake, regular probably work just fine)

And seperate the clams from the clam water or uh juice??  What do you call the liquid the clams are packed in?  If you happen to be browsing through the Barefoot Contessa’s cookbook and read this recipe, you’ll notice that it calls for clam juice.  Since I’ve never ever cooked with clams, or their juices, I didn’t know if the “clam juice” was simply the water pictured above, or if there is actual juice that you can buy.   I used the water, and it worked fine.

 Take your clam juice or clam water (4 cups) and add it to the vegtables.  Bring that mix to a boil and then let it simmer uncovered until the veggies are tender.  (20 min)

 

While the veggies are tenderizing, melt the remaining butter (1 stick or 8 tbs) and whisk in flour (1/2 cup).  Cook on very low for 3 minutes,  stirring constantly. 

 

Whisk in 1 cup of the hot vegtable mix broth (and a carrot or two if you feel so inclined).  Once you add the broth the mixture will get very thick VERY FAST.   Pour the rapid-thickening butter mix back into vegtables let that all simmer untill all the broth is thickend. (Maybe 2-3 minutes)

 

Then add 2 cups of milk. . . 

. . .and 3 cups clams. (If you used regular clams, give them a little chopping before adding them)  Mix it all up and cook for a few minutes. (5-10)

Now that you have a few minutes you can call up your Mom and Dad or an Uncle, or friend prephaps, and invite them to join you for supper!!   What!! You have no bread?  Well don’t worry about that just cut up some bagels and a croissant.  Pile them on a plate and hope no one makes any cruel remarks about your domestic skills.

There ya have it, delicous East Hampton Clam Chowder!  Enjoy!