Domestic Goddesses II

Let us leave Martha Stewart grazing contendedly on a neighboring mansion's lawn and turn our attention to a rather different Domestic Goddess (she has a sense of humor.)

Oprah Winfrey has marketed herself so successfully that she' gone from having a full name (like the rest of us) to one name recognition (Cher, Madonna, J-Lo) and finally to just "O." If that isn't name recognition, I don't know what is. It always amused me, back in the day when she was still "Oprah" to remember my mother's name was Orpha and to tease her, her brothers called her "Orpah." It's all in where you put the "r" ...

Alert readers will remember the great Clam Chowder Cook-Off. Here is how "O" wants you to make it.

CLASSIC CLAM CHOWDER (from The Oprah Magazine Cookbook)

2 medium russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 in. cubes, cooked and set aside

2T sweet butter
2/3 cup diced celery
2/3 cup chopped white onions
4 61/2-oz. cans chopped clams, separate the clams from the broth
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 8-oz. bottles clam juice
1 oz. salt pork
1 cup light cream

Melt the butter and saute the celery and onions until tender. Stir in the flour, reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes, until it's just golden and take off of the heat.

Mix the clam juice (bottled and saved from the cans), add the salt pork and bring to a boil. Gradually whisk the hot clam juice into the flour mixture, then add the potatoes and cream, bring to a boil, stirring often (Ed. note I don't know how good an idea it is to boil light cream...)

Stir in the clams and heat them through, about one minute. Makes 6 servings.