Tai clam chowder - Quick and Easy Version

One of my newest food obsessions is Tai Clam Chowder.  Our local Tai restaurant changed hands last year and they added some new things to try to the menu.  It was great before, but it is amazing now.  So they added the clam chowder and I feel in love.  Since I can not afford to eat out that often, I have been working on my own version and I think I got it pretty close.   One of my issues is that this is one of the foods that I want it when I want it...  like... RIGHT then.  So I had to figure out how to make it quickly.

The ingredients:

2 cans clams
1 jar clam juice
1 can coconut milk
bacon
potato
lime juice to taste
spices to taste
celantro if wanted

Bacon - The first thing I do now is make up the bacon.  It needs to be little bits of bacon.  I tried making the bacon and crumbling it first, but I discovered that it is much quicker and easier to cut up the raw bacon (gloves and plastic cutting sheet make it easier) into small pieces and then cook them on low-medium heat.  You only get a couple of cups from a pound of bacon, but I keep it in the freezer in one of the cool zip-lock plastic containers with the twist tops.  From the last pound, I got two soup batches plus some extra for use on baked potatoes.

Potatoes - I cut one raw medium potato into small pieces.  I like to use the golden yellow potato but any type will work.  Boil the pieces until tender but not mushy.  I used half in the first batch and froze the other half to use in a later batch... I am not sure how well that will work yet, but I will post update when I know.

Spices - At first I used fresh tai chili, lemon grass, ginger and celantro.  I ended up either having to go get them when I wanted the soup or having them go bad because I bought them and then did not want the soup right then. I started buying the individual pastes, but my supermarket started carrying a tai spice mixed paste.  It is good!  I get two batches out of one tube and it stays good in the fridge for a while.

If the potatoes and bacon are already made, it takes very little time to put all the ingredients together.  A quick simmer and it is ready to eat!  Like almost everything else, the leftover soup is better the next day, so if you have the will power (I don't), make it up the day before and let it sit to meld.

It makes about a quart.