[Sca-cooks] Yankees, Hash, and Beets, was and still is: Winter comfort food...
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius.magister at verizon.net
Tue Dec 6 16:48:05 PST 2005
On Dec 6, 2005, at 6:40 PM, marilyn traber 011221 wrote:
> Well, Magister Spoon Tease, since you have both types there, you
> should have
> your recipes close to hand, or at least to mind. Why don't you tell
> us what
> YOU think makes an excellent chowder of each type?
What I made was what I considered acceptable chowders, based almost
entirely on pantry staples, such as canned, chopped clams and clam
juice. Part of the whole cold-weather-food mystique involves not
going out into the snow for clams... ;-) This also makes no claim to
be a 19th-century-style chowder (certain family members having
strong, if illogical, feelings on the subject).
So, with that caveat... here's what I did:
I sliced and shredded about 4 ounces of salt pork and placed it in
the bottom of a 4-quart saucepan to render. Eventually it started to
brown a little, but I didn't want it any darker than golden, so when
it looked like there wouldn't be quite enough rendered fat to do the
job I had in mind, I added a pat of butter, and then about a half-cup
of finely-chopped onion, which I allowed to sweat at low heat until
translucent. Then stirred in about 3/4 cup of flour and let that cook
slowly until it no longer smelled like raw flour, then added bottled
clam juice and the juice from canned clams by the time I was done,
this turned out to be about 1 1/2 to 2 quarts -- five 8-ounce bottles
and maybe another 8 or 10 ounces from the four 6.5-ounce cans of
clams I used. Stirred this until the flour was dissolved, and brought
it to a boil while peeling and dicing six or seven floury russet
potatoes into 3/4-inch cubes. Added spuds to pot, brought it to a
boil, reduced the heat to low and simmered for about 1/2 hour.
During this time, Evil Spawn arrives home from school and announces
that it smells heavenly, and announces intention of eating majority
of product, but for my stated intention of adding additional dairy
products. Evil Spawn begins to root around in cupboard in
exaggerated, theatrical manner, indicating that he's a good sport
about his teenage skin afflictions in re dairy products.
Normally I would then have added milk and cream, or half-and-half,
but I decided to take pity on Evil Spawn and reserved about a quart
of my chowder mixture (and 1/4 of the clams) in a separate pot to
create a semblance of Rhode Island "clear" chowder. He requested the
addition of tomato product, so I added a Tbs of tomato paste and a
gratuitous drop of hot sauce.
To the larger pot I added a pint each of milk and cream, let that
reduce a little, added the clams to both pots, and seasoned both pots
with salt and pepper. I decided the dairy-based chowder was a little
thin, so I stirred in about a quarter-cup of matzoh cake meal (in
lieu of finely crushed ship's biscuit).
I ended up with about four quarts of chowder, all told, which is
about right for a dinner and some for lunch tomorrow.
Pink chowder served as is, white chowder got a little more butter at
service. Served with the Paula Peck/James Beard Cuban quick bread
(it's basically a pseudo-French-bread that rises in the oven) and a
salad.
> Phlip, who prefers oyster stew...
Hard to argue with that. I like a good oyster pan roast myself.
Adamantius
"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils mangent de la
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them
eat cake!"
-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
"Confessions", 1782
"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry
Holt, 07/29/04
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list