Clam Chowder for Niall

Niall,
This first test batch of chowder left Bill speechless. He uttered all kinds of grunts and other appreciative noises, but otherwise pretty much stayed face down in the bowl until it was gone. I'm keeping this recipe as is. The whole thing took 20 minutes from start to finish, including prep.

It is very basic, and the only thing that sets this chowder apart are the two techniques described in the directions for the recipe below. I know it will offend your chefly sensibilities to NOT ADD LIQUID to the clams when you steam them, and if you must cave on this point you could add a splash of white wine, but trust me when I tell you it isn't necessary. This is how I solved the problem we spoke about -- of how to get the broth to taste like a big bowl of steamers and not like that nasty bottled clam juice...

The linguica is really key, and I hope you won't leave it out just because the folks out there haven't been converted yet. The pancetta gives the chowder a clean, mild porkiness, and the linguica lends a tremendous amount of flavor. I can overnight you a pound or two of the good stuff from Lopes Sausage if you don't have access to a source.

The parsley does change the traditional all-white aspect of NE chowder, adding little flecks of green to the bowl. I'm cool with that and I think the fresh herbs offset the richness of the dish, but you could leave them out if the green is too off-putting.I didn't add any salt to the pot at all, but the dish came out perfectly seasoned between the clams and the pork products. Enjoy...

1/2 cup pancetta, diced small
1/4 cup linguica, diced medium
12 littleneck clams, scrubbed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, diced large
2 cups red new potatoes, UNPEELED, diced large
1/2 pint heavy cream
2 cups evaporated skim milk (I used regular whole milk and the flavor was phenomenal but the milk did scald. Up to you. I would use evaporated skim milk next time to approximate the texture of regular milk.)
handful chopped parsley
chopped chives (optional)
Ground black pepper, to taste

Turn the flame to medium-high under a large saute pan with a tight fitting lid. Add the pancetta and linguica and let them just barely begin to render -- about a minute. Add the clams, put the lid on the pot, turn the heat to high and walk away for 7 or 8 minutes. Do not take the lid off.
Prep all the other ingredients.

After 8 minutes, all the clams will be wide open and they will have generated a lot of clam liquor. Pour the contents of the pan into a very fine strainer over a small-to-medium-sized pot. Set the strainer with the clams and pork products aside to cool.

Turn the heat to medium under the pot with the clam liquor and add the remaining ingredients. Cook UNCOVERED until the potatoes are just cooked through, about 8 - 10 minutes total. This allows the liquid to reduce a little while the potatoes are soaking up all that good clam broth and cream.

Towards the end of the cooking time, take the cooled clams out of their shells and cut them in half. (This is super quick once the clams are cool. Don't say the prep crew doesn't have time to do this!) Discard the clam shells.

Once the potatoes are cooked through, add the clams and pork back to the chowder. Let cool for a couple of minutes and taste for seasoning. This makes 5-6 servings, and the chowder is good for several days.

Those two techniques -- steaming the clams first to get their liquid (and ensuring big pieces of clam) and then letting the liquid thicken a bit while the potatoes cook in it uncovered are my Xmas gifts to you, even if you already have them.

Love,
Ruthie

Flounder La Bella Fortuna

I miss Art Bloom. It sneaks up on me sometimes. I used to go and visit him regularly, and I was remembering recently how a friend and I once made the long drive from Bard to P-Town, just to watch the Academy Awards with Art. He was delighted that we had come to see him, and made his standard "special occasion" meal for us; which always took just as long to prepare as it did to eat -- probably 8 hours from shopping to dishes. The courses were always pretty much the same: some variation on steamed mussels, broiled bluefish, lobster and corn, maybe a salad; and vanilla ice cream for dessert. There was lots of wine and bourbon, of course, to go with all that good local seafood.

I remember every detail of the room looking over the bay. The way the light changed from season to season; how it felt to lie on my back and read with the little orange cat Fire sleeping on my chest, and the sound of distant foghorns and the tide coming in. Art and I would talk about Niall and Scott and Beverly; about music and movies and books and relationships. We had adopted each other as family, and those memories of visits to "the kibbutz" before Art got sick are very precious.

Art's special occasion bluefish came from Howard Mitcham's Provincetown Seafood Cookbook - still one of my all-time favorites. Mitcham, a wild man in the venerable P-Town tradition of brilliant and insane kitchen innovators, was still around when I was a kid, and my parents once took me to the restaurant where he did a very brief professional stint, to eat the Haddock Almondine that he had made famous.

I bought some flounder the other night, and enjoyed a little riff on Art's fish, with some updates of my own. The traditional recipe as I remember it, involved squeezing a lemon over a piece of bluefish or halibut, seasoning it with salt and pepper, and then spreading mayonnaise over the fish before broiling, about which Mitcham says:

"Now listen: when I say fresh homemade mayonnaise I mean exactly that. If you try to squeeze by with that cheap commercial mayonnaise then you will have defiled a fine fish who sacrificed his life for your enjoyment."

I seasoned our cod fillet with sumac and pimenton, salt and pepper, squeezed a lemon over it, let it sit while I preheated the broiler and then spread a little mayonnaise and dijon mustard mixture over the fish before broiling. Bill was completely knocked out by the sweet, fresh flounder and it disappeared in a flash. Simple and delicious.

flounder filets
salt
pepper
sumac
pimenton
dijon mustard
mayonnaise
lemon
chopped parsley for garnish

Tomato Vegetable Soup with Rice

This is my take on Lydia Bastianich's famous Potato Rice Soup that uses a Parmigiano-Reggiano Rind for flavor. I've made it into a rainy-day-at-the-Cape tomato soup, switched out the celery (which I never have in the fridge) for fennel (which I always have in the fridge) and cut back on the rice so the leftovers don't turn to sludge overnight. This is a hearty soup. It would be terrific pureed, as all tomato soups are, and, in fact, that might just be the key to reviving the leftovers now that I think of it...


3 tablespoons olive oil
4 small red potatoes, washed and cut into 1/3-inch cubes
1 large carrots, diced large
1/2 cup fennel, diced large
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 cup leftover French onion soup (obviously, this was what was on hand. Next time, I'd probably increase the chicken broth by half a cup, and saute half an onion, diced large, with the other vegetables.)
4 cups hot chicken broth
2 2-inch-squares Parmigiano rind, exterior scraped
1 fresh or dried bay leaves
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup long-grain rice
1/4 cup chopped basil or parsley or spinach (optional)

1. In a deep, heavy 4- to 5-quart pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Potatoes will stick to pot; adjust heat to prevent stuck bits from becoming too dark. Stir in carrots and celery and cook, stirring, another 2 to 3 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir to coat vegetables.

2. Add broth, onion soup, Parmigiano rinds and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, scraping up bits of potato on bottom, then simmer. Cover pot and cook until potatoes begin to fall apart, about 40 minutes. Stir in rice and cook until rice is tender but still firm, about 12 minutes. Remove bay leaves, stir in parsley or other green leafy chiffonade (if desired), and check seasoning. Remove rinds and cut into small pieces. Put a piece in each soup bowl and ladle soup on top. Serves 4-6

Restaurant-ish Pasta

More pasta. Its not all we're eating...really! I just can't find time to blog lately. I'll get around to writing up the fragrant keema mattar, velvety chocolate bread pudding, pickled beets, pineapple zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting and fabulous lemon chicken sometime soon, but for right now, with my preliminary literature review due at 9am and a long night of blurry-eyed proofreading ahead, I will just note that tonight's pasta was spectacular, if I do say so myself. Layers of flavor, good balance and pretty to look at. Bill ate himself into a food coma and passed out on the couch, indicating that perhaps this dish is a little too "restaurant-ish" for every day usage.

3 cloves garlic
1 scallion
6 sun dried tomatoes
hefty glug of white wine
juice of one lemon
olive oil
spoonful of chicken fat
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 T pesto
large handful of shrimp, sheeled and deveined
red pepper flakes
handful frozen peas
2 T pesto
copious amount of chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
linguini
pesto bread crumbs

Linguini a la Campagnola

I used to live down the block from a little neighborhood Italian restaurant where they make this dish: a fantastically savory pasta in garlic and oil with sun dried tomatoes, perfectly sauteed broccoli and a hunk of broiled goat cheese to swirl into the mix.

I made a double batch, thinking we'd eat the leftover portion for lunch the next day, but BT went back for fourths, until finally all that remained was an empty pan. Instructions to follow.

oil
scallions
broccoli
sundried tomatoes
garlic
parsley
goat cheese
salt and pepper

linguini

Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Ice Cream

Cook the eggs or don't cook the eggs - that part's entirely up to you. But make this ice cream. Make it without any further delay.
This is my ideal strawberry ice cream, exactly as is.
(The only element I might play around with in the future is maybe mixing everything in the blender for easier pouring and fewer bowls to wash.)

1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped
juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 1/4 cup sugar in a mixing bowl, and set aside to macerate in the fridge for 1 hour. In a large mixing bowl beat eggs until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add 3/4 cups sugar, mixing well. Stir in milk and vanilla and mix well. Mash strawberries to a puree. Add the strawberry puree to the custard and mix well. Gently stir in whipping cream just until combined. Pour into a chilled ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Rotelli, Asparagus and Peas with Saffron Cream

Unable to leave well enough alone, I made a number of strategic changes to (an already perfectly good) recipe from Deborah Madison's The Greens Cookbook. (Not using any saffron in the saffron cream, for one thing...!)

Madison writes: "The peas are small and fresh, the asparagus, pencil thin. The fragrant saffron-flavored cream makes this pasta filling and substantial. This is a rather special dish, fine for a company dinner." I most wholeheartedly agree.

4 - 6 ounces fresh pasta (tagliatelle or wide fettuccine would be ideal.
1/2 bunch asparagus
1 cup green peas
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
1 tablespoon butter
2 scallions finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup heavy cream
Salt, to taste
1 cup parsley, roughly chopped
1 thin strip lemon peel; very thinly slivered
Parmesan cheese
Pepper

Bring a large pot of water to boil.
Melt the butter in a wide saute pan, and gently cook the shallots for several minutes, or until they are soft. Add the cream and the saffron infusion, bring to a boil, reduce slightly, and season with salt. When the pasta water is boiling, add salt, and cook the asparagus, and then the peas, in the boiling water. Scoop them out when they are done and add them to the cream. Next cook the pasta; when it is done, add it to the cream, turning it over several times with a pair of tongs to coat it with the sauce. Add the chervil leaves and the lemon peel, and serve on warm plates with grated Parmesan and freshly ground pepper.

Serves 2