Posted by Ken Jones
I've always loved "chowder" whether it be New England-style, a white, milk-based chowder, or Manhattan-style, a tomato-based chowder. Each is quite different but most recipes for both are pretty similar, i.e., New England almost always is a variation of bacon, onions, potatoes, clams, clam juice, and milk. Additional spices can vary but generally they aren't too different. The same with Manhattan-style chowder. There are some different recipes (such as those seen in North Carolina, a New England-style chowder but without the milk) but most call for more of this or less of that. Start with the basic ingredients and keep it simple and you should have a good chowder. However, there are also fish chowders and here the varieties seem to increase. And, sometimes the recipes for chowder stretch the limits and become more of a ciopinno or fish stew recipe (and there's nothing wrong with that). Herein a little variety of "chowder" recipes.
For many years I owned the Horn of Zeese Restaurant up in the redwoods of Mendocino County. The "Horn" was in Boonville, midway between Cloverdale and the coast (28 miles each way). Every Friday we would make up a BIG pot of New England-style (white) clam chowder, which would usually be gone sooner than I expected. People would come from as far as the coast to get the chowder even though Fort Bragg seemed the logical place for fish and chowder. I'm sure the fact that I used a lot of clams made a big difference. I made it the way I wanted it myself even if it meant not making as much profit as possible. And, I never put it inside a bread bowl like so many do today. Unfortunately after a while I didn’t even use a recipe, I just made it from memory. So, here I am modifying the (commercial) amounts I used and hopefully coming up with a product as equally good as that at the Horn of Zeese.
Basic New England-Style Clam Chowder
Ingredients:
• 4 slices of bacon, cut into small pieces
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, skinned and cubed
• 4 medium-sized potatoes, cubed
• 2 (ten-ounce) cans of chopped clams
• 2 cans of clam juice (approximately 10 ounces each)
• 1 quart milk (or half and half for a richer chowder)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 tablespoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons butter
Optional — 1 tablespoon of corn starch (don’t over do it like too many restaurants do)
Preparation/Cooking:
• Fry the bacon in a small skillet over a low heat until brown, about five minutes.
• Add the diced onion and cook until it’s soft, about three to five minutes.
• Pour the oil from the skillet into a larger pan while reserving the bacon and onion.
• Add the clam juice to the larger pan and bring to a boil.
• Add the cubed potatoes and celery and cook until tender.
• Add the clams and simmer for about 5 more minutes.
• Add the bacon and onion, milk, butter, and the salt and pepper into the mix.
• If a thicker consistency is desired add a small amount of corn starch. Mix the corn starch in a couple of tablespoons of water so that it is a liquid itself before adding it to the chowder.
• Keep the chowder hot (but do not let it boil).
Some people add a little dried parsley, a little thyme, or a teaspoon or so of dill weed, but I didn't. Some sprinkle the bacon on top of the chowder but I didn't. Don't be afraid to experiment (and I am sure there are hundreds of clam chowder recipes on the Net).
• Serve with some sourdough bread, French bread, or crackers (preferably oyster crackers).
Posted by Ken Jones
From Pier Fishing In California, 2nd Ed. — The following recipe is from a little book called The Mendocino Peasant Cookbook, and can be used for any mild white-fleshed fish. Especially good are lingcod, rockfish, and halibut.
Lingcod Chowder
Ingredients:
• 3 Tbs. oil or butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped and seeded
• 3 cups cubed, cooked potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• A few drops of Tabasco
• 1 quart of milk
• 4 ounces cream cheese, whipped
• 3-4 medium lingcod fillets, cut in chunks
• 1-12 ounce can corn, with liquid
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Preparation/Cooking:
Sauté the onion, green peppers, and garlic in butter or oil until tender. Add tomatoes, and spices. Blend cream cheese with one cup of the milk; add to chowder with the rest of the milk. Add potatoes. Simmer 10 minutes. Add cod and corn. Simmer 8-30 minutes more (do not boil) or until flavors are blended and the fish begins to flake. Adjust seasonings and serve immediately with crispy French bread and green salad.
Posted by Ken Jones on February 10, 2006
I'm not sure where I got this recipe but it's a very good and very rich recipe. Unfortunately, as seen in the comment below, it's also a little pricey and perhaps too rich for some if the ingredients are followed as listed. Feel free to modify as desired.
Smoky Salmon-Clam Chowder
Ingredients:
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• ½ cup sliced celery with leaves
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 (8-ounce) bottle clam juice
• 1 cup fish or chicken broth
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 3 cups diced red potatoes
• ½ cup diced carrot
• 1 pound hot-smoked salmon, flaked
• 2 (3.66-ounce) cans smoked clams, drained
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded smoked mozzarella cheese (I've also used smoked Gouda cheese when I couldn't find the smoked mozzarella)
• 2 cups half-and-half
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preparation:
Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add onion and celery, and sauté until tender. Whisk in flour; cook 1 minute.
Gradually whisk in clam juice; broth and milk. Stir in potatoes and carrot. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Stir in salmon, clams, cheese, and half-and-half. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese melts. Stir in salt and pepper. Ladle soup into individual serving
Posted by kaleo
With the cooler weather, I tried out the smoky chowder recipe that Ken posted last week. For what its worth, here's how it came out.
First off, this is not a cheap recipe. If you have your own smoked fish sitting around, it'll be considerably cheaper: the 1 pound of smoked salmon ran me $20. The smoked clams weren't bad, about $2/tin, but they were a little harder to find — there were plenty of smoked oysters in the market, but only one brand of smoked clams (Geisha) hidden amongst the Cannery Row detritus. Throw in a pint of half-n-half, smoked mozzarella, a bottle of clam juice, and some veggies, and the supermarket card-swipe machine will actually smirk at you.
I found the recipe itself to be straightforward and easy to follow. It took me about 50 minutes from when I started chopping veggies to when I ladled out the first bowlful.
I served this chowder to myself and the wife with a really good sourdough (Acme Bakery's Sour Batard) and a really good ale (Anderson Valley Brewing Co's Boont Amber).
The result? Tasty. Very tasty. And very very rich. Monte said it: "holy rich flavors, batman!" My wife is a big fan of chowders, but this stuff is rich enough that she was only able to eat half a bowl before she was full. The predominant flavor is smoked salmon, so much so that the clams are only a background note. I was worried that the smokiness would be overdone with smoked salmon, smoked clams, and smoked mozzarella, but the smokiness was perfect. Inspired, actually.
I will definitely make this chowder again, but I'll probably customize it a bit. 1) Less salmon, maybe 1/2 as much. Smoked albacore would probably be an excellent substitute, might try that. 2) 1 or 2 more cans of smoked clams, they're yummy and deserve more prominence. 3) More chopped celery would be good, I think I'll up it from 1/2 cup to 1 cup. 4) A little bit of red pepper flakes might liven up the background some.
I think this recipe will be a good basis for future chowder experiments...
Posted by Ken Jones
Some of you might remember the smoky-clam chowder recipe I posted. Kaleo mentioned that it was a pretty expensive and almost too rich. The last two times I made it I reduced the amount of smoked salmon and the cost. I used two 3-ounce packages of smoked salmon, flaked, instead of the called for one pound of hot-smoked salmon. Both my wife and I felt it was just as tasty. It's still rich but not over-powering.
Posted by Songslinger on July 5, 2004
(In reply to: Anyone have a really good clam chowder recipe? Posted by StripeSideChaser on July 4 2004
I used to make this by the tureen back in my chef days in Illinois, hence the ingredient quantities. But cut it down to size and it will be amazing.
New England Clam Chowder
• 5 cans clams (translate to fresh with a couple cups of water)
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 diced onion
• 6 diced potatoes
• 2 bay leaves (whole)
• 4.5 Tbsps salt
• 1 Tsp black pepper
• 1.5 cups milk
Roux=
• 4 lbs butter to 6 cups flour
• (melt butter and slowly make a paste of the flour: this is primo thickener)
• Combine everything but milk and get into a boil. When ingredients are tender, add milk and then the roux. Bon apetit.
Posted by DSRTEGL
What's this? You don't sweat your celery and onions with finely diced salt pork or thick cut hickory smoked bacon first? Finely diced honey-cured ham works as well. I even have a slightly sweet version that has sweet Maui onions and diced apple in it that is awesome served in small hollowed-out sourdough loaves. $@($^(@^^$(^@!(^$. Gotta stop doing that, I made myself hungry......DIETS SUCK!!!
Posted by oldmanandthesea
A little Sherry added just before done ummmmm
Posted by frozendog
Who ate up all the clams? Just want to mention, that if you don't have any clams, all of these fine recipes work just as well with fish. One option is to dice it into bite-sized pieces. The other possibility, for people who like bigger pieces of fish in their chowder — on the fillet, chunk the thinner section above the rib cage and leave the back half, thinner section, whole. Or, if the clams are sparse, stretch it out with fish. If you want something really special, add shrimp with the fish and clams for a seafood combo — that's what I prefer.
Posted by Ken Jones
I like that last idea — "Seafood Combo Chowder"
I've always loved "chowder" whether it be New England-style, a white, milk-based chowder, or Manhattan-style, a tomato-based chowder. Each is quite different but most recipes for both are pretty similar, i.e., New England almost always is a variation of bacon, onions, potatoes, clams, clam juice, and milk. Additional spices can vary but generally they aren't too different. The same with Manhattan-style chowder. There are some different recipes (such as those seen in North Carolina, a New England-style chowder but without the milk) but most call for more of this or less of that. Start with the basic ingredients and keep it simple and you should have a good chowder. However, there are also fish chowders and here the varieties seem to increase. And, sometimes the recipes for chowder stretch the limits and become more of a ciopinno or fish stew recipe (and there's nothing wrong with that). Herein a little variety of "chowder" recipes.
For many years I owned the Horn of Zeese Restaurant up in the redwoods of Mendocino County. The "Horn" was in Boonville, midway between Cloverdale and the coast (28 miles each way). Every Friday we would make up a BIG pot of New England-style (white) clam chowder, which would usually be gone sooner than I expected. People would come from as far as the coast to get the chowder even though Fort Bragg seemed the logical place for fish and chowder. I'm sure the fact that I used a lot of clams made a big difference. I made it the way I wanted it myself even if it meant not making as much profit as possible. And, I never put it inside a bread bowl like so many do today. Unfortunately after a while I didn’t even use a recipe, I just made it from memory. So, here I am modifying the (commercial) amounts I used and hopefully coming up with a product as equally good as that at the Horn of Zeese.
Basic New England-Style Clam Chowder
Ingredients:
• 4 slices of bacon, cut into small pieces
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, skinned and cubed
• 4 medium-sized potatoes, cubed
• 2 (ten-ounce) cans of chopped clams
• 2 cans of clam juice (approximately 10 ounces each)
• 1 quart milk (or half and half for a richer chowder)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 tablespoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons butter
Optional — 1 tablespoon of corn starch (don’t over do it like too many restaurants do)
Preparation/Cooking:
• Fry the bacon in a small skillet over a low heat until brown, about five minutes.
• Add the diced onion and cook until it’s soft, about three to five minutes.
• Pour the oil from the skillet into a larger pan while reserving the bacon and onion.
• Add the clam juice to the larger pan and bring to a boil.
• Add the cubed potatoes and celery and cook until tender.
• Add the clams and simmer for about 5 more minutes.
• Add the bacon and onion, milk, butter, and the salt and pepper into the mix.
• If a thicker consistency is desired add a small amount of corn starch. Mix the corn starch in a couple of tablespoons of water so that it is a liquid itself before adding it to the chowder.
• Keep the chowder hot (but do not let it boil).
Some people add a little dried parsley, a little thyme, or a teaspoon or so of dill weed, but I didn't. Some sprinkle the bacon on top of the chowder but I didn't. Don't be afraid to experiment (and I am sure there are hundreds of clam chowder recipes on the Net).
• Serve with some sourdough bread, French bread, or crackers (preferably oyster crackers).
Posted by Ken Jones
From Pier Fishing In California, 2nd Ed. — The following recipe is from a little book called The Mendocino Peasant Cookbook, and can be used for any mild white-fleshed fish. Especially good are lingcod, rockfish, and halibut.
Lingcod Chowder
Ingredients:
• 3 Tbs. oil or butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped and seeded
• 3 cups cubed, cooked potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• A few drops of Tabasco
• 1 quart of milk
• 4 ounces cream cheese, whipped
• 3-4 medium lingcod fillets, cut in chunks
• 1-12 ounce can corn, with liquid
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Preparation/Cooking:
Sauté the onion, green peppers, and garlic in butter or oil until tender. Add tomatoes, and spices. Blend cream cheese with one cup of the milk; add to chowder with the rest of the milk. Add potatoes. Simmer 10 minutes. Add cod and corn. Simmer 8-30 minutes more (do not boil) or until flavors are blended and the fish begins to flake. Adjust seasonings and serve immediately with crispy French bread and green salad.
Posted by Ken Jones on February 10, 2006
I'm not sure where I got this recipe but it's a very good and very rich recipe. Unfortunately, as seen in the comment below, it's also a little pricey and perhaps too rich for some if the ingredients are followed as listed. Feel free to modify as desired.
Smoky Salmon-Clam Chowder
Ingredients:
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• ½ cup sliced celery with leaves
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 (8-ounce) bottle clam juice
• 1 cup fish or chicken broth
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 3 cups diced red potatoes
• ½ cup diced carrot
• 1 pound hot-smoked salmon, flaked
• 2 (3.66-ounce) cans smoked clams, drained
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded smoked mozzarella cheese (I've also used smoked Gouda cheese when I couldn't find the smoked mozzarella)
• 2 cups half-and-half
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preparation:
Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add onion and celery, and sauté until tender. Whisk in flour; cook 1 minute.
Gradually whisk in clam juice; broth and milk. Stir in potatoes and carrot. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Stir in salmon, clams, cheese, and half-and-half. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese melts. Stir in salt and pepper. Ladle soup into individual serving
Posted by kaleo
With the cooler weather, I tried out the smoky chowder recipe that Ken posted last week. For what its worth, here's how it came out.
First off, this is not a cheap recipe. If you have your own smoked fish sitting around, it'll be considerably cheaper: the 1 pound of smoked salmon ran me $20. The smoked clams weren't bad, about $2/tin, but they were a little harder to find — there were plenty of smoked oysters in the market, but only one brand of smoked clams (Geisha) hidden amongst the Cannery Row detritus. Throw in a pint of half-n-half, smoked mozzarella, a bottle of clam juice, and some veggies, and the supermarket card-swipe machine will actually smirk at you.
I found the recipe itself to be straightforward and easy to follow. It took me about 50 minutes from when I started chopping veggies to when I ladled out the first bowlful.
I served this chowder to myself and the wife with a really good sourdough (Acme Bakery's Sour Batard) and a really good ale (Anderson Valley Brewing Co's Boont Amber).
The result? Tasty. Very tasty. And very very rich. Monte said it: "holy rich flavors, batman!" My wife is a big fan of chowders, but this stuff is rich enough that she was only able to eat half a bowl before she was full. The predominant flavor is smoked salmon, so much so that the clams are only a background note. I was worried that the smokiness would be overdone with smoked salmon, smoked clams, and smoked mozzarella, but the smokiness was perfect. Inspired, actually.
I will definitely make this chowder again, but I'll probably customize it a bit. 1) Less salmon, maybe 1/2 as much. Smoked albacore would probably be an excellent substitute, might try that. 2) 1 or 2 more cans of smoked clams, they're yummy and deserve more prominence. 3) More chopped celery would be good, I think I'll up it from 1/2 cup to 1 cup. 4) A little bit of red pepper flakes might liven up the background some.
I think this recipe will be a good basis for future chowder experiments...
Posted by Ken Jones
Some of you might remember the smoky-clam chowder recipe I posted. Kaleo mentioned that it was a pretty expensive and almost too rich. The last two times I made it I reduced the amount of smoked salmon and the cost. I used two 3-ounce packages of smoked salmon, flaked, instead of the called for one pound of hot-smoked salmon. Both my wife and I felt it was just as tasty. It's still rich but not over-powering.
Posted by Songslinger on July 5, 2004
(In reply to: Anyone have a really good clam chowder recipe? Posted by StripeSideChaser on July 4 2004
I used to make this by the tureen back in my chef days in Illinois, hence the ingredient quantities. But cut it down to size and it will be amazing.
New England Clam Chowder
• 5 cans clams (translate to fresh with a couple cups of water)
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 diced onion
• 6 diced potatoes
• 2 bay leaves (whole)
• 4.5 Tbsps salt
• 1 Tsp black pepper
• 1.5 cups milk
Roux=
• 4 lbs butter to 6 cups flour
• (melt butter and slowly make a paste of the flour: this is primo thickener)
• Combine everything but milk and get into a boil. When ingredients are tender, add milk and then the roux. Bon apetit.
Posted by DSRTEGL
What's this? You don't sweat your celery and onions with finely diced salt pork or thick cut hickory smoked bacon first? Finely diced honey-cured ham works as well. I even have a slightly sweet version that has sweet Maui onions and diced apple in it that is awesome served in small hollowed-out sourdough loaves. $@($^(@^^$(^@!(^$. Gotta stop doing that, I made myself hungry......DIETS SUCK!!!
Posted by oldmanandthesea
A little Sherry added just before done ummmmm
Posted by frozendog
Who ate up all the clams? Just want to mention, that if you don't have any clams, all of these fine recipes work just as well with fish. One option is to dice it into bite-sized pieces. The other possibility, for people who like bigger pieces of fish in their chowder — on the fillet, chunk the thinner section above the rib cage and leave the back half, thinner section, whole. Or, if the clams are sparse, stretch it out with fish. If you want something really special, add shrimp with the fish and clams for a seafood combo — that's what I prefer.
Posted by Ken Jones
I like that last idea — "Seafood Combo Chowder"
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