~~~~<singing> Who put the overalls in Mrs Murphy's chowder...?~~~
Well - that's the extent of my chowder knowledge!
Waiting and watching!
Skip the chowder.
Order the crab cakes.
Best clam chowder I've had was made by my former business partner the day she and family came back from Alaska, where her mother lives, her carry-on laden with fresh clams kept cold somehow. Not that we couldn't get them in our north northern california coastal town, but that the alaskan clams are especially good. No flour in the recipe, and no cream - think she used whole milk or possibly some half and half. As cjane says, it all has to do with balance. Most restaurants serve clam chowder sludge, truly icky.
I haven't been to Boston in almost forever, and probably didn't have clam chowder there. Died and went to heaven on the fried clams from a stand in Essex, though.
Corn chowder - strikes me as too sweet for my taste. At the same time, I really like corn pudding, which doesn't make sense.
You're right, osso, corn chowder is quite sweet, and I don't care for it
too much. Love cornbread though.
When you add N.M. chile/chipotle powder and a little dark leaf (spinach, chard), corn chowder is better. Sigh.......
I'm thinking what you describe, littleK, is like carrot with orange soup - something I like if I am served it, but I shy away from in concept..
Reading along. I think I'm getting the hang of it. What surprises me is recipes that could contain
half a cup of flour! That's a
lot of flour to use as thickener!
I will take in a lot more detail with another read tomorrow, it being 10 minutes into Sunday already!
from a google search of 'what is chowder'
Quote:Definitions of Chowder on the Web:
* A thick soup that usually contains potatoes.
www.newitalianrecipes.com/cooking-terms.html
* A half-soup, half-stew of vegetables, fish or other foods.
www.cyberpathway.com/whispers/food/cookterm.htm
* Creamy soup originating from the west coast of the USA , usually made with corn, potato and shell fish.
www.scec.com.au/services/food_beverage/glossary.cfm
* a milk based soup, usually containing seafood.
www.biglove.lvhr.com/recipes/glossary1.html
* a thick soup, almost a stew, usually based on fish and/or seafood.
www.great-cooking-made-easy.com/glossary-A-C.html
* A soup, usually thick and made with vegetables or seafood, especially corn or clams.
www.glencoe.com/sec/busadmin/marketing/dp/rest_mgmt/gloss.shtml
* a thick soup or stew made with milk and bacon and onions and potatoes
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
* Chowder is any of a variety of soups, enriched with salt pork fatback and thickened with flour, or more traditionally with crushed ship biscuit or saltine crackers, and milk. To some Americans, it means clam chowder, made with cream or milk in most places, or with tomato as "Manhattan clam chowder." Corn chowder is a thick soup filled with whole corn (maize) kernels. Chowder is often commonly associated with New England cuisine.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chowder
mrs hamburger makes very good fish chowders
one of the best soup/stew/chowders I've had locally is a conch chowder mmmmm
Setanta makes an excellent potato soup that makes a great base for chowder - almost no dairy in it
Conch chowder recipe
For me, the key is that there has to be something chewy-ish in there to make it chowder - clams, conch, oysters - and I'm not a huge fan of the sweetness added by corn. Gotta find your own perfect chowder. Probably as many chowder recipes (at least) as there are cooks making chowder.
ossobuco wrote:...I haven't been to Boston in almost forever, and probably didn't have clam chowder there. Died and went to heaven on the fried clams from a stand in Essex, though...
Woodman's Eat-in-the-Rough?
This looks wonderful, ehBeth! (I take it that "conch" is some variety of shell fish & that it could be substituted with another variety of fish flesh? Please correct me if I've gotten that completely wrong!)
Conch Chowder:
INGREDIENTS:
4 slices bacon, diced
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 jar (4 ounces) chopped pimientos, drained
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomaotes
2 small garlic cloves, minced
2 ribs celery, with leaves, chopped
1 large baking potatoes, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 1/2 pounds ground conch meat
1/2 cup dry white wine
5 cups clam juice or seafood broth
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
a few dashes Tabasco sauce
salt, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped green onions, white and green parts
PREPARATION:
Cook diced bacon in a heavy 4-quart pot over medium heat until crisp and fat is rendered. Add onion, bell pepper, pimientos, tomatoes, garlic, celery, potatoes and parsley. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is transparent, about 7 to 9 minutes. Add the ground conch, wine, clam juice or broth, black pepper, Tabasco sauce and salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, until potatoes have broken down, serving as a thickener for the chowder. Serve hot, garnished chopped green onions.
Makes 4 servings.
George wrote:ossobuco wrote:...I haven't been to Boston in almost forever, and probably didn't have clam chowder there. Died and went to heaven on the fried clams from a stand in Essex, though...
Woodman's Eat-in-the-Rough?
I dunno, George, this is an OLD memory, it was in the early fifties. Just a little white building with a window where they passed the cartons of fried clams through (I think, though maybe I'm making that part up).
Ah, I thought so! One of those big shells you blow into to make noises!
username wrote:Here's a recipe which sounds like it ought to be good, for New England Clam Chowder, the prototypical N.E. soup.
DO NOT make Manhattan Style Clam Chowder. It is an ABOMINATION and an invention of the devil. Chowder should not have tomato in it. They used to feed the Manhattan gunk to us in the school lunch room in New Jersey, and when I moved to Boston and had the New England style for the first time it was like the sun breaking thru the clouds--"oooh, THAT'S the way it should be."
oh username....you bring back memories...I too grew up in New Jersey, and thought Manhatten was the only kind there was...
Actually, I'm signing off now...going to the store....looks like we'll be having New England CHOWDAH for supper tonight....yummmmm...
Oh....can this be frozen? You know, with the dairy product and all?
Now one difference, I use this for rice pudding..I'm going to use Land 'O Lakes Fat Free Half and Half for this....don't everyone jump on me...it really does well for rice pudding and alfredo.
oh, and Chai is right--"chowder" does not have an "r" in it--it's "chowdah".
It curdles if you don't say it right.
Well, that Venus de Milo receipe is pretty darn good.
The only thing I'd change is put more clam juice in there.
msolga...the 1/2 cup flour wasn't too much, just make sure you add the simmering clam juice mixture to the rue a couple of ladles at a time, mixing in.
It's supposed to be thick, like a stew.
the fat free half and half did fine.
thanks username!!
Well! I'm going to be a chowder expert, I can see!
Thanks very much, folks!
