My first from scratch Clam Chowder is the best you’ll ever have!

I’m at the beach and this felt like a beachy thing to make. The taste is great – briny from the clams but sweet from all the onions and shallots. The mix of potatoes and onions is important, I think, because the russet breaks down and thickens the chowder if you don’t make a roux  The onions balance out the bracing seafood blast from all those clams and clam juice.

This pot serves a lot! 5 people easy with seconds.

 

Anh’s Three Little Birds New England by way of the Outer Banks CLAM CHOWDAH!

 

• 1 huge russet potato, peeled and cubed
• 3-4 little red bliss potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 yellow onion peeled and chopped
• 1 sweet onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 4-5 stalks of celery, washed, trimmed and roughly chopped
• ¼ cup flour optional if you like a thicker chowder
• 4-5 slices of smoked bacon, (diced optional if you plan on keeping it in)
• 3 Tbs butter
• 4-5 small bay leaves
• Scant ½ tsp thyme leaves
• 51 oz. can of fresh clam juice (get in the fresh seafood section)
• 51 oz. can of drained clams, (get in the fresh seafood section) reserve the juice for another purpose
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 heaping Tbs sour cream
• Seasoned salt, pepper to taste

Method:

In a large heavy-bottomed pot start cooking the bacon until the fat is rendered and the bacon is slightly crisp. Add the butter and melt it.  Add the onions and shallots and sauté in the bacon and butter until onions are softened and start to get translucent.  At this point, if you like thicker chowder, add the flour and cook until the roux is starting to brown but not too much.  Add the celery, potatoes, thyme and bay leaves, sauté until the whole is hot, the celery is starting to soften…Add the clam juice next. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are tender. Turn down the heat and add the clams, milk, creams and season salt.  You probably won’t need to add a lot of salt because of the salt in the bacon, butter and clam juice…also, go easy on the thyme.  Heath through but do not boil because this will toughen the clams.  Add more milk if you think it is too thick.

Serve with oyster crackers, sourdough, or cornbread.  You can also present this chowdah Moe’s style and float a melting pat on butter in the bowl and sprinkle season salt or paprika across the top.  I had some snipped fresh chives so I garnished with that.   

what to do with leftover corn on the cob?

Here’s one thing I do — It’s not quite cream of corn, and not creamed corn, but it’s very simple — just corn, butter, S&P.

Cut the corn off the cob by first standing the cob on its fat end and making fat slices of the corn kernels down so that they land on the cutting board or plate below and then by running the dull side of your knife back down over the cob to milk it.  For about three cobs, I use almost 2 tablespoons of butter.  Melt the butter in a saute pan until it starts to talk and then add the corn you cut off.  Be careful, and stir gently, so as not to break up those lovely fat slices of corn!  When the corn is heated through, season with a little salt and pepper and enjoy by the bowlful…. sigh!

Fusion cooking?!

I made two kinds of miso soup today and the addition of matzo balls will make it a third!  Since I’ve got a bit of a head cold (after the flu last week) I decided to make soup again, but with a little bit of a different twist.  The first soup I had was cheater’s instant miso soup. It came out of a packet I got from a box at TJ’s.  It comes with shitake mushrooms, teensy cubes of tofu, and scallions that are so dessicated that they are more of an inobtrusive garnish than anything else.  You know how I feel about green onions – blech.  Anyway, it was good, a little alarmingly salty, but overall, fine for a miso soup fix.  Then I actually made a more complex yet still cheater’s version of miso soup with dashi (seafood broth) already in the miso paste, which is kept in the fridge.  This bowl was just a touch sub par from the miso soup you get in a better Japanese restaurant because I didn’t add little tofu cubes or seaweed… the flavor is more balanced — not as salty, but with a pronounced winey, fermented tone.  I could have been imagining it, but the mouthfeel was smoother.  There were prettier little miso soup swirls in the second bowl too. Kindo of like clouds in your coffee, but almost self generating, like a pint of Guinness.

So I am making matzo balls to go in my miso soup (suitable for vegetarians!!)  because i don’t have the full range of makings for my pretty-darn-good-for-a-goy chicken soup (don’t feel like fighting the crowds at the Chinese grocery for an aged fowl) but after the deli I had last weekend, how could I even hope to compare?  The kneidlech at 2nd Ave. Deli are simply perfection.  Perfectly light, round, and meltingly tender…I could almost weep.

For lesser, but still fine matzo balls, try my recipe below.  I am adjusting because my eggs are smaller than the normal large or extra large I ususally get.

Pretty-good-for-a-goy Matzo Balls for Soup

• 4-5 medium fresh eggs (use 3 if using large or extra large)
• 3/4- 1 cup of matzo meal
• 2 tbs each stock or water (or in this case, miso soup) and oil or fat (chicken fat or olive oil is what I use)
• Salt and pepper
• dried chopped parsley

Method: Cream the eggs and the matzo meal in a non metallic bowl.  (I use a small hand mixer) Add the stock/soup/water and the fat, seasonings and dump a bunch of parsley in for a little dash of color.  The texture should be like a slightly thin oatmeal — if not, keep on adding a little matzo meal or an egg or water to help it get to where you need it to be.  Cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate for an hour.  It will stiffen and get more solid as it chills.  When you are ready to make your matzo balls, have a deep pot of boiling water ready with a tight fitting lid.  Using a tablespoon and a teaspoon, either scoop up walnut sized portions and drop them into the boiling water or form slightly larger balls with wet hands, making them round and smooth.  When you have about 5-8 balls in, depending on the size of your pot — you don’t want to overcrowd them! clamp the lid on shut and turn down to a vigorous simmer. DON’T PEEK!  I mean this.  Do not peek and when you lift the lid 45-55 minutes later, you will be rewarded with fluffy matzo balls, even though they may not be as perfect as a NYC delis.  Simmer the drained balls in the soup of your choice for a minute (I use a slotteed spoon to transfer them from pot to pot) and serve.  Depending on the size of your kneidelech, this recipe should make about 10-12 matzo balls.

Vichyssoise again

this all took about an hour.

• one big bunch of leeks  (about four or five) but I used baby vidalia onions — they look like rounded leeks with bulbous ends. Washed and white parts sliced thin
• seven small potatoes peeled and cubed (I used Yukon Gold)
• olive oil or butter
• bay leaves
• 2-3 cloves of minced garlic
• one tetra pak of chicken stock
• 2 cubes of chopped parsley
• fat free half and half or milk
• water to thin and
• salt and pepper to taste

Method: in a deep pot bigger than you think you’ll need, saute the sliced onions/leeks and garlic in about a 2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil until softened.  Add chicken stock, potato cubes, bay leaves and bring to a boil. Simmer until potatoes are tender and slide off a fork when poked.  Add about two heaping teaspoons of salt or to taste (You’ll be thinning with water and milk so you can be liberal with the salt) Add in the parsely cubes now.  Grind in some pepper.  Take out the bay leaves (I used two) With your immersion blender, puree until smooth. Don’t be alarmed if it looks like a puree of mashed potatoes instead of soup –you can always add as much milk or water to thin it out.  Serve hot or chilled, and makes a lot.

New Mocktail

I figured out that the pomegranate syrup I picked up has many practical uses — first, it’s delicious enough to glug straight from the bottle but also adds a nice touch to sauces of a non middle-eastern variety too.  However, I like it in refreshing drinks.  make sure all items are well chilled.

in a tall glass: one big spoonful of pomegranate molasses, about a shot of Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice. Fill with chilled sparking water and stir.  I think a little vodka or even vanilla vodka would be good.  I have some orange blossom water and some rose water too — that might be nice. There’s an echo of vanilla from the molassses, I swear.  This is a tart and tangy, fragrant drink.

banana bread from my xanga

This was born of having a few overripe bananas in the house.  I added chocolate covered banana chips and a healthy dash of cinnamon, used a mix of splenda and dark brown sugar, and this is the result: moist, tender, carmelized and not too sweet.  It cracked on top and didn’t rise all that much but it tastes good.

Anh’s Dark Brown Banana Bread (it’s not burnt!)

• 3 overripe bananas, mashed (skins should be nearly all brown and thin.)
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup splenda
• 1/4 cup dark or light brown sugar (a few small lumps okay)
• 1/4 cup sugar if you think it needs it (I don’t)
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1 jumbo or large egg (brown, of course)
• very healthy dash of ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chocolate covered dried banana chips (optional)

Method:  Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a big bowl, mix the bananas, sugars, egg, butter, vanilla and cinnamon.  Add the salt and baking soda to the wet mixture and then the flour about a 1/2 cup or so at a time, until it is all incorporated.  Any lumps of brown sugar will caramelize.  At the end, add the chocolate covered banana chips and then pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. (I used a baking cooking spray) Bake for an hour and cool outside of the pan.  It should be almost alarmingly dark brown but one taste, and you’ll know it’s not burnt.

Quick Italian Fix

There is very little that high quality shaved Parmesan and anchovy fillets can’t fix.  I made a lame, mediocre spaghetti sauce with mushrooms (I was in a hurry and couldn’t wait for it to simmer all day) and even tried doctoring it up with extra garlic, basil and oregano.  It was still boring.  After I tossed my al dente spaghetti (whole grain doncha know) with the sauce, I spooned about a teaspoonful of anchovies at the bottom of my empty pasta bowl and dished the nuclear-hot pasta and sauce over the top.   Shaved, expensive (But oh so worth it) parmesan went over the top and I have to admit, it wasn’t bad.  Only do this if you love anchovies. They kind of melt into the saucy pasta and until you get a mouthful of anchovy, you don’t even know what that flavor nuance is… The cheese, however, was essential.  All these umami flavors really packed a punch!

in other news, it snowed like crazy today and was very pretty.  Snow always makes me want to drink cocoa, and I will have some snooty Euro drinking chocolate for dessert.

Snooty Euro Drinking Choolate

• highest quality cocoa you can get your hands on
• milk

or

• whatever cocoa you’ve got lying around
• pinch of sea salt
• vanilla extract or paste
• pinch of corn starch
• one of the following:
• liqueur
• ground cinnamon
• milk

Have fun!

Best churro ever

The cold weather has me thinking about the best churro I ever had. It was from a stand vendor, and it was shorter than your standard churro, and pumped full of the velvety goodness of dulce de leche with bits of coconut throughout.

It was a hot sweet, sticky mess, and lord did I enjoy it.

Also on the topic of dessert, a recipe for ice cream mochi via chowhound! Gotta try this one soon with my own flavor combinations.

ICE CREAM MOCHI

INGREDIENTS

• 30 (3-inch) Basic Sweet Mochi
• 1 pint Red Bean Ice Cream

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place a baking sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper in the freezer for 15 minutes, and the mochi in the freezer for about 10 minutes, to chill before forming mochi ice cream.
2. Remove 1 sweet mochi circle from the freezer and place 1 tablespoon of the ice cream in the center. Pinch mochi over ice cream to close and immediately place on the baking sheet in the freezer. Repeat with remaining mochi and ice cream.
3. When finished filling all mochi, cover the baking sheet and allow ice cream to firm at least 8 hours and up to 12 hours before serving. Once ice cream is frozen, you can transfer filled mochi to a resealable plastic bag or a plastic container and store in the freezer up to 2 weeks.

crossposted from my xanga – mom’s meatballs in soup

Mom’s Meatball Soup

I am having a serious craving for this dish.  Ground pork meatballs, mixed with two kinds of black mushroom, soft, crystal bean thread noodles and a delicate broth.  I just called her last night and got the recipe which  am making today:

Moc Nuoc (Pork meatballs in soup)

• 1 lb. fresh ground pork
• 1/2 small package of bean thread noodles or a little less
• 2-3 eggs…use 3 if it looks too dry and won’t form meatballs
• about 1/2 cup each dried black mushroom and black wood ear fungus (it looks like dark leather pieces with frilled edges)
• 2 soup spoons of nuoc mam (fish sauce) I like Three Crabs brand
• 1/2 of a large sweet onion (or one whole small one) peeled and diced fine
• maybe a 1/2 tsp or less of ground black pepper
• water to cover over an inch

Method: First, soak the bean thread noodles and dried mushrooms and fungus in tepid to chilled water for 30 minutes. If you like the mushroom flavor, soak them in separate bowls and add to the strained water in which you are going to boil the meatballs.  In a large bowl, combine the pork and eggs and softened noodles.  Slice the mushrooms fine and the fungus into small ribbons.  Add the mushroom pieces and the diced onion and spices and mix all together until you get a big gooey mess.  Form meat balls the size of a tablespoon or ceramic Asian soupspoon and drop into simmering water. Simmer for about 10 minutes until done.  The water becomes a yummy delicate broth, you may want to add some chicken broth and extra fish sauce for more depth.  You can serve as a soup or a stew over white rice.

NOTE: The meatball mixture, with extra onions, seasonings and mushrooms but minus the bean threads or eggs, makes a very very very tasty topping for white rice.  Add a little extra pepper and fishsauce, saute in a hot skillet until crumbly and done and you’ve got one of my favorite meals as a kid.

Mango tea granita

I have had an ice cream machine for oh, going on 7 years now, but sometimes I prefer to just make granita. Here’s a mango tea granita recipe that I made with unbearably ripe mangoes. I guess this is a good recipe if you are trying to not consume a lot of calories or if you are diabetic, since it doesn’t have any added sugar.

It was tasty enough and highly refreshing but I couldn’t help but feel like the hot tea kind of muted the fresh flavor of the mango. Recipe taken from here, modified below.

Original recipe:

Categories: None

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 Regular size oolong tea bags
• 1/2 c Mango juice
• 2 ts Chopped mint
• 3 c Boiling water

Instructions:
Pour boiling water over tea bags and let stand 5 minutes. Discard tea bags.
Add mango juice and mint. Boil 5 minutes. Cool, Strain and chill. Pour
mixture into 8″ square pan and freeze to almost firm. Stir twice during
freezing process. Remove from freezer. Scrape with a fork to loosen ice
crystals and serve immediately.

Posted to fatfree digest by “Ross, Lynne” on
Jun 7, 1999, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

Modified recipe:

Mango-Mint Tea Granita

Categories: None

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 Regular size green tea bags
• 2 large ripe mangoes
• 4 tablespoons Chopped mint
• 1.5 c Boiling water
• 1 cup cold water
• Splash of passion fruit liquer
• Sugar to taste

Equipment:

-blender, rectangular baking pan with at least 1 inch sides, strainer and a plastic fork

Instructions:
Pour boiling water over tea bags and let stand 5 minutes. Discard tea bags, adding half the mint. Chop mangoes into a blender and throw away skin and seeds. Add the cold water to the blender, and puree.

Add tea and mint mixture after it has cooled off slightly. Blend and liquefy as much as possible. Add the rest of the mint, splash of liquer (can also use rum) and a light dusting of sugar to taste (may not need any.) Strain mixture and pour
mixture into rectangular backing pan and freeze to almost firm. Scrape twice during
freezing process at half hour intervals. Remove from freezer. Scrape with a fork to loosen ice
crystals and serve immediately.