New England Clam Chowder

How can a country that is an ISLAND not have clams for sale?
I mean seriously!
Alan and I had a craving for New England Clam Chowder so I stopped by the fish market while he was at the dentist today and bought a sack of Malden little rock clams. (Who knows, that's what the guy at the fish market called them.) Anyway, I obviously needed some extra clam both on hand for the chowder so I checked Tesco. Never heard of it. And they don't carry canned clams.

Phooey!
No wonder I never can find any fried clams in the frozen food section.

Anyway, I made New England Clam Chowder for dinner Saturday.
The recipe below is very traditional, in the style of "The Phillips-Byro Passover" tradition.

All amounts listed are approximate - I do not measure stuff for soup.
This recipe serves 2 for a main meal or 4 as a starter. There's usually a little leftover for the cook's next day lunch.

Fresh clams - lots, a net bag full.  OR - 2 cups canned minced clams, drained, juice reserved
clam broth - the clams will produce this when you steam them. If you use canned clams, they will be packed in it. . If not enough, try to get a bottle of it (easy in the US, lotsa luck in the UK)
1 medium yellow or white onion - diced
1 largish potato - about a cup chopped into 1/2 inch dice
1 stalk celery - diced
1 carrot - chopped into tiny dice
butter
white wine - I used a really good white wine we hadn't finished the night before, about 8 oz or so. Ignore vigorous protests from spouse or partner that it is still good to drink.
1 Tb corn starch (UK: corn flour)
600 ml single cream - US: a pint
150 ml double cream - US: 4 oz or more, always nice
freshly ground black pepper
a tiny pinch thyme
salt
Soup pot (sauce pan) with fitting lid.

This soup is made in 3 stages.

First prepare the clams:
Rinse the clams well under cold running water, examining each one to  make sure it's tightly closed. Discard any that are open. This is important .
Put clams into your soup pot. Pour in the white wine. Cover pot.
Bring the pot to a boil over a medium high flame - you want to heat it quickly.
Watch and as soon as the liquid starts to boil, lower the heat to medium.
It only takes 5 minutes to steam the clams. Then remove the pot from the heat.
Pour off the liquid, which is a very fragrant mix of clam juices and wine, into a tall measuring cup.
The shells will be open and you should be able to slide each clam out into a bowl with just a nudge of your finger.
If you used small clams, you can use them whole as they are little and tender. If needed, chop clams to bite size bits.
Wash out the pot. Relax a bit.Ignore spouse still banging on about the waste of perfectly good wine.

Second stage:
Assemble all ingredients to hand, prep the veg, dissolve the corn starch in a little cold water in a tea cup
Over medium heat, put about 3 tablespoons butter in your soup pot and let melt.
Add the chopped onions and let them become translucent, NOT BROWN! Turn down the heat if needed.
When the onions are mostly translucent, add the celery and cook for a few more minutes.
Then add in the potatoes and carrot. Stir to cover everything in a sheen of butter and let cook a couple more minutes.
Now slowly pour in the reserved clam juices. WARNING - there will probably be some grit at the bottom of the cup, so pour the liquid into the soup pot very slowly, watching carefully and STOP before the grit gets to the edge. If you are careful, you will only have about a tablespoon or so of liquid left with a bit of grit - throw this out.
Bring the pot to a boil, cover pot, lower heat to just enough to maintain a simmer.
Let the soup simmer gently covered for about 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, check that the potatoes and carrot are cooked through. Poke a knife into them or taste a sample. If needed, recover and let simmer an extra 5 min.
Uncover the pot for the next stage.

Third stage:
Give the corn starch/water mix a stir.
With the pot still simmering on the heat, start stirring it with a large cooking spoon.
Drizzle in the corn starch stirring constantly - soup will start to thicken immediately. Let cook for a minute.
The soup will thicken up more than you expect - which is good because next...
Still stirring, slowly pour in the single cream.
Add a tiny pinch of thyme and grind in black pepper - start with about 5 or 6 grinds.
TASTE THE SOUP! See if you need more black pepper. Add to taste. You might also need a bit more salt especially if you used fresh clams. If you add salt, do it sparingly!
Now add the double cream, stirring as you pour it in.
Add the clams.
Reduce the heat to low
Cook until heated through. Do not boil!
Taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve hot!

It actually took me about 30 minutes start to finish - but I've been tossing this soup together for years.
For fish chowder - just replace the clams with some nice fish like cod and haddock or salmon.

Quickie pork chops

Being the lazy bum that I am, I don't go shopping for food nearly as often as I should. So I found myself tonight with some beautiful pork chops I had thawed, and damn little else.

Time to improvise. Before you suggest changes or additions in the comments, as I said, I had little else. Had I had a full larder, rest assured that this recipe would be different. But that said, to my astonishment, these were some of the tastiest pork chops I have ever eaten in my life.

And no one was as astonished by this as me.

What I had on hand (aka ingredients)

8 beautiful boneless pork chops, center cut.

a block of some old parmesan cheese.

matzoh meal.

sea salt

pepper

dried crushed garlic and parsely mix.

olive oil

I did not pat the pork chops dry with a paper towel, because i had no paper towels, and was hoarding the napkins I have for later.

Shave the parmesan and mix with matzoh meal. Mix in salt and pepper. No, I have no amounts, I just did this extemporaneously. Dredge the pork chops, and coat those bad boys well. Meanwhile, in a large, high-rimmed pan, put enough olive oil in to come up to a third to a half of the pork chops. Heat, and add in the dried and crushed garlic and parsely mix. This will flavor the oil somewhat. Immediately add your pork chops. Cook for five minutes, then flip. Cook another five minutes. Check temp with a meat thermometer and let it cook an additional minute if needed. Remove pork chops (I did this in 2 batches, 4 at a time) and place on plate with paper napkins to soak up the oil. After a few minutes, plate and eat.

Optionally, drizzle a little lemon juice on top. It helps cut the oil a little, and is a nice contrast in flavor to the salty, savory pork chops, but it really is optional.

Profiteroles ( Choux pastry)

Choux pastry is a very useful and adaptable recipe for both sweet and savoury treats. Once you are proficient at making it, you can quickly and easily use it to produce profiteroles, cream puffs, gougeres, party canapés, appetisers, eclairs, etc. It works up very quickly, needs little equipment to produce, impresses the hell out of everyone. Your secret weapon to entertaining success.

The ingredients amounts suggested make up a batch of about 40 profiteroles. Bearing in mind that these are small puffs, that's a reasonable amount for dessert for a dinner party of 6 - 8 people. Excess (Ha! Not likely!), may be sealed in a zip lock bag and frozen. You can freeze them empty or filled with ice cream; I don't recommend freezing any other filling. From frozen, you can take them out shortly before serving and let them defrost slightly while you make chocolate sauce or any other of your choosing. They won't be as crisp as fresh but they are still marvellous.

Ingredients:

1 cup (250 ml) water
1 stick butter (4 oz/125 grams)
pinch of salt (literally, just grab a big pinch of salt between thumb and finger)
1 tsp sugar
1 cup plain flour (strong flour can also be used. Must be white flour whichever you choose!)
4 large eggs
4 oz chocolate - Belgian dark chocolate suggested, make sure it's 60 % or higher
1 cup double cream (whipping cream) or ice cream for the filling
sugar - for the whipped cream, to taste

NOTE - You MUST measure out all ingredients (except the chocolate and the cream) before starting this recipe and have them ready to hand.

Tools:
1 saucepan - medium size
1 sturdy wooden mixing spoon
flat baking sheets
parchment or greaseproof kitchen paper
pastry (piping) bag and plain tip (optional)
Whisk or electric mixer

Method:

1. Place water, butter cut up, salt, and sugar in saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the butter melts.
2. Add the flour all at once, stir it in and then beat the mixture with a wooden spoon until it comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a smooth paste without any lumps in it.
3. Set the saucepan aside to cool for a few minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 200C - make sure racks are spaced apart to allow heat to circulate.
5.  Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring quickly to make sure the eggs don’t ‘cook.’ The batter will first appear lumpy, but after a minute or so of vigorous beating, it will smooth out and become shiny and silky looking.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment/greaseproof paper  
7  Scoop the choux pastry into a piping bag and pipe out small dollops of it spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart. Alternatively, you can just use 2 teaspoons to scoop up the dough and plop it onto the sheet, which is what I do. If you do use a pastry bag you will need to wet your finger with cold water and lightly flatten the peaks on top of the dollops. 
8. Put the tray into the oven and cook them for 30 minutes. Do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes! Then you can take a peek to see how they are browning. Depending on your oven, they may be ready or need the full time to become completely golden brown. 
9. Remove the sheet from the oven, pierce the side of each hot puff with a small sharp knife to release the steam from the hollow inside and allow the choux puffs to cool for 2 - 3 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. 
10. When the buns are completely cold, it's time to make your filling. Put the double cream and the sugar into a large bowl and whisk it until it has become stiff and will hold its shape. (If you are using ice cream just take it out of the freezer and make sure it's scoopable.
11. If you have a pastry bag (cleaned or with a new disposable bag) put the whipped cream in it. Fill the puffs by inserting the tip into the hole you pierced in the side of the puff. If you don't have a pastry bag, just slice open the puffs part way along the side and spoon in the whipped cream - which is what I do.
12. Melt the chocolate either in a bowl over a pot of simmering water or (what I do) put the chocolate in a pyrex  measuring cup and microwave it. Make sure to break the chocolate up into pieces and set the microwave for 20 or 30 seconds. When it pings, check to see if the chocolate is melting. It's ok if it has some lumps left, they will stir out. You can microwave the chocolate for an additional 30 seconds as needed. Stir the chocolate gently to make sure it's smooth. Pour the chocolate into a serving jug.
13. Pile the filled puffs onto a serving plate and if you wish, drizzle some of the chocolate on top.
14. Serve the filled puffs, passing the jug of chocolate alongside so people can take as much sauce as they please.
Optional alternative fillings - pastry custard, cannoli cream, chocolate mousse, sliced strawberries (I add them with the whipped cream)

Spaghetti with Clam Sauce

So mom and Alan are coming over tomorrow for lunch. I don't really feel up to heading out to the shops so I'll be cooking from supplies. Therefore, I will be making spaghetti with clam sauce. Life doesn't really get much easier than this.

Serves 2-4 depending

Ingredients;

1 large chopped onion

1 or 2 crushed garlic cloves

olive oil

salt pepper

1 or 2 cans of baby clams

chopped parsley (not essential)

healthy glug of white wine (4-8oz.?)

2 tbsp butter

spaghetti

while cooking spaghetti...

saute onions and garlic until soft. add some salt and pepper then add the clams and white wine and continue to simmer until the sauce looks right.

drain spaghetti when cooked and add to sauce. Add butter to melt in and then add fresh parsley. Toss and serve.

Applesauce Cake

So here we are in the final run-up to Christmas and snowed in. London is suffering sub-zero temps and 4 inches of snow (which is a paralyzing amount in the UK!) with more predicted each day up to Christmas.

So, stuck at home I wanted something comforting and reminiscent of my childhood. Voila - Applesauce cake.

I had an assortment of apples that had seen better days but were still edible which I made into applesauce. Very simple to do - peel and core apples, cut into bite-size pieces. Dump apples in saucepan with 1 star anise, 1 clove, 1 cardamom, and a piece of cinnamon stick(bark). Add about 1/2 cup of water, pop on the lid, and let it simmer gently until the apple pieces are falling apart when stirred with a spoon. Fish out the spices and discard, then bring the sauce to a low boil and stir while watching carefully to boil off any remaining excess liquid. When the sauce looks nice and thick, take it off the heat, let cool.  No sugar needed, and it's ready to be eaten as-is or used in recipes.

Applesauce Cake -

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
3 eggs
2¾ cups  flour
1½ tsp salt
1½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp nutmeg - freshly grated!!!
¾ tsp cinnamon
2 cups applesauce
¾ cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). If you have a fan oven - be careful and adjust it per your experience*

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Blend in eggs.
Sift together dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture, alternating with applesauce, beating after each addition.

If you like, stir in ¾ cup chopped nuts before pouring batter into pans.

Pour into two buttered 8-by 4-inch loaf pans or large bundt or round spring-form pan.  Bake for 1 hour or until done. (Start checking at the 45 minute mark.)

Remove and let cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pans and putting on rack to cool completely.

Sugar Glaze:

Combine ½ cup sifted icing/confectioners sugar with 1 tbsp water to start, then stir and add drops of rum or brandy or more water as needed.. Stir until the sugar glaze is thin enough to pour but thick enough to coat the spoon and stick a bit   Pour over cake.

*note: I really hate fan ovens for baking. You can't trust them, their temperature always needs adjusting from whatever your recipe requires, that adjustment is not consistent, and fan ovens will sabotage your baking when you least expect it.

Popovers

God knows that my childhood was not one of gumdrops and...and....I don't know, other sweet happy shit. But there were some things I have very happy, fond memories of. The human mind and body are wonderful things. Little things can trigger a smile.

When I was a little boy, we had a farmhouse in the country in upstate New York. We go drive there every weekend and just enjoy being out of the city. In many ways, I think I appreciate it more now than I did then, although I loved being there when I was a kid. I used to love on winter mornings waking up early, going to the fireplace, stirring the ashes around and building up the fire from the night before, then curling up in a chair with a book on my lap and sink into the book for hours before anyone else was up.

Sometimes though, for whatever reason, I would sleep a little late, and my mother would wake up before me, and I would wake up to a smell I was very familiar with. Popovers. I don't know what it is about these things that I adored so much, but I went crazy for them. I pestered my mother to make them almost every damn weekend, the poor woman. Sometimes she would, sometimes she wouldn't. Sometimes, just to be extra special, she would put cheese in the batter. Mmm, popovers.

Time passed, and popovers became a distant memory, all but forgotten. I don't remember when exactly, but about a year or two ago, I was zipping around amazon, and I stumbled onto a popover pan. I had never heard of such a creature and looked it up. It seemed that they are a little different from regular muffin tins- the cups are slightly deeper, more narrow, the slope of the sides different. They also tend to be freestanding cups held by wire- which is a bit more thermally efficient. Apparently you really need one to make perfect popovers. I thought back to my childhood. I remember how much it used to drive my mother completely crazy that the popovers would collapse. They still tasted scrumptious, but the tops would cave inward. I, as a child, didn't give a shit- I cared about the taste. But I as an adult (and a somewhat anal retentive cook) was curious to see whether or not I could pull off the perfect popover. So, I put the pan on my wishlist, and pretty much forgot about it. A few weeks ago, I had a little cash and decided to buy some stuff from my wishlist. Scrolling through, I found the popover pan. I argued with myself about the cost (not much- $17 I think it was) and was it worth it, would I ever make them, etc. etc.

Then I figured, fuck it. I bought it. Well, naturally as I was waiting for the order, the company stopped selling them and replaced it with what looks like the identical thing but $1.50 cheaper. Idon't care- when a company discontinues a product and replaces it with something they claim is the same but cheaper, it usually means it's shoddier. And, hell, it's a buck fifty.

So, it arrived last week and I didn't have a chance to use it, naturally. All my chinese friends, coworkers, wife, all looked at me weirdly when I described them. When I showed pictures, the unanimous reply was always "Do you fill it with cream?" I was scandalized. Also a little mystified that every single chinese person said the same thing. Go figure, it's a cultural thing.

So last night I decided that I would wake up early and make some. I informed my wife who asked "Are you going to fill them with cream?"

"No."

"Well, can you put cheese in them?"

"Well, yes, my mother used to. But I'd rather try making one normal batch first, before I start screwing with it."

"Well, can you put herbs and spices into it?"

"Yes, but I really would like to just make one normal batch first."

So. Out of curiosity, I looked up various recipies, and decided that most of them are bullshit, or have all kinds of weird requirements, etc. For example- you don't need to use kosher salt. It's going to melt in anyway, who cares what kind of salt you use? I used coarsely grained sea salt, but only because it's all I had (just ran out of mortons). Or how the eggs and milk need to be room temperature- nope, I took mine straight from the fridge.

Please please please do not try to make this recipe "healthy." The popover is a fairly delicate thing, and using crap like soy milk, margaine, whole wheat flour, egg whites, whatever- will fuck it up, make it nasty, and hell, why are you bothering to make it if you aren't going to make it well? Just stick to the damn recipe, okay? Yeesh.

You will need:

1. 1 cup flour, bleached white all-purpose

2. 1 cup whole milk (none of that reduced fat or soy whatever, have some pride in your cooking, you fucking hipster).

3. 2 tablespoons butter, melted. You can have a little more, but you need this much.

4. 3 large eggs.

5. 1 pinch salt

Preheat your oven to 425. The tray will go onto the lowest rack, so position that ahead of time. Take your popover pan or muffin tin or whatever you use and grease the inside of the cups with some butter (not the melted butter, this is just butter used as a grease). Set the pan aside. Now, for the batter, you can use a hand mixer, a food processor, whatever. I used my kitchen aid with the whisk attachment. For those of you who care, my milk and eggs were straight from the fridge, the butter was freshly melted and still kinda hot.

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix. To my chagrin, my flour wasn't sifted or anything, but had some fairly large lumps. I did the best I could, but it was still kind of gooey on the bottom of the bowl and such. After the mixture became homogenous (couple minutes on the second-to-lowest setting) there was a light froth on top, but not much. Enough that I knew that oxygen had made its way into the batter. The batter is fairly liquidy. From my work with creme brulee, I noticed a could of pieces of cooked egg floating in the batter. Probably because of the hot butter. I strained the batter into a mixing bowl. Good thing I did, as I strained a hell of a lot of junk out- cooked egg, gooey flour, etc. I ended up with a very nice, smooth batter. Plus, my mixing bowl has a mouth to pour, while the kitchen aid bowl does not. I poured an even amount into each of the six popover cups and put the pan into the oven, on the lowest rack.

Do not open the oven until you are ready to take the popovers out.

Keep the oven at 425 for 25 minutes. Then turn the temperature down to 350 and walk away. After 15 minutes, come back and take your fresh popovers out of the oven. You will want to eat them within five to ten minutes from the oven.

While baking, enjoy the smell. I walked around my apartment with a smile on my face from it- I had forgotten that smell, but with it, it brought back memories of delight from when I was a kid.

It's sad, but while popovers are an american dish (they are. Yorkshire puddings are very similar, but not quite the same) most americans are unfamiliar with them. It's one of the few points of american cuisine that we should take pride in, but they are almost completely unknown anymore. So, I want to thank my mother for exposing me to popovers, one of my favorite treats in the world.

And for those of you wondering, I took some pictures when they came fresh out of the oven. You can see them below. You will note that they did not collapse, and take my words on it when I say that they were perfectly cooked- crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, just the right balance of flavors. The only weird thing is that the very bottoms have that weird bell shape. I guess it must be a side effect of the pan or whatever, but it doesn't really matter- they're beautiful and delicious.

Next week, maybe I'll make another batch, this time with some cheddar. Oh, and do pay attention to the times- 25 and 15, and you'll get beautifully golden popovers.

Portugese Pickled Carrots - conserva de cenoura - a recipe from the Algarve

When Astrid and I were in the Algarve region of Portugal a few months ago, everywhere we went restaurants and cafes served us these yummy, garlicky carrots. Served in little ceramic bowls, drizzled with fresh olive oil, it was the perfect nibble to accompany a cold glass of vinho verde or rose wine - and to dunk roughly torn pieces of fresh Portuguese bread into.

Ingredients:
2 cups sweet carrots, peeled and sliced in rounds
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. parsley finely chopped
1-2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp. sweet paprika
Salt - a pinch of sea salt/fleur de sel is best
Optional
black or green olives, with or without pits

Instructions:
1. Place peeled sliced carrots in a bowl and steam using microwave.  Zap until tender but not too soft. Microwaves vary, so 5 to 10min depending on microwave. *Note: Keep watch so your carrots don’t over cook.
Or simply simmer on the stove, in water to cover, until just tender.

2. Drain the carrots and place in bowl to cool slightly.

3. In another bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, chopped parsley, garlic, paprika, salt.

4. Pour combined liquids over the carrots and mix gently - so not to break carrots, but mix well enough to coat all the slices. Taste for salt and spice and add to taste.

5. Add olives now if you wish and mix again gently.

6. Store covered, in refrigerator. Let the mix rest and absorb the flavours for an hour before serving or let the flavours mature and mellow longer; it keeps beautifully in the refrigerator for 3 days easily. If it looks a bit dry when ready to serve, just drizzle on a bit more olive oil, stir and serve.

Serve with crisp Portuguese bread, baguettes, or other crisp crusted bread for dunking into the garlicky oil . A cold bottle of vinho verde will complete the perfect snack.