Paper Palate

The Sacramento Bee’s Allen Pierleoni is getting into Fall with its recent article devoted to Clam Chowder. Pierleoni admits that those of you in New England probably have the advantage when it comes to cooking Clam Chowder, but that doesn’t mean we Left-Coasters can’t give it a try, too. Pierleoni chose a recipe featured in 50 Chowders by Jasper White. White’s cookbook includes a passage that sounds like an Ode to Chowder: “At its best, (creamy chowder) can be a silky, suave soup with a true clam chowder flavor and a texture that many will find comforting and familiar.” The main challenges to making a fresh clam chowder in California is finding the live clams and shelling out the money to buy the expensive ingredients. Pierleoni had to “drive around awhile to find live clams that met our standards. All told, we invested the better part of a day on the chowder project — from shopping to tasting the final product — along with more than $100.” Pierleoni made his chowder with Manila clams for $6 a pound and with a call to Jasper White for any tips:

“The thing about chowder is you don’t have to have everything tucked into place. You can be casual about making it and it’ll turn out OK,” he said. Any secrets to share? “Don’t eat it as soon as you make it,” he cautioned. “I recommend letting it set for at least an hour, but allowing it to rest overnight is really the best. It develops a lot more flavor that way. Here in New England it’s called ‘curing’ the chowder. And be careful reheating it. Don’t boil it or you’ll toughen the clams.”

You can find the recipe from White’s book that Pierleoni used for his chowder here, but Pierleoni made few changes to White’s recipe (and didn’t tell him that on the phone). He substituted “six slices of thick-cut bacon instead of a slab of fatback.” He also took the chorizo out of its casing, browned it, drained the fat and stirred it into the chowder. Another big change: “We substituted a leek for one of the onions and added a finely chopped carrot.” Pierleoni also reduced the amount of potatoes to three-quarters of a pound, steamed them in one cup of water and one cup of white wine instead of two cups of water, and added a bottle of clam juice to strengthen the broth. He also said that in the future, he would “add butter and garlic to the water-wine steaming liquid, and reduce the volume by half. And maybe we’ll pour in some beer, too.” Adding wine and beer has to make it better, right? [Photo from the Sacramento Bee]