Vacation Chowder

By Lori Powell

All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for vacation cooking. And to celebrate summer vacations, Special Fork is giving away a beautiful, English-style picnic basket fitted with service for four by Picnic Time. It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.

Lucky me, I get to spend a couple of weeks each year in Mid-Coast Maine at a house on a cove that I have rented now for the past six years. It is my Northeast Oasis where I fatten myself up with all that Maine has to offer, including all the seafood, berries and great produce that I can consume in that short period of time.

Of course, all of that cooking (yes, I love to cook on vacation with the indigenous ingredients that surround me), eating and then reading need to be combined with a lot of hiking so that I can do more of the first two things.

Maine, to me, screams seafood and Seafood Chowder in all its glorious forms… whether it is lobster, scallops, shrimp or even clams. To me it generally involves some shellfish, vegetables, herbs, sometimes pork and a creamy, slightly thickened base.

The creamy base is the secret of delicious chowder – one that freely pours off the edge of my spoon. Not the kind of chowder with the consistency of a puree or one where you can float your spoon on top. This type, with its thickened gluey base, is due in part to the large amount of thickener, such as flour, that some eating establishments will use.  Or they make it super rich with way too much cream (yes there is such a thing) and then call it a chowder.  Nothing makes me angrier than an over thick pasty chowder…Ugh!

Chowder was actually derived from humble beginnings as a fish stew, that fishermen made on the boat in a caldron with the day’s catch to sustain them during the long days work.

To celebrate the vacation that I am anticipating, here’s my version of Corn, Chorizo and Clam Chowder. Oh and don’t forget the hot sauce and oyster crackers….

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Corn, Chorizo and Clam Chowder
Serves 2 to 3

1 1/2 cups whole milk, heated
1 bottle good-quality clam juice, such as Bar Harbor from Maine
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 ounces chorizo sausage, removed from casing
1 shallot, chopped
1½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ pound small new potatoes, quartered
1 ½ cups fresh corn kernels or frozen, thawed
1 can (6.5 oz) whole or chopped clams, drained such as Bar Harbor brand from Maine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Oyster crackers (optional)
Hot sauce (optional)

1. Combine milk with clam juice in a small saucepan, bring just to a simmer and keep warm, covered.
2. Heat butter in a medium saucepan over moderate heat and cook chorizo and shallot, breaking up sausage with a spoon, until shallot is softened, about 4 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, about 1 minute. Whisk in a slow stream the warm milk mixture, until flour is dissolved. Stir in potatoes and simmer, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender and liquid is slightly thickened, about 20 minutes.
3. Stir in corn and clams and continue to cook until corn is just tender, about 4 minutes more. Stir in chives and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
4. Ladle into soup bowls and serve with oyster crackers and hot sauce if desired.

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Related posts:

1. Vacation Cooking – Improvised!