I attempted this clam chowder on the Hog Island Oyster Co. in Napa, California, and after I completed it I knew I wanted the recipe. What I didn’t know is that chowder, an American dish, has French roots — or that the phrase ‘chowder’ derives from the French chaudrée, which means cauldron. This I found upon my return to Paris. I shortly went out and purchased the elements — clams, potatoes, leek, celery, carrot, bacon and heavy cream.
Chaudrée de palourdes / Clam chowder
The recipe is simple and takes about half an hour to arrange. The important thing to success is to make use of the small, candy clams often called palourdes in French, Manila clams or steamers in English, and vongole in Italian. The clams needs to be as recent as attainable — at Hog Island Oyster Co., the place I lunched with my cousin Paul on a chilly, moist January afternoon, we have been advised that the clams had been fished out of a close-by bay that very morning.
That was one cause our lunch was so memorable. The opposite was the oysters we had as a starter. As reluctant as I could also be to say so, these oysters have been higher than any I’ve had in France — or anyplace else for that matter. They have been small however deep, succulent and nutty. A crisp Chardonnay grown on the encircling vines in Napa accomplished the image.
I spent three weeks in California over the brand new 12 months, primarily within the Bay Space, and from a foodie viewpoint the journey held different surprises. Probably the most startling factor was the costs. On the night time I arrived, I went out with a buddy to a laid-back joint in Oakland the place two bacon cheeseburgers, two glasses of purple and a glass of glowing water value … $80. About double what it could value in Paris. Likewise, at a bakery in San Diego, three cups of soup, a turkey sandwich and a plate of potato chips set my cousin Janice again $80. However that was nothing in comparison with my invoice of $150 for lunch for 2 at a Greek place in San Francisco.
Or the eye-popping $700 invoice for dinner for 4 at a high-end Chinese language, the place the artistic five-course fixed-price menu ($90 per particular person not counting drinks, dessert, tax or tip) included a starter of ‘Winter Perigord Truffle Puff’, ‘Chilled Recent Lily Bulb’ and ‘Scallop and Caviar Roll’ (at left). Okay, the view was improbable and the ambiance refined, and the associated fee wasn’t a difficulty for me as I used to be generously handled by my brother and sister-in-law. But it surely made me understand that, though Paris is seemingly one of many world’s costliest cities, one can dine out, properly, for much much less.
Getting again to chowder, it’s stated to have originated on the Atlantic coast of France, the place la chaudrée is a soup of fish and shellfish cooked with veggies, bacon, white wine and cream. In accordance with lore, French immigrants loved what was to develop into often called chowder whereas crusing to the USA and Canada within the seventeenth century. It put down roots first as New England clam chowder, just like as we speak’s recipe, and later as Manhattan clam chowder, made with a tomato broth and no cream.
Regardless of its French roots, clam chowder shouldn’t be served in eating places in Paris — at the very least, in my practically 50 years right here, I’ve by no means encountered it. Which signifies that with a purpose to take pleasure in this warming, ultraflavorful soup, it is advisable go attempting to find clams. This I did at my native farmers market, the place varied kinds of clams — together with two types of palourdes, small and enormous — have been on sale on a latest Sunday. If recent clams aren’t out there the place you reside, you should buy them on-line within the States or within the UK.
Pleased cooking.
