Ingredients for Shrimp Chowder
1 1/2 lbs. North Atlantic Shrimp, heads of, but shell still on.
1 teaspoon whole allspice
4 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups water
3 cups water
1 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 cup carrots, sliced
1 small, ripe tomato or 2 tablespoons canned tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 cup diced potatoes
1 cup tiny macaroni cooked

Tie allspice in cheesecloth and add to the 6 cups of water along with olive oil. Boil for 10 minutes, then add shrimp and wait until shrimp turns pink and curls (3-4 minutes.) Remove shrimp from broth. Set shrimp aside to cook, then peel. Discard spice bag. Add the 3 cups water to stock and bring to a boil; add celery, onions, carrots and tomato. Simmer 10 minutes. Then add peas and diced potatoes. When potatoes are just about cooked, add the cooked drained macaroni along with shrimp.

Have fresh chowder shipped direct to you from East Coast Gourmet.

Is Rhode Island’s red chowder the same as Manhattan clam chowder (also called New York chowder or Fullton Market chowder)? No way! Rhode Islanders make their own version of. Unlike the Manhattan clam chowder recipe, the Rhode Island chowder contains no vegatables and uses a tomato base, not tomato chunks.

Charlie asked Ray Testa, a long time Rhode Islander and author of Rhode Island Favorites: Back Home Recipes, for his favorite chowder recipe. Below you will find the chowder recipe served for decades at the Shore Dinner Hall at the Rocky Point Amusement Park*, located on Narragansett Bay. The hall could seat a 1000 people and was advertised as the largest shore dinner hall in the world. Although the park and the hall are no more ( closed in 1996 and demolished in 2007), the food from the Shore Dinner Hall lives on.

Rocky Point Clam Chowder

1/2 lb. Salt Pork (finely diced)
1 lb. Onions (chopped)
1 lb. Potatoes (diced)
2 cups Tomato Puree
1-1/2 qts. Quahogs (chopped)
1 Tbsp. Paprika
Water as needed
1 gal. Clam Juice
Salt & Pepper to taste
Oyster or Saltine Crackers (broken)

In a large kettle, heat the salt pork until the fat melts. Add the onions. Cook over medium heat until very soft. Add the clam juice, potatoes, seasonings, tomato puree and a little water. Simmer until the potatoes are soft, then add the quahogs. Heat and taste for seasoning. Add water if needed. Crush some saltine crackers and stir them into the chowder to thicken it further, near the end of the cooking. Makes about 15 servings.

*The Rocky Point Amusement Park was a popular landmark on the Narragansett Bay side of Warwick, Rhode Island. Rocky Point closed in 1995.To learn more about Rhode Island’s famous seaside playground visit Joe Nisil’s excelent resource and photo history page.

Seafood Chowder Ingredients:
1 to 1 1/2 lbs of fresh Cod or Haddock (cut up)
1 lb. chopped clams
1 large onion (diced)
3 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes (cut into cubes)
1 quart heavy cream

In a large pot add diced onions and clams with juice. Cook until onions are clear. Add potatoes then add water (enough to cover potatoes). Cook until potatoes are almost cooked, then add fish (do not stir, fish will break up) cook for 2 minutes. Lower heat to simmer, add cream with a pad of butter. Cover pan. Once butter has melted its ready to serve.

Bisque is simply a fancy French name for a smooth and creamy soup that is seasoned with a shellfish purée and combined with a wonderfully aromatic mixture of cognac, white wine, vegetables, herbs, heavy cream and, of course, tender, sweet lobster.

Most chefs will tell you to make it a day in advance so that the flavors have a chance to meld together and create the essence of perfection that it deserves. Charlie tells us he’s tried a lot of different versions of this wonderful soup-up and down the east coast, but always longs to come home for his own. If you don’t have the time to make your own, Our Lobster Bisque has a beautiful color and texture that is made fresh with sweet Maine lobster, lots of cream and lightly accented with Sherry. This great bisque is sinfully delicious.

Charlie sent us this recipe for lobster bisque we thought we would share with you. Give it a try and let us know if you too are captured by its superb flavor.

LOBSTER BISQUE

YIELD: 8 Servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 (2lb) Lobster
1 large Spanish onion, minced
2 medium Carrots, diced
2 ribs Celery, diced
1 each Bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried thyme
4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup cognac
1 cup dry sherry
to taste salt
to taste cayenne pepper
¼ cup tomato paste
4 cups fish stock
1 cup heavy cream

METHOD OF PREPARATION:

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add lobster and cook through, about 8 minutes. Using tongs, transfer lobster to large bowl. Reserve 2 cups cooking liquid. Cool lobsters.

2. Working over large bowl to catch the juices, cut off lobster tails and claws.

3. Crack tail and claw shells and remove lobster meat. Coarsely chop lobster meat, cover and refrigerate. Coarsely chop lobster shells and bodies and transfer to a bowl. Reserve juices from lobster in a large bowl and set aside.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over high heat. Add lobster shells and bodies and sauté until shells begin to brown. Add onion, carrots, celery, bay leaf, and thyme to the pan and sauté until vegetables are just tender. Flame pan with cognac and then add the Sherry.

5. Simmer until almost all liquid has evaporated, about 4 minutes. Add fish stock, reserved 2 cups lobster cooking liquid and lobster juices. Simmer 1 hour.

6. Strain soup through a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth set over a large saucepan, pressing firmly on solids to extract juices. Whisk tomato paste into the soup and the remaining butter and simmer 20 minutes to reduce the liquid.

7. Slowly add the heavy cream to the soup and simmer 5 minutes more.

8. Mix lobster meat into soup and stir to heat through. Ladle soup into bowls and serve.

Charlie loves traveling along the northern coast of New England, where he can always find his favorite chowders-those one-pot meals made fresh, in an area where clams-hard-shell clams called quahogs to be exact, are the freshest anywhere, and always in abundance. Quahogs, available all year round, are actually grown-up cherrystones and used for chowders because of their size and flavor. Every recipe will tell you to make your chowda a day ahead of time which, after a day of slow-simmering on the stove, gives the flavors time to mingle and intensify and the clams time to tenderize. Make sure you save the liquid that you use to steam and open the clams and you’ll be well on your way in making the perfect chowder.

From the tip of Cape Cod to Boston and points north, chowder and it’s ingredients are fiercely defended and include; clams, potatoes, onions, crispy bits of salt pork, and of course, milk or cream and always finished with a dab of butter on top-Ingredients that are the law in these parts!

A Boston trained chef developed our New England Clam Chowder. Definitely hearty €“ lots of cream & potatoes €“ but made with a delicate hand so as not to overpower some of the most tenderest of clams we’ve tasted.

What about Tomato-based-Manhattan chowder? Well, Charlie’s new to this concept of tomatoes in chowder, but tells us it’s prit-tee tasty too, just a different breed, a healthy cousin of its’ northern version. Believe it or not, Rhode Islanders first started adding chopped tomatoes to their chowder, a practice that brought down unrelenting contempt from the tip of Cape Cod to Maine. For no discernable reason this version of chowder came to be called “Manhattan Clam Chowder. The folks on Long Island believed that their version of clam chowder needed tomatoes for flavor and were adamant about merging the garden and the sea. A steaming hearty vegetable soup, Manhattan clam chowders are brothy, not creamy and sometimes begin with a chicken stock instead of fish stock. Our Manhattan Style Clam Chowder is chock full of clams, potatoes, bell peppers and other vegetables seasoned with cayenne pepper to give it a little kick. This is not just good €“ it’s actually good for you.

Marylanders, wanting no part of the Long Island tomatoes versus New England’s cream base controversy, added corn to their chowders and sometimes chicken in some parts. Roasted kernels, fresh off the cob, give this chowder a wonderfully earthy flavor, perfect for the late summer evening feast. Add some chili peppers and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper and now you’re talking goood eaten. Here’s a great new recipe for Grilled Corn Chowder. Try it and you’ll see why corn chowder became so popular. Serve with freshly baked corn muffins and you’ve got yourself a meal.

Grilled Corn Chowder
Grilled fresh Corn, red and green chilies simmered in a vegetable stock, thickened with heavy cream and garnished with a dollop Chili cream.

Estimated Time: 1 Hour and 45 minutes
YIELD: 12 Servings

INGREDIENTS:

5 cloves Garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
5 ears Fresh Corn on the cob, husks and silks removed
2 quarts Vegetable Stock
2 each Jalapeño chilies, preferably red, washed, seeded, and finely minced
5 Ounces Heavy cream
Salt, to taste
1 cup Carrots, washed and peeled and diced ½ inch
1 cup Celery stalks, washed and trimmed and diced ½ inch
1 cup Onions, peeled and diced ½ inch
¾ cup Chili cream, optional
¾ cup Sour Cream
1 tablespoon Cilantro, fresh, minced
1 each Jalapeno chili, green or red, finely minced

METHOD OF PREPARATION:

1.Preheat oven to 400° F.
2.In a small sauté pan over medium heat, sauté the garlic in oil for 1 minute, remove cloves from pan, wrap in aluminum foil, and roast in the oven for 15 minutes.
3.Brush the corn cobs with the garlic oil from the sauté pan, and place on hot grill, turning frequently, until golden brown.
4. In a large stock or soup pot, combine the vegetable stock, diced vegetables, and Jalapeño Chilies. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat, and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
5.Using a sharp knife, remove the corn kernels from each cob and add them to the soup pot. Continue to simmer until all of the vegetables are very tender.
6.Pour the soup in a food processor and purée. Do not strain. Return to the soup pot, bring back to a boil, and reduce to desired consistency.
7.Temper the heavy cream, and then add it to the soup. Season, to taste, and serve immediately in pre-heated cups, garnish with Chili cream.

To Make Chili cream:
Place ¾ cup of sour cream in a small bowl. Add 1-tablespoon fresh minced cilantro and 1 finely diced red or green jalapeno pepper. Place a small dollop on each serving.

Chef Notes:
Here is a suggested variation for this recipe: Do not Puree the soup. Thicken it with strips of Flour tortillas, continue whisking until well combined.
Serve a Corn Muffin on top of crisp tortilla wedge with a dollop of Chili cream as a garnish.