Great recipe for LONG ISLAND CLAM CHOWDER…… its not a mix of New England and Manhattan clam chowder like most people think!
Hey everybody and welcome to Chef Ralph’s realm. I’m Chef Ralph. Where the hell am I? I’m out east in Montalk at a condo that I rented and I am going to be doing some content out here for the week. It’s going to be interesting. Um, today I am bringing you Long Island Clam Chowder, which a lot of people think is just a mix of uh New England and Manhattan, but it’s not. It’s its own beast, and we own that. So, I went out went to a couple different local places. Uh, we did Balsam Farms uh for the vegetables. Their produce is unmatched here on the east end. They have got some of the nicest and exotic stuff that I’ve seen in quite some time. Um, the shellfish that we’re going to be using for this are little neck clams. [Music] and they come from the Bennett Shellfish uh company. They’ve been around since like the 1600s here on the East End. Awesome people. I will be doing uh a couple more videos with them about them using their products. Uh but for this video here, we’ve got these gorgeous uh little neck clams. So, for the base of any clam chowder, what you’re going to want to do is a liquor or a base of sorts. So, I’m going to rinse these real good. There’s a lot of different wives tales as to uh you know how to get the the clamps to expel the grit. I I don’t I mean I’ve heard a bunch of them. There’s salty water, there’s putting uh corn starch in the water, there’s using hot mustard. I don’t know, folks. I think they’re all, you know, your grandma’s tricks. And I got no Where’s my rag? Sorry. Like I said, this is a new kitchen to me. Um, and do some paper towels. Anyway, so we’re going to do a clam a clam broth. Um, so we’re going to take the dozen clams [Music] and put them in a pot. Now, we’re going to put about two cups of water. So, it’s going to be one cup of water per six clams. All right. So, now this is going to go on the stove and when the clams open, they’re going to release their juices. We’re just going to par cook the clams so they’re a little easier to work with and to to chop and whatnot. And we will then process the rest of these ingredients. I got a cover for that. I got a cover. So, the ingredients that we’re going to use for a Long Island clam chowder, and like I said, it’s not a 50/50 mix of New England and Manhattan. They both have some ingredients that they use together, but everything is not uh it’s not mutually exclusive to that recipe. Into this clam broth, I’m going to add a couple sprigs of fresh thyme. uh a bay leaf or two and just a few little sprigs of rosemary. Like I’m talking just, you know, 10 little leaves, really nothing. And I’m going to do that with the clam broth because everything is going to get strained out. So, none of this is going to end up in the uh the clam stock to that. Once our clam stock is done, clam liquor. It goes both ways. We’re going to be adding Long Island fresh celery. Uh, I’m going to have to figure out what to do with these celery leaves. I think I’m going to actually chop up some of these celery leaves and put them into the chowder. That’s not something that’s normally done, but that’s something that I’m going to do. Then we’ve got some Long Island red potatoes. We’ve got some Long Island corn. Uh, Long Island shallots. And I said I got everything for the most part at the Balsam Farm. Spectacular. their produce. Gorgeous. Um, then we have some panetta. Some people you could use bacon if you want. I prefer to use unccured panetta. So, let’s process this stuff down so we can then just throw it in the stock. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] All right. So, we’ve got all of our misplas and now we’re going to attend to the clam liquor, clam broth, whatever you want to call it. At this point, the clams are open and just about ready to process. You smell it. It’s absolutely wonderful with those fresh herbs in there. Uh let’s see. What do I need? Uh trivet maybe. Something like that. No. Be right back. Got a towel. All right. So, the best way to deal with this So, we’re going to grab another bowl and a strainer and we’re just going to strain all the clam juice into the bowl. So, this pasta now I’m going to go back onto the stove and we’re going to start to render out our panchetta. That’s going to heat up. We will get rid of what we don’t need. Let’s pick the uh pick the clam meat out of the shells. I’m actually going to save the shells in case I decide to do some baked clams later this trip. We’re going to reserve this clam stock for a little later. So, we’re going to put that aside. really no spoons. So, I guess I’m going to use a spatula. So, as the panetta is rendering, we’re going to do some of the smaller vegetables. Um, we’re going to go with that one big shallot. That’s a lot of shallot. That’s okay. One big shallot. And the potatoes because those are the ones that are going to take the longest to go and we’ll just want to get them get them rocking. I put the celery and the corn in towards the end cuz I like those to have a little bit a little bit of a bite to them. To process these clams further, there is my scissor. Got it. Going to give a quick rinse. These are uh Korean meat scissors. I use these. I I love them. I use them for everything. So, we’re going to uh you can use it with you can use a knife. I’m just going to start to snip the clams into pieces. Now, remember, these were just kind of par cooked so as they don’t get like rubber bands when we put them back into the pot with everything else. Shouldn’t be there. We’re going to let that go for a couple minutes. We’ll be right back. All right. So, if you see the bottom of the pan starting to get that little brown fond to it, uh add a little bit of liquid and back the heat off. Uh we really don’t want too much color to be forming. Just just rendering the fat out of the pen. All right. So once the panetta has rendered and you’ve got a nice fat buildup, we’re going to add some flour to kind of create a r within the ingredients that are already cooking. Now we’re going to add the celery and the corn. Now we’re going to go ahead and add about half to 3/4 of our clam stock. Now we’re going to add about and this is where it gets a little tricky and subjective. Uh there is tomato product going in there. I like to use just a very basic tomato paste. Some people like to throw in chopped tomatoes. Do what you feel. Uh, like I said, I think there’s enough texture textural aspects within the soup so far uh this chowder that we don’t need more tomato uh more texture given by the tomato. So, we’re just putting it in there for a little bit of depth of flavor and some color. So, I’m going to use I’m going to start off with a teaspoon and then build upon it and see if it needs it. [Music] I can already tell by the color. We’re going to we’re going to go for the full two teaspoons. I’m going to throw another sprig or two of uh fresh thyme into it. And then we’re going to later remove the twig. Uh so I’m going to throw that in there. And then we’re going to let it simmer for about 25 minutes. We’ll be right back. All right, folks. We’re back. This has been simmering for about 25 minutes to half an hour at a low simmer. To tell the general dness of it, you kind of just want to poke one of the potatoes. And if the potatoes to the dness of your liking and the thickness of the soup soup chowder is where you want it to be, then you can pull it off. Oh, not not pull off. Then you can do the next step, uh, which is we’re going to add some heavy cream. We’re going to throw the clams back in and we’re going to pull out the time. Hey, there he is. Pull out the time. Stir the clams in. We’re going to go in with about a cup of cream. All right, this is going to come back up to a simmer. We’re going to let it simmer for 5 minutes and then let’s taste what we got. Be right back. All right, everyone. We’re done with the simmering. Uh what I’ve done off camera and this is super secret. Did some salt and pepper to taste. Let’s bring it over and see where we’re at. Yeah. I mean, it looks like everything that I would want it to be. It’s not as thick and clawing. Clawing is not the right word. It’s not as thick as a New England clam chowder with, you know, all that uh starchiness. We do have flour in here, but it’s really not much. And it’s not super watery like a broth based New England clam chowder. Cheers. You know, it’s got It’s got little notes almost like a like a lobster bis. It’s got the depth of flavor of of like a lobster bisque. The potatoes are perfect. Little pops of sweetness from the corn. this celery. I mean, I hate to say it, but like when I bought that celery, the green of that celery, like the the the chlorophyll, the chlorophyll count, if that’s a thing, was off the charts. It really makes a difference. Really makes a difference. You get pops of like green is all that I can really relate it to. Well, there you have it, folks. The perfect Long Island climb chatter. Not a mix of New England and Manhattan. It’s its own beast, and it’s absolutely delicious. I hope you like my content. This is Chef Ralph’s Realm. Please like, subscribe, and follow. Hope to see you in the next one. Bye-bye. [Music]
Dining and Cooking