Manhattan clam chowder

Every so often, I stay overnight at my mother and stepfather's house after work.  These are usually evenings when I have a late meeting or, as the case was recently, an early morning presentation.  I have a really long commute to work - on average it is 2 hours each way - and my mom's house is within 30 minutes of my office. 

I love these evenings for so many reasons (they'll be ending soon, because next month I'm starting a new job much closer to my house).  Call me selfish, but one of the reasons I love staying overnight at my mom's is that I don't have to make dinner.  Or jump up every two minutes to refill someone's juice, or hear complaints about how disgusting the menu is.  Instead, these dinners are usually me and my mom in the kitchen, catching up on family and friends, me elaborating on something the kids did or the funny things they said. 

That was the case two weeks ago when I arrived into the kitchen, tired from a long meeting and damp from a rainy night. My mom had a simmering pot of Manhattan clam chowder on the stove, with fluffy biscuits on the counter.  I couldn't recall her ever making clam chowder in my life.

"It's the best soup," she enthused.  "Aunt Etta gave me the recipe years ago." 

My mom produced the recipe - "so you can write about it on your blog" - and she wasn't kidding when she said she had the recipe for years. The date on the magazine clipping: February 1976.  I was in the first grade then.

I took a spoonful of the chowder, and it was indeed every bit as good as she promised it was.  Comfort food in every sense of the word ... at its very best.

Bill Johnson's Manhattan Clam Chowder
from Family Circle, Feb. 1976

36 large chowder clams (quahogs) OR:
2 cans (7-8 oz. ea.) minced clams  (my mom used the canned clams)

1/2 stick sweet butter (I know, I know ....)
1 cup diced onion
1-1/2 cups diced potatoes
1 cup diced celery
3/4 cup diced carrots
3/4 cup diced green pepper (my mom may have left this out)
1 can (2 lb. 3 oz) Italian-style plum tomatoes, drained
1-1/2 tsp. leaf thyme (crumbled)
1/4 tsp. white pepper
1/8 tsp. curry powder
(I know my mom's version omitted the white pepper and curry powder.)

Directions:

Shuck fresh clams; reserve broth; chop clams coarsely. If using canned clams, drain and reserve broth. Broth from clams should measure 2 cups. If not, add water or bottled clam broth.

Melt sweet butter in a large saucepan. Saute onions until lightly browned.

Add remaining ingredients and extra water, if needed, to cover vegetables. Bring to boil; lower heat; cover and simmer 30 minutes or just until vegetables are tender.

Add fresh (or canned) clams; turn off heat; cover and let stand 2 minutes or just until clams are thoroughly hot. Serve with warm buttered pilot crackers if you wish.

(Sorry about the terrible photo.  It was taken with my BlackBerry, and I was nearly finished with my second bowl of chowder when I remembered to take a picture.)

Guest post: Scallop risotto

One of my favorite things to cook, for family and friends, is risotto. I always loved ordering it when we went out to eat, but I figured it was one of those dishes I'd only get to enjoy in a restaurant. What did I know? It's easy to make, is a wonderful comfort food, and, whenever I make it for friends, they're always impressed because they think it's too hard to make. I've even blogged about risotto before over here.

Anyway, here's what you'll need for approximately four servings:



3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion—finely chopped
2 cloves garlic—finely chopped
1 red pepper, chopped

SAUTE THE ABOVE, THEN ADD:

16 uncooked scallops (if they're really big, you can use fewer. I usually cut them into halves or quarters)
6 sun-dried tomatoes—cut into small pieces (or more!)
½ teaspoon finely chopped lemon zest
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

COOK THROUGH and set aside (I usually keep the heat on low).


Meanwhile, bring 5 cups fish, chicken or vegetable stock (I usually use chicken or vegetable—low sodium versions) to a simmer.

To make the risotto you need:

1 ½ cups arborio rice
½ cup white wine

Now the fun stirring begins. In a large pot, heat one T. of unsalted butter and some olive oil (probably 1 T. but I just pour in a glug). Saute 1/4 c. finely chopped onion and then pour in the uncooked rice, and stir to coat all the grains well. Keep the heat on medium (you want it to bubble/boil softly) and add the wine, stirring occasionally until most of the liquid is absorbed. Basically, when you can draw a wooden spoon through the rice and it leaves a "clear" path/streak for a second or two, you're ready top add more liquid. Now, add the broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring occasionally until the liquid is absorbed (just like with the wine--when you can draw spoon through the rice mixture, add the next half-cup of broth).


Continue adding the simmering broth to the risotto until there's only 1/4-1/2 cup broth left in the pan. Add the broth and the scallop mixture, remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients:

1 cup tightly-packed spinach leaves, cut into slices (I know there's a fancy term for this but I don't know it).
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice
fresh tomatoes

Give it another good stir to mix everything together and voila! You just made risotto.


One of the great things about this recipe is once you get the basics down (how much broth to how much rice), you can mix it up with the rest of the ingredients. Do you like mushrooms? Go for it (me, personally, I detest them). I've made this with smoked salmon and dill. Yum. Or chicken. Whatever. All you've really got to know is the basic formula of rice and broth and how to let it simmer/cook.

****

Guest blogger Judy Larsen is used to cooking for one husband and four kids who love everything she cooks (or at least are savvy enough to not say otherwise) and one kid who for years lived on only "white" foods.

Baked salmon

If you were to judge by the recipes I've posted on this blog, you might think all we ever eat is seafood. Not true. But we do eat a LOT of it.

I'm lucky that both of my children seem to like it. Most of the time. We do have our hit or miss days, though, like this weekend when they both refused to eat this dish. Last time I made it though they cleaned their plates. Go figure. Fickle!

This recipe for baked salmon is one that I have been making for many, many years. I have passed it on to numerous friends and everyone always sings its praises. When we removed gluten from our diet, I knew there was no way we could do without this favorite.

So I modified it to be both gluten and casein free. I will share both versions.

These aren't precise measurements for the ingredients, so feel free to adjust to your taste.

Baked Salmon
4 Salmon fillets
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
About 3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
Melted butter

Preheat oven to 400.
Rinse salmon fillets and pat dry.
Line a shallow pan with foil.

Place salmon skin side down and spread a thin layer of mustard across each fillet.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper (to taste).
Top liberally with bread crumbs and drizzle melted butter over top.

Bake about 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fillets, until appearance is no longer translucent and flakes easily with a fork.

And now for the gluten free, dairy (casein) free version. (We actually like this version much better!)

GFCF Baked Salmon
4 Salmon fillets
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
3/4 to 1 cup crushed Rice Chex
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp melted non-dairy butter (I use soy-free Earth Balance)

Mix the Rice Chex, garlic powder, salt and pepper together. (I usually crush the Rice Chex in a plastic baggy with the spices.)

Spread thin layer of mustard on salmon fillets, top liberally with crushed cereal and drizzle the melted butter on top.

Bake about 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fillets, until appearance is no longer translucent and flakes easily with a fork.

Of all the various ways we prepare salmon, this is our favorite. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Spaghetti with clams

I love rice, but I love pasta too. And having married into a fine Italian family, pasta is a pantry staple in our house. Whenever I have no idea what to make for dinner, I can grab a box of "macaroni",  a handful of roma tomatoes and have dinner on the table in 20 minutes.

I tend to keep roma tomatoes on hand when they are in season, but honestly, a can of whole or crushed tomatoes will get the job done nicely in a pinch.

Since I tend to do most, if not all, of our cooking for the holidays, I like to simplify our evening meals this time of year. I can't organize my grocery shopping to buy what's needed for the Thanksgiving table and make sure I have enough ingredients on hand for the other nights of the week. I'm just not that gifted. And the fridge doesn't really hold that much. Plus, when I'm thinking about turkeys and corn casseroles and roasted acorn squash and baking, baking, baking, dinner has got to be a no-brainer.

And that's why I love this meal.

Here's what you need to get started:

1 box of spaghetti, linguini or long twirl-able pasta of your choice
1-2 cans of chopped or minced clams w/ juice
4-6 roma tomatoes
generous handful of finely chopped fresh parsley
kosher salt
fresh pepper
red pepper flakes
garlic
olive oil

Put a pot of water on to boil and cook the spaghetti according to package directions.

 While the spaghetti is cooking, chop the tomatoes. I like a small-ish diced cut.

 

Once the tomatoes are chopped/diced, swirl some olive oil in a heavy pan and let it heat for about a minute. Pour in the clams and add the tomatoes and garlic to the pan. Season with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and if you like a little bite, sprinkle in some red pepper flakes.

 

 Let it simmer for about 10 minutes or so (until the pasta is cooked and the tomatoes soften), then throw in the parsley.

Take the pan off the heat. Drain the spaghetti. And mix the sauce and pasta together. I do this in the same pan I cook the sauce in, but you can use a fancy bowl if you like.

 

Sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese and enjoy!!

 

One of the nice things about this meal, is that I can hold some spaghetti aside for my son, who still prefers his serving with nothing more than butter and cheese.

A word on amounts: If you are preparing a pound of pasta, you may want to use two cans of clams and a couple extra tomatoes. Too much sauce is never a problem with this meal, but not enough can feel skimpy. The sauce is very broth-like and one my favorite things, besides sopping it up with a good piece of crusty Italian bread, is to scoop up what's left in my bowl with a spoon.

I'll probably make this once a week or so right up through the New Year.  It's the kind of thing I can throw together after a day of baking or when we need a change of pace from holiday leftovers. My mother-in-law, by the way, makes it the same way only she omits the tomatoes and the red pepper flakes. Her version is even simpler than mine and just as delicious!!

Shrimp feast

I hope you like shrimp. I love it! My whole family loves it.

Problem for a long time was that I didn't know how to cook raw shrimp. I was scared of it. Intimidated by the deveining, worried I wouldn't cook it long enough. I avoided dealing with raw shrimp at all cost, thus relegating me to only enjoying it at the occasional restaurant outing.

That all changed this summer when I went to South Carolina to visit my sister. I asked her to show me how to clean and devein shrimp. Being a teacher, she, of course, took my request very seriously.

After my Shrimp 101 course, I came back home and we started eating shrimp fairly regularly. Both of my daughters love it. We even created a new tradition: Friday Night Shrimp Night.

One of the reasons Friday night works as shrimp night is because by the end of the week, I'm really not interested in laboring too long over dinner. Shrimp cooks really quickly!

Awhile back I started searching for a variety of ways to prepare shrimp. Today I'm going to share with you my three favorite recipes.

But first, if you're at all intimidated about working with raw shrimp (like I was), click here to watch a video demonstrating how to clean and devein raw shrimp. Trust me, it's EASY.

Without further ado, my favorite shrimp recipes.

Fried Shrimp (gluten free and casein free)
1 egg, mixed with a little bit of rice milk (or your preferred milk substitute)
1/2 cup of GF coating mix (recipe follow)
1 lb of peeled, deveined shrimp (I only buy wild-caught American shrimp)
Canola oil

Dip shrimp in egg/milk mixture, then toss in coating mix until evenly coated.

Heat canola oil in pan. When it's hot, place shrimp in pan. Shrimp cooks very quickly. You will probably only need to fry it about 3 minutes per side. You can tell it's done when the shrimp is opaque in appearance, not shiny and translucent.

Remove from pan to a paper towel to absorb excess oil. Serve immediately.

After much online searching and quite a few trial and fail attempts at making a good gluten free breading, I finally found the perfect one. Trust me when I say, look no further. This is the best recipe for breading chicken, shrimp or fish. Just perfect.

GFCF Coating Mix (works great on chicken, shrimp and fish)
This recipe comes courtesy of Erin at M.A.G. - Adventures in ASD and GFCF Living.

1 1/2 cups rice flour
1 cup crushed rice cereal
1/2 cup potato flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder (or more to taste)

Sift all ingredients until well blended. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Use quickly or store in the refrigerator for longer shelf life.

Baked Shrimp Scampi
The original recipe can be found at allrecipes.com (my go-to online recipe site). I made a few modifications, including making it dairy-free.

1/2 cup dairy free butter (I use Earth Balance)
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1-2 lbs peeled, deveined raw shrimp

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Combine everything but the shrimp in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat.
When butter is melted completely, remove from heat.
Place shrimp in a shallow baking dish, and pour butter mixture over top.
Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until shrimp are pink and opaque.

I serve this over spaghetti and with a vegetable. The butter mixture makes a great sauce over pasta.

Lastly, my most favorite of ways to make shrimp: marinated and grilled! This recipe comes directly from allrecipes.com with zero changes to it. It is naturally free of gluten and casein.

Marinated Grilled Shrimp
3 cloves minced garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 lbs peeled and deveined raw shrimp

Mix all the ingredients, except the shrimp, in a large bowl. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Cover and marinate (in the fridge) for at least an hour. I have found the longer you marinate the better with this recipe.

Skewer shrimp and cook on preheated, lightly oiled grill. I haven't timed it, but it takes about 3 minutes per side for the shrimp to be cooked thoroughly. Remember, you know it's done when it's opaque.

I served this several times over the summer with a big salad and corn on the cob. I think we had it 3 Fridays in a row it was so good.

If you have a favorite shrimp recipe, do share! Leave a comment or write a guest post. See sidebar for details.

Salmon with apricot ginger glaze and green onion

The problem and the blessing of being a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of cook is that I often get my heart set on making a particular thing and assume I have the necessary ingredients on hand. Today, as is often the case, I was not fortunate enough to have on hand the ingredients I thought I would need to make a yummy ginger and plum glaze for some salmon I planned to have Niksdad grill. I was so confident that I even Tweeted my intent. (Last time I do that, huh?)

Well, in my defense, I have to say that I knew Niksdad was on his way home from Sam’s Club with a flat of plums that I intend to stew and puree for some of my son’s meals. How was I to know that not a bloody plum in the bunch would be ripe? Four o’clock found me dashing to the grocery store to pick up a few ingredients —like plum jam— so I could try out the plan which had been brewing in my head all afternoon.

Little did I know that my local grocery store doesn’t carry plum jam.

Recipe? Me? Nope, I didn’t have a recipe, either. But I had a good plan— so I improvised. And voila! Grilled Salmon with apricot ginger glaze and green onions was born.

Oh, did I mention I ran out of aluminum foil to wrap the fish for the grill? Yep. Tough to make an ooey-gooey caramelized hunk of fish on the grill without foil. (But if anyone has any alternative ideas, please share?) So...Plan B, or is it C?

BAKED salmon with apricot ginger glaze and green onions made the final cut. Whew. The best part is that it’s super easy to make, looks impressive as heck, and tastes yummy. And I’m not even that fond of fish to begin with!

Ingredients:

1 ½ - 2 pounds salmon fillet
*(I splurged and bought one huge fillet at the market today)
1 TBSP Ginger juice
3 TBSP Plum vinegar (may sub. plain or garlic rice vinegar)
4 TBSP Apricot preserves
3 TBSP Molasses
4 TBSP Brown sugar
3 TBSP Water
3 TBSP GF flour blend (may use regular flour, if you prefer)
2 Green onions, chopped
6-8 pieces Crystalized ginger (optional)

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a small bowl or large measuring cup (should be microwave safe):
Mix all wet ingredients together
Whisk in flour until smooth
Add brown sugar, whisk until dissolved
Microwave on high approximately 45-60 seconds —long enough to let flavors blend

Prepare 9x13 baking dish (I use PAM spray) and place salmon in the pan, skin side down.

Pour glaze over salmon. It will pool in the pan; that's ok.
Sprinkle crystallized ginger over salmon.



Bake 25 minutes or until fish is fully cooked. This will depend on the size and thickness of the fillet.

Sprinkle with green onion and serve.



Serving suggestions:
Add a side of steamed rice with almond slivers and steamed snow peas or broccoli or serve with Asian-style coleslaw made with a sesame vinaigrette.

Notes:
The flour, while not absolutely necessary, will help give the glaze its smooth finish; it helps keep the sugars from crystallizing completely.

I used ginger juice for convenience. You may use fresh ginger —minced or grated is fine. Note that cooking with ginger can be tricky; it's easy to us too much and your meal can taste bitter. With the ginger juice, you can always add more if you like a little more "zing." You can also sprinkle fresh ginger on top just before baking.

I cooked my fish with the green onions. Next time, I'll add them before serving; the heat completely overpowered them and they lost their flavor —which is necessary to balance the fruity, gingery glaze.

Ideally, this would have been cooked in a foil pouch on medium high heat on the grill for approximately 20-25 minutes. Next time...


What are some of your favorite ways to eat fish? Do you like fish but shy away from cooking it? Is there a recipe you're looking for? Let us know!

Gluten-free salmon patties (and hello!)

I am so excited to be a part of (Never) Too Many Cooks. To get to talk about food and help out a cause that is important to me – who could ask for anything better?

Food is a very big deal to me. We’ve often joked in my family that we plan our vacations around the restaurants we want to try. Family get togethers? Always about the food. Why do we look forward to the holidays so much? The food, of course!

I have always enjoyed cooking but reserved it for weekends, holidays and special occasions. My husband and I often made a “date” of cooking at home, choosing a special wine, not skimping on dessert.

That was before kids.

Now there are 2 more hungry mouths to feed (every day even) and, cliché as it sounds, I feel like I spend all of my time in the kitchen. Every day.

I enjoy looking up recipes, talking to friends about what they have for dinner to get inspiration, and even occasionally try to be a little inventive. Sometimes that works out, sometimes not.

My oldest daughter (age 5) has some food sensitivities, so we’ve modified our diet to be free of both gluten and dairy. It hasn’t been easy, but it hasn’t been as difficult as I imagined either.

Nearly everything I post will be free of both gluten and dairy. Nearly. Come the holidays, I’ll be making many of our favorites that my daughter wouldn’t eat anyway, so why bother modifying it? I’ll share some of those too.

The recipe I want to share today is the very first recipe I have ever modified to be gluten free (GF).

One of my family’s all-time favorite meals is Salmon Patties. The kids, ages 2 and 5, love them! Over the years, I have tried many, many different recipes, and eventually we settled on a Bisquick version as our favorite, and that’s the one I started with when creating my own GF Salmon Patties.


Gluten Free Salmon Patties
1 C crushed Rice Chex cereal
½ C all purpose gluten free flour
2 tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp black pepper
8 medium green onions finely chopped
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 6-oz cans, or 1 14.5-oz can, of salmon

Olive oil for cooking

Mix the cereal, flour, garlic powder and black pepper in a medium bowl.

Add green onions, mustard and eggs.

Mix these ingredients together really well before adding the canned salmon. I have found the patties are firmer and moister if the ingredients are well-mixed before adding the salmon.

Add the canned salmon and mix well (I use my hands!).

Form into 3-inch patties.

Heat olive oil in large skillet on medium heat. When oil is heated, add the patties and cook for about 10-12 minutes, turning once, until they are nicely browned and cooked through.

Drain on paper towel after cooking to absorb some of the oil.

Notes: You can use the fresh salmon pouches in place of canned salmon if you prefer. I buy wild-caught Alaskan canned salmon (in bulk) because we eat these so often.

Salmon patties can be served with any number of things. When we are feeling particularly in need of comfort food, we make French fries. Pasta goes well with them too. You could also make them burger-size and serve them on a bun.

Please leave a comment if you have a question, or if you try them - let me know what you think.

And let us know - What is your family's favorite meal?