New England Clam Chowder à la Vichyssoise

Almost everyone has a recipe for New England clam chowder. It’s served piping hot and perfect for taking the chill off of a cool evening in the fall. But have you ever considered serving it cold? When blended and served chilled, the chowder takes on the richness of a fancy vichyssoise.

Although vichyssoise sounds very French, is an American invention. A Frenchman by the name of Louie Diat created the soup for the Ritz Carlton in New York City during his tenure as the chef. He named the soup after Vichy, a town not far from his hometown of Montmaraut, France. In 1950 in an interview with The New Yorker magazine Diat said,

“In the summer of 1917, when I had been at the Ritz seven years, I reflected upon the potato and leek soup of my childhood which my mother and grandmother used to make. I recalled how during the summer my older brother and I used to cool it off by pouring in cold milk and how delicious it was. I resolved to make something of the sort for the patrons of the Ritz.”  

Vichyssoise just might have been the soup that propelled American chef, host of No Reservations, and author Anthony (Tony) Bourdain into his highly successful food career. In his book Kitchen Confidential Tony describes vichyssoise as being the first food he ever really noticed and his first indication that food was something other than a substance one stuffed into one’s face when hungry. In the fourth grade young Tony was on a family vacation on board the Queen Mary bound for France when he ordered the soup. He says the crunch of the tiny chives and the pleasurable shock that the soup was cold to this day makes the word vichyssoise still have a magical ring to him. Now if only Tony would take on a campaign of instructing us how to correctly pronounce this rich, luscious soup of his childhood. It’s veeshee-swahze, not veshy-swah.

In this chowder, I’ve chosen to blend it and serve very cold, turning it into New England’s version of vichyssoise with clams. Packed in a thermos, it’s perfect for a summertime lunch at the beach or an elegant first course for a warm evening’s dinner party on the porch. Just don’t omit the sherry. It gives it that bit of French je n’est sais quoi that makes pronouncing veeshee-swahze all the more easier.

New England Clam Chowder à la Vichyssoise
Adapted from The Beach House Cookbook – serves 6

2 slices bacon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 cup water
1 cup bottled clam juice
1 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried
3 medium Idaho potatoes, peeled and diced
Dash of hot sauce, such as Tabasco
1 (10oz) can whole baby clams
1 (6.5oz) can chopped or minced clams
1 cup whole milk
1 cup half-and-half
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dry sherry
½ cup snipped chives for garnish

Fry the bacon in a large soup pot until cooked, but not crispy. Drain bacon, chop and reserve. Discard all but a tablespoon of the bacon fat. Add the butter to the bacon fat and melt over low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup of water, the clam juice, wine, thyme, and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Puree the soup in batches in either a blender or food processor. Return to the pot and add the canned clams and their juices, the hot sauce, and the chopped bacon and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in milk, half-and-half, and salt and pepper to taste. Raise the heat to medium and, when the soup is just barely boiling, stir in the sherry. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator and serve very cold, garnished with the chives.

Cook’s note: Always taste anything served cold for seasonings. Cold dishes often require a bit more salt than hot ones. Feel free to blend the soup after the addition of the clams rather than before, which would make it creamier than my version.

Printable recipe

Clam zucchini chowder – made with local garden fresh vegetables for the lazy days of summer time

Summer time is my absolute favorite time of the year, primarily because I love the flip flop lifestyle. Everyone sports lazy day, lightweight cottons and of course wears my favorite shoes – flip flops or sandals. Men wear cool shorts and short sleeve polo shirts or T’s while the ladies favor colorful sundresses. Farmer’s markets are overflowing with freshly picked summer vegetables such as dark green zucchini, bright yellow squash, freshly picked corn, cucumbers and my all time favorite – tomatoes. I’m always enchanted with the handmade signs directing you to neighbor’s gardens, where they’ve set up tables of freshly picked produce and a jar or box for you to leave your money and make change based on the honor system.

Every time I see zucchini I think of Wanda. For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember Wanda. She was Meakin’s late step-mother who, according to him, “was the best home cook he’d ever known.” While that was true, she was also very difficult to please (remember the bay leaf wreath I surprised her with for Christmas one year?) and, much to my chagrin, she would never ever share her recipes with me. You probably know someone who doesn’t share their recipes either. I never quite figured them out, but that’s another story.

This chowder is one of the recipes in particular I remember begging her for. She served it as a first course and it was so different from anything I’d ever eaten. It was luscious and tasted like a rich New England clam chowder stuffed full of fresh vegetables. Of course I absolutely had to have the recipe, but no go, she wasn’t sharing.

The only thing I knew for sure about her chowder was that it was cream based and contained zucchini, potatoes, and clams and was finished it in a food processor. At the time the Cuisinart food processors were brand new and all the rage. Everyone was talking about them. Consequently, there were many cookbooks designed especially for this new, must have kitchen appliance.

Never underestimate the determination of a cook like myself on the prowl for a recipe. Later that year I was visited Meakin’s mother in Florida and I spotted several issues of Cuisinart’s little cooking magazine on her coffee table. I had what you might call an “ah ha” moment. I thought maybe, just maybe, Wanda’s recipe might be in one of these little magazines. I quickly started flipping through them and low and behold, there it was - Wanda’s “secret recipe” for clam zucchini chowder.

The chowder is perfect for summer time when zucchini is abundant. The richness (including the fat & calories) can be controlled by the kind of milk you use. Light cream makes it luscious, but skim milk works well also. I added thyme, mostly because when we lived in the islands the Bahamians always added dried thyme to their chowders and I’ve done the same since then. If you don’t have a food processor, a blender works perfectly well and so would a handheld stick blender, or boat motor as Emerill Lagassee likes to calls it. I hope you’ll enjoy Wanda’s secret chowder as much as we do and please feel free to share it with anyone who asks for the recipe. I’m always thrilled when someone asks for one of my recipes and I believe it’s one of the best compliments a cook can get. Besides, it’s just the gracious thing to do.

Wanda’s secret Clam Zucchini Chowder
Serves 4.

1 strip of bacon, plus extra for garnish if desired (see below)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 small zucchini, ends removed & sliced into 1” chunks
1 large carrot, peeled & sliced into 1” chunks
2 medium potatoes, peeled & chopped into 1” chunks
½ teaspoon dried chopped thyme
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 10 oz can whole or chopped baby clams in water
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup milk or light cream (I use a combination)
Additional Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

For a garnish:
Finely chop a little extra zucchini and carrot and sauté them in a little of the bacon drippings. Add the extra crumbled bacon to the vegetables and use as a garnish for the chowder.

Sauté bacon in a large saucepan or stockpot until fairly crisp.  Remove, crumble & set aside. Keep one tablespoon of drippings in the saucepan and discard the remainder.  Add the chopped onion to drippings & sauté slowly until it takes on a little color and starts to brown.  Add zucchini, carrot, potatoes, thyme, chicken broth, water from clams, 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, a little freshly ground black pepper and the crumbled bacon, keeping back some of the bacon for garnish. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat & simmer, covered for about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Remove the vegetables & process in batches in the food processor or blender until smooth.  Or you could leave the vegetables a little chunky as I did if you like a more rustic, homemade look. Return mixture to the saucepan and add the clams & milk.  Gently reheat and taste to see if additional salt & pepper are needed.  Garnish and serve.

New England Clam Chowder

Clam Chowder is one of those things that we associate with summer. It may not quite be summer yet, but we're ready. My husband grew up in the northeast and he and his family summered at the end of Long Island on Shelter Island. Nestled between Long Island’s two forks, Shelter Island is a tiny, sheltered spot that is still a popular get-away for busy New Yorkers. One of their favorite pastimes was to dig for clams and have big pots of steamers with plenty of melted butter for dinner. I, on the other hand, grew up in the landlocked deep south, but the first time I tasted clams I couldn’t get enough of them.

We no longer live near the seashore and about the only clams we see in our market in the mountains are in cans. Lately I’ve had a painful time chewing, so to make life easier for me and satisfy our craving for summer clams at the same time, we made a batch of New England Clam Chowder for dinner. Many restaurant chowders are thick and flour based, but we prefer the rich, creamy variety and therefore skipped the flour.

This recipe is adapted from The Beach House Cookbook by Barbara Scott-Goodman. Barbara used fresh clams and pureed her chowder in a blender or food processor until very smooth and creamy and served it cold. Although we didn’t blend our version and we served it hot, I agree with Barbara that it would be excellent brought to the beach in a chilled thermos for a picnic. In her recipe she uses a bay leaf for seasoning, which I skipped, and she saves the bacon for another use, using only the rendered fat. There is no “saving bacon” in our kitchen. If cooked bacon stays on the counter past the count of ten before anyone eats it, it’s rare. I have to hide it (from both of us) if I plan to use it later. Besides, we like bacon in our chowder. This serves 6 as a soup course or appetizer, or 2 – 3 generous servings as a main course.

New England Clam Chowder

Adapted from The Beach House Cookbook

2 slices bacon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

1 cup bottled clam juice

1 cup dry white wine

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 Idaho potatoes, peeled and diced

Dash of hot sauce, such as Tabasco

1 (10oz) can whole baby clams with juice

1 (6.5oz) can chopped or minced clams with juice

1 cup whole milk

1 cup half-and-half

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons dry sherry

½ cup chopped fresh Italian flat leaf parsley

Pats of unsalted butter for garnish

Fry the bacon in a large soup pot until it’s cooked but not crispy. Drain bacon, chop and reserve (or hide if need be). Discard all but a tablespoon of the bacon fat. Add the butter to the bacon fat and melt over low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup of water, the clam juice, wine, thyme and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Add the canned clams and their juices, the hot sauce, and the chopped bacon and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in milk, half-and-half, and salt and pepper to taste. Raise the heat to medium and, when the soup is just barely boiling, stir in the sherry and let it heat through. Add chopped parsley, stir, and serve hot. Add a pat of butter to each bowl for garnish if desired.

Market Day 3 in the south of France. Discovering Tellines, the tiny baby clams from the Camargue region.

A French specialty in Provence, tellines are tiny baby clams no bigger than your fingernail. They are harvested by fisherman in the nearby Camargue region south of Arles. The lady selling the tellines in the market gave us her special recipe. The only problem was she spoke no English. Understanding a few French words along with hand gestures, we understood that the clams were sandy and should be rinsed well and prepared with olive oil, garlic and parsley. We purchased a demi kilo (one pound) and headed home to give them a try. There's Italian parsley growing in the tiny herb garden at our house so we'll snip a little and proceed with the recipe.

The owners converted an old well into an herb garden.

French Tellines

Wash, rinse and soak tellines in salt water for several hours to remove the sand. Drain well. Toss in a skillet over medium heat with a small splash each of extra virgin olive oil and white wine (our addition). Cook for about 1 – 2 minutes until they open, taking care not to overcook.

Toss some chopped fresh parsley and garlic in the skillet and stir to incorporate with clams. Serve immediately in bowls with plenty of napkins.

Let's go to the terrace and try the Tellines.

Bon Appetit

Join us next time on our tour of Provence as we visit one of Patricia Wells’ favorite bistros – Le Bistrot du Paradou. While we were dining there we met Fran Warde, author of numerous cookbooks, including My French Kitchen, coauthored with Joanna Harris. Until then, bonne chance - have a good day.