Snacking State-by-State: Connecticut II - Indian Pudding, Mom-Approved

While the last post's specifically clear clam chowder is typical of Connecticut, those famous New England desserts are more difficult to pin down to the Nutmeg State.

Snacking State-by-State: Connecticut

Official Name: State of Connecticut
State Nicknames: The Nutmeg State, The Constitution State, The Provisions State, The Land of Steady Habits
Admission to the US: January 9, 1788 (#5)
Capital: Hartford (3rd largest city)
Other Important Cities: Bridgeport (largest), New Haven (2nd largest), Stamford (4th largest)
Region: Northeast, New England; New England (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Clambake
Bordered by: Massachusetts (north); Rhode Island (east); Long Island Sound and Long Island, New York (south); New York (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: Eastern oyster (shellfish)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: oysters, clams, lobsters, haddock, typical New England dishes (Indian pudding, whoopie pie, chowder - including several types of clam chowder), Election cake, apizza (Neapolitan-style pizza pronounced "a-PEETZ"), Portuguese cuisine

I had considered the famous Election Cake, that confection of legend which, as is noted by St. Louis, MO, food writers Ann & Joe Pollack, is yeasty but not terribly sweet. I wanted a sweet dessert, dammit. It shouldn't be such a tall order - there's a reason why super-sweet and cakelike corn bread is called "Yankee cornbread" (one example found on the Pioneer Woman website - I still prefer mine Southern-style though). It is the same with the very sweet Indian pudding, a type of hasty pudding made with cornmeal (as the original English colonists called anything made with corn "Indian"). Funny though it may seem, but Indian pudding doesn't necessarily feature sugar. The recipe I used - from the original modern cookbook, Fannie Farmer's 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook, but reinterpreted by Tammy Donroe from the Food on the Food blog - was sweetened strictly with molasses and maple syrup.

Recipe: Indian Pudding

Donroe comes right out with the love for this dish: "This, right here, is the best Indian pudding in the world" (Donroe, 2010) as it pretty much is the same type of Indian pudding she ate growing up. Unlike with the clam chowder, I followed her recipe much more closely (this time halving it), omitting only the ginger, because I didn't have any. Yes I should be smacked. In its place I upped the nutmeg. This is the Nutmeg State I'm writing about after all.


* whole milk (easy enough to find)
* cornmeal (I used yellow, since no Southern cook would dare use yellow cornmeal in cornbread. I guessed it might be more culturally appropriate to use yellow for a New England dish)
* butter (mmmm, butter)
* molasses and maple syrup (had both - you will need them in equal amounts)
* egg (got it)
* salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger (had everything but the ginger)

Indian pudding is more tedious to make than clam chowder, even if you shuck the clams yourself. The tedium comes not during the baking, but in the prep beforehand.

This is when you first heat the milk - slowly bring it to a simmer, and then slowly whisk in the cornmeal. This is what I am worst at - heating things like milk in a pot without it burning on the bottom. I am especially good at burning things to the bottom of pots. Even constantly whisking and stirring for the 20 minutes the recipe calls for didn't stop a little bit of burning on the bottom, but at least it did not infect the flavor at all.


Anyway, slowly whisk until thick enough to coat a spoon, and then add everything else but the egg, which will scramble. To stop this from happening, you have to temper the egg with just a little of the hot liquid. Add to the batter and pour into a dish. Bake at 325 for 90 to 100 minutes.

Indian pudding, before the oven...

...and after the oven.

Let it cool down for about 20 minutes, and serve. I ate mine with whipped cream.


Unlike Tammy Donroe (and probably, Brooke Dojny and even Fannie Farmer), I did not grow up eating Indian pudding. I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago (same with that other true Yankee dessert, the whoopie pie, which I first thought was some type of Moon Pie). If I liked lots of molasses, I probably would love this dish. And it is a very good dish. But I hate to admit that the molasses-rich Indian pudding is not my most favorite dessert. It's certainly not the author's fault, since she says it even rivals a famous Boston-area Indian pudding, and Donroe's is a lovely dessert. I don't think it was my interpretation, though maybe I should've gone in for the ginger. It's just a particularly new flavor for me. I could get used to Indian pudding, though I may stick with more Southern desserts. And that is not a dig at New Englanders or Indian pudding lovers anywhere.

Next I head away from the Yankee coast to far more familiar territory than most I've been blogging about. The next stop on my All-American tour takes me across the Chesapeake to the far end of the Delmarva Peninsula. Not the quite familiar "Mar" part. Not the less familiar "VA" part either. Nope, it's all "Del" up ahead: next stop, Delaware.

Sources:

Chowhound.com. "What Constitutes a Good CT Clam Chowder?" Thread started June 16, 2009, by poster Scargod.

Dojny, Brooke. The New England Clam Shack Cookbook. 2nd edition. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2008. Portions also available on Google Books.

Donroe, Tammy. "Indian Pudding". Food on the Food, April 22, 2010.

Ericalea (poster). "A Family Recipe: Yankee Cornbread". Tasty Kitchen Blog, November 5, 2010.

Pollack, Ann and Joe. "Election Cake". St. Louis Eats and Drinks With Joe and Ann Pollack

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Connecticut" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods webpage link to "Connecticut”.

Snacking State-by-State: Connecticut I - Clear Clam Chowdah

I have now reached Connecticut, the southernmost state of New England. And like the South and Southwest, New England is a region of the country with a lot of very region-specific specialties that are both 1) well-known around the country, and 2) still usually found in that region alone. It's also a region 3) whose specialties are not often state-specific, but found throughout the entire region. So this and many of my other New England posts may end up reflecting not just the culinary history of that state, but the entire northeastern-most corner of the country.

Snacking State-by-State: Connecticut

Official Name: State of Connecticut
State Nicknames: The Nutmeg State, The Constitution State, The Provisions State, The Land of Steady Habits
Admission to the US: January 9, 1788 (#5)
Capital: Hartford (3rd largest city)
Other Important Cities: Bridgeport (largest), New Haven (2nd largest), Stamford (4th largest)
Region: Northeast, New England; New England (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Clambake
Bordered by: Massachusetts (north); Rhode Island (east); Long Island Sound and Long Island, New York (south); New York (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: Eastern oyster (shellfish)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: oysters, clams, lobsters, haddock, typical New England dishes (Indian pudding, whoopie pie, chowder - including several types of clam chowder), Election cake, apizza (Neapolitan-style pizza pronounced "a-PEETZ"), Portuguese cuisine

Before this project, my total exposure to all things culinarily Connecticut consisted of: 1) New England clam chowder; and 2) the various food references in The Stepford Wives. I found that the first was not as clear-cut as I and every other non-New Englander had at first thought. The second caused various robotic phrases to echo through my head all throughout my cooking:

The food of Connecticut and of New England is true, hearty Yankee eating. Not "Yankee" in the "not Southerner" sense, or the "Come on, you Yanks!" sense, or especially the dreaded "pinstripe" sense. Despite all the New Yorkers, Connecticut is still, mostly, Red Sox land. This is "Yankee" in the original sense of the term: a New Englander. Or at least so E.B. White was said to have defined the term: a person from New England, specifically someone from Vermont who "eats pie for breakfast". Just wait until we get to Vermont sometime in 2012.

Perhaps you can divide Connecticut up into a few regions of its own, based on the types of clam chowders you typically find there. There is the southwestern corner - the so-called "Gold Coast" - which is culturally tied to New York City and its "Manhattan" clam chowder that seems to make true Yankees wretch. There is the northern, more specifically "New England", part of the state, whose clam chowder is most familiar to the rest of the country - a chowder which is characteristic of Boston. And there is the south coast, which runs parallel to Long Island to the south. Their clam chowder is one of several regional variations I had never heard of, along with the reddish Rhode Island variety and the milky, buttery kind you find in Maine.

The one I made is that typical one from southern Connecticut (by the way, here is an instructive discussion on the Chowhound website, where one transplanted Texan tries to wrap her head around what constitutes a true Connecticut-style chowder). Brooke Dojny, author of Dishing Up Maine and New England Clam Shack Cookbook, the source for the recipe I used, explains this chowder succinctly:

Southern New England clam chowder: Almost always starts with salt pork, thickened only with floury potatoes, and a broth-and-water base. Made with chopped hard-shell clams. [Dojny 2008:50]

Dojny notes that there is often fierce disagreement between different regions of New England - "or even people from neighboring towns in the same region" (Dojny 2008:50). Hopefully I will not have pissed off any angry Yankees when they muse over my very first attempt at Southern New England clam chowder.

The recipe: Semi-Clear Clam Chowder (Southern New England-Style)

I use Dojny's "Semi-Clear Clam Chowder" (also on Google Books here). She gets this recipe from Lenny & Joe's in Westbrook, Connecticut. And as with the other recipes I've interpreted for this series, I had to take a liberty here or there with the ingredients. The one thing I did not do: halve or quarter the recipe. This time, I made the whole thing:

Don't fret about that big bottle of milk, Nutmeg Staters - I did not use it, as you will soon find out.

* salt pork (about $4.50 for 12 ounces - I used about a quarter of the package, or three pieces)
* chopped onion (got it - I was also supposed to use celery, but this I did not have on hand)
* clam juice (about $2)
* water (not so difficult to find)
* potatoes ($2 from the farmers' market - about 1 1/2 pounds, or 5 cups diced)

* chopped hard-shell clams with their liquor (I spent much more money on this than I should have - after buying four cans of Chicken of the Sea clams from San Diego - total on sale $8 - I found a nice frozen tub of clams from Cape Cod - $5.50 - that were exactly the amount I needed)
* evaporated milk (I almost used whole milk, as you can see. I had no evaporated milk, but see below for the quick replacement I found for it)
* salt and pepper

What surprised me most about this recipe was how fast and simple it was, but I guess that's what a chowder is all about.

First, render the pork...

...which you should chop up, I might add...

Once rendered, remove and discard it and fry up the onions in the drippings. Add the water, clam juice and clam liquor, and then the potatoes.


Boil, reduce heat and keep it at a boil for a while (see her recipe for exact times).


Then comes the diva of this recipe - the clams. Add and simmer for a few more minutes. Then add the evaporated milk and seasonings, and - gasp - it's done!

A note on the evaporated milk: as you saw in that ingredient photo, I had originally thought to substitute regular milk for the evaporated, merely adjusting the limits as needed. That is not a good idea. What I needed to do was to go out and buy some evaporated milk (sorry, not going out mid-boil), or boil down that milk severely (which I had neither the time nor the patience to do), or else create a substitute from the dry milk in my pantry.

I went this last route, using quantities from this page on Buzzle.com that suggests mixing 2/3 cup fat free dry powdered milk with 3/4 cup water. Then use however much of it you need.


I was not sure how I would like this clam chowder, since like the rest of us outside of New England, I am used to the Boston kind. Though I still say I prefer the most famous variety, I found the semi-clear version very simple, filling, clammy (in a good way) and comforting. It is everything I imagine a clam chowder is supposed to be. It was not too overwhelming like a richer, butterier or creamier clam chowder might have been, and as such I found myself going back for seconds the first few times I indulged in this clam chowder. Oyster crackers were a simple and satisfying addition to this soup.

Sources:

Chowhound.com. "What Constitutes a Good CT Clam Chowder?" Thread started June 16, 2009, by poster Scargod.

Dojny, Brooke. The New England Clam Shack Cookbook. 2nd edition. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2008. Portions also available on Google Books.

Donroe, Tammy. "Indian Pudding". Food on the Food, April 22, 2010.

Ericalea (poster). "A Family Recipe: Yankee Cornbread". Tasty Kitchen Blog, November 5, 2010.

Pollack, Ann and Joe. "Election Cake". St. Louis Eats and Drinks With Joe and Ann Pollack

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Connecticut" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods webpage link to "Connecticut”.

World Cup Buffet: Gazpacho (ESP - Spain)

Spain is closer than it's been to the World Cup than at any time since 1950, when they came in fourth. Saturday's game against also-never-been Paraguay was surprising in that Spain just didn't find their footing against a team everybody said would certainly lose. Both teams missed opportunities to score, but Spain finally did in the last ten minutes, with no help from what some said was an incompetent Guatemalan referee (that's one story of this World Cup: incompetent referees).

Country: Spain (IOC/FIFA Abbreviation: ESP)
Nickname of National team: La Furia Roja (Spanish, "The Red Fury")
Number of World Cups they have appeared in: 13
Highest finish: fourth place (1950)
Common foods: seafood (showcased in paella), ham, beans, migas, flan, eggs/omelettes, gazpacho
Number of Spanish restaurants in the Baltimore area: There are several tapas restaurants in and around Baltimore, so Spanish food isn't hard to find.
Number of Spanish restaurants in the Washington area: Same as with Baltimore.

Paella can be a time-consuming and expensive dish to prepare, and with the all the meat from the other buffet dishes - bobotie, German sausages and Uruguayan asado - something cold, refreshing and vegetarian would be a nice change. The solution is kind of obvious: gazpacho.

I have made gazpacho a few times before, whenever I am faced with a glut of tomatoes in the summer. The basic recipe for this cold soup is not difficult. Blend together in your food processor or blender the following: bread crumbs, fresh diced tomatoes with diced cucumbers, peppers (bell and/or hot depending on your taste), diced onion & garlic with tomato juice, red wine vinegar and olive oil, herbs such as basil and parsley, and salt, pepper and (again to taste) Tabasco sauce. Serve with a dash of olive oil and chopped onions and/or cucumbers. The amounts of ingredients will usually vary greatly depending on the recipe. Even the Food Network has dozens of gazpacho recipes, some that are very tomato heavy and others where the other vegetables overpower the tomato (yes, tomato is technically a fruit). Some people like a chunky gazpacho but I prefer mine extremely smooth.

Some recipes omit the bread crumbs altogether, which is not a big problem for me since I don't like the grainy texture the bread crumbs sometimes give. Still it seems there should be some crumbs in a traditional gazpacho recipe. So when I finally did make my own, using a recipe from Anne "with the random Cookie Monster voice" Burrell, I had to put in the requisite bread crumbs, from bread I made myself no less. Burrell mandates 8 slices of bread for 2 pounds of tomatoes. Burrell's recipe is good, but I actually cut back on some of the bread the second time I made this.


Most people probably would recommend against freezing gazpacho for a whole year, but I did just that. The texture is a little grainy but the tomato tang is still very strong and the freshly-thawed gazpacho feels quite good on a 104° day. Cilantro, cucumber, red onion and olive oil are all good garnishes for your gazpacho.

That is it for our World Cup Buffet. We have our semifinalist teams in place for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa: the Netherlands take on Uruguay and Germany take on Spain. The losers of each match face off for the title of third place finish, while the winners go on to the big finish on Sunday! And while I won't be preparing a buffet or anything, if you feel the need, you now have a menu.

Trader Joe's Butternut-Coconut Milk Soup

I tried a great soup at Trader Joe's this evening, and it's very simple. Mix

• one box of ready-made Butternut-Apple Soup

with

• one can of lite coconut milk

and

• one half of a jar of masala simmer sauce.

Heat them until hot.

That's it, really. I decided to junk it up by making a strange roux of half an onion, one clove of garlic and one sliced jalapeño (with seeds) in olive oil, then mixing in three roasted red Italian peppers, one medium sliced and diced eggplant, a handful of fresh basil and a glass' worth of white wine. Really, I just used whatever I had in my fridge. The soup is slow cooking right now (high for 4 hours). Not sure if I want to purée it or leave it be and just have a nice, chunky soup.

Senator I: Ploughboy Soups by Atwater

Well, I went to the Senator for what hopefully isn't one last time. I got there early to buy a ticket for the 4:00 show - but too early. The ticket they printed was for the 1:00 show! This I did not notice until later, but that's for my next post. Anyway, I ran some errands and came back - less than an hour until showtime! I wanted some popcorn so I went for a light lunch - to not fill up.

I meandered over to Belvedere Square in search of something light. Somehow I made a beeline to Atwater's, where I often go for a quick meal. Atwater's Ploughboy Soups serves sandwiches, soups and salads. As the cashier noted, if you're in a hurry, the soups are a much better choice. And with a large crowd I got my bowl of soup in about five minutes.

Out of several options, vegetarian, veg dairy and meaty, I got a tomato and saffron soup that had lots of great stuff peeking out from the creamy yellow broth. It had orzo. It had olives. It had shrimp and lump crab meat and eggplant. Wonderful stuff. With it, as is Atwater's custom, was some hearty bread, a stupendously crunchy crust with a soft, dunkable inside. Ooh, this is wonderful stuff! And a relatively cheap eat, considering this bowl was $6.85. I got nothing to drink with it, though their selection of bottled drinks was certainly wide enough.

I walked back on over to the Senator, camera in hand, ready to photograph the hell out of the place. After all, I might not get another chance.

Postcard from London 3: Back in the USA

Well, I just got in a few hours ago, and am fighting jet lag while I head back to work tomorrow morning. Again, I will expand on many of the places I went to eat while in the UK. It is truly a fabulous place!

Also am still quite impressed with British Airways' service. I got served an unusual sandwich for a dinner snack (the big meal was lunch): on a roll, roast beef with rocket (arugula), and a spread of mascarpone and horseradish. Sounds a bit nasty but is delicious!

Here are some of the places I visited in the last leg of my trip. It shouldn't be too difficult to play catch-up, not just because it is all fresh in my head, but because I have spent so much money that I will probably not be eating out again anytime soon!

Cafe Valencia - above-average Italian coffee shop, one of so many in London's Soho. Had a "caramel" bar consisting of a thick layer of chocolate on top of a bar that broke into crumbles when you breathed on it. Also had an okay cappuccino - I drank a lot of that in England.

Pizza Express - They have several locations around London (I ate at one in the shadow of the Tower Bridge and the reconstructed Globe Theatre). I had a delicious pizza of caramelized red onions, basil, anchovies, etc.

Tuk Tuk - Thai place that my friends believed until last night had been going down hill. Had a good, utilitarian pad thai that was quite satisfying.

Pret a Manger - Did you know that McDonald's apparently runs a healthier take away (take-out) place? No, neither did I. But this place is just a place to grab ready-made sandwiches and cakes, fancy potato chips and drinks, and go. And these aren't just your ordinary sandwich. I had a smoked salmon, butter and lemon juice on whole wheat for £2.50 or something like that. It was both hearty and decadent at the same time, if you can imagine that! Oh, there are tons of 'em in the UK. And one whole one in the US (New York, to be precise).

Benjys - like a mini-7-Eleven. I bought a hot Cornish pasty of beef which was filling, if nothing else. Also got a Pepsi Max (Europe's version of Pepsi One). Total: about £4, if that.

And now to sleep. So much to process about this week in London. Stay tuned, and Happy 9th Day of Christmas!

Philadelphia Style Pizza & Subs

Decided against Chinese for lunch the other day, and passed up Szechuan Hot Wok for the Philly Style Pizza & Subs, in the same mini strip mall. This is your standard pizza and sub shop, with filling (though, again, standard) subs and sandwiches. I ordered a corned beef reuben (their California reuben was turkey instead of pastrami or corned beef - thanks but no thanks). When I took it back to work I found a big open-faced sandwich - difficult to put together, mind you. The reuben was slathered in sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and salad dressing (I think it was Thousand Island). Much as I like the nearby Little Grove Carryout, this one had much better corned beef to give - not nearly as dry. But, of course, I never order much on my corned beef sandwich when I go to Olive Grove. Also came with fries covered in some kind of semi-crispy coating. This was pretty good. Think I will go back sometime soon.