[T&T] Bar Harbor New England Style Clam Chowder

I purchased this can of Bar Harbor New England Style Clam Chowder, like, ages ago (thank God these things keep forever!) and finally decided to give it a try today, before the weather changes for good and pushes soup out of my mind for a further six months.

It was an impulse buy in the first place, as I wasn't looking for clam chowder specifically - to be honest I hadn't even heard about it at the time. 

But it sounded interesting and yummy, and the can's so stylish and pretty that I couldn't help wanting it!

The blurb on the label goes:

All-natural seafood speaks for itself. 

The taste of wind, weather, and clear cold water; it's not a flavor that needs improving. We create our New England Clam Chowder in small batches, like people on the Maine coast have been doing for generations - loaded with juicy clams and simple, all-natural ingredients. It's as close to fresh off the docks of Maine as you can get without being here.

Bar Harbor is a special place. You can taste it!

Sooo... Not only I got myself an American staple, but one from New England! That mythical place that is and will always be, in my mind, peopled by the likes of Hester Prynne and the Deep Ones, Gordon Pym and the Pequod crew, not to mention every Stephen King character since the dawn of time!

Now here's the opened can, filled with pearly white stuff studded with clams and bits o' potatoes...

...and the same content, plopped into my trusty pink pan, log-style. Not its most attractive shot for sure!

(And FYI, since I know what you're thinking: no, my pan is not rusted. It lost part of its non-stick lining over time, but I still use it as it's a very convenient size for my needs - plus it was a present from my brother, and the lid's got a piggy snout on it. Which ends the whole argument as far as I'm concerned.)

Now seriously - it's not flaking nor affecting the way my food tastes, so don't worry, it won't kill me!

I had enough soup to fill two bowls, and the first one I ate plain as the label suggested, with just a drizzle of oil and a pinch of black pepper.

It tasted... good, I suppose, but really bland. I was a little disappointed, because I was expecting it to be a bit more interesting - then again, boiled potatoes (while hearty and delicious) are not exactly a powerhouse of flavour, and the clams themselves contribute more in the field of texture and chewiness than actual umami. 

The consistency was delightful btw, not too brothy nor overly starchy, just like the ideal winter soup should be. And there is something deeply gratifying in finding huge chunks of actual vegetables and clams into a canned soup... that is to say, it makes me feel less lazy for resorting to it in the first place. Almost... virtuous, I daresay!

The second bowl, though, I muddled up with wasabi-flavoured furikake, plus a few taralli as impromptu croutons. American, Japanese and Italian ingredients in one bowl? Yes, please!

Needless to say, I liked this "bastardised" version much more. If you're shuddering at the thought, please feel free to blame it all on me being anosmic, and thus unable to fully appreciate subtlety in flavours...

Both bowls were good enough that I'd gladly pick up a can from time to time, were it available here; it's not worth ordering from abroad though - it's something I wouldn't mind eating a couple times during the cold season, but I don't foresee craving it as such.

I would however like to try cooking it from scratch. Great, one more recipe just got filed in my "To Do" folder... 

The Internet is for CORN!

First things first: if the title of this post sounds puzzling, you've been missing out on the most hilarious musical ever. I hate to be the one to tell you, but it's true. 

It's called Avenue Q, and you should if nothing else become familiar with this song... 

HA! Told you so!

...Wait, what are you saying? You only surf the Internet for recipes? 

Sheesh, sure thing. 

Look, I'm pointing you to a few favourite ones anyway. And what you do afterwards is entirely your business. Deal?

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Let's start with soup, although this baby is so ridiculously thick with cheese (and goobed up with bacon!) that you'll want to cross your fingers behind your back when calling it such. 

Now if you aspire to be regarded as a savvy surfer of the vast foodie ocean, you should have surmised already that a Cheesy Corn Chowder with Bacon + Gorgonzola can only be a creation of Jessica, the genius behind How Sweet It Is. 

I sang her praises already in a previous post, so instead of hearing me harp on about how awesome she is, how about you jump to her blog directly, and see for yourself? 

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Next comes a revamped version of the traditional Shepherd's Pie... only I had to look it up online to discover it is, basically, a meat pie with a crust of mashed potatoes. 

It sounds yummy, and to me it would be exotic enough even in its plain version, but this Southwest Shepherd we're dealing with here has chorizo in it, and spices, and sweet potatoes all over the place. And corn, of course!

Now this dish, it's more delicious than pretty - and it was delicious despite the fact that I threw into it the black chorizo I bought by mistake back in December, while completely smashed because of all the sample chupitos I had chugged. 

I think it makes the ideal lunchbox fodder: you can plop a frozen square into your box, and give it a quick zap in the microwave to warm it up when you're ready to eat - and hey presto, you have a satisfying, filling, and shockingly balanced meal! (Pumpkin bread buns are a wonderful complement btw...)

Kita Roberts a.k.a. Girl Carnivore is actually better known as Pass the Sushi, but like the dedicated carnivore that she is - and boy, do I love her for this reason alone, in this age of vegan nonsense! - she felt the need to run a separate blog for all things meat, plus the occasional fish. Me likey!

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Last but not least, this Scalloped Corn Bread - which is not even close to bread, honestly; much more like, a frittata with stuff thrown in.
Soooo confusing... but so good! 

This crazy mash-up of canned cream-style corn, crushed saltines and eggs makes for a perfect, quick-and-dirty side dish that you can whip together easily with ingredients you are likely to have in your pantry at all times. 
(Me, I'll admit I used pretzels instead of the saltines, since I was all out of them - still awesome!)

I stumbled upon a promising pic of it on Pinterest, and immediately set out to trace the recipe all the way back to Created by Diane. 
I am a newcomer to that particular blog, so I still don't know much about its hostess - except that, duh, she's called Diane! - but if her Scalloped Corn Bread is any indication of the average quality of the stuff she puts out, I think I can safely assume I'll be a regular in no time!

Diane's family apparently has a tradition of eating her "bread" during the holidays, but I found it to be a perfectly viable option for everyday occasions. 
It freezes wonderfully (which kind of surprised me, as egg-based things so often turn gummy in the freezer), and if you pre-cut it into smallish squares, brownie-like, it's a very handy way to round out your luncheon at work. 
A couple squares of it were enough to turn my Adobo-marinated steak into a single course I wouldn't be ashamed to serve to a guest - except I gobbled it all down myself in this instance, it was that good! 

[T&T] Mama Sita's Sinigang sa Sampalok (Filipino tamarind seasoning mix)

”The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”

- St. Augustine

What can I say to that? While not a fan of the man himself - inveterate unbeliever that I am - , I have to admit he got this one right.

And, while I may be too poor (OK, and lazy too...) to get around much, I like to keep an open mind and sample as much of the other cultures as I can. Especially as far as food is concerned - but you guessed that much, right?

The average Italian could probably name at least a couple Chinese or Japanese dishes, but Filipino cuisine is not as well-known as other Asian ones - pity, really, because it is unique and quite interesting.

Immigration from the Philippines is as strong as ever, though, and more and more Pinoy-specific groceries and foodstores are popping up, catering for the cravings of this ever-growing community.

Scouring ethnic shops is a well-known pastime of mine, so I quickly became familiar with Mama Sita's, which is pretty much synonymous with Filipino food.

I bought a nice selection of sauces and marinades in the past, both powdered and bottled, and loved them all. Likewise I enjoy Ube Halaya, coconut jelly, jackfruit, and everything mango... so you see I was pretty much ready to declare myself a honorary Pinay.

And when I stumbled into this, I knew I had to try it.



The blurb on the package (which was exhaustive and written in very good English btw) stated that the main ingredient of the mix was unripe tamarind, which would result in a soup with a a distinctively sour, fruity taste.

...Well isn't it gorgeous? I love soup! I love tamarind! I love sour! I'm going to LOVE this!

So here's my huge pot of water, with a quartered onion and a few cherry tomatoes floating in it. At this point I had already stirred in the package's content - I didn't take a pic of it but I guess it's better this way, since it was a lumpy pinkish mush that, quite frankly, reminded me of puke...

Still following the recipe given, I then added long green peppers and brought it all to a boil...


"Double, double, toil and trouble! Fire, burn! And cauldron, bubble!"

(Heh. In case you didn't notice, I gave up apologising about this sort of things a while ago...)



The recipe called for turnips, long beans and spinach at this point, but I added a frozen minestrone mix instead - granted, cranberry beans may not be an ingredient one would immediately associate with the Philippine islands, still...

...lookie, it's beans all right, 'nkay?

Last but not least, shrimps. Lots of them!

The result was pretty enough; so much so, in fact, that I confidently served it to my unsuspecting sweetie...

Now my sweetie, he has read quite a few pages of St. Augustine's metaphorical book, having travelled extensively through Asia in the past; but the best he could say about this soup was, "I bet it's really healthy" - which, as you might be suspecting, is Latin for, "Yeuch, this stuff is disgusting!"

We ended up forlornly plucking shrimps out of the broth, and eating them dejectedly, as neither of us -try as we might - could stomach a second serving of it.

The fact is, it was sour. Sour soup is yummy, mind you, but in this instance... let us just say I don't mean it in a pretty way.

It was, frankly, off-putting - I tried adding salt and it helped a little, but it was still way far from the "heavenly comfort food" it was meant to be.

As my sweetie wisely said, it tasted unfinished...

 

...thus, before giving in to the Dark Side and publicly bashing both Mama Sita's product and what was inexplicably a beloved national dish for a whole nation, I took a steadying breath and did what I should have done before - I searched YouTube...

 

...and found this.

See where mine went wrong? I SKIPPED THE FISH JUICE!

Now to be honest, the recipe on the package went: "Add fish juice to taste"... which I had mistakenly registered as, "You can add it if you like".

So - me being this adorable ball of stubbornness you have come to love (er, right?) - I saved the leftover broth (and, ye Gods, I had lots of it!), got myself a bottle of fish juice, and decided to give Sinigang sa Sampalok another chance before passing judgement.

Yes, I know. Strict but fair, that's me in a nutshell!

Guess what? It made a HUGE difference!

The fish stuff turned the broth sligtly darker, deliciously hearty, and umami-laden in a way that worked perfectly with the basic sourness.

I ended up eating all of the leftover broth by myself, and although I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to making more any time soon, I certainly wouldn't mind trying the real thing if only I could manage to find a Filipino restaurant!