Recipe for Legal Seafood's Rhode Island red clam chowder?

March 25, 2012 6:44 PM

Do you have the recipe for Legal Seafood's Rhode Island red clam chowder?

Help me cure my Boston homesickness with a recipe for Legal Seafood's Rhode Island red clam chowder (as seen here: http://shop.legalseafoods.com/Rhode-Island-Red-Chowder)

I used to eat this chowder at the State Street branch every week, and this was my favourite dish: full of clams, sausage, potatoes, celery and a kick of chili. If I could ship a container load of the stuff to Australia, I would.

I've been googling recipes and the closest one is probably this: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/tylers-manhattan-clam-chowder-recipe/index.html

Does anyone have any other recommended recipes for a similar chowder?

posted by travellingincognito to food & drink (10 answers total)

You can rule out trying to find the New Legal Seafoods cookbook - it's not in there.
posted by zamboni at 6:56 PM on March 25, 2012

Is this it?
posted by magstheaxe at 8:41 PM on March 25, 2012

@Zamboni - yeah, I was really disappointed their cookbooks don't have the recipes. I've also read somewhere that they don't use their restaurant recipes in the book.

@Magstheaxe - that's the New England Clam Chowder (traditional white and creamy). The chowder recipe I'm after has a tomato broth base.
posted by travellingincognito at 8:45 PM on March 25, 2012

I would try this recipe, but substitute the sweet chourico (or whatever local equivalent you can find) for the salt pork.

Putting chourico in chowder is a Legal Seafood thing--traditional Rhode Island style chowder doesn't have chourico, but salt pork or bacon.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:47 PM on March 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ah, okay, a Manhattan-style chowder. Let me dig in my recipes.
posted by magstheaxe at 8:48 PM on March 25, 2012

No, Rhode Island red chowder isn't Manhattan-style chowder. It has a basic stock made of clam juice and tomato, not chunks of tomato added to a clam stock.

This is another very authentic-looking recipe, but again you'd have to sub the chourico or other sausage for the salt pork.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:54 PM on March 25, 2012

I think the Poirier recipe (the first one I linked) is going to give you the best results, because my sense of Rhode Island red chowder is that the key flavor of it comes from adding the tomatoes to the aromatics, and then letting that cook for a bit with just the clam juice.

Because the sausage is more of a presence than the salt pork, I'd sautee it first with the onions, then take it out, then put it back into the stock at the stage where you add the potatoes.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:59 PM on March 25, 2012

OK, stand back. We got, here in Rhode Island, four types of Clam Chowder, three of them invented in the state -

1) New England clam chowder, the white and creamy stuff everyone knows about.

2) Manhattan style clam chowder, made from tomato stock, with lots of veggies and chunks of stewed tomatoes

3) Rhode Island style clear chowder - A butter-broth style base.

4) Rocky Point style red chowder - Tomato stock made from pureed tomatoes and paprika, no veggies apart from some celery, onion and potatoes.

What you got there is a Manhattan style red chowder, invented by Portuguese immigrants in RI and misappropriated by those conniving bastards in NY. Carrots, celery, peppers, garlic, potatoes, chunks of tomatoes, lots of clams. It is not a Rhode Island style red chowder, despite what Legal claims. Here's a recipe from Epicurious for Manhattan style. Manhattan styel works really well with a wide variety of clams - I've had geoduck chowder Manhattan-style in Seattle, and a place locally serves their scallops that way. It will probably work with whatever fresh bivalves you have on offer where you're at.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:12 AM on March 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Legal Rhode Island Red chowder is indeed Rhode Island red chowder, but with chourico. It isn't Manhattan style chowder at all (it doesn't have carrots in it, or chunks of tomato).
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:19 AM on March 26, 2012

It certainly looks like Manhattan style from the photo... is the dish they serve different from what's in the OP's link?
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:57 AM on March 26, 2012