Stretching from Buzzards Bay to Narragansett Bay, roughly from Taunton past New Bedford to Fall River, the South Coast of Massachusetts is known for its diverse population and, especially, for its Portuguese fishermen. And it is famous for its Portuguese-style seafood soups and chowders. Unlike the creamy Irish-style “New England” chowders found farther north, these have a distinct Mediterranean flair. (Manhattan clam chowder actually originated here.) Besides a variety of fish and seafood, these chowders include spicy Portuguese chourico sausage. In fact, I would say that chourico and tomatoes are pretty much the essence of South Coast soups. So feel free to use whatever fish or shellfish you have on hand. You can hardly go wrong.
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Ingredients |
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|
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1 tablespoon |
15 ml |
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Bay leaves |
2 |
2 |
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Chourico, sliced ¼ (6 mm) thick |
6 ounces |
170 grams |
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Onion, chopped |
6 ounces |
170 grams |
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Green bell pepper, chopped |
4 ounces |
110 grams |
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Tomatoes, coarsely chopped |
1 14½ ounce can |
1 411 gram can |
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Garlic, minced |
1 tablespoon |
15 ml |
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Allspice berries |
4 or 5 |
4 or 5 |
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Firm potatoes, cubed |
12 ounces |
340 grams |
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Fish stock or clam juice |
about 2 cups |
about 500 ml |
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Pimentón (optional) |
¼ teaspoon |
1 ml |
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Old Bay™ seasoning (optional) |
½ teaspoon |
2½ ml |
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Salt and pepper |
to taste |
to taste |
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Minced clams |
1 6½ ounce can |
1 184 gram can |
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Cod or haddock, cubed |
8 ounces |
225 grams |
Heat the oil in a heavy soup pot or Dutch oven over a medium flame. Brown the bay leaves in the hot oil for a minute or so then add the chourico. Cook, stirring often, until rendered and brown. In the same pot, sauté the onions and bell pepper until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and allspice to the mix and cook for a further couple of minutes.
Add the potatoes to the pot along with enough stock to just cover them. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Stir in the pimentón and Old Bay™ seasoning, if using. Season with salt and pepper.
Gently fold the clams and fish into the broth. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes or until fish is cooked through.
Last February I posted a version of this Portuguese-style fish chowder using frozen and canned ingredients. Now that fresh vegetables are abundant I thought it a good time to reprise it with fresh. Alas, the fish I used was frozen since fresh cod is very expensive here but if you can get fresh by all means use it. Remember that the stock is the key to the final result so use a good fish or seafood stock (I made mine from a salmon head and some shrimp shells) but do not use too much—this is a chowder, not a soup. Enjoy it with a glass of wine and perhaps some crusty Portuguese rolls.
Note: chourico is a spicy Portuguese sausage that it pretty readily available in New England and the Northeast. If you cannot find it you can substitute fresh chorizo or kielbasa. If you do use kielbasa, render it before using because it tends to be much fattier than chourico.
Serves 2 to 4
Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot or enameled Dutch oven over medium heat. When hot add the bay leaves and cook for a few minutes until they turn brown. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 30 seconds or until fragrant and lightly golden. Add the onions and allspice. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the chourico and sauté for yet another 5 minutes. Finally, add the potatoes and stir for a couple of minutes to coat with the fat in the pan. Deglaze the pot with the wine then pour in the stock. If needed add a bit of water to just cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.
Uncover the pot and stir in the tomatoes and green beans. Season with a generous grind of black pepper and salt to taste. Turn the heat up a bit to maintain a simmer for another 10 minutes.
Gently fold in the fish—you do not want to break it—and simmer for a final 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
This is Mediterranean-style stew with a light broth is perfect for a summer evening. If it seems familiar that may be because I have posted similar recipes in the past. The ingredients are simple: sausage, a protein, vegetables, and stock. The protein can be chicken thighs, as in this recipe; or it can be fish, shellfish, pork, or whatever—just do not be tempted to leave out the sausage. The vegetables, too, can be whatever you have on hand: peppers, green beans, or squash. I think the potatoes are essential, though. And the stock can be chicken, pork, vegetable, or, as here, duck. Keep the seasoning simple so that the ingredients shine through.
Four servings
Cut the chourico into ⅜-inch slices and the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat and cook the sausage until nicely browned. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
In the same Dutch oven, brown the chicken well. Remove and set aside.
Adjust the fat in the Dutch oven to about 2 tablespoons by either pouring off any excess or by adding a bit more olive oil. Add the onion, pepper, and chili if using. Sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute or until fragrant. Pour in the wine and deglaze the pot. Add the tomatoes and potatoes then return the sausage and chicken to the pot. Stir to combine. Sprinkle on the pimentón. Pour in enough stock to just barely cover the ingredients. Bring to a boil then simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Cooking longer will just make it better, so if you have the time just uncover and let simmer for a while.
The area of Massachusetts and Rhode Island surrounding New Bedford, called the South Coast, is home to a large population of the descendants of immigrant Portuguese fishermen. Those fishermen, or course, caught the prized fish of the region, cod, and certainly ate it regularly with the spicy chourico sausage they had brought from their homeland. This hearty chowder, reminiscent of the cioppino the Portuguese introduced to the San Francisco Bay area, is perfect for a winter’s night with a nor’easter howling outside.
Heat a 6-quart enameled Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. When hot add the bay leaves and cook for a few minutes until they turn brown. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 30 seconds or until it is golden. Add the onions and allspice. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the chourico and sauté for yet another 5 minutes. Then add the potatoes and stir for a couple of minutes or until coated with the fat in the pan. Finally pour in enough stock to just cover the potatoes, turn up the heat to bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and green beans to the pot and simmer, uncovered, for another 10 minutes. Season with a generous grind of black pepper and salt to taste. Gently stir in the fish—you do not want to break it—and simmer for a final 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and sprinkle on the cilantro. Let the chowder to sit for 10 minutes before serving.
There are few things that I enjoy more than fixing dinner for surprise guests so when my sister and niece called to say that they were on their way from Long Island back to Rochester and could stop in about 2 hours later I leapt into action. What to make, I thought. Well, there is a pork loin roast in the freezer and about a dozen Cornish game hens. I settled on the game hens. My first thought was to thaw them in cold water then split and roast them. After an hour in the cold water it was clear that they would never be ready in time. That left thawing in the microwave. The problem with that is that parts of the birds, especially the wings, come out cooked. So I decided to make a casserole instead. The recipe I adapted from Joanna Farrow & Jacqueline Clark, The Mediterranean Cookbook (New York: Lorenz Books, 2004). When the chickens thawed I removed the giblets, cut out the back and wing tips, then quartered them. The giblets went into a stock pot while the backs and wing tips went into my stock parts bag in the freezer. And this is how I cooked them. I served the casserole simply with Spanish potatoes.
Serves 4
Preheat the oven to 375°. Coat the chicken pieces with paprika. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat then pour in about ⅛ inch of olive oil. When hot add the chicken pieces, working in batches, and brown on both sides. Remove to an oven-proof casserole leaving as much oil as possible behind.
Fry the onions in the skillet for about 3 minutes or until just soften. Add the garlic and chourico and continue to fry for another 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, and sherry. Bring to a boil and pour over the chicken in the casserole. Deglaze with pan with a bit of water or chicken stock and add to the casserole. Cover and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
This year I promised to emphasize basic techniques rather than specific recipes. Stew, which is really nothing but a very thick soup, is one of the basics that turn up in every cuisine in one form or another. But all stews have a few things in common: a protein, a starch, vegetables, and sauce. Fish and shellfish, potatoes, leeks and tomatoes, and fish stock make bouillabaisse. Lamb, potatoes, peas and carrots, and roux-based gravy make Irish stew. And chourico, potatoes, green beans, and tomato sauce make a Portuguese Chourico Stew. I like to make my stews heavy on the vegetables and light on the protein because that is simply healthier and more economical. The general method for stew is to brown the meat in a pot, remove the meat and sauté any root vegetables, return the meat to the pot along with the rest of the vegetables and the sauce, cover and simmer until done. Fish stews omit the browning of the protein but otherwise follow the same game plan. That’s it. Simple.
This recipe I adapted from one at the Gasper Sausage Company’s web site. If you live in or near to New England you are probably fortunate enough to find their products in your local supermarket. Otherwise you can order them online.
Oh, and yes, I did post a similar recipe in September. This serves two generously.
Heat the oil in a suitable pot (I use a 3-quart Dutch oven) and render the chourico until nicely browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and adjust the oil in the pan as needed. Sauté the onion until softened, about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and continue cooking for another minute. If there is residue stuck to the bottom of the pan, pour in a small amount of water and deglaze it with a wooden spoon.
Put the rest of the ingredients into the pot and stir to combine. Add water, about 2 cups, to just cover the vegetables. Stir in the pimentón if using. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are done. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
This lovely Spanish dish is redolent of paprika and sherry. It is a bit spicy but not aggressively so. Served with roasted potatoes it makes a wonderful meal for a cold night. I adapted this recipe from The Mediterranean Cookbook (NY: Lorenz Books, 2001).
Preheat the oven to 375°. Mix the pimentón and paprika together in a small bowl and sprinkle over both sides of the chicken thighs. Heat the olive oil in frying pan, preferably non-stick, over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and brown well, about 2 minutes per side. Remove to an oven-proof casserole with a lid.
In the same pan, sauté the onion, adding a bit more olive oil if needed, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the sausage and garlic. Continue sautéing for a couple minutes until the garlic is fragrant. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, and sherry to the pan, toss to combine, bring to a boil, and pour over the chicken in the casserole. Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes.
When I don’t want to go a lot of trouble for dinner I make stew. This recipe, that I adapted from one on the sausage manufacturer’s website, www.gasparssausage.com, features spicy pork chourico and fresh ingredients from the farmers’ market. Incidentally, while Gasper’s sausages (that’s all they make) are widely available in the Northeast you may not be able to find them in your local supermarket. You could substitute any spicy smoked sausage, but Gasper’s are so good I recommend ordering some online.
1 Gasper’s chourico sausage, ½ pound
Olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 small bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small hot chile, seeded and minced
2 cups tomato sauce, I use homemade but canned would work (see my post of September 13)
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 tsp. pimentón or paprika
8 ounces green beans, halved
Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Film the bottom with olive oil and sauté the chourico for a few minutes until the fat is rendered out. Add the onion, pepper, garlic, and chile. Continue to cook until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, water, and potatoes. Season with pimentón. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 25 to 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Stir in green beans, and simmer 5 to 10 minutes, or until heated through. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve alone or with a green salad.
