12 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
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The art of food
— and a clam
chowder recipe
By DAVID CAMPICHE
FOR COAST WEEKEND
A
friend and I sat on a beach approach
eating an “Art” burger from the
Corral Drive In, north of Long
Beach, Wash., watching a storm churn up
the surf like a bowl of whipped cream. We
discussed the dilemma of defining art.
When asked what he felt about some
patron paying the staggering sum of $142
million for a Francis Bacon painting some
years ago, Jim replied: I can go down to
Sid’s Market and get bacon for a lot less
than that. Besides, I thought Bacon wrote
all the Shakespeare stuff.
Speaking further about what he defines
as art, Jim proclaimed: Music is ink on
paper, except when performed, and then it
is quickly gone. A movement created for
the moment. Ephemeral.
Is music art? I asked.
Of course, he replied.
Why, then, isn’t food? It’s ephemeral,
too. It is eaten up quickly! Why can’t food
reach, in your opinion, that lofty position
known as art?
I’ll admit, some of the difference is sim-
ply presentation. Let us examine a bowl
of chowder. Understand, there is chowder,
and then there is chowder.
As in most good soup, the chief facili-
tator is homemade stock. A cook can sim-
ply pour canned clam juice into the base
or roux, or one can steam open mussels
with white wine and butter and herbs,
reserving the clams and adding the mus-
sel broth to the chowder. Stand back and be
intoxicated!
Roux is butter and flour heated and
creamed equally, then used as a thickener.
Fresh razor clams make an enormous dif-
ference (little neck clams are superb). Gar-
nish of chopped fennel or chives adds
texture and beauty and an added taste dis-
tinction. Naturally, there are sautéed onions
and garlic. Cook them slowly until they
caramelize. Add small diced potatoes.
A dollop of crème fraiche highlights the
flavor.
If you serve the chowder in a lovely
porcelain bowl with a wide rim, a sprin-
kling of paprika or chopped parsley
enhances the plate feel, makes it stand out
like oil on canvas. That doesn’t change the
taste — or does it? Pretty food encourages,
or perhaps enhances, taste. Jim mentioned
an art show in Rouen, France, that exhib-
ited art frames — just the frames. Every-
thing is beautiful in its own way, he pro-
claimed. And the framing of food can be
an art.
Jim again: Taco Bell is as good a place
as the Ritz-Carlton, if that’s your opinion.
So much depends of what resonates with
the shopper.
So, let’s leave it there — in kind of
a twilight zone with that ephemeral art
known as cuisine — with a surefire chow-
der recipe.
CLAM-MUSSEL CHOWDER
Ingredients:
• A limit (15) chopped razor clams
diced, or two pounds of little necks
steamed, liquid reserved
• Two pounds of fresh mussels in the
shell, steamed with liquid reserved
• ½ pound of sliced bacon, cooked
medium-done, strained and reserved
• 3 large potatoes diced into fine (quar-
ter inch) pieces and par-boiled, strained
and reserved
• 2 cups of diced celery
• 1 large onion, small diced
• 2 tablespoons of fine minced garlic
• ¼ cup of flour
• Finely chopped parsley, chives and
David Campiche
Clam chowder, fancily prepared.
fennel to taste
• The stock from the steamed mussels
and little necks
• Butter and olive oil, three tablespoons
each
• Salt to taste
• Cream, two cups
• Cup of white wine or sherry
• Whole milk or half-and-half to thin the
roux. Up to four cups
Sauté onion and garlic in butter and
olive oil. Add celery. Add cooked bacon.
Stir until the veggies are translucent. Add
the flour and stir gently and consistently
for two to three minutes. Slowly pour in
the juices and wine, then the milk and
cream. Stir while the sauce thickens. Add
clams and potatoes. Add half the herbs
and reserve the rest as garnish. Salt. Serve
in wide-rimmed bowls and garnish with
remaining herbs and the paprika. Corn-
bread is a fine accompaniment. CW