SERVES 6 TO 8
This recipe looks like quite a few steps, but the chowder comes together quite easily. I also find that using the potato flour or potato starch, in place of flour, creates a beautiful smoothness to the broth and reinforces the flavor of the potatoes.
You may notice that I have omitted the salt in this recipe. The clams seem to contribute all the salt needed. Use any size clam you like. Littlenecks are the most readily available at the fish markets here but if you are digging your own clams for this chowder, the bigger the better! Serve this chowder with oyster crackers.
INGREDIENTS
4 dozen live littleneck clams, scrubbed
1 (750-ml) bottle white wine (anything crisp, like a Muscadet or Picpoul)
8 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme plus 1 tablespoon whole fresh thyme leaves
Clam juice, as needed
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 white onions, diced
6 celery stalks, diced
3 pounds Yukon Gold or russet potatoes (peeled or unpeeled—your choice), cut into ½-inch dice
¼ cup potato flour or potato starch
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
4 cups heavy cream
Place the clams in a large stockpot with the wine, 4 bay leaves, and the 4 whole sprigs of thyme; set over high heat and cover with a tight-fitting lid to keep the steam in the pot. Reduce the heat to medium. As soon as all the clams have opened (the cooking time will vary depending on the size of the clams, but it should take 2 to 5 minutes), remove the pot from the heat and set aside until the clams are cool enough to handle.
Using tongs, remove the clams from the pot, being sure to let any liquid stay in the pot, and transfer them to a bowl. Using a small sharp knife, remove the clam meat from the shells and set aside. Dispose of the shells but keep any liquid that accumulates in the bowl and add it to the broth in the stockpot.
Strain the clam broth by pouring it through a fine-mesh sieve lined with a few layers of cheesecloth (or a clean linen kitchen towel) set over a large bowl; you should have 5 cups of broth; if not, add clam juice to reach this amount. Coarsely chop the clam meat, add it to the strained broth, and set aside.
Rinse and dry the stockpot, set it over medium heat, and add the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the onions and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the onions are slightly translucent but not browned. Add the potatoes, potato flour, pepper, remaining 4 bay leaves, and thyme leaves and stir to combine. Add the cream and cook over low heat, stirring frequently to ensure the cream does not become scorched, until the potatoes are tender.
Return the strained broth and chopped clam meat to the stockpot. Stir gently and simmer over low heat for another 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve immediately.
How is it that an island only fourteen miles across at its widest and five in the other direction can have such a range of scenery? Miles and miles of sandy beaches, rose-covered dunes, moors that seem to stretch to the horizon, cranberry bogs, undulating hills, harbors and creeks, bluffs and cliffs, woods and fields—all comprise the spectacular topography of Nantucket.
The architecture on the island is just as striking and diverse. Downtown, you’ll find stately brick, granite, and clapboard Georgian buildings, cobblestone paving, iron streetlamps, and brick sidewalks. A few miles away, on the eastern end of the island, it’s a different world.
There, you’ll find Siasconset, a long-settled village (since 1670) that goes by a number of names and spellings—’Sconset, Sconset, Seconset, depending on the source. But on the island, ‘Sconset is how it’s pronounced and spelled. The name’s origin is Wampanoag (one of the native American tribes living on the island long before the English arrived), as is the word “Nantucket” and many of the other place names on the island.
The first European settlement at ’Sconset was a fishing village. Codfish (so plentiful in these waters), in the form of salt cod was a valuable commodity in Europe. Outposts in the then-colonies that fished for cod—and filleted, salted, and air-dried it—thrived. By the nineteenth century, ‘Sconset was home to a whaling station, a business that brought great wealth to the island. A surprising number of buildings from those eras still remain and some of what constitutes modern-day ’Sconset can be recognized in the terrific collection of old black-and-white photos at the Nantucket Historical Association.
For residents and visitors today, the attraction of this end of Nantucket is its natural beauty, its quiet separateness, and its charming neighborhoods. Street after street of cedar-shingled houses weathered to a pale silver are covered with rambling roses in late spring and early summer. The roses climb over picket fences, entries, and weathered shake roofs, almost too profuse to look real.
Sankaty Head Lighthouse is here, on the bluffs that mark the easternmost point of the island. Dropping fifty feet and more to pristine powdery white sand beaches, the dramatic beauty of the bluffs is another iconic Nantucket image. But ’Sconset’s most stunning feature is its wide-openness to sea and sky, and its quiet. The brilliant light, the long views, the sound of the sea—no wonder an eighteenth-century visitor described ’Sconset as the best place “to cherish contemplative ideas.” We couldn’t agree more.
