Thanksgiving Tips

A cooking class on preparing healthy but satisfying side dishes for Thanksgiving dinner will be held at Sang Lee Farms in Peconic on Nov. 8 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Karen Lee, an owner of the farm, and Stefanie Sacks, a culinary nutritionist, will teach students how to make five plant-based dishes. A family-style meal will be served following the class. The cost is $150, and registration is via the farm’s website. 

Nick and Toni’s Specials

Pizzas made in a wood-burning oven are back on the dinner menu four nights a week at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton. They are available Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The restaurant is also offering three-course prix fixe dinner specials. A pizza or pasta entree with a romaine or mixed green salad, and a dessert of either gelato or sorbetto is $32. A roasted chicken entree with either a romaine salad or penne appetizer, plus a quarter tartufo for dessert is $37. The chef’s choice dinner, featuring an appetizer, entree, and dessert of the day is $45. Bar menu specials, offered weekdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and on Sundays from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m., include an artisanal cheese plate and crostini for $10, and bruschetta for $6. 

Demo and Dinner

Arie Pavlou, the chef at Bistro Ete in Water Mill, will hold a cooking demonstration and wine dinner on Saturday at 4 p.m. The cost is $125, plus tax and tip. Reservations are by calling the restaurant. 

Planning Ahead

Long Island Restaurant Week, a promotion featuring $29.95 three-course prix fixes, will run from Nov. 4 through 11. Reservations are being taken now at the participating restaurants, which include 10 on the South Fork and two in Greenport.

Almond in Bridgehampton is taking reservations for holiday parties, and offering a gift certificate for up to $200 to those who book an event. The restaurant can accommodate up to 200 people for cocktails, and 80 for sit-down dinners. Reservations are by emailing [email protected]

It is true that certain foods can feed mind, body, and soul. Think about how you feel after a healthy, flavorful, balanced, and colorful meal. Then recall how you’ve felt after a Big Mac, basket of French fries, and a milkshake. Big difference, right?

Ayurveda, which has been in existence for over 3,000 years, is one of the world’s most sophisticated and powerful mind-body healthy systems. Some of it simply sounds logical: Eat that balanced diet, get adequate restful sleep, exercise, breath correctly, live in tune with nature, and be motivated by love. But this is easier said than done.

Which brings me to the little miracle occurring right now in Sag Harbor. For a mere $15 donation, four days a week at lunchtime at Sen, you can dine on a balanced and utterly delicious Southern Indian meal prepared by Corey DeRosa, who has been running the Tapovana Ashtanga Healing Center of the Hamptons for 13 years. For $5 you can get the “two hour” chai, a seasonal mixture of spices simmered with black tea and milk. On the day I went, the usual combination of ginger, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon also had fennel, giving it a more mysterious and deep flavor.

The meal was served in the traditional small metal bowls used in India. There was butternut squash palya with coconut and red peppers, lime rice with green peppers, coconut, and toasted cashews, pigeon pea soup with green chili and cumin, and tomato gojju with red peppers and lentils. The butternut squash dish was mild and a bit crunchy from the mustard seeds. The lime rice was complex; the long-grained brown and white basmati rice was slightly tart and sweet, with toasted lentils, rich grated coconut, and roasted cashews. The tomato gojju was spicy, a perfect accompaniment to all the other dishes. For a few dollars more you could order the potato vada, crispy potato cakes with curry leaves, ginger, and black mustard seeds topped with a sweet-tart date and tamarind chutney.

Corey was raised Catholic in an Italian family. From his religious upbringing he always felt that the “seeds of spirituality” were in him. From his family, he learned the importance of food as part of bringing people together, whether to celebrate occasions or mourn losses. Cooking for people you love.

He was always athletic and recognized the importance of a healthy diet. In his 20s he was on his way from semipro to becoming a professional soccer player. And then he broke his back. He realized right away that muscle relaxers were not the best road to recovery. He spent many years as a waiter at Sen, Phao, and Jeff and Eddie’s, and then opened Tapovana Ashtanga Healing Center of the Hamptons.

“I’ve been a vegetarian, a vegan, tried the raw food diet, then discovered ayurveda. Ayurveda made the most sense to me, with the mind-body health connections.”

He learned Southern Indian cooking in Gokulum, Mysore, and began cooking at home and bringing the food for students at the yoga studio one day a week. This became so popular that soon he found himself cooking four days a week for 20 to 40 people. When the Suffolk County Health Department got wind of this generous (yet illegal) activity, he was shut down. Eventually he called his friends Jesse and Tora Matsuoka and Jeff Resnick at Sen and asked if he could use their kitchen to continue serving the community healthy, extremely reasonably priced meals. “We have the best local ingredients out here. We’re not looking at the bottom line, we’re not cooking to make money. The donations are to pay the people serving and helping to make the food [such as Bala Dev, a yoga student] and to pay for the food. Thanks to Jeff and friends at Sen, this is now possible.”

Expounding on the beliefs of ayurvedic cooking and the importance of good digestion, he explained that not only should every meal have the six tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent) to be balanced, but every bite should. He says he is like a kid in a candy shop this time of year. “It’s harvest time and I love making dosas. The other day I made them with parsnips and Brussels sprouts.” He also makes paneer from scratch. This is the silky, slightly firm Indian cheese made from fresh milk that is the perfect foil to spicy curries. It is obvious from his cooking that he understands the balance of flavors and proportion. “I started practicing cooking this way 12 years ago, and if a recipe was good I kept at it. It’s really a science.”

Corey lives in Sag Harbor with his wife, Erika Halweil, and daughters Milla and Neelu. On the day of my visit, Erika was at Sen enjoying her husband’s food with some mutual friends. She is lovely and funny as heck and also teaches yoga. In our interview, Corey frequently mentioned her and said how he couldn’t have done any of this without her.

The restaurant filled up gradually on this off-season Tuesday afternoon. If environment is indeed conducive to good digestion, then Corey couldn’t have chosen a more serene atmosphere than Sen.

He also teaches cooking classes; the next one will be on Nov. 10. It will 

be a demonstration, an introduction to ayur­veda, recipes, and then the meal. “You can’t learn this kind of cooking from a book, you really need to learn the techniques,” he said.

People (including yours truly) have told him that he could/should charge more for these delicious and perfectly balanced meals but that is not the goal. He is supporting the community that supports him. Maybe someday he will have an opportunity to open his own place. In the meantime, let us give thanks for this little miracle on Main Street in Sag Harbor.

The Tapovana South Indian Cafe at Sen is open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m

Click for recipes

L.I. Restaurant Week

A dozen South Fork eateries are taking part in Long Island Restaurant Week, which runs from Sunday through Nov. 11. The promotion features three-course prix fixes for $29.95, with upcharges for certain menu items. It is offered all night most nights, but only before 7 p.m. on Nov. 10, a Saturday. Nearby restaurants that have signed on this year include the 1770 House and the Clubhouse in East Hampton, Wolffer Kitchen locations in Amagansett and Sag Harbor; Baron’s Cove, Lulu Kitchen and Bar, and Page at 63 Main in Sag Harbor; Jean George at Topping Rose House and Elaia Estatorio in Bridgehampton, and Le Charlot, Claude’s, Shippy’s Pumpernickels, and Union Cantina in Southampton.

Among the notable restaurants taking part farther afield are American Beech and Noah’s in Greenport and the North Fork Table and Inn in Southold.

Artists and Wriers

Almond in Bridgehampton will hold an Artists and Writers night on Tuesday at 7. The three-course dinner will be hosted by Darius Yektai, a Southampton painter and sculptor. The cost is $45 and includes a glass of local wine or craft beer and tax. Gratuity is not included. Reservations can be made by calling the restaurant.

Dinner and a Movie 

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton has re-introduced its dinner-and-a-movie specials. Sunday through Wednesday, a beef or turkey burger can be ordered along with a voucher for the East Hampton Cinema, for $26. On Thursdays, the menu choices include fish and chips, meatloaf, or mussels as well as the burgers. Vegetarian items are also available for substitution. A glass of wine or a dessert can be added for $7 more, or a beer for another $6.

Day of the Dead

La Fondita in Amagansett will offer specials in celebration of the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead through tomorrow. The menu items include pork tamales in red sauce, chicken tamales in green sauce, or chile and cheese tamales, all served with rice and beans, for $12.50. Turkey in mole sauce with beans and tortillas is $16. A churro, and a champurrado, which is a warm chocolate beverage, each cost $3. 

Fresno Specials

Fresno in East Hampton is offering two-course prix-fixe specials Thursday through Monday until 6:30 p.m. for $30, plus tax and gratuity. Dessert can be added for an additional $5. The menu includes appetizers such as an artisanal greens salad with Bartlett pears, Manchego cheese, pumpkin seeds, and sherry vinaigrette, or green garbanzo and jalapeno-lime hummus with grilled flatbread and olives. Main dishes include chicken Milanese, and pan-seared organic salmon. 

Italian Comfort Food

A free cooking class on preparing Italian comfort foods such as chicken cacciatore, creamy polenta, and apple crostata will be held next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. Attendees will be offered tastings of the dishes. Registration is via the library’s website. 

A 1770 Thanksgiving

The 1770 House in East Hampton will serve a three-course prix fixe dinner on Thanksgiving Day from 2 to 8 p.m. The menu will include starters such as spicy Montauk fluke tartare, beet salad, and lobster bisque. For the turkey entree, Michael Rozzi, the executive chef, will prepare an organic Amish turkey with sage gravy, as well as side dishes of sausage stuffing, cranberry relish, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, and mashed potatoes. His other entrees will include Scottish salmon, and an apple cider-cured pork chop. The cost is $95 per person, with a $40 two-course option for children 12 and under. Beverages, tax, and gratuity are additional.

Ayurvedic Cuisine

Corey DeRosa, the director of the Tapovana Ashtanga Healing Center, will teach a cooking class and give a talk on the benefits of ayurvedic cuisine on Saturday from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at Sen in Sag Harbor. Mr. DeRosa will discuss the importance of good digestion, proper food combinations, and choosing foods that are aligned with individual emotional patterns, constitutions, and environmental fluctuations. The cost is $80. Reservations are via Tapovana’s website. 

The center also runs a pop-up restaurant at Sen on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The menu features South Indian vegetarian lunches for a suggested $15 donation. 

“The Three Sisters”

The Amagansett Food Institute and Slow Food East End will hold a workshop and dinner focused on corn, beans, and squash, known in indigenous traditions as the “three sisters,” at South Fork Kitchens in Southampton on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Shane Weeks, an artist, educator, and member of the Shinnecock Nation, will discuss agricultural and seed-saving practices; Mimi Edelman, an Orient Point farmer, will demonstrate how to harvest, process and store seeds, and Jay Lippin, the chef at Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor, will demonstrate a technique for preserving produce. The cost is $75. Tickets are available on eventbrite.com

Wolffer Event

Wolffer Estate Vineyard will hold a three-course lunch and wine-tasting of this year’s vintage in its wine cellar on Nov. 17 from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Roman Roth, the estate’s winemaker, will be in attendance. Michael Ronzino, the Wolffer Kitchen chef, has designed a menu that features a spaghetti with crab appetizer, and a braised lamb shank entree. The cost is $85 per person, not including tax and processing fees. Tickets can be reserved on eventbrite.com.

Quiet Clam Lunch Specials

The Quiet Clam 2.0 in East Hampton is offering lunch specials on weekdays from noon to 4 p.m. Soup and salad is $15, soup or salad and a half sandwich is $17.

Quail Hill Winter Share

The Peconic Land Trust’s Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett is offering winter shares in its community-supported agriculture program. Those who join for the winter will receive root vegetables, alliums, eggs, greenhouse greens, beans, and other surprises starting on the Friday before Thanksgiving and into March. Pickup days will be on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every other week. The cost for an individual share is $285, and a share for families of two or more costs $460. There is also a $50 first-time member fee. Shares can be purchased via the land trust’s website.

Steak at Springs Tavern 

The Springs Tavern in East Hampton is offering a steak dinner special for $25 on Mondays starting at 5 p.m. The dinner includes a starter salad, a New York strip steak entree, a vegetable side dish, and either mashed potatoes or a baked potato. 

Restaurant Week

Long Island Restaurant Week, a $29.95 prix-fixe promotion, will continue through Sunday at participating restaurants, including a dozen on the South Fork. The special is offered all night tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday and until 7 on Saturday. A list of restaurants, and links for reservations, can be found at longislandrestaurantweek.com.

Ramen Fest

Looking ahead, Sen in Sag Harbor will offer a four-course prix-fixe ramen noodle dinner on Nov. 29, with seatings from 5 to 7 p.m. and from 7:30 to 9:30. Diners will learn how make various broths and will choose the ingredients for their ramen entrees. The menu will also include a beet and squash noodle salad, edamame, sake pairings, and dessert. The cost is $50 per person not including gratuity. Reservations are by calling the restaurant. 

Paint and Sip

The Springs Tavern is the winter home of Paint & Sip, on alternate Mondays every month, beginning this week. The paint party sessions run from 6 to 8 p.m. and include instruction, materials, a drink, and an appetizer for $45 per person. Nicky Payne of the Salty Canvas will serve as host and instructor. Sign-ups can be made in advance at the Salty Canvas Hamptons website. The next session will be held Nov. 26.

Cranberries are one of my favorite fruits. So much so that I wish they were available year round. Yes, you can freeze your own or find them frozen or dried at the grocery store, but fresh cranberries are only available from October to December. 

They are tiny and tart, full of vitamin C, pectin, and antioxidants. They also have a lot of benzoic acid, now a common preservative in prepared foods.

Cranberries are one of only three fruits native to North America, and have been known as sassamanesh, ibimi, and atoqua by the various tribes that first discovered them. Native Americans mashed cranberries with deer meat and fat to make “pemmican,” kind of the first energy bar-jerky food. They also used the juice in poultices to draw poison out of arrow wounds and to dye rugs and blankets. 

Cranberries grow on long, low vines or evergreen shrubs in sandy bogs and marshes in the Northeast, Wisconsin, Pacific Northwest, Scandinavia, Canada, and Eastern Europe — 98 percent of cranberries are grown in the United States and Canada.

This fruit can be used in both sweet and savory recipes and is best known as a condiment in the form of jelly with or without whole berries to go with Thanksgiving feasts. You can grind cranberries up raw or cook them with oranges, spices, ginger, onions, and garlic. I like to make chutneys and apple cranberry pan dowdy. Pandowdy or pan dowdy is one of America’s oldest desserts and was a favorite of Abigail Adams, wife of second president John Adams and the first First Lady to reside in and entertain in the new White House. It is called “dowdy” because it is not a particularly elegant dessert. It is rustic, like other similarly named old-fashioned desserts — grunts, buckles, and slumps.

It just so happens that cranberries grow here on the East End, but I was informed by my editor that divulging the location would amount to what is known in the fishing community as “spot burning.” 

I’m going to tell you anyway. If you live in Montauk, you drive west, if you live in East Hampton, you go east. Go down that road (left turn or right, depending on which direction you came from), park your car at the end and then walk a ways until you see the bogs. Helpful? You’re welcome.

I have been cranberry picking twice. It’s not really “picking,” it’s more like wading and swishing and scooping. The plants are beautiful with tiny bright green fern-like leaves. It’s not likely you would confuse this berry with other red, possibly inedible, berries, but if you get confused, slice some berries open. They are white inside with a few little seeds, and they bounce. I have to admit that my scavenging yielded a paltry amount, but it was easy to supplement courtesy of Ocean Spray.

Cranberries were first commercially cultivated around 1816 by a Revolutionary War veteran, Captain Henry Hall of Cape Cod. In 1912, a lawyer named Marcus Urann started buying cranberry bogs, formed a cooperative, and started canning them. This became the Ocean Spray company. The jiggly canned jelly we see at many Thanksgiving tables first appeared in 1940.

The harvesting of cranberries can be done dry, with a comb-like machine, or wet, by flooding the bogs. The berries float to the top of the water and can then be scooped up and processed. They store very well because of their high acidity and phenolic compounds. According to Harold McGee, in his book “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen,” “the spicy aroma of cranberries is created by a combination of terpenes and spicy phenolic derivatives: cinnamates, benzoates, vanillin, and almonds benzaldehyde.” They are so full of pectin that if you macerate them in alcohol the mixture will gel!

Dried cranberries are excellent in baked goods like cookies, cakes, muffins, scones, and bars. Cranberry juice, both red and white, is tasty and healthy and reputed to help with urinary tract infections. However, if you are prone to getting kidney stones, stay away, the berries are full of oxalate which some doctors believe causes kidney stones.

Enjoy this native berry fresh through the holiday season and freeze some for later use. (This is best done by placing them in a single layer on a cookie sheet in the freezer, then transferring to Ziploc baggies.) Fresh cranberries will keep for a month, possibly longer, and dried berries (Craisins), available year round, can be rehydrated if you desire, or simply tossed in salads, on roasted Brussels sprouts, in a wild rice pilaf, and many more recipes where a sprightly and tart flavor will enhance the dish.

Here are some recipes to inspire you.

Click for recipes

Diversity and a global perspective that reflected back on the East End were the emphasis of this year’s Food Lab conference, held over the weekend at Stony Brook Southampton’s campus.

The conference began with a Greek cooking class on Friday and ended with a discussion of how winemaking traditions tie together countries and continents. In between, there were receptions, breakfast, lunch, and a small tasting plates dinner of international dishes inspired by recipes from recent immigrants.

Through it all, health and access to nutritious food were a compelling and constant theme linking many of the sessions. 

Nicholas Poulmentis, a winner on the Food Network’s series “Chopped,” provided a demonstration and detailed instructions on how to make updated and mostly healthy versions of classic Greek food such as spinach pie, meatless keftedes or meatballs, and goat cheese gnocchi with a not-so-healthy creamy bacon sauce. The keftedes were made with lentils and bulgar wheat and served on romaine lettuce with a squeeze of lemon. While he cooked, assistants passed his dishes into the audience, where people also sampled Greek wines as they watched the action. The two-hour class gave participants a chance to ask questions during the preparations and they received tips such as how to store olive oil and reduce a cream sauce.

The next day, Mr. Poulmentis reappeared for a panel titled “Nourishing Diversity: Our Social, Emotional, and Spiritual Relationships With Food” with four other panelists and Paula Gilovich, a well-focused and organized moderator. He spoke about his youth in Greece and the cooking, fishing, and other food gathering he did with his father and how he still tries to import the ingredients he misses from home.

Carolina Santos-Neves, another panelist, described her childhood in Brazil and Mexico and the way she has used food to bring people of many different cultures together, both through her work as a chef and the meals she prepares at home for crowds of new and old friends.

Mohammad Modarres, the founder of Interfaith Ventures and Abe’s Meats, discussed his odyssey in developing products and programs that encourage interfaith dialogue, particularly between Muslims and Jews. His efforts have culminated in Shabbat Salaam, dinners featuring meat that has been processed under the most devout religious standards of both faiths. 

It took a long time and it wasn’t easy. “The first couple of religious leaders said ‘absolutely not, this needs to be kept separate,’ but that kind of emotion pulls you forward. It makes you want to cause some trouble.” Bringing the two groups together to break bread has fostered a sense of commonality. “The talk around the table becomes about how expensive day care is,” he said, not religious differences.

In the same panel Josephine Smith, the director of cultural resources for the Shinnecock Indian Nation, recalled foraging for wild grapes, blackberries, and blueberries on the reservation. Although she still can, “they’re not as plentiful, choked out by invasive species” and home building as the population has increased over time. 

The reservation once had acres of land planted with corn, squash, and beans, but now there is only an 18-by-10-foot community garden plot, she said, and the waters are affected by nitrogen-loading and other issues connected with regional development. Although the tribe would like to achieve “food sovereignty,” i.e., produce its own food on a scale to become self-sufficient, its goals are limited by the available land on the reservation today. She said the tribe lost 4,000 acres in the 19th century to the state in falsified documents and now its fishing rights are also being challenged. “Where can we have land for farming and livestock when our homes are already so close together?” she asked.

In the following panel, Frank Lipman, a South African-born doctor who favors an integrated and functional approach to medicine over traditional Western medicine that works only to cure specific illnesses, compared notes with Shawn Cannon, who runs Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s residency and fellowship programs. Both agreed many of Americans’ health problems — which they said stem from inflammation and poor diets high in processed foods — are not being properly addressed.

Quoting the author Wendell Berry, Dr. Lipman said “the food industry pays no attention to our health, and the health industry pays no attention to our food.” 

Dr. Cannon says he sees the interest and dedication to a whole body approach to medicine in his millennial-age students. Yet, the information they need for such a practice won’t be found on any medical board tests, which discourages further study. As a result, patients often must pursue this type of wellness-based health care on their own, if they are even aware of it.

At the Clubhouse

The Clubhouse restaurant in East Hampton has a series of weekday dinner specials that will continue into winter. On Monday, a lobster bake dinner, which includes a one-and-a-quarter-pound lobster, corn on the cob, new potatoes, coleslaw, and a side of mussels, costs $36. Tuesday’s special is three tacos made with either steak, chicken, or fish, plus a margarita for $24. On Wednesday, a burger with fries, a side of chicken wings, and a draft beer is $25. Thursday’s surf and turf dinner features filet mignon and lobster tail with mashed potatoes and asparagus for $38. On Friday, prime rib with mashed potatoes and the vegetable of the day is $36. 

Fall Specials 

The fall specials at Almond in Bridgehampton include a three-course Meatless Monday menu for $32.50. On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 7 p.m. and all night on Wednesday, the restaurant offers a three-course prix fixe dinner featuring a menu that will change daily, also for $32.50. 

On Thursday nights, Springs Tavern in East Hampton is offering first responders, including police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel a 25 percent discount off the dinner bill. Teachers receive the same discount on Fridays. On Tuesdays at the Tavern, chicken, beef, vegetable, or fish tacos are $4 apiece, with rice and beans included with each order of three or more.

Jameson Ellis’s Birthday Chowder 

“I whipped this up based on a traditional recipe for my friend Jameson Ellis’s birthday,” David Rattray wrote. He served it in coffee mugs to about 20 guests as an appetizer. 

Serves eight as a meal.

24 medium or 12 large chowder clams

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/4 pound smoked bluefish

1 cup Spanish onion, diced

1 cup leeks, white parts, mostly, diced

2 ribs celery, diced

2 cups Yukon Gold, red, or white potatoes, cubed

1 small clove garlic, minced

1 cup dry rosé

2 sprigs thyme

1 large bay leaf

Fresh black pepper, ground, to taste

Open clams with a sharp clam knife (Persan’s Hardware in Sag Harbor has a terrific French version). Be sure to save all the clam juice, strain it, and measure it. Add water to make three cups of liquid, if necessary, and set aside. Remove clams from shells and chop roughly.

(Alternative: Scrub clams and place in a heavy pot over two to three cups water. Cover and cook until clams are open. Pour off and reserve three cups of clam broth so that the sand stays in the pot. When cool enough to handle, remove clams from shells and chop roughly.)

Put the olive oil in a heavy pot and cook onions until softened. Add the leeks and celery and cook until soft. Add garlic and crumbled smoked bluefish. Add potatoes and rosé and cook until the alcohol has bubbled out and the potatoes are beginning to soften. Add the reserved clam liquid, thyme, bay leaf, and pepper to taste.

Simmer until potatoes are soft, then add chopped clams and heat until just simmering. Remove from heat and discard the thyme and bay leaf.

Taste for seasoning and serve.

South Edison Chowder

20 chowder clams

1/2 cup white wine

2 sprigs fresh thyme

2 whole heads of garlic, sliced horizontally 

so the flesh of each clove is exposed

2 fresh bay leaves

1 tsp. whole black peppercorns

1/4 cup homemade or store-bought bacon lardoons

1/4 cup finely minced shallots

3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1/4 cup finely minced celery

1/4 cup finely minced leeks

1/4 cup hickory smoked and charred corn, 

kernels removed from the cob (home cooks can char it on a grill) 

2 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup baby marble potatoes (or diced, unpeeled potatoes)

Bouquet Garni: 

Green tops of leeks

Garlic

Fresh thyme

Fresh bay leaf

Black peppercorns

1/4 cup tomatoes, skinned, cored, seeded, and finely chopped

2 Tbsp. finely minced thyme leaves

2 Tbsp. finely minced chives

2 Tbsp. finely minced parsley

In a large stockpot, steam open the chowder clams with white wine, sprigs of thyme, cut heads of garlic, bay leaves, and peppercorns. 

Once the clams open, remove them from the pot and strain the clam stock from the vegetables, reserving stock in a separate container. 

When the clams are cool, julienne into bite-sized pieces. 

In a separate pot, render the bacon until crisp. Transfer to a cooling plate. Strain and reserve the bacon fat.

Saute the shallots, crushed garlic, celery, leeks, and smoked corn in the bacon fat in the stockpot. Cook until softened.

Pour reserved clam stock, whole milk, and heavy cream over the softened vegetables.

Add the potatoes and a bouquet garni and cook until the potatoes are soft.

Add the chopped clams, the crisped bacon, and chopped tomatoes. Bring to a boil.

Remove the bouquet garni.

Just before serving, stir in the fresh thyme, chives, and parsley. Season to taste with kosher salt.

People sure do have strong opinions about chowders. Should it be New England, Manhattan, Long Island, Rhode Island, or, as our esteemed editor suggested, “alt-chowder,” in other words, allowing for substitutions, additions, creativity?

In Louis De Gouy’s 1949 cookbook, “The Soup Book,” he said, “Clam chowder is one of those subjects, like politics and religion, that can never be discussed lightly. Bring it up even incidentally, and all the innumerable factions of the clambake regions raise their heads and begin to yammer.”

A Maine politician once claimed (I don’t know when, but it sounds very McCarthy era) that the addition of tomatoes to chowder was “the work of the reds” who seek to undermine “our most hallowed tradition” and suggested that any housewives or chefs caught adding tomatoes be forced to “dig a barrel of clams at high tide as penalty.” Ha ha.

Manhattan clam chowder, which has a clear broth with tomatoes, carrots, celery, and onions, has been found in cookbooks going back to the 1890s. The title “Manhattan” was supposedly given by New Englanders as it was an insult to call someone a New Yorker.

Rhode Island clam chowder, also known as South County style, has a clear broth, along with bacon, onions, potatoes, and quahogs. Some are a hybrid with a tomato broth base.

Long Island clam chowder can also be a hybrid, tomato and cream based.

New England clam chowder is loosely defined as a thick chowder made from clams, potatoes, onions, sometimes salt pork or bacon, and milk or cream. It can be further thickened with oyster crackers.

Although the author of 47 books about Cape Cod, Joseph C. Lincoln, referred to New England clam chowder as “Yankee Doodle in a kettle,” it probably originated with Breton fishermen who migrated south to New England from Newfoundland. The word “chowder” is believed to be derived from the French word “chaudiere,” roughly translated to pot or boiler.

For the past six or so years I have had the honor of being a judge at the Montauk Chamber of Commerce’s chowder contest — Oct. 6, mark your calendars! The chowders are provided by local restaurants; judges make their choices, and the people choose their favorites, too. At first the two varieties, Manhattan and New England, were lumped together. Now they are in separate categories, and approximately 30 to 40 restaurants participate, with New England being the predominant variety offered. I’ve often thought (well, actually, loudly suggested) that there should be a third category for most original or most unique, because some of them don’t quite fall into a classic definition of either, but they are exquisite soups — the alt-chowders.

For instance, David E. Rattray told me about a chowder he made recently for his friend Jameson Ellis’s birthday. Based on a Sam Sifton recipe. He eliminated the dairy (folks could add it later), used leeks in lieu of onions, added rosé, and substituted smoked bluefish for the bacon. Mind blown. This genius substitution made his chowder close to the Scot’s broth “cullen skink.”

For other creative additions and variations on chowder I turned to my Department of Slothful Research, Facebook. Most people are adamant about preferring New England over Manhattan, myself among them.

Ellen White suggested a touch of Old Bay seasoning in either variety. Sydney Jones recommended Jarlsberg cheese and sherry in New England. Jeremy Blutstein, who never lacks for strong opinions, declared Manhattan “whack.” 

Chef Peter Ambrose had some outstanding suggestions. He has made a New Mexican version with andouille sausage, hard clams, belly clams, sweet potatoes, and Mexican spices. He also has made a New-England-style chowder with coconut milk and Thai red curry spice. He uses chipotle peppers as a substitute for pork and said that a drop of booze like Lillet is a great addition. These are exactly the kinds of variations that deserve their own category.

Naturally, you can find great chowders at many restaurants out here. Some recommended by those in the know are at Bostwick’s, the Quiet Clam, and Silver’s.

To put you in the mood in this first month of “Rs”, here are two recipes for your Yankee Doodle in a kettle. One is Mr. Rattray’s, the other from Lisa Kristel, an owner of South Edison in Montauk. This chowder won the people’s choice award at the Montauk contest in 2010.

Click for recipes

Artists and Writers

Almond in Bridgehampton will hold its first Artists and Writers night of the season on Tuesday at 7. The three-course dinner will be hosted by members of the Stony Brook Southampton M.F.A. faculty including Susan Scarf Merrell, the author of the novel “Shirley”; Amy Hempel, a short-story writer; Cornelius Eady, a poet, and Emily Gilbert, a writer and the editor of The Southampton Review literary journal. The cost is $45 and includes a glass of local wine or craft beer and tax but not gratuity. Reservations can be made by calling the restaurant. 

Quiet Clam Specials 

The Quiet Clam 2.0 in East Hampton is offering football specials, including a burger and a beer for $20, and chicken wings and a beer for $10, during any televised N.F.L. game. A taco special, available on Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to closing, features two tacos for $18 or three for $21, and includes chips, salsa, guacamole, and a Corona Light. There is also a two-for-one margarita special that night. Happy hour deals, including $5 pints of beer, $7 glasses of wine, and $11 specialty cocktails, plus bar bites are available from 4 to 7 p.m. every night except Saturday. 

Taste of Korea 

Members of the Korean Spirit and Culture Project will hold a free cooking demonstration and tasting of four traditional Korean dishes plus dessert at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor next Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. Registration is via the library’s website.

Oysters!

Tickets are on sale for the Shelter Island Historical Society’s oyster tasting event on Oct. 20 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Havens Barn. The cost is $60 for adults, $40 for children who will be eating oysters, and free for kids 12 and under who will not be partaking. Tickets are available on the historical society’s website.