Provincetown Portuguese Cookbook

Soups Sopas   Calde Verde | Tillie's Kale Soup | Edith's Kale Soup | Holly's Kale Soup | Jane's Kale Soup | Dot and Bill's Kale Soup | Lenny's Portuguese Soup | Portuguese Soup-The Moors Restaurant | Corn Chowder | Mussel Chowder Or How Paris Changed Chowder | Fish Chowder | Real New England Clam Chowder | Macaroni Soup | Squid Stew | Squid and White Bean Soup | Portuguese Kale Soup

Mussel Chowder Or How Paris Changed Chowder Molly O'Neill Molly O'Neill writes the food column in The New York Times Magazine. Her love affair with Provincetown goes back several years, beginning when she cooked in Provincetown professionally. After leaving Provincetown, she moved to Paris and attended cooking school where she worked under several French chefs. She is the author of the award-winning "New York Cookbook" and "A Well-Seasoned Appetite." Her latest cookbook is "The Pleasure of Your Company, How to Give a Dinner Party Without Losing Your Mind." Molly says "The Pleasure of Your Company" is the perfect book for everybody who's trying to get over being Martha Stewart (whom Molly actually admires a great deal). Molly writes from Paris, "Nothing beats a perfectly made chowder - a world of taste in which native Americans, British-inspired Yankees and Portuguese from the Azores coalesce. But this version tells a tale of what happens when the humble travels in lofty, cosmopolitan circles. It's a different sort of chowder with a little bit of French refinement and a little bit of Italian pizzazz. This mussel chowder would never have existed had there been no Un-Provincetown Chowder. It tastes good."   1/2 cup (one stick) sweet butter 3 leeks, white only and sliced into a tiny julienne and rinsed forever 5 lbs. perfect mussels 1/4 cup dry, white wine 5 red potatoes, un-peeled and cut into quarter-inch dice One pint heavy cream Up to one quart whole milk 1 pound flounder or other white, flat fish cut into half- inch pieces 1/4 tsp. saffron threads 1 cup fresh basil torn gently into fine pieces Salt and pepper to taste   Melt two tablespoons of the butter over medium heat in a big, heavy pot. Add the leeks. Season them lightly with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook them, stirring often until they are soft, about 7 to 10 minutes. Then use a slotted spoon to remove the leeks, leaving as much butter as possible in the pot. Set the leeks aside. Add four more tablespoons of butter to the pot. Crank up the heat to high. Add the mussels and shake them around. Pour in the white wine. Cover the pot for about three minutes. You want the mussels just barely opened. Remove from heat and cool. When cool enough to handle, remove the mussels from their shells and set aside. Place the pot, which now contains an intense elixir, over low heat. Add the potatoes, one-half pint heavy cream and two cups of whole milk to the broth. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. Avoid boiling at all costs. Taste the cooking liquid. Does it need more salt and pepper? Season to taste. Do you want a richer flavor and more satiny body? Add more cream. Is the flavor intense enough to bear the softening influence of milk? Add more. Each of these ministrations must be done to taste, taste being both that which the mussel imparts and that which pleases you. Proceed slowly. Taste constantly and don't boil anything. When the potatoes are soft and the liquid tastes better than anything you've tasted in your life, add the flat white fish. Simmer for three minutes. Add the mussels and simmer for two additional minutes. Add the saffron threads. Stir and simmer for one minute. Remove the chowder from the heat. Taste it and lovingly appreciate it. Make any adjustments to the flavor and consistency you desire. Depending on the intensity of the mussel flavor or the starch content of the potatoes, you may want to add more milk or cream. One second before serving, stir in the remaining butter. Then add the torn basil. Serve the chowder with bread or crackers. Taste, just like love, is intimate, personal, passionate, fleeting and keenest when undomesticated. Expect applause. Serves 8 as a first course or 4 as a main course.