New England Patriots Tailgating Menu

As you know, I am a big time Chicago Bears fan.  So when they failed to make the playoffs this year, I was very disappointed. 

Luckily for me, I have a surrogate NFL team that I also love – the New England Patriots. 

My love the Patriots is truly rooted in my love for Tommy – because to know and love Tommy – you at least have to appreciate the team that has such a big part of his heart.  Appreciate them I do and over the last millennium seven years that Tommy I have been together, I have truly developed a love for them myself.  I justify this love based on the fact that the Pats are an AFC team and rarely compete against the Bears.  When the two teams do meet however, rest assured I root for the Bears (not that it helps considering the last two meetings that I attended resulting in Patriot wins!).

The past weekend, the Patriots played in the AFC championship against the Baltimore Ravens.  Unfortunately, they were not victorious.  The Patriots loss was a total shock to me, because I had seen them give the Houston Texans a good romping the week before, and thought they were pretty unstoppable.  I was so confident in fact that I prepared a New England themed dinner, in their honor, that I planned to share with all of you as an idea for a riff on traditional Super Bowl party food.  On the menu – New England Clam Chowder and Lobster Rolls.

I also thought that because the Patriots are, in some ways “America’s team,” that apple pie would be a great dessert to serve (note that this is a “mini pie” because it was only for me and Kate!).

I thought these foods, in addition to some San Francisco themed menu items (cioppino with sourdough bread, wontons as a nod to the city’s iconic China town, crossed my mind as good menu ideas!) would be such a fun twist on the standard nachos, chips and dip and fried food you find at SB parties.

Now that the Patriots aren’t in the Super Bowl, I guess I will just have to urge you to make these dishes regardless!  They were so super satisfying and made me nostalgic for summers in Cape Cod!

For those of you who live outside of New England, the lobster meat will be a bit of a splurge.  At a local fish shop in Chicago, the prices for live lobsters range from $15-$18/lb and lobster meat alone was $60/lb.  The guys at the fish shop told me that the price for the meat ends up being the same either way, so I opted to not have to deal with cooking the lobsters and just got lobster meat (which was a mixture of both claw and tail meat). 

The clam chowder was much more reasonably priced to make.  For one, Costco often has fresh clams that are very inexpensive, so if you were making a big batch of this clam chowder, that would be prefect.  Because this was only for Kate and me, I got the clams at the same fish market I got the lobster and paid $6 per a dozen cherry stone clams (plus they threw in some extras). 

True New Englanders would tell you that you do not need to use cherry stone clams in chowder – that the small clams should be reserved for steaming and eating straight with butter.  Because traditional chowder usually has chopped clams instead of whole clams, it is more typical to use the big quahogs.  But I say, use whatever you can find!  I can attest that both cherry stones and quahogs taste great in chowder.

Overall, the combination of chowder and lobster rolls was fantastic.  It went particularly well with the AFC Championship on in the background!

Although the Patriots didn’t win, I was still happy I made these dishes and will certainly make them again (with or without a football game on!).  I was also very fortunate to have pie at the ready because I did some emotional eating to get through the loss!

I am thinking that I may even make these dishes for Tommy in the coming weeks to help cheer him up as he is still in a state of depression.  Alongside a bowl of steaming chowder and nice fresh lobster roll, I will also remind him of the common Chicago creed: “There’s Always Next Year!”

New England Themed Tailgating Party:

• Lobster Rolls
• New England Clam Chowder
• Apple Pie

Lobster Rolls – Serves 4

 Ingredients:

• 1 lb lobster meat (or the meat from 2 1 1/2 lb lobsters), cut into large chunks
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 3 TB of lemon juice
• 1/3 cup mayo (you can add more if it looks a little dry)
• S+P to taste (start with 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 pepper)
• 4 hot dog buns (preferably split top if you can find them), toasted
• 2 TB butter, melted

Directions

Add lobster, celery, mayo, lemon juice and S+ P to a large bowl. 

Stir everything to combined and taste for seasoning. Adjust as necessary.  Toast the hot dog buns in an oven and spread the insides with melted butter.  Add lobster salad mixture to buns and serve!

Clam Chowder– Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 4 dozen cherry stone clams, scrubbed (if you are using bigger clams you don’t need as many)
• 4 slices of bacon
• 1 cup onions, diced
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 1 1/2 lb Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup flour
• 5-6 thyme leaves
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• S+P to taste
• Oyster crackers, optional
• 2 TB of minced parsley, optional

Directions:

In a large sauté pan, cook the bacon over medium heat until crispy.  Remove bacon from the pan, roughly chop and set aside. Reserve bacon fat.

Add the clams and 1 cup of water to a large pot.  Cover the pot and cook the clams over high heat for 5 minutes.  Uncover the pot to see if any of the clams have opened. Remove those that have.  Keep cooking remaining clams for another 2-3 minutes, checking every 1-2 minutes to remove opened clams.  Discard and clams that do not open after 7-8 minutes of total cooking time.

The water that you used to steam the clams will not be flavored with lots of clam flavor and will serve as the broth in the soup.  Because clams often have sand in them, you want to make sure to strain this broth well.  I find that the best way to do this is by using a fine mesh sieve with a coffee filter inside of it.  Reserve the strained clam broth.

Meanwhile, in another large pot (don’t use the same one you steamed the clams in without washing it because it likely has sand in it), pour in the reserved bacon fat and heat over medium heat.  Add the onions and celery and sauté for 5-7 minutes until the vegetables are soft but not browned.  Add the chopped Yukon potato’s and cook for another 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, add flour and stir to combine with all the vegetables. 

Cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add the reserved clam broth and whisk until there are no lumps.  Add thyme, bay leaves and salt and pepper (about 1/2 tsp of each).

Bring mixture to a boil and reduce heat.  Cook for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.  Meanwhile, remove clams from their shells and chop into small pieces.

Add the chopped clams, milk and cream to the pot.  Stir to combine and cook for another 2-3 minutes to combine all the flavors and heat through.  Taste and adjust for seasoning.  Serve the soup with oyster crackers, reserved bacon and minced parsley.

Apple Pie – Makes 1 9-10 inch pie (pie crust is “Perfect Pie Crust” Recipe by Ina Garten)

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 12 TB butter (1 1/2 sticks), very cold, cubbed
• 1/3 cups vegetable shortening, very cold
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 6-8 TB very cold water

Filling

• 5-6 apples, peeled and sliced
• 3 TB butter, cubbed
• 2 TB lemon juice, plus more for spraying on top of the apples to prevent oxidation
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions:

First, you will want to prepare the pie crust.  The easiest way to make it is in the food processor in my opinion, but feel free to use a pastry cutter as well.

Add the flour and salt to the bowl of a food processor with the steel blade attachment.  Pulse the flour and salt to combine.  Then add the vegetable shortening and the butter.  Pulse 10-15 times until the butter is the size of peas.  Then, with the machine running, very slowly pour in the cold water until the dough begins to form a bowl.  Dump dough out onto a flowered board and roll into a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While the dough is getting cold, you can prep the filling for the pie.  Peel and slice the apples and spray with squeeze of lemon to prevent browning.  Add to a medium sized bowl and add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and lemon juice.  Stir everything to combine and allow to sit for 15 minutes.

At this point, you can pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.  Once the dough has chilled for long enough, remove the ball from the fridge and cut in half.  Place one half of the dough on a floured board and the other back in the fridge.  Roll out half of the dough and place into your pie dish.  Add the apples on top of the dough.

Add the cubed pieces of butter on top of the apples.

Finally, roll out the other half of the dough, place on top of the apples and crimp the top and the bottom together so that they form a nice seal around the apples.  Brush the pie crust with the beaten egg and sprinkle with additional cinnamon and sugar, if desired.  Cut 2-3 slits on the top of the pie crust to allow steam to escape.

Place the pie dish on a cookie sheet (trust me, the sugar oozes out and its easier to clean a cookie sheet than it is your oven!) and bake for 30-40 minutes at 450 degrees.  Reduce heat to 350 and cook for an additional 10-20 minutes until the top of the pie is lightly browned and the juices beginning to bubble.

Remove from the oven and cool.  Serve at room temperature or slightly warm.

Sorry for the length of the post, but I hope you enjoy all these New England themed dishes!!