Manhattan-Style Mussel Chowder

Name: Manhattan-Style Mussel Chowder with Tomatoes Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: American cuisine
Ingredients: Frozen mussels 200 g; Water for the broth 1 l (2–3 cups of the broth go into the soup); Celery (stalks) 2-3 stalks; Potatoes 2; Carrot 1; Tomatoes 3-4; Onion 1; Garlic 2 cloves; Parsley 3-4 sprigs; Pork fat or bacon 50 g; Dried thyme 0.5 tsp; Bay leaf 1; Salt to taste; Hot red pepper a pinch

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1 h

Mussel soup made with sautéed vegetables is a tasty, filling dish, and the mussels can be swapped for any seafood or a frozen seafood mix. American cuisine has superb thick soups made from all kinds of shellfish, known collectively as chowder, or clam chowder.

I never quite figured out what “clam” means. It’s said to cover any edible bivalve shellfish except mussels and oysters. These shellfish make very tasty thick soups. Once in the US, on Monterey Bay, we tried one version, New England clam chowder, a soup of shellfish and cream. It’s served in a hollowed-out sourdough bread bowl. Unusual and very tasty.

There’s one subtle point in making real clam chowder: our choice of shellfish is usually limited to mussels or a seafood mix, a frozen blend of shrimp, mussels, octopus, cuttlefish and squid. But as the saying goes, any port in a storm. We’ll stick with mussels and make a tasty soup.

Clam chowder is considered a traditional and popular American dish, known since the 16th century. It was first made in New England. Shellfish were plentiful and easy to gather, so they became a perfect base for soup. Restaurants often make clam chowder to their own recipes, straying quite far from the classic. Although there’s no shortage of arguments about what the classic actually is.

Unlike the New England version, Manhattan clam chowder is made with tomatoes instead of cream, with potatoes, onion, celery stalks and carrot.

Inspired by Manhattan clam chowder, you can make a wonderful soup without straying far from many original recipes. Ordinary vegetables that are in the fridge or easy to buy, a piece of bacon, pork fat or salo to fry the vegetables in, frozen mussels and salted crackers. The soup itself is very easy to make. By the way, it’s handy to cook it not in a pot but in a deep sauté pan.

More with mussels

Fried Mussels in Batter

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Mussel Frittata: Italian Seafood Omelet Baked in the Oven

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Mussel Risotto with Garlic, White Wine and Parmesan

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Seafood Salad with Chicken Thighs and Mushrooms

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Mussels in Tomato Sauce

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Ingredients

2 servings

Frozen mussels 200 g
Water for the broth 1 l (2–3 cups of the broth go into the soup)
Celery (stalks) 2-3 stalks
Potatoes 2
Carrot 1
Tomatoes 3-4
Onion 1
Garlic 2 cloves
Parsley 3-4 sprigs
Pork fat or bacon 50 g
Dried thyme 0.5 tsp
Bay leaf 1
Salt to taste
Hot red pepper a pinch

Step-by-step recipe

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Prepping the ingredients

Bacon or a piece of any pork fat is needed to render fat for frying the vegetables. And the cracklings left after rendering, if nobody eats them right away, make a great addition to the soup. All the other ingredients are common vegetables. And frozen mussels are always available.
Dice the celery stalks. Save a couple of stalk tops with leaves to garnish the soup.
Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and peel them. Remove the seeds and chop the flesh very finely, or even puree it in a blender.
Peel and dice the onion and carrot.
Cut the pork fat into small pieces.

Mussel broth

The mussels don’t need to be thawed.
Boil the mussels in 1 liter of water to make a broth — no more than 3 minutes, or the mussels turn tough and rubbery.
Take out the mussels and set them aside; use the broth for the soup.
If the mussel broth doesn’t look very appetizing, which is quite likely with farmed mussels, it’s better to pour it off and make the soup with water.

Cooking the soup

By the way, it’s handy to cook it not in a pot but in a deep sauté pan.
Fry the diced bacon in a skillet until the cracklings are half-dry. By color, they’ll be just starting to char. Carefully pick out all the cracklings onto a small plate and set aside.
In the pork fat left from the cracklings, fry the chopped onion until it softens.
Add the carrot and chopped celery stalks. Keep frying over high heat, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.
Add 0.5 tsp of dried thyme, rubbing it between your fingers, and a bay leaf. Fry for another 2-3 minutes, stirring. Add the tomato puree, stir and pour in 2-3 cups of the mussel broth (400–600 ml) or water.
Salt and add finely chopped garlic. Don’t grate the garlic; it’s better to chop it with a knife, so there’s less garlic juice. After 10 minutes of simmering over medium heat, add the potatoes cut into medium pieces and cook for 15 minutes until the potatoes are done.
Add the boiled mussels, stir and let the soup simmer over low heat for another 2-3 minutes.

Serving

Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish each with a celery sprig and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. If the cracklings have survived until the cooking is done, you can add 1 tsp of cracklings to each bowl and, to taste, a pinch of hot pepper.
Serve the mussel soup piping hot. Small, lightly salted crackers go perfectly with it; I recommend trying them.

Calories and macros

480 kcal

Serving ≈ 800 g

Protein19 g17% of kcal
Fat25 g50% of kcal
Carbs38 g34% of kcal

100 g60 kcalProtein 2.4 gFat 3.2 gCarbs 4.8 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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