Local group chases briny glory at cook-off
It just may be a bivalve’s worst nightmare. Take several
thousand ravenous spectators, 78 teams of cooks and nearly half a
ton of clams, stir gently and you get the 28th annual Santa Cruz
Clam Chowder Cook Off and Festival.
For the last 14 years, a family group with roots in Hollister
has made the annual trek to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk where
the event takes place. Salome
”
Salami
”
Ponce of Aptos, his wife, Janine and a collection of relatives
and friends from across Central California returned to the festival
last weekend with two cooking stations. The organized chaos in the
booth took place as passersby photographed and just generally
stared at several fine examples of Panopea abrupta, the geoduck or
giant clam.
Local group chases briny glory at cook-off
It just may be a bivalve’s worst nightmare. Take several thousand ravenous spectators, 78 teams of cooks and nearly half a ton of clams, stir gently and you get the 28th annual Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook Off and Festival.
For the last 14 years, a family group with roots in Hollister has made the annual trek to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk where the event takes place. Salome “Salami” Ponce of Aptos, his wife, Janine and a collection of relatives and friends from across Central California returned to the festival last weekend with two cooking stations. The organized chaos in the booth took place as passersby photographed and just generally stared at several fine examples of Panopea abrupta, the geoduck or giant clam.
Geoducks grow to impressive size, and live as long as 150 years, buried deep in sand or mud. Their siphons are so large they can’t be withdrawn entirely into the clam’s shell, so they depend of being buried deep for protection.
Which makes collecting them something of a chore.
“I have to go almost three feet deep sometimes,” Ponce said. “I’ve been clamming for a long time – since I was a kid.” He measured the biggest one he ever collected, a behemoth 7 ¾ inches across.
His parents started collecting the kids and heading over to Elkhorn Slough during the lowest tides found in the colder months of the year. Last Saturday, his mother, Margaret Sandoval of Hollister, sat at the edge of the stand, carefully dicing peppers for the Manhattan chowder.
Unlike most competitors, this crew doubles up, offering steaming cauldrons of both the tomato-based Manhattan and the creamy Boston varieties.
A table full of trophies from past competition produces long lines of tasters waiting for samples. The family won first place for its Boston brew in 2006, a second for Manhattan in 2008 and two other third place victories. When the judges slurped their final slurp this year, both entries scored – a third place for Salome’s Boston team and a second place for the Manhattan by Janine’s crew.
The makeshift kitchen the group uses is topped with a portable awning and fronted with a banner proclaiming them Mom’s Clam Diggers. The banner also features a large photo of family members standing on the mudflats at Elkhorn Slough. The Manhattan group enters as Grandma’s Clam Diggers.
The names are a natural outgrowth of a family tradition.
“I’ve been clamming since I can remember,” Salome said. “My mom would walk around the slough there, and the clams would shoot up little jets of water. My mom would say, ‘dig here,’ ‘dig there.’
“When my kids started coming along, my daughter actually dug one by herself, so I said, now we’ll have Grandma’s Clam Diggers.”
When his three children grow old enough, he hopes they’ll continue what has become a family tradition.
Just like any good episode of “Iron Chef,” last Saturday’s competition was not without its moments of drama. Early in the cooking process, the pace was relaxed as people chatted while slicing ingredients into neat dice. Two pans, each containing three pounds of bacon from the Corralitos Market, bubbled away. “This is fun – like a family reunion,” first-timer Dusty Rodriguez said.
As the pots began to fill, things began to get hot in the kitchen.
“It was busy,” Ponce said. “When the [Boston] chowder got busy, we forgot to add salt, so as we were serving we added salt to taste.” A visitor from Hollister was only too happy to volunteer to be the official “salty enough?” taster. Bay leaves also never made it into the pot, an oversight that wasn’t discovered until the end of the day. Then the Boston chowder nearly ran out before the judges could return for a second sample. “We had to grab what we had left in the pots for them,” Ponce said.
On Monday, Ponce was convinced his chowder would have placed higher if the judges had a proper second taste.
The Ponces break a few rules in their chowder, but after 14 years of competition, they’ve learned a few things. “For some reason the judges like it not as thick,” he said. “The way I grade it is when people come back for seconds, thirds, even fifths. This year we had people returning not as much. The crowds seem to prefer it thicker.”
The first seven years the family competed, they had dug every ounce of clam meat used themselves – about 25 pounds of cleaned chopped clam each year. Now, the group depends on a healthy addition of purchased clam.
For Ponce and Co., the Chowder Cook Off is as much about fun as soup. Salome wore a frilly red apron through the day, one featuring a convincing pair of artificial women’s breasts. Across the booth on the Manhattan side, a visitor remarked on the number of Jalapeno chilies that are being chopped. “We make Mexican Manhattan chowder,” one quipped.
To duplicate the family’s recipes, it helps to think very, very big.
Describing his batch of Boston this year, Ponce listed the ingredients: “I had 10 pounds of clam meat, no juice, six quarts of clams that had juice in it, about nine pounds of clam that I dug up, 10 pounds of potatoes. I think we chopped up about eight bunches of celery, and we put in 10 onions, medium size. I put in one and three fourths gallons of cream.”
Spices are added to taste. Garlic powder, thyme and rosemary – dried and fresh – dried pepper and fresh ground pepper round out the flavor, along with salt (when it’s not forgotten). “I also use dill,” Ponce said, “and the nice thing is you can put in a little or a lot and it’s not going to overcome the flavor.”
A five-pound sack of flour went to make the roux that thickened the chowder. The roux is the critical step in chowder.
“You almost get it to when it’s turning brown, almost ready to burn, and the mixture will settle down and stop bubbling so much.” In addition to butter, a mixture of bacon drippings and olive oil are incorporated.
Another important element is treating the vegetable ingredients with respect. “One of the things I like to do is with the celery and onions, I like to boil that first and get the celery really, really tender. The celery flavor comes out of there,” he said.
In addition to jalapeno and Anaheim chiles, the Manhattan chowder departs from tradition in that it contains no vinegar. That’s the family rule: cook what you want to eat, and the Ponces like a sweeter chowder.
“I learned to cook from my mom,” he said. “I always try to improve. I look at different ingredients to think about what I would like. I just wanted to make a red that I’d like.”
Ponce said Manhattan is an easier proposition, because it doesn’t require mothering a roux along and it doesn’t have cream’s tendency to scorch. It contains tomatoes, tomato sauce, the chilies, bell peppers, celery, potatoes thyme, rosemary, onions and a whole lot of clams.
The group also offers tasters another secret ingredient – San Juan Bakery french bread. “Nobody else does that, and a lot of people like the bread,” Ponce said.
As the crowds thinned and the day wound down, the adults collapsed into chairs to relax while the kids took a turn at the rides. The whole event is a benefit for the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department, one that gets bigger each year.
About the 2010 event?
“We’ll do it next year,” Ponce promised.
