Clams

Perhaps you can do stuffed clams on the half shell or on mushrooms....
Let me know if you're interested and I can send you the recipes.
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If you can get razor clams, they are amazing lightly dusted with flour and pan fried in butter.

 

Yummy looking. Those remind me of my grandma's stuffed clams! If it's a multi-course affair, perhaps spaghetti with clam sauce for the pasta course?

 

p.s. to Sara - I'd love your stuffed clams recipe!!

 

Clams casino or clams oreganata are always good bets. There are tons of recipes online.


Mark

 

My grandma never cooked with bacon, but the oregenata looks closer to what I remember. Thanks!

 

Tom,
It would be my pleasure. I'll send it to you
Sara

 

I love tossing little necks with a quality black bean sauce and topping with fresh scallion. Basic and simple, but the flavors really work, IMO.

 

If that's the case, my menu would be risotto Milanese with butter seared scallops and a side of clams sautéed in a butter/white wine garlic sauce.

Another option would be to do both the clams and scallops in a scampi style sauce over pasta.

Mark

 

I confirm , it's delicious . Even with white beans
And risotto el mismo
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I had this a few times at the original BR around 3 or 4 in the morning:

Eating In: Blue Ribbon's Clam Stew for Two

 

I like to clean the clams before I do anything else.

-- Scrub under the slowest trickle of cool running water as possible (too much water can kill them, supposedly.)

-- I then pour a gallon of tap water at ~70F into a wide mixing bowl and whisk in 2/3s of a cup of Kosher salt.

-- In go the clams. After a while, they'll spew out waste product and sand. They also take in some of that briny water which really helps with flavor. (If the water is dirty, soak them in a new batch of salted water without rinsing them off -- just transfer over.) You can also sprinkle some cornmeal over them which accelerates their opening. I don't bother with the meal, don't want the grit in the final dish.

-- Go right to the pan with them -- again, no rinse.

 

I think I read with mussels, if the shells don't open when you cook them, chuck them out? Does anyone know if same is true for clams?

 

Yes. Chuck them. There no sense is risking some serious food poisoning for one or two clams.



Mark

 

I wish i could help - I'm not a clam fan, so i dont use them. but when forced to cook them - in culinary school or when I was on my apprenticeship in Switzerland here is my favorite:

Court boullion:
water
half bottle white wine - high acid content
bay leaf
onion chopped
leek
mushroom peeling & stems - ****aki stems are good for this
butter & O oil

saute shroom stems and leeks and onion - dont brown, but cook till translucent... and soft. get the moister from the shrooms out.

add in the clams turn heat up to high - add wine in and once the alcohol is cooked off add water cover with lid... bring back to simmer - remove lid and once clams are open strain & save the juice - discard the veggies. reduce the liquid to 1/4 the volume and save ....

take the clams and plunge into ice water. remove the clams from shells - retain shells ...

Cook rissotto rice with white wine and chopped shallots. cook till its very creamy then take off the stove. at the end add in heavy cream that has been lightly whipped with lots of gruyere cheese and grated nutmeg and 1 egg. stir into the hot risotto - it should be thickish... add in some of the clam reduction - keep it like mashed potato consistency. and chill.

to assmeble:

take a shell, scoop the rice mixture insert a cooked clam in the middle and make a meat ball that fits into the shell... pat down and make it smooth. top with some Cheese... and broil till you have a golden crispy cheesey rice toping... serve on rock salt.