Clam-a-rama
I love seafood.
Living in Seattle the selection of the Sea’s fresh and delicious bounty is limitless… and I love that!
One of my favorite treats are steamer clams.
When I was a kid we used to go to Penrose Park to camp and we’d go out with a 5 gallon bucket and get as many of these little steamer clams, or back then I called them Butter Clams. We’d bring them back to the campfire, where my Mom would put a giant beat up enameled metal stock pot filled with salted water on the campfire. After the water was boiling like a cauldron the fresh clams were added and we’d all sit around hungrily in anticipation of them popping open signalling that they were ready to come to dinner with us.
Now I came from a house of two ways to eat clams. My Mom would take a portion of the harvest and she would meticulously sit and clean each clam, she would then crush saltine crackers, dip the clams in a beaten egg and saute them in butter. Which really… is just to die for. Then you have my Dad, he’s a man’s man. He would eat them right out of the shell, stick a fork in there and get that sucker out dip it in some butter and eat it up. The funny thing was he would make these funny faces like he was a “beast” eating this little clam, because he liked teasing my Mom who got sick at the thought of eating the clams whole and uncleaned. He would make beast noises and faces and she would grimace, it was their ritual.
Back then, I was an adamant follower of the ways of the butter sauted cleaned clams. I too would grimace when my Dad would gulp them down out of the shell. I was a tomboy, but still a girly girl with some things. So I bolstered up on Mom’s side while my brother and my Dad ate their little treasures and I waited for my little crunchy cracker coated buttered clams to arrive. I didn’t know what I was missing, and I am in no way knocking my Mom’s version… in the case of clams you can have the best of both worlds if you want, I just didn’t know it yet.
So one year, I got brave and decided to see if my Dad was all full of hooey or if these dirty little uncleaned clam corpses were as good as all the rest of his weird concoctions that always tasted good. My Dad was teasing me, as he likes to do, while I sat there looking at the glistening butter drenched clam body sparkling in the firelight. I close dmy eyes and prepared for the worst of it, chomped down and was enraptured with the delicious explosion of flavors and textures. I’ve never turned back since and steamer clams have remained one of my favorite treats to this very day.
I’ve twisted my recipe here and there and have come up with what I find to be a lovely creamy and delectable compliment to fresh manila clams, and thought I’d share it with you sinc eit’s been a while since I’ve indulged you all with a recipe.
Kelly’s Creamy Wino Steamer Clams
1 to 1 1/2 pounds of fresh LIVE manila steamer clams, washed
1/2 stick Butter
1/8 cup Shallots, finely minced
2 cloves Garlic, crushed
2 cups Pinot Grigio
1 tablespoon Pesto
1/4 cup Heavy Cream
1 Lemon, cut into wedges
If you can get your clams from a fisherman’s market instead of the grocery store do it. tap on their shells and make sure that they snap shut. If they are laying there all open with insides looking like two day old chewing gum, don’t buy them. Wash those little puppies off and set them aside.
Take a large saute or fry pan and add your butter, melt it over medium heat and add in your garlic, shallots and pesto and saute until you sweat the shallots. Pour in half your wine and let the mixture reduce to half. Add the rest of the wine and when it resumes bubbling add in your clams. You should have enough to cover the bottom of the pan in a single layer. Watch them all pop open, discard those that do not pop open becuase they are bad and will make you very sick if you eat them. As soon as they are opened up add in your Heavy cream. Give the clams a quick toss to coat them in the liquid and pour the whole batch into a nice large serving bowl. Place another serving bowl over the top to keep them warm and to act as the “Graveyard” for the used up shells.
I serve this with chunky slices of peasant bread to sop up all the extra clam liquor that is left over. I don’t know what is more popular, my clams or the broth that is left over after they are devoured.
Serve this with a nice chilled Pinot Grigio, maybe a little candle light and someone special and you never know what might happen.
