Clams

I got a break from cooking and I’m not talking about my vacation. Anthony decided that since he is on break from school he would cook once or twice this week. We had been discussing cooking up some clams. After being down at the beach and smelling all the delicious clams, we had a really big craving for some. I know nothing about clams other then the fact that they live in the sea and they are a quite tasty. Anthony seemed to know what he was doing though. So I went out and bought a bag of clams (50 count of Littlenecks) from Wegman’s. I did price the seafood market and the clams were only 4 cents cheaper, not worth the drive.

Anthony had to run to the dentist before dinner, so he told me to clean the clams if I was so inclined. I figured why not. So I googled how to clean clams and that’s when I started getting a little queasy. I’m not an airhead, dimwit, or idiot as far as I know, but I’ve never really thought about clams. The first information I read was that the clams were supposed to be taken out of the package immediately, so they could breathe. Breathe? Okay let’s just ignore that for now. Before cooking submerge the clams in water with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch (apparently cornstarch helps make them cleaner). Then let them soak for 20 minutes. During this time the clams will breathe and some of the grit from inside the shell will release. Breathe? Moving on.

I filled the sink with water and the cornstarch. I opened the bag of clams and that’s when it really sunk in. These things are alive!!! WHAT?!!! I thought, Okay calm down and breathe chicky. Then I thought, ewwwww…I don’t want to touch them! Of course I did, but I started getting worried that some had already breathed in the bag, since some were slightly opened. I thought maybe those ones had already died and gone bad. I never really thought about the fact that clams are alive when you bring them home. Then another thought hit me, eating these things raw is a sin! How have I been doing that for years?!! I was horribly disgusted. I didn’t even want to touch the inside at all, let alone cut it out and just place it in my mouth. Gross!! Anthony finally arrived home as I was doing this and reassured me that all would be fine and threw the rest of the clams in the sink. BE GENTLE! These things are alive!! (Yes, I really did say that!) I have to say I’ve never been more fascinated by anything in my life. Live creatures in my sink, this was amazing. I stood above the sink, watching and listening to those clams breathe. It was thrilling. I freaked out a little bit when I noticed one clam had a foot out of the shell. Not pretty. I might never eat a raw clam again!

I then carefully scrubbed the grit off of their shells. Then Anthony was ready to grill them up.

I was so gentle with placing them in the sink and scrubbing them, but oddly enough didn’t feel a lick of guilt in killing them. I made salt potatoes with melted butter and Anthony made bruschetta to eat with the clams. He also made white wine butter sauce with smoked paprika and garlic. The sauce was really good. Anthony says he over cooked the clams; they felt a little tough. They were also a little gritty. I guess they didn’t breathe enough or something. Overall the meal was very good. We didn’t eat all of the clams. We each had some and then pulled the meat out of the rest of the shells to save for sauce.

Final Product:

I don’t have any recipes to give you for this post, since I didn’t cook and Anthony doesn’t usually work with recipes. Would I have this meal again? Of course. I love seafood!

Next Up: Last night we were invited to a friend’s house for dinner, I’ll talk about what he made and show you some pictures. Don’t worry I’m cooking tonight: Cauliflower Soup. This could get messy.