Thing Twelve: Stuffed clams
Jul. 5th, 2012 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badseed1980Every year, on the fourth of July, a friend of mine hosts a big party centered on Rhode Island-style foods. She and I are both from there, as are a few of the other guests. Every year, we have steamers, chowder, clam cakes, brown bread (which I think of as a Boston thing, but whatever), and the closest approximation to Del's frozen lemonade as it was made in my youth that I've ever tasted. There's also usually homemade ice cream and other stuff that people bring. I've always brought stuffies--stuffed quahogs. I've bought the frozen ones, and heated them in the oven at her place before serving. This year, though, I decided to make them from scratch. They didn't turn out perfectly in terms of texture, but the taste was just right!
First problem: I could not, for the life of me, find quahogs. I settled for cherrystones, which are the same hard-shelled clams, but smaller. I soaked them in salt water with cornmeal in it, to get them to spit out the grit inside them. Then, I steamed them open and extracted the meat. I chopped the meat up, and mixed it with finely diced onions and green and red bell pepper that I'd sauteed in butter. I mixed all that together with a lot of breadcrumbs (I had to use half panko, which wasn't ideal, but it was what I had), more butter, a little of the steaming liquid, a little garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I did all that the night before, and the next day, I stuffed the separated clamshells, sprinkled the tops with paprika, and baked them until golden brown. I served them with Tabasco sauce. They were just a little too crumbly, but delicious! Sure, there are variations that add stuff like choriço or bacon or romano cheese and herbs, but I grew up with this simple clam-and-breadcrumb stuffing, and it's perfect as it is.
Next time, I'm going to use all fresh breadcrumbs. I believe the bakery at the bottom of my cross street sells them by the bagful. No panko. The texture just isn't quite right. I'm also going to use a little white wine or dry vermouth in the clam steaming liquid, and add a bit more of it to the stuffing mixture. There's enough butter in them (about half a stick) that they'll still get golden brown on top if I up the liquid content. I will also try like hell to get real quahogs, because damn it, I am a Rhode Islander, even if I do live in Massachusetts. :)
First problem: I could not, for the life of me, find quahogs. I settled for cherrystones, which are the same hard-shelled clams, but smaller. I soaked them in salt water with cornmeal in it, to get them to spit out the grit inside them. Then, I steamed them open and extracted the meat. I chopped the meat up, and mixed it with finely diced onions and green and red bell pepper that I'd sauteed in butter. I mixed all that together with a lot of breadcrumbs (I had to use half panko, which wasn't ideal, but it was what I had), more butter, a little of the steaming liquid, a little garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I did all that the night before, and the next day, I stuffed the separated clamshells, sprinkled the tops with paprika, and baked them until golden brown. I served them with Tabasco sauce. They were just a little too crumbly, but delicious! Sure, there are variations that add stuff like choriço or bacon or romano cheese and herbs, but I grew up with this simple clam-and-breadcrumb stuffing, and it's perfect as it is.
Next time, I'm going to use all fresh breadcrumbs. I believe the bakery at the bottom of my cross street sells them by the bagful. No panko. The texture just isn't quite right. I'm also going to use a little white wine or dry vermouth in the clam steaming liquid, and add a bit more of it to the stuffing mixture. There's enough butter in them (about half a stick) that they'll still get golden brown on top if I up the liquid content. I will also try like hell to get real quahogs, because damn it, I am a Rhode Islander, even if I do live in Massachusetts. :)
