Steamed Clams

Instead of Flügtagging, Wifey's dad held the annual Stahl Crabfest, this weekend. After three years of being in the family, he offered me the honor of helping in the cooking. While Dad-in-law steamed two bushels of crabs, I took to the grill and steamed 500 clams (minus the ones we ate raw).

I really enjoy steaming clams, because it’s easy, and the number of ways you can influence the flavor of the clam. All you really need is a cooking vessel, a liquid, and heat. The liquid imparts the most flavor to the clams. Water gives you a true clam flavor, but beer, wine, chicken broth, or any other clear liquid work great and add flavor. Beyond that, you can add any number of things to the liquid to impart more flavors; aromatic vegetables, seasonings, or butter give the best results. I steam with water when I am using the clams as part of another recipe (clams over linguine, pork in clam and garlic sauce) but when we are eating the clams as an appetizer, I usually cook my clams in white wine with butter, red and green bell peppers, and garlic. This time I kept it simple and steamed with white wine, except for one batch I steamed in beer.

The size of the steaming pan depends on how many clams you are cooking and what you plan on using to heat the pan. On a stove-top, I use a large frying pan or a stockpot. In the oven I use a cast iron pan, a roasting pan, or a casserole dish. On the grill, I use a roasting pan, or sometime just put the clams on the grate. I like using the “foil-ware” lasagna pans or steaming trays in the oven or on the grill when I am cooking more than one batch, since I can use a new one instead of cleaning the pan when switching liquids, or when serving the clams in the juice.


Ingredients

• Clams
• Liquid of choice
• Flavorings of choice
• Water
• Corn Meal
• Ice

Tools

• Pan
• Tongs
• Knives and cutting boards to prep flavorings (if necessary)
• Storage container

Instructions
Prior to cooking, any bad clams (broken shells, chipped, barnacled) should be discarded. The remainder need to be cleaned by soaking them in ice water with some cornmeal added to it. After about a half hour the water will be cloudy and dirty, but the inside of the clams will be dirt free. Pick the clams out of the water, don’t pour them through a strainer or you will just be pouring the dirt back over them.

Pick a cooking vessel which fits over your heat source, and is over an inch or two deep. Fill the pot with one layer of clams.  Don’t stack clams on top of each other, or you risk over-cooking the bottom clams. Pour about an inch of liquid, and add any flavorings into the pan, and cook over high heat until the clams start opening. As each clam opens completely, remove them to your serving plate. Discard any clams that don’t open within a few minutes of the rest of the clams. Eat right out of the shell or dip in drawn butter and enjoy.

The __T Sandwich

That's right; no B or L. If you want to make a good BLT go see Lisa's post on EatingInSJersey. IMHO, bacon and lettuce aren't worthy to be on the same sandwich as fresh, ripe, in-season Jersey tomatoes. Save the bacon until you need to overpower early season, late season, or *cringe* out of state tomatoes. I keep a cutting board and knife at my desk, bring in a loaf of bread and jar of mayo to the office every Monday, and carry in a tomato every day and make the sandwich fresh for lunch for as long as I can get good tomatoes. Yes, I do get funny looks at work, but once you try the sandwich, you'll agree the looks are worth it.

Ingredients

• Tomato
• Bread
• Mayonnaise
• Salt
• Peppercorns

Tools

• Cutting board
• Serrated knife
• Butter knife or rubber spatula
• Pepper grinder

To make the sandwich, slice the tomato horizontally (not from top to bottom) so you get full round quarter inch (6mm) slices. Spread the mayo on both slices of bread and season each with salt and pepper. Stack the bread and two tomato slices (bread, tomato, bread), cut the sandwich in half if desired, and enjoy.

Notes:

• A medium sized tomato (three inch diameter) should yield enough for two sandwiches and a little leftover around the stem to eat (just salt, pepper, and yum) or put toward a salad.
• The mayo not only provides flavor, but creates a barrier between the tomato juice and the bread, keeping the bread from becoming a pink soggy mess.
• You can use any bread you want, including rolls, but I like whole wheat sandwich bread.

Flying Fish Exit 6

The next stop on Flying Fish Brewery's trek up and down the New Jersey Turnpike is Exit 6 Wallonian Rye. Flying Fish released the beer last month and should still be widely available for purchase. Here is the description from the Exit Series site:

For our fifth stop, we journey to Exit 6. This part of Burlington County was settled by Dutch Walloons (now Belgians) whose first order of business was to build a fort–and then a tavern. The area has always had a rich agricultural heritage and we’re using locally grown rye as an appreciation of our farmers past and present.

Exit 6 starts out as a deceptively simple recipe–pale malt augmented by 20 percent rye, fermented with a classic Belgian yeast. But then it gets interesting with the hops: English East Kent Goldings, Slovenian Styrian Goldings and Japanese Sorachi Ace.

The result is a rich saffron color with a spicy character from the rye and lemony citrus notes from the unique Sorachi Ace hops.

The beer poured with a beautiful golden color with a small head which dissipated unsurprisingly quickly considering Exit 6 is 7.5% ABV. The beers I poured for Wifey and I stayed rather cloudy, I'm not sure if that was because of the rye or if my pour included most of the yeast used in bottle conditioning.

For taste, I did get a light citrus taste, but didn't get any of the spiciness Flying Fish described above. The most distinguishing taste characteristic we both found was a slightly sour finish. Again, not sure if that comes across normally with the beer or if my yeasty pour brought the sour to the table. Overall a good beer, and one which should pair well with summer foods.

Update August 1, 2010

I tried another bottle today and got a better pour, without any yeast sediment in the glass. The beer still had a cloudy, medium straw color and a slightly sour taste. While I like it, some people may not. I took a photo of today's pour, below, and you can see the coudiness. Also, I poured the beer so the top of the head reached the top of the glass, and I took the shot below about 90sec after the pour, so you can see how quickly the head dissipates.

What to do with all those Blueberries

I can't believe how good this year's blueberry crop has been. Big, plump, and well... BLUE. The wet, cool spring (which yielded to a balmy summer) gave us great berries. While Wifey just likes to eat them right out of the package, I had to cook with them. So far, we used over 30 pints, and here are three simple, yummy ideas.

Blueberry Vodka
As promised, I brewed up some infused blueberry vodka. I used the exact same recipe as my strawberry vodka so I won't repeat it here, except blueberries don't need to be cut so, you don't need as much prep time, but they are better after a week and a half to two week soak. For some unknown reason I seem to prefer drinking the blueberry out of a snifter over a martini glass.

Blueberry Muffins
Obviously the standard thing to cook with blueberries are muffins. I base my muffing recipe on the "Old School Muffins" in Alton Brown's baking cookbook. For today's blueberry batch, I wanted healthier muffins so I modified the recipe to make whole wheat muffins and used Sugar in the Raw instead of white sugar.

Ingredients

• All purpose flour
• White whole wheat flour
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Salt
• Sugar
• Vegetable oil
• Large egg plus one egg yolk
• Blueberries

Tools

• Regular size muffin tin (12 muffins)
• Mixing bowls
• Oven (pre-heat to 375F)
• Kitchen scale
• Pam for Baking

Muffins are one of the simplest things you can bake. Since they are chemically leavened (baking powder reaction) they don't require proofing yeast. You simply mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ones in another, pour the wet into the dry, stir, and scoop. For this and many baking recipes sugar counts as a wet ingredient since it liquefies when it gets heated. Also, only stir just enough to mix all the flour in. Over-mixing leads to flat muffins because the bubbles being formed by the baking powder/soda escape. Let the dough stand for 5 minutes before scooping into a lubed muffin pan

Dry stuff:
163 grams (1 1/4 cup) all purpose flour - The most accurate way to measure flour is to weigh it because it can get compressed in the measuring scoop and you can add too much and get dry muffins
140 grams (1 cup) whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt

Wet:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Egg and egg yolk
1 cup plain low fat yogurt
1 cup blueberries

Mix, let stand, scoop and bake for 18-20 minutes at 375F. I turn the pan around after 10 minutes to make sure the cook even. The next time I make muffins I plan to use only whole wheat flour (315g) since you don't need any gluten in the muffins.

Blueberry Sauce
Without a doubt, Bryers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream is the best ice cream you can buy at a store. The off season standard for toppings is, of course Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, or maybe Magic Shell. During berry season, I make a fruit syrup with either strawberries or blueberries (same recipe) that really compliments the already great vanilla ice cream. The syrup would also go great with some of the Whole Wheat Pancakes from Alton's baking cookbook.


Ingredients

• Blueberries
• Sugar
• Pure vanilla extract

Tools

• Saucepan
• Stovetop

Combine a pint of blueberries (or cut strawberries), a half cup of sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat. Stir until the sugar melts and the juice starts to cook out of the berries (about 8-12 min). Reserve 1/3 - 1/2 of the fruit and blend the remaining fruit/sauce in either a blender or with a boat motor stick blender. Put the liquefied sauce and reserved fruit back together in the pan, lower the heat to medium low and simmer until desired thickness.