Low Country Boil Clam Chowder
With all the rain we had the first half of last week, I was really in the mood for something warm and comforting. I still had better than three dozen clams that I needed to use so my mind wandered to chowder. But here in the lowcountry, a New England or Manhattan style chowder just didn’t seem right. One of my favorite lowcountry dishes is the lowcountry boil, or Frogmore Stew, so I thought I’d borrow these flavors for a chowder. Continue reading
Ceylon Curry of Clams with Zucchini and Bell Pepper
I knew before I even left Ohio that I would make a clam curry dish, remembering the delicious Thai red curry I had made this past spring. But I am an avid reader of food articles and blogs and came across a New York Times collection of curry recipes that I had to check out. Included was a recipe for a Ceylon Curry of Oysters. I had to try this (using clams of course) because I have been on a bit of an Indian food kick lately, and of the many NYT recipes I have made, I have yet to make a bad one. Continue reading
Clams alla Puttanesca con “Zoodles”
My first clamming expedition this season netted me 68 nice, big,, fat clams without much effort. I shared some with a friend and still had a bunch. I decided that my first dish would be a salty, spicy Puttanesca, adding clams and subbing zucchini “noodles” for the spaghetti. But if I was going to make Clams alla Puttanesca, I was going to go all out clam and use all the roughly 4+ dozen clams I had left in the one dish.
This ended up being one of the best clam dishes I have ever made. The sauce was bursting with flavor, the zucchini noodles were crisp tender, and there was just a crazy amount of sweet clams. I can’t wait to make this one for the family later this fall. I got three servings from this recipe, but I served it with nothing else, so if you were having bread and a salad you could certainly get more servings.
I used as my starting point this recipe from Epicurious, omitting the pasta, salt,sugar, and basil, while adding more anchovy paste and chili flake. I did not puree the tomatoes as I prefer a chunky texture.
