We are big fans of steamers and order them whenever they are on a restaurant menu. But we do love cooking them in the summer too, especially when we did them!
Jim’s dad swore by cleaning the steamers by first rinsing then placing in a refrigerator drawer with breadcrumbs. Some people use cornmeal. The clams stick their necks out and eat the breadcrumbs, replacing the sand in their bellies with breadcrumbs making for less grit. Just rinse the clams again before cooking.
Steamers
Our brother-in-law, Peter, who is an avid ocean lover introduced us to the best way to cook steamers. He add chopped onion, jalapeño and garlic to a pan with the cleaned steamers. He would then add a beer, the same amount of water and add a bit of butter to the top. Remember, the goal is to steam them, not boil. Cover and cook on medium high on the stove top for 7-10 minutes or until the shells open, or use a disposable roasting pan covered with foil for the grill. Only eat the ones that open.
Eating steamers is a messy business so we usually lay out some newspaper where we are going to eat. Put the steamers in a big bowl. Put some of the broth in a small bowl for dipping the clams to clean them off. Melt some butter and put in another bowl. We use salted butter for flavor. One of our friends, Debbie, likes to add Frank’s Red Hot sauce to the butter for a little extra taste.
Now for eating the steamers, you have to take the outer neck skin off first. Then holding it by the skinless neck, dip and swish in the broth to remove any extra sand. Next, dip it in the butter, then enjoy!! You can either have a bowl for the shells or just discard on the paper, and toss with the newspaper. Deliciousness!
Clam Chowder
We love Grover’s (Jim’s dad’s) clam chowder recipe. He used to go to Nantasket Beach in Hull after a Nor’easter and collect any of the sea clams that washed in to make his famous creamy New England clam chowder. We like fairly thin chowder, so we don’t add any cornstarch or flour like you see in many recipes. We typically make this chowder for any summer get togethers as it reminds us of Jim’s dad.
Grover’s Clam Chowder
2 lbs minced clams (either fresh sea clams or from fish market)
6 diced potatoes
1 diced onion
4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
1 quart light cream or whole milk
1 stick butter
2 bottles clam juice
We added dill and corn this time, but not part of original recipe. Can’t say I will add it again.
Cook the bacon first and chop into bite sized pieces.
Sauté the onions until transparent and add the chopped bacon. Add clam broth and potatoes and cook until potatoes are just tender. If you want to add corn you can do it now. Remove from heat to cool slightly.
Heat the milk or cream in a smaller pot on medium heat, making sure to not boil. Add the clams to the cream and cook for about 5 minutes. The most important and trickiest part of Grover’s recipe is not letting the cream curdle by getting it too hot or cooking it too long. Add a tablespoon of butter to the top and it will melt giving you a gauge of temperature.
Then you need to temper the broth and potatoes with the cream by adding a ladle of the warm broth to the cream and vice versa until temperatures are the same and can be combined.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with oyster crackers or saltines.
Variations:
This time we changed it up a little just to be creative. This time we used milk instead of cream as we didn’t have any light cream in the house, so we just used milk for our impromptu chowder making it really thin. We also added some frozen corn and dill, but that is not our usual recipe. Some people like to add celery at the step with the onions. Some prefer salt pork instead of bacon. Use your imagination. Normally, we use the larger sea clams for chowder, or buy chopped clams at the fish market, but because we dug so many steamers, even after we shared with our son and our daughter, we still had some left over. We chopped these up along with the few little necks we dug to make chowder for the next day.
We also do a corn chowder with this base, just use water instead of clam juice for potatoes if you use them.
Patti’s Corn Chowder
2 cans Mexican corn (comes with peppers in it)
1 can creamed corn
6 diced potatoes (optional, some people don’t like potatoes in corn chowder)
1 diced onion
4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
1 quart light cream
1 stick butter
Salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste
Enjoy!!!
Patti and Jim
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