Herb stuffed clams make the perfect appetizer, or you can serve with pasta as the main course. Leftover butter can be spread onto baguette and baked in the oven.
Today kicks off another week of Seafood Recipes on the blog. My daughter and I are both allergic to shellfish so it's not something you see much of here. This was a nice way for me to have seafood without any of the side effects. It's a win for you, and for me.
The perk of guest posts is getting to ask your friends to come over to play. It's like a grown-up version of a sleep over. Without all the staying up late and talking about boys. Although I have to admit today's guest is someone I do stay up late and talk about boys with, as often as possible. Dionne of Try Anything Once is one of my very best friends in the world. We can often be found chatting on facebook about The Walking Dead, and how adorable Daryl is into the wee hours of the morning. Okay, so maybe it's just me obsessing about what a cutie-pie Norman Reedus is. But Dionne listens to me ramble which in my book is the mark of a true friend.
Give a big lunatic welcome to Dionne, and her hubby who helped with this. Just don't tell him how much we talk about TV boys when the real boys are sleeping. It's our little secret.
Clams remind me of warm summers and cold beaches. Maybe it sounds odd that those two things don’t usually go together, but here in Washington that totally makes sense.
We usually enjoy clams in warm weather, which I really appreciate so that I can air out the house with all the doors and windows open. My memories of clam digging were pretty neat, but I never really used to participate when I was “little”. I would be off on my own collecting shells and cool-looking rocks. Every time we went clam digging it was pretty sunny at home but by the time we were ready to chase down those clams, Ocean Shores was cloudy and cold.
This particular beach is nothing like the ones would you see if you were on a tropical vacation, but it’s grown on me over the years. Ever since I was very young we’ve gone to the beach and around here that means wear warm clothes and bring an extra sweater. I’m having flashbacks of last summer, fishing on the shore in July with my teeth chattering uncontrollably.
I would love to visit a warm beach and lay out in the warm sun but I don’t mind traveling a bit to get there. This may sound odd but I am grateful for our cold, smelly beaches.
Growing up we would make the never ending drive to the ocean and when we were within a half hour of the beach we would see houses with fishing nets made of thick ropes, draped across the front porch with glass buoys nested inside of them. Little souvenir shacks with shells attached to the building and quite a few places selling fresh seafood became more frequent as we drove even closer.
We used to have a lot of family living out that way and I remember visiting my aunts and uncles, playing with my cousins and just having a blast. That’s what I remember when I think of clams and those glass buoys. Oh yes, and the cat that scratched my eye. All I tried to do was feed it a piece of clam and it took a swipe at me. Maybe that’s why I was never overly fond of cats.
Today I have stuffed clams for you. This is a recipe from our French cookbook and even though they are called stuffed clams, palourdes farcies, they aren’t really stuffed. They are actually dolloped with a butter mixture that makes these absolutely delicious.
I love the simplicity of this recipe but I swear it’s not just because it only takes a few minutes to make. 🙂 These can be served as an appetizer or with pasta as the main course. We like to enjoy these with a fresh baguette, smeared with the leftover butter mixture. My other half was kind enough to help with these clams and he really loves to cook. I tried to give him photographic credit for doing most of the work on these but he wasn’t fond of the idea of being photographed. So I didn’t. This time.
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Stuffed Clams
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp 1 medium shallot
- ½ cup finely chopped parsley
- 10 tbsp butter room temperature
- salt and pepper
- 3 pounds of fresh clams in the shell
- panko bread crumbs
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer add garlic, shallot, parsley, butter, salt and pepper.
- Mix on medium-low speed until butter and herbs are well combined.
- Spoon mixture into a small dish. If you are preparing the butter mixture ahead of time, refrigerate until ready to use.
- Dump clams into a colander, preferably metal if you have one.
- Check to make sure that each one of your clams are closed. Discard the ones that are open.
- Scrub the outside of the clams with a brush. You can also take a handful of clams and starting at the top, rub them downward to scrub them against the sides of the colander.
- Rinse well, let water completely drain.
- Preheat a large heavy bottom pot on high heat, leaving it empty.
- Once pot is preheated, dump clams inside.
- Cook until clams open, this may take approximately 5 minutes maybe less.
- Dump clams into colander and remove top shell. Discard any clams that are dark grey in color or that may have an odd smell. In my experience, this is very rare if you buy your clams from a trusted source.
- Place clams shell side down in a single layer onto a 13 inch by 9 inch baking pan, using an additional pan if necessary.
- Put a little dab of butter on top of each clam, about ½ tsp. or more if you would like.
- Sprinkle panko on top and broil for 3-4 minutes or until the butter is bubbling and panko is a light brown color.
- Remove from the oven and serve warm.
Notes
Kim, thank you so much for having me, or us, guest posting here today! I’m so happy that we could bring over some stuffed clams, complete with a really good butter for garlic bread. Now I’m off to see if I have what I need to make that Raspberry Fool of yours. After all, the best reason to eat dinner is to follow it with dessert.
Thanks so much to Dionne for guest posting for me today. You know I adore you. I just cannot wait until the day we get to meet in person. Not to mention the day we get to cook together. Now that will be an epic day for our friendship, and our waistlines.
Make sure you swing by Dionne's blog, Try Anything Once to subscribe. You can follow her on Facebook as well. I also encourage you to follow her on Twitter. And let's not forget she's got a killer Pinterest account you can follow as well. For those of you who google she's also on G+. She does great videos on YouTube so make sure you hop over there to check her out. I suggest you follow her everywhere. I stalk her on every possible social media account. It's how I roll.
To continue my theme of showing you embarrassing photos of myself from my youth, enjoy! These are just random bits from my weird, I mean awesomely normal, childhood.
Bringing you sunshine and laughter while I hang my head in shame:
I think it's important that when you get a Bionic Woman doll for Christmas that your Mom dresses you up to look just like her! Practically twins right!
Seriously, wtf?
Am I studying from the sidelines so l can learn how to play, or have I turned into Damien from The Omen? I'm not even sure! It's damning evidence for certain!
And just a little more WTH?
Apparently I liked dressing up in hockey gear. I'm not sure what the helmet is protecting me from. Maybe the ugly drapes, or the hideous floors. What the F is with the slippers?
More Seafood Week Recipes from my Awesome Buds:
Movita Beaucoup’s Lobster Pasta Salad
Cooking in Stilettos’ Coconut Almond Crusted Cod
Dinners, Dishes and Desserts Brown Butter Seafood Risotto
Crazy Foodie Stunts Braised Salmon with Mushrooms, Potato Purée and Watercress
Crumb’s Saganaki Shrimp
That Skinny Chick Can Bake's Sea Bass with Tomatoes, Olives and Capers
Toodles and smoochies! xx
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
This post reminds me of digging clams when I was a kid. We had a place at the Maine shore and at least once a year we'd don our gumboots and haul our buckets and rakes and dig clams for a day.
My mother's clams never looked this good!
Ramona W
Ha! Ha!... I cannot get over that hockey picture in slippers. So cute! I love clams.. but I have never handled them whole like this. I hang my head in shame to say it's always been the canned stuff for me. Someday I'll get my butt in gear and try something fun and beautiful like this. 🙂
John@Kitchen Riffs
I love stuffed clams! What a great recipe. And a great guest post. Thanks so much!
Stephanie @ Eat. Drink. Love.
These are so pretty! I'm not usually a clam person, but this filling sounds too good to pass up!
Kristen
I have so many memories of those cold Northwest beaches! I can still remember the first time I saw a goeduck! I'll take these cute little clams any day, thank you. That butter sounds divine.
Veronica McLaughlin Gantley
I am dying over the hockey pic. I have lots of pics that are embarrassing. My mom has them. I hope someday she doesn't use them against me. I am so sorry you cant enjoy seafood. I am glad you are living vicariously threw others.
Dionne Baldwin
I love the pic of you in your hockey gear! I happen to think that all 3 of them are adorable. Thank you for having me as a guest poster! 😀
suzanne Perazzini
It's hard for me to believe that once upon a time I didn't like shellfish but that changed some time ago. These look delightful. They also remind me of my childhood and summers, digging beneath the sand for shellfish.
cheri
These look so wonderful, love this combination! We foraged for mussels last summer and learned quite a few things that I never knew before, I think this recipe would be good using them as well. Thanks!
Emily @ Life on Food
Clams are so good. We tried to go clamming once and I cut my foot open. Never again. Maybe after a few years break I can try again this summer, much more carefully!
Choc Chip Uru
Clams are fabulous, everyone I know craves the gourmet dish 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Cathy
Was just wondering, can this be done on the grill? Any advice??
Kim Beaulieu
Let me get a hole of Dionne and have her help you. Personally I think anything can be adapted for the grill but I'm not a seafood eater so I could be wrong. I'll have her pop by tomorrow to answer you.
Dionne Baldwin
Hi Cathy! I have never made these on the grill so I cannot say for sure. If I were to try it, I would warm up the grill and get it nice and hot. Then I'd wrap all the clams in foil, sealing the edges, and place on the grill instead of boiling in a pot. Let them cook until they open, just like in the recipe above. They could possibly be placed on foil to melt the butter, but I don't think the panko would brown on top so you could even leave that out. Let us know if you try it! Please keep in mind that I have not tried it before so I cannot say what the outcome will be for sure. 🙂