Stuffed Clams - Palourdes Farcies: Guest Post by Try Anything Once

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

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.

Prep Time 7 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 17 minutes

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

Recipe and Photo Credit to Dionne of Try Anything Once, recipe is adapted from Larousse de la cuisine

Dionne's Notes: It is likely that you will have a lot of leftover butter. I usually use half of it on the clams and the other half ends up toasted on a baguette. I recommend dividing the butter into two dishes to avoid cross contamination.

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