Things worse than coitus interruptus....

Try this one on for size. Day spent on this measly haul.... ......not quite the bountiful harvest I was expecting after... .....but the boys and I (mostly just I) got nearly 4 dozen, enough for a meal, light! Ok, hit the Chatham Pier Fish Market for a couple of fiesty lobsters. So we (ok, I) get to cooking. The water for the lobsters is boiling, the linguica, shallots, garlic , butter, oil for the steamed clams is sauteeing, Redemption Rye Old Fashioned is hitting the spot. Life is pretty good, on the long awaited, hard earned vacay on The Cape. So, with a good boil going it's time for the 3 pounder to go headlong into the lobster pot. Four minutes later the 2.6 pounder goes in. 20 minutes and out they will come, so it's time to turn the attention to steaming the clams. Just as I splash in the white wine for the steaming.........OUT GOES THE POWER! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu@&!!!!!!!!! We'll, had the heat been under the lobsters they'd have been done 20 minutes ago. Time to see now if they cooked through sufficiently without heat.....

Meal, Interrupted....

So you put wine in with the water for your steamers??? I love clams but I've never steamed them with wine ----- thanks for the tip!!!

Enjoy your vacation!

JTG4eva! wrote

Try this one on for size.

Day spent on this measly haul....

Were you raking on the beach for hard clams? If so - get yo azz in deeper! The beach is for digging soft shells (aka piss clams) with a fork.

You got a bunch that would be good raw there.

Cooking a lobster for 20 minutes makes rubber.

Not for a three pound lobster.  Lobsters were cooked to perfection, and no sooner than we finished those the power came back on!

Yeah, the pics were of the boys before we started.  I was pretty much chest deep, the boys not so much!  Our problem was the tide.....needed low, got high.  It was also a miserable, cool, windy and rainy day.  But we had fun, and the caught clams def tasted better than the bought.

Steamers......they of the soft shells, long necks, and yucky foreskin like thing you gotta pull off.....we don't do those.

We go for the hard shell quahogs (Ko-hogs).....little necks/cherry stones.  Sauté some shallot, garlic and chorizo in butter, then the steaming liquid is either white wine or beer.

<quote author="JTG4eva!">Steamers......they of the soft shells, long necks, and yucky foreskin like thing you gotta pull off.....we don't do those./quote>

Don't let the looks turn you off...they're quite good. Dig em on the beach at low tide.

I never heard of steaming a cherrystone until I moved upstate.  On the half shell with lemon and cocktail sauce is the only way.

OTOH "Soft shell clam" or "steamer" are terms that only appears on restaurant menus. The correct reference is "piss clams" and they are not bad steamed.

mm

If you soak the soft shell clams(piss clams) they spit out most of the sand..IMO they are best cooked clams out there..If you ever order fried clams on the Cape, they use soft shell..

Cooked Cherrystones have the potential of being bubble gum..Little necks are the sweet spot..

The kids are into sushi, but not raw bar stuff, yet.  Yeah, we probably should have separated out the cherrystones and shucked them, then steamed the little necks...but our plate of self caught steamed clams hit the spot.  Lots of bread to soak up the steaming liquid is a MUST!

that looks great!!

A much better clamming experience today!



And a proper bushel of quahogs...



And a fine lunch!



Now we need to see if the weather is going to cooperate.  Have a fire permit tonight, and the 16 dozen clams we have left are slated to be steamed on the beach.

Just WOW!!!

I was on the cape this weekend too..where do you dig the clams? do you need a permit?

Man-0-Man that looks nice and relaxing!

We are in Chatham, so we know a few good spots around there.  That bushel was harvested in Stage Harbor, just off the Morris Island causeway, although that's a popular spot and by this time in the season it's getting a little thin.  I've been told Chatham Harbor over by the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge is a great (and uncrowded) spot......quahogs to the left of the steps, mussels to the right.  If you've never been, you'll know what I mean when/if you get there.  That's also just a beautiful spot to take a long walk out past Amos Point, or just hang out.  Another spot we'll try soon is Ryder's Cove.  Yes, you need a permit.  In Chatham a resident/property owner family permit is $35 for the year.  Non-resident rate is a little higher.  They are serious about it, too.  A shellfish warden was at our Morris Island causeway spot and caught my brother and his 13 year old son with rake in hand.  They can't fish on my permit (only good for my immediate family, and relatives under 13 with me), and he didn't have his own.  I may get a warning in the mail about having two unlicensed fisherman with me!  Oh, and my permit was in my bag, not visibly affixed to my person.  Like I said, at least in Chatham, they don't fool around.  She also eyeballed and spot measured our catch on the way out.  We had a couple of under-sized clams (didn't know you really need to try and wiggle them through the clam gauge!)  She was friendly about it all though.  It's a great experience though, and nothing beats fresh, self-harvested clams!