Shellfish Shellfish Shellfish

As previously mentioned, I am on holidays. I felt it was time to take a break from work, even if it meant having a "staycation" as opposed to going somewhere hot and tropical. For the first day of my holidays, I roped C into coming over and helping me make something with seafood.

She brought over some cookbooks, and we went through those and my cookbooks and planned a menu for eight. Even though there was only two of us eating. Never meal plan whilst hungry.

Rather than making a dish like paella or cioppino, which includes several types of fish and/or shellfish, we decided to make four appetizers and a soup. Each featuring a different shellfish. We are ambitious.

We went to a seafood store and picked up clams, mussels, crab, and lobster. Then we went to this magical place. The Sobey's Urban Fresh on Jasper Ave. I want to move in there. I don't mean nearby, I mean I want to move into the Sobeys. The produce was in way better condition than the produce at my normal Sobeys, and I even found smoked paprika, which is something I have heard of, but thought it was similar to the unicorn.

Not everyone may understand my newest obsession, but I love the grocery store, and I found one that is on a whole new level of awesome. I compare it to using Covergirl makeup, and then one day purchasing M.A.C. I have been going to just a run of the mill Sobeys this whole time, when in my city there existed a beautiful Sobeys.

The first dish on our list was Clams Oreganata. The recipe came from the Williams Sonoma Seafood book. I will include the recipe at the bottom of this post. Both C and I really loved these. The red wine vinegar in the recipe really gave them a needed freshness, as the bread and herbs and garlic could have been really heavy. They were easy to put together and only took a moment in the oven. The recipe recommended eating these with a slice of bread to soak up the oil, and I would say it was a fabulous idea.

Our next dish on the menu was Sauteed Scallops with Lemon Beurre Blanc. So easy to make, with a really delicious result. We didn't read the instructions properly and skipped a step in the beurre blanc, so our sauce looks a lot different from the picture in the link. However, these tasted amazing. In fact, as I write this I wish I had some scallops in the freezer so I could make them right now. If you want to make something really impressive, with a small amount of effort, make these. They were so delicious.

Next up, Moules a la Mariniere. Or mussels steamed in white wine. The recipe can be found here. I have made this before, and every time I am so impressed with this recipe.

Unfortunately, at this point we were stuffed to the gills. We had long given up on making the crab won tons that were on our menu. (They will be made at a later date) Usually the two of us can put away a half loaf (or so) of bread with these mussels, but we were having difficulty with just a couple slices.

This also meant that the lobster stew that we had been cooking away was not going to be enjoyed. We were using a Julia Child recipe, and Julia recommended letting the stew sit for a day or two before serving it, so it wasn't a total waste. The basic ingredients were lobster meat, butter and cream. I left the stew until the next day, and I had the genius idea to use it as a pasta sauce. I was disappointed. C commented while making the stew that it seems pointless to use cooked lobster meat, as you run the risk of overcooking it during the preparation of the stew. Guess what? C made a great point. The lobster was completely overcooked. And I didn't heat it for very long. If I was to make this again I would use raw lobster meat. The stew involved sauteing the lobster meat in butter, adding some wine, and then adding some cream. I tossed this over pasta and topped with some black pepper and cheese.

The taste was good, although very fishy. And the lobster meat was tough. So very disappointing. Next time we go out and buy lobsters we are cooking them and serving them whole with melted butter. You can't go wrong with that. (Also, sorry the picture is kind of fuzzy)

Recipe for Clams Oreganata

Ingredients:

1 slice country-style bread

24 littleneck or Manila clams (rinsed, shucked, juices and 24 deep half shells reserved)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced

pinch of red pepper flakes

1 tbsp minced fresh oregano

1 tbsp minced fresh majoram, or flat leaf parsley

1) To make dried bread crumbs, put the bread in a low (200 F) oven for 1 hour to dry out without browning. (Or as we did, you can put it in a toaster until it has toasted) When the bread is dried, break it into chunks and process in a food processor or blender into fine crumbs. Measure out 1/4 cup crumbs.

2) Preheat broiler. Strain clam juices through a double thickness of dampened cheesecloth. (Or like we did, skip the straining since all the clam juice went into the towel we were shucking over)

3) In 4 shallow, flameproof, individual baking dishes place 6 of the reserved half shells and put a clam in each one. In a small bowl combine the strained clam juices, olive oil, vinegar, garlic and red pepper flakes. Whisk to blend. Spoon an equal amount, about 3 tablespoons, of the mixture over the clams in each dish. (Or, you could line a pan with some foil and place the clam shells on that, leaving some of the drizzle aside)

4) In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, oregano, and majoram and stir to blend. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and stir again to coat the crumbs. Sprinkle each clam with a large pinch of the bread crumb mixture. Place the dishes under the broiler about 3 inches from the heat source and broil until the crumbs are toasted and the clams are opaque, about 1-2 min. Serve at once. (If you used the pan idea, once the clams are out of the oven, place them on the serving dish and drizzle the plate with the leftover vinegar mixture)

Serving tip: Serve with thick slices of coarse country bread for dipping into the flavored oil.