New England Portuguese Clam Boil

 After pouring the delightful jumble of potatoes, onions, hot dogs, chourico sausage, breakfast sausage, and clams onto the big white platter, I looked at my husband with a big smile and said, joyfully, "This is the first time I've cooked clams!" To which he replied, in his inimitable dry manner, "You boiled water."

It's a good thing I love that guy, that's all I'm saying.

First thing, dump the clams in the sink, pour in cold water, dump ice cubes in the water, and let the clams siphon out the sand. This is the difference between an enjoyable meal and a gritty meal. When I was a kid, I think my parents skipped this step. Anyway, I remember as a kid biting into a clam and biting down on sand, and I (somewhat dramatically) declared I would never eat clams again. Look what I missed out on all these years, because of a few grains of sand. I shall have to make up for lost time now!

This is not the season for corn on the cob, so the meal was lacking that colorful ingredient. But the rest was so flavorful! I purchased hot dogs and chourico sausage made in Maine, and they were delicious. I was a little hesitant about the chourico sausage, since it was my first experience with this sausage. I am not one to like really spicy food, and I had heard it was spicy. It was nothing less than perfect, not too hot and not too mild. I loved it!

Melted butter for the clams and potatoes, and some ketchup on the side for the hot dogs, and this meal was ready to enjoy. And only twenty minutes prep time (not including the sand-siphoning time). A nice, relaxing meal with a cold beer. I'm an official clam fan now!



Comments

Post a Comment

I welcome your comments. Please be kind and considerate. Thanks for stopping by!

Popular posts from this blog

Lunchtime Gloop

Image
Remember the first recipe I tried? Submitted by the mother of Astronaut Jessica Meir? Well, the cook behind today's lunch menu is famous, but don't wear yourself out trying to think up names of famous Maine cooks. Easiest recipe in this cookbook? Yes. No-fail? Yes. Going to win culinary awards around the globe? No. But when it comes to comfort food, I'm guessing this might be one of author Stephen King's favorites. I followed Mr. King's recipe exactly. Except where he says to use Franco American Spaghetti. Could not for the life of me find that brand name, so finally bought Campbell's Spaghettios. Got home, looked up Franco American and found that, yes, you guessed it, Campbell's bought out Franco American and kept the Spaghettios. Spaghettios were introduced in 1965. What kid doesn't love those little circular bits of pasta soaking in a tomato and cheese bath? And somehow, according to the writing on the can, they manage to pack 20% of your daily vegeta
Read more

Maine Party Chicken

Image
 As I read the ingredients for this recipe, I had a flashback to my childhood. My parents enjoyed having friends over, and my mother was not a chef by any means, but she would look for recipes that were easy to prepare for a crowd. This is one of the recipes she used to make.  I used to be a can-of-soup cook, like my mom, when a white sauce was called for. But since I learned how to do a bechamel, oh my, there is no going back. Not that there is anything wrong with an easy pop-top cream of mushroom soup once in awhile. It does the trick, and you just tuck this dish in the fridge overnight and do a three-hour bake the next day, which gives you time to focus on putting up party banners, or whatever, for your company. I'm not sure I care for the dried beef in this dish. Awfully salty. But the bacon, when you do a slow bake, smells fantastic for three solid hours. Can you say Anticipation?! I say, when you go big, go easy. Try this recipe for a crowd. You'll be glad you did!
Read more

Dad's Bean Hole Beans

Image
This recipe presented two distinct challenges. Firstly, I live in a parsonage and I'm not likely to receive permission to dig up the lawn just to try my hand at cooking bean hole beans. Secondly, we are now solidly in winter, and even if I had opportunity to dig a hole, it's not the right time of year. So I allowed as how baking the beans in the oven would have to do for now, and we'll see what summer brings. Who knows, maybe the church will want to offer a bean hole bean "suppah" as a fundraiser. The picture shows off pea beans, and yet the recipe calls for yellow-eye beans. I must say, were I pressed to pick a favorite bean recipe, I did so love the Baked Yellow-Eye Beans (see blog). But when it came time to try this recipe, there were no yellow-eye beans in the pantry. So I used pea beans. I do like pea beans, but I have to wonder if these beans were getting a little old. They seemed to take longer to cook. I checked the difference between the Yellow-Eye Bean r
Read more