James Beard's New Fish Cookery (38 page)

2. Beat 2 eggs, stir in 2 cups minced clams, 2/3 cup bread crumbs that have been browned in butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, and 2 tablespoons chopped parsley. With your hands, form the mixture into cakes — round, cutlet-shaped, or oval. Roll these in flour and crumbs and sauté them in butter or oil over medium heat until nicely browned. Serve with lemon wedges.

Or you may deep-fry them for 4 or 5 minutes in fat heated to 365°. Drain on absorbent paper.

CLAM SOUFFLÉ

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup clam juice

1/2 cup cream

2/3 cup minced clams

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Nutmeg

6 egg whites

Melt the butter in a saucepan; add the flour and brown lightly. Stir in the clam juice and the cream and continue stirring until the mixture thickens. Add the minced clams and remove from the stove. Cool slightly. Beat the egg yolks into this mixture, one by one; add the chopped parsley and the seasonings. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them in. Pour into a well-buttered soufflé dish. Bake at 375° for 30 to 35 minutes, according to the state of runniness you prefer in a soufflé.

To be really elegant, serve this soufflé with a sauce mousseline (page 26).

SCALLOPED CLAMS

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup toasted bread crumbs

1 cup cracker crumbs

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Paprika

2 cups minced clams

2 tablespoons finely minced onion

2 tablespoons finely minced parsley

1/3 cup cream

Melt the butter and mix it with the bread and cracker crumbs. Add salt and pepper to taste and a dash of paprika. Set aside 1/3 cup of this mixture for the top of the casserole. With the rest mix the clams, onion, and parsley. Pour it into a well-buttered baking dish and top with the remaining crumb mixture. Dot with additional butter and pour the cream over all. Bake in a 375° oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

CLAM PIE

2 quarts clams in shells

2 cups white wine

1 carrot

1 onion

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups sauce velouté (page 21)

1 pound mushrooms

5 tablespoons butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons sherry
or
Madeira

1 recipe of rich pastry

Beaten egg yolk

Steam the clams in the white wine with the carrot, onion, bay leaf, and pepper (see page 358). Remove from the shells. Prepare a sauce velouté, using some of the clam broth (see page 21). Sauté the mushrooms in butter; season to taste with salt and pepper. Combine the mushrooms, clams, and the sauce and add the sherry or Madeira. Taste for seasoning. Cool thoroughly. Pour into a deep baking dish and top with pie crust rolled 1/4 inch thick. Decorate with leaves cut out of additional crust, brush with beaten egg yolk mixed with a little water, and bake at 450° for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350° and bake until nicely browned, about 20 minutes.

CLAM QUICHE

Pastry for 1 pie crust

4 strips of bacon

2 tablespoons minced onion

4 eggs

11/2 cups clam juice and cream, mixed

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Nutmeg

1 cup minced clams, drained

Line a 9-inch pie tin with the pastry and chill in the refrigerator for several hours. Sauté the bacon until crisp and drain on absorbent paper. Sauté the onion in the bacon fat until just soft. Beat the eggs, combine with the liquid, and add seasonings to taste. Remove the pie shell from the refrigerator. Sprinkle crumbled bacon and the onion on the bottom; then add the clams. Pour the custard mixture over all. Bake in a 450° oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350° and continue baking until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve hot.

VARIATION

You may sprinkle the tart with grated Parmesan cheese before baking it.

CLAMS WITH RICE, SPANISH STYLE

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 slice smoked ham, shredded

1 cup cooked tomatoes

1 pint clam broth (fresh
or
canned)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of saffron

18 to 20 small clams

1 cup washed rice

Combine the onion, garlic, ham, tomatoes, and the clam broth and simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste and add the saffron. Wash the clams, scrubbing them well. Arrange them in a large casserole with the rice. Pour the hot sauce over this and bake in a 350° oven until the rice is cooked and the liquid nearly all absorbed.

CLAM PAN ROASTS

In reality, pan roasts are nothing more nor less than sautés, a most delicate and delicious way to serve clams. There seem to be endless variations on this theme, and I include only the few that are my favorites. For a plain pan roast:

1/4 pound butter

1 pint drained clams

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Paprika

Buttered toast

Chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a skillet or chafing dish. Add the drained whole clams from which you have trimmed the tough littlenecks. Cook them just long enough to heat through and plump up. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and paprika, and serve on rounds of toast, buttered (or on fried toast), and top with parsley.

VARIATIONS

1. Add a spoonful of Worcestershire sauce and a dash of Dijon mustard to the pan when the clams are cooked.

2. Add finely chopped chives, fennel, parsley, or tarragon to the clams as they cook.

3. Add 1/2 cup white wine or champagne to the pan and let it cook for just a minute after the clams have puffed.

4. Add butter, 1/3 cup sherry, 1/3 cup chili sauce, and a little grated onion. Cook the clams in this mixture and serve them on garlic fried toast with the sauce poured over.

5. Chop 1 small green pepper and 1 onion very fine and sauté them in 2/3 cup butter until soft. Add the clams and cook until they are plump and heated through. Salt and pepper to taste and add a few grains of cayenne. Serve on toast.

CLAMS SAUTÉ

Clams should be dipped in flour or beaten egg and crumbs and then sautéed in plenty of butter.

1.
Razor clams.
Clean the clams, and either use whole or only the tender digging foot — if clams are plentiful. Dip in flour, or in egg and crumbs, and sauté quickly in plenty of butter. Salt and pepper to taste and serve with lemon wedges.

2.
Soft clams.
Clean and dip in flour, or egg and crumbs, and sauté lightly until delicately browned. Add chopped parsley and lemon juice, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

3.
Littleneck clams.
The procedure is the same as for soft clams.

BATTER-FRIED CLAMS

2 eggs, separated

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup sifted flour

1/3 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

About 2 cups of small clams

Fat
or
oil heated to 365°

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Beat the egg yolks until light and lemon-colored. Beat in the olive oil, flour, salt, milk, and lemon juice. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them in. Add the clams. Let stand for 2 hours. Drop by spoonfuls into hot fat and pan-fry 4 or 5 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper and salt and pepper to taste.

VARIATION

Substitute 1 tablespoon of brandy or whiskey for the lemon juice.

GREEN NOODLES WITH CLAMS

1 quart clams in shell

1 medium onion

1 stalk of celery

1 carrot

1 cup white wine
or
vermouth

1/2 cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup chopped parsley (Italian, if possible)

11/2 tablespoons chopped basil

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

8 ounces green noodles (white will do)

Wash the clams well. Cut the onion, celery, and carrot into fine strips, and put them in a large kettle. Add the wine and the clams. Cover tightly and steam until the clams open. Remove the clams from their shells and strain the broth. Heat the olive oil and the garlic; add the parsley, basil, salt, and pepper to taste. Reduce the clam broth by half, add it to the olive oil mixture, and let it come to a boil. Taste for seasoning. Add the clams, chopped.

Cook the noodles and drain. Pour the clam mixture over the noodles.

VARIATION

Combine the clam mixture with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and cook until well blended. Thin with a dash of white wine or vermouth. Serve the same way.

SPAGHETTI WITH CLAM SAUCE

Use the preceding recipe but substitute spaghetti for the noodles.

Conch

This southern shellfish has a fine flavor, but its toughness presents the same problem as the Pacific Coast abalone. There are several ways to tenderize it. One is to pound it with a sharp-edged instrument, or as the average housewife does, with the edge of a plate. Another way is to parboil it and then pound until the flesh is tender. Still another method, followed by Sloppy Louie, the famous New York fish dealer and restaurateur, is to immerse live conch in boiling water. As soon as the live conch (pronounced
konk
, by the way) is affected by the heat and retreats into its shell, take it from the water, drain, and shell it. It must be shelled at almost the instant it releases its muscles or it will still require beating or parboiling.

CONCH FRITTERS

6 conchs

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped tomato (peeled and seeded)

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup rolled cracker crumbs

1/4 cup chopped parsley

3 eggs, separated

Grind the conch meat and combine it with the onion, tomato, garlic, salt, parsley, crumbs, and the yolks of the eggs beaten lightly. Beat the egg whites until stiff. If the batter seems stiff thin it with cream, then fold in the egg whites. Drop the mixture by spoonfuls on a well-buttered pan or griddle. Cook until nicely browned and turn to brown the other side. Serve with lemon butter (page 31).

STEWED CONCH

4 conchs

2 onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon basil, or more

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups tomato sauce

1 cup red wine

Tenderize the conchs. Sauté the onions and garlic in oil. Add the basil, salt, tomato sauce, and wine and simmer for 30 minutes. Dilute the sauce with a little more wine if it gets too thick. Add the conch and cook just until it heats through and is tender. Taste for seasoning and serve on rice.

FRIED CONCH

For 4 people, tenderize 4 conchs. Cut them into thin slices. Dip them in flour, then into beaten egg, and roll in crumbs or corn meal.

Heat the fat in your deep fryer to 375° and fry the strips of conch for about 3 minutes or until nicely browned and crisp on the edges. Remove to absorbent paper and season to taste. Serve with tartar sauce (pages 35–36).

Crab

Crab is second to shrimp as the shellfish most preferred by Americans, and the supply is varied and fairly abundant. The magnificently flavored Pacific Coast crab — the Dungeness — is now brought frozen to the East. The giant king crab is flown fresh from Alaska and is also shipped frozen. Crab caught in the Gulf and in the North and South Atlantic is sent in refrigerated tins to all parts of the East and far inland. In addition, the famous stone crabs from Florida often appear in our markets, and quantities of soft-shelled crabs are shipped all over the East.

There is general misunderstanding about soft-shelled crabs. They are not a distinct soft-shelled species — they are the same blue crabs (
Callinecte sapidus
) found all along the Atlantic Coast. It is the habit of the crab to shed its shell many times before maturity, and the soft-shelled crab is one caught just as it has shed one shell and before it has grown a new and larger one.

On the Pacific Coast, most crabs are sold whole and freshly cooked. In the East, with the exception of the soft-shelled, crab is usually sold already cleaned and shelled in 1- or 1/2-pound tins. There are many different grades of this crabmeat on the Eastern market. The larger, choice lump crabmeat is hard to find in retail shops, for most of it is bought by the better restaurants and clubs. But various other qualities are generally available. Some markets carry the leg meat, which has excellent flavor and is delicious for salads and for deviled crab. The giant crab legs (from claw tip to claw tip, these gargantuan crustaceans sometimes measure almost 9 feet across) are sent from Alaska frozen and ready to broil.

Crabmeat is expensive; however, there is no waste, and a pound will serve 4 people well.

If you are cooking live crabs — which is unlikely unless you go crabbing — boil them in sea water or in a mild court bouillon, allowing 8 minutes for each pound of crab. When the crab is cool, remove its back and the spongy parts under the shell. Then remove the apron and split the body so you can take out the meat. Crack the claws and take the meat from them.

I have vivid memories of the preparation of the crabs that we caught on the Pacific Coast when I was young. The system followed by my mother and most of our neighbors was to remove the back and clean the crab before plunging it into the boiling sea water. Supposedly the flavor was much better if the crab were cleaned first. These crabs — the Dungeness variety — were cooled and then used for many special dishes. My favorite was, and still is, a feast of cracked crab and mayonnaise freshly made with good olive oil, flavored with lemon juice, mustard, salt, pepper, and a touch of tarragon. With good bread and butter and a bottle of chilled white wine, this is the absolute ultimate for a summer luncheon.

CRABMEAT VINAIGRETTE

Arrange 1 pound of crabmeat (either Dungeness or blue crab) on romaine or lettuce. Cover with the vinaigrette sauce (page 36) and sprinkle with fresh or dried tarragon.