Linguini and Clams

The clam.         

                                         

Little neck, top neck, cherrystone, chowder.  Just the names of our domestic Quahogs beat out a beautiful pentameter.  These little morsels of muscle can be eaten raw, steamed, sautéed, deep fried, baked, or simmered in a chowdah.

Yet many of us are afraid of this versatile little bivalve. We are afraid to eat it. We are petrified at the thought of cooking it. We are stumped by its shell that must be pried open with knives that serve no other purpose in our kitchens.

We have abandoned the clam to restaurant preparation.

NO MORE I SAY.

I had gone out to get some eggs at the Sunday morning farmer’s market. There they were:  $5 dollars a dozen.  Eggs forgotten, I immediately scooped up the top neck clams and ran home to make my first LINGUINI WITH CLAMS.

Some tips:

1)      If you are planning on eating the clams the next day, put them in a pan with a bed of cornmeal. This will allow them to spit out their sand overnight.

2)      Start water boiling for pasta and cook according to the directions on the box. If you can manage to boil pasta and steam the clam simultaneously, excellent. Otherwise it is acceptable to make the pasta ahead of time.

3)      Wash the clams under cold running water. Use a rough scrub brush to remove all the dirt and sand.

4)      Prepare your pan!

a.       Minced Shallots – 2 TBL

b.      Minced Garlic – 2 tsp

c.       Thyme – a few sprigs

d.      Chili – 2 each (optional, but totally worth it)

e.      Olive Oil – 1 TBL

5)      Sauté the ingredients in your pan until the garlic starts to become aromatic and the shallots become translucent

6)      Place your clams in the pan. Find a cover for the pan!

7)      Once all the liquid from the shallots has evaporated, break out your bottle of white wine.  For clams I prefer a Sauvignon Blanc, but this time I used an off-dry Riesling and was more than satisfied. I will try flat champagne next time!

8)      Pour in enough wine to coat the bottom of the pan and cover the pan with its lid. Remember, we are steaming the clams in the wine (happy little buggers).

9)      Check the clams about every minute and see if they have opened up. Once they have opened they are done. Take out the open ones and wait for the others to pop. If they don’t open after 5 minutes with lots of steam in the pan THROW THEM OUT.

10)   This is a decision point. You can either

a.       Add cream to the wine sauce and thicken it

b.      Decide (like I did) that you really want something green on this dish and make kale

11)   Throw the cream (or greens) into the pan. Once the cream has reduced (or the greens are wilting), stir in your pasta. Coat it completely with the sauce in the pan. You are now ready to plate and serve.

ALWAYS SERVE WITH STYLE!

Brioche

It is a freezing day outside, which means that I am looking for any excuse I can get to turn on the oven and make my apartment a little warmer. My excuse of choice: brioche.

For those of you unfortunate enough to never have experienced brioche allow me to spoil it for you before you get too excited. The hero of this recipe: BUTTER. Brioche is the most buttery bread you can get before flour becomes a straight-up pastry.

The recipe that I use comes from Shirley Corriher brilliant book, CookWise.  I know is a bit of a cheap trick that I am not including the recipe, but since it is in a cookbook I would prefer not making any authors upset. Now I have read other bloggers commentaries on her book and there are some doubters out there because the dough is challenging. It is very soft and sticky.  The solution to this is just dusting your hands with a little bit of flour and form the cylinders in Shirley’s recipes.

I have had great success with this recipe. I have even received such impressive complements as, “This is really good brioche, and I should know. I am French.” (As if italics could make a French accent.)

In an effort to make this brioche more versatile and accessible, I augment the original recipe by presenting you with the option of brioche muffins. To make these little beauties, grease your muffin pan (or if you are feeling super lazy, use cupcake liners) and fill them ½ to ¾ of the way up with the dough. When you set it out to rise before putting it in the oven it will almost double, so you need to make sure you are leaving room for the expansion.  These little brioches will cook in 20 minutes at 375 degrees to an internal temperature of 180 F.

Now in this beautiful presentation photograph I have included truffle butter (because the brioche just needs more butter) and strawberry freezer jam.*

*Comment below if you want to see posts on the beauty of truffle butter and freezer jam.