Quarantine didn’t keep me down! Picked up two hobbies - 1. Catching clams out of the bay. 2. Cooking….or trying to. So, I combined those two things and added a 3rd. BLOGGING. So, for your reading enjoyment, I have prepared my journey in pictures from beach goer to eater of the worlds best stuffed clams! Enjoy :)
First Step: Spot and Tools - Clam Rake + Low Tide = Quahogs Baby!
Looking to dig anywhere from 2 to 8 inches down to find the quahogs. keeping en eye for little circular holes in the sand.
You should be able to feel them and scratch the shell the shell with the rake. When this happens, dig front to back to get them out of the mud! Be sure you clean them before you measure.
Quahogs need to be at least one inch thick to keep. This is the gauge you use to check its thickness. That right there is a keepah!
Not a bad view huh!
Catch em and throw them in the bucket. Once you get them home you toss em on the grill!
For transport, keep a damp towel over the bucket. Do not fill the bucket with water. That is done an hour or so before you you grill them. It helps clean the clams!
There’s plenty of ways to eat Quahogs. Here, we are grilling them. We will keep them on the grill till they open up on there own. That means they are ready!
Quahog ready to eat. We’ve taken two different paths once we grill our Quahogs. The easiest way, is to take it out of the shell, dip it in water and then in butter. Boom! You gotcha self some dinnah. The other is more complicated but tastes soooo good. Stuffed Quahogs AKA Stuffies!
You will take the “meat” of the quahog out of the shell. You will split the shell in half and put them aside to be stuffed. You will cut away the siphon and extra. You will then refrigerate them until you are ready to cook.
4/5 pieces of toast. Cut the corners off and then rip into small pieces.
Chorizo finely diced up. This is a shot before it was diced.
Chop up the clams till they are finally dices. LEFT: Diced clams RIGHT: Full clams
You will put your pan temp on low. Add some butter, onions, garlic, pepper, oregano, Italian seasoning, parsley and breadcrumbs. You will mix that with two eggs, the bread, and some clam juice. One that is all in, you add the chorizo, and the clams. Get them cooked and prepared to mix.
Stir it up realllll nice and then put them in the shells.
After you add it to the shells, you bake them in the over for 30+ minutes on 350. This will give you this beautiful brown tastiness.
They taste amazing and are so filling!
From the beach to your belly :)
Enjoy