Steamers and other things….

Hi Everybody! Long time no contact!! I was stunned to realize that I haven’t written in over 2 months…my oh my, time does fly doesn’t it? Something about the warm weather makes me lazier than I usually am, so sorry about the delay….

Eric and I LOOOVVVEE shellfish as you probably have figured out at some point. We made these in June, using a method that I learned from (of all things) an ex-boyfriend’s father who was brought up in Martha’s Vineyard. He was of Portuguese descent. Basically you add hot chorizo, onion, garlic, black peppercorns and celery with about 2 inches of water. Cover the pan and steam until the shells just open. It is a pretty forgiving recipe – you could change the sausage to something else and maybe add a little white wine or beer and it would be just as good. Takes all of 5-10 minutes.

The best thing is to wait until you have a nice sunny day and eat them at a picnic table or porch – heck, even a lawn chair would do! Serve with some melted butter (I add raw garlic to my butter, as well). Open shells, peel off the “turtleneck”, give it a wash in the broth and a dip in butter and you are in for a treat. I also save the broth, strained, and freeze it. It makes a nice stock for clam chowda’ if you are so inclined.

This method also works well with mussels. We tried it when our local fishmonger ran out of steamers one weekend. They were tremendous! See below:

So enjoy the summer everyone! Will write again soon and look forward to any other stuff you would like to share…