Tastefully Overcaramelized

Abe says

Usually I get myself thinking I am comfortable cooking everything I enjoy eating. When it comes down to it, you take some good ingredients, add just enough, and cook until done — all familiar territory, whether or not I’ve made it before. Really. Right? Like many of the things I tell myself, patently, this is false.

Shellfish in particular are somewhat baffling, at least for me. They aren’t anonymous chunks of meat which I can straightforwardly sauté, in part, because they all oddly enough have shells. I remember as a child sitting in the kitchen while my parents peeled and deveined shrimp, and the huge hassle that seemed to be. I’ve never dealt with raw shrimp. Lobster has that issue of being alive and then dead, and I’ve never made lobster either. Bivalves — clams, mussels, and so forth — also start off alive, until you cook them, but for some reason no one worries about sea-rocks as much as sea-bugs. (Ann points out that Death Star trooper helmets also bear a striking resemblance to clams.)

I received a bit of impetus from the chef’s tables at work, where Chef Jaime has made a few variations on clams and chorizo. As these preparations all cooked both seafood and sausage in front of me in just a few minutes, I had enough reason to believe it was something I could do without much trouble. Clams are also cheap, which all else considered is good impetus on its own.

The consensus: fast, easy, inexpensive, and delicious. There was some ambiguity about whether or not these clams were sandy, however as tends to happen this didn’t occur to me until already in the middle of cooking, and very hungry. I made do with an uneducated 10 minute soak in cold water, for my reputable-store-bought mollusks. For the better-prepared the intertron is full of both good ideas and less-than-good ideas — guys, I am not a physicist but running water over a spoon will not electrically charge your water and draw out more sand, magically, scientifically, or otherwise. Trust me, I am a master of science. My unelectrified soaking water got the slightest bit cloudy, and the finished product was just fine.

Ann says

Seriously, guys, he is a master of science, and those helmets look just like twisted clams.  This food was really tasty even though it aggravated my GERD.  But on a better day it would not do such  thing and I would enjoy mounds of this stuff, because really, so yummy.

I think the trouble with sea bugs vs. sea rocks is that sea bugs have eyes and legs and hands, and so they remind us of ourselves a bit. Sea rocks remind me of rocks, and so I do not worry about it.  Additionally, sea rocks seem to die faster because they are smaller.

Think about it.  You are an early homo erectus who has made his or her home near the ocean. A good choice.  You are very hungry.  You are trying to survive. I, as a late homo sapiens, also become very hungry, and I am always in the business of survival.  I, too, don’t give a crap if a bunch of sea rocks get really hot for a moment before they die.  I am over-heated in Abe’s steam-cooker of an apartment every day!  I think I will soon have to graduate to chilling and knifing lobsters in the head in order to restore balance to my small, small universe.  Just for clarification, it’s called Ann Land. In Ann Land, we eat clams.

Clams and Chorizo

Adapted from Gourmet

serves 2

1/3 lb bulk fresh chorizo sausage (such as from 1 sausage in casing from the Whole Foods meat counter)
1 bell pepper, preferably orange or yellow, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup dry white wine
2 lb littleneck clams
3 Tbsp chopped parsley
2 Tbsp butter

Accompaniment:
baguette or other crusty bread

Scrub clams clean and soak in a bowl of cool water for about 20 minutes. Discard open clams that don’t close when you tap them.

In a wide, coverable sauté pan over medium heat, brown and break up chorizo, about 5 minutes. After some fat has rendered out, remove the meat, either draining the fat or adding olive oil to bring the amount to 2 Tbsp. Add pepper, onion, and garlic, and cook until softened, 7-9 minutes.

Add wine, bring to a boil, and add drained clams and cooked chorizo. Cover and boil until clams open, about 10 minutes. Stir in butter and garnish with parsley. Discard clams that are shut tight. Slightly opened clams can usually be tapped against other clams to open them up. Serve in low bowls with the liquid, and bread.

Filed under: Main Courses, Recipes by Abe on May 25, 2009. Tagged with: chorizo, clams, parsley, peppers, wine.