My stepmother's family has an oyster farm. My Dad and step Mom now work that farm, and because of that, they give seafood as a part of their gifts at Christmas. Since my husband and I are not oyster eaters, we get flounder and clams, but I really don't know what to do with them. I have a few recipes but I want more! We like both of these, but I am not really familiar with cooking them. Tell me what you do with clams or flounder?
I really want to make New England Clam chowder, but am not sure what to do, considering the clams I have are already shucked and frozen. I like my step Mom's country tomato based clam chowder (it isn't really Manhattan style so we will call it country style), but who doesn't love the creamy goodness of New England clam chowder? I think if I could figure this out I would be satisfied. My Dad makes an awesome linguine in clam sauce, but I really disliked the part about gutting the clams (or whatever it was he did to make the sauce better - he said when you make soup you don't have to do it - that is right up my alley).
For the flounder - all I know is fry. But there has to be more to flounder than fry! Can you tell I grew up with my non-seafood cooking Mom? LOL! My husband's step Grandmother made a wonderful cod with a mild salsa (she is Hispanic and made it mild for me since I was coming to dinner - love ya Grandma Lupe!) It was wonderful, but I am not sure how something like that would work with flounder? I hear of people doing lemon pepper on fish - is flounder good for that?
My ignorance is showing - we never really ate seafood unless I went to my Dad's. My husband loves it though and I am learning to appreciate it more. Plus there are the health benefits. Boy, my brain could use all the help it can get! So, tell me - either in a comment or give me a link to an article - what do you do with clams or flounder?
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Comments: 12
--New England Clam Chowder--
1 each yellow onions, diced
1 1/2 pounds red potatoes, diced
2 stalks celery, bias sliced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, cleaned
2 1/2 teaspoons sage
1 teaspoon white pepper
4 ounces butter
1/4 cup flour
3 pounds canned clams, with juice (separate)
1 pint buttermilk
Saute first 6 ingredients in listed butter in a large stockpot until tender. Dust with flour and reduce heat to medium, stir frequently for 3-5 minutes. Add clams and juice. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently (watch out for scorching). Cook until flavor of flour is gone, (about 15 minutes at a simmer). Add buttermillk and hold hot or chill.
With abject apologies to Kurt, whose recipe sounds quite wonderful, here is my solution for you:
Make potato soup. We all know how to do that, right? Add clams & juice.
Or add flounder. Or add both. Cook a bit longer. There you go, easy clam or fish chowder.
Just in case: Potato soup........dice and cook potatoes and onion with salt, pepper, butter in smallest amount of water. Don't drain. Add 1/2 & 1/2. Reheat. (If you need to restrict fat use Land O Lakes fat free 1/2 & 1/2.)
We love this with a thick crusty bread for dipping.
For the clams, if they have the bellies I would just fry them. If not, I would make clam cakes. I don't have a specific method for this one, per se. You can adapt a fish cake recipe, or there are plenty of basic clam cake recipes to be found online. Yum!