Yikes - yesterday was one of those should'a days. Should'a' had salad for lunch instead of fish and chips...should'a believed my guy when he said I'd like the clam strips...should'a packed some antacid pills. Oh boy, what a day.
The gaper twins came back from their trip to Newport not as happy as they'd been the past couple of days. Apparantly clamming there is not as sweet smelling nor as easy as it is in Walport (as if it's easy anyway) and neither was it as successful. Ya could'a fooled me. Looked like their bags were full of something! Anyway, by the time they got their catch cooked and cleaned up, and cleaned themselves up, and tackled the 24 gapers waiting outside in the cooler to be cleaned, the day had flown by and it was after 2 bells. As there's only room in the kitchen for one cook at a time, John was kind enough to take us all to lunch.
Now this is the third time we've spent a July in Yachats, so we're familiar with the best places to go for certain menu items. I mean there's no doubt the best bakery is the Green Salmon, The Drift Inn has the best burgers and the Blue Whale is the place to go for fish and chips. The proof is in the picture, is it not?
I was being good (insert sarcasm). I had the small order which is $1.00 less and has two, not three pieces of pollack, nicely coated and so hot you gotta nibble on chips until the whole thing cools enough to eat. Don't ask me what they put in the batter, but it's light and perfectly crisp. The fish is moist, mild flavored and fresh...I mean really fresh, and the quantity...well! Notice I stressed that I'd ordered the SMALL order. I ate every morsel of it and when we left the restaurant, I could have stood in for the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Honest!
After such a late lunch, it was home to put a cheater pumpkin cake in the oven, then nap time. Yeah, nap time. DId I walk off that huge lunch - no siree, just stretched out on the couch and tried to fit my snores in with the trio already making strange sounds (GMan, John & Max). After the nap it was libation time, then dinner. Oh yeah...dinner!
The big guy was right when he said he'd be surprised if I didn't like the clam strips, but man, I tell you, prepping these babies is a real job. I watched him do bit of it, but there are some things just better kept a secret and this could make one a might squeamish! First the clams have to soak in ice water about 8 hours, then the shell comes off and the guck gets cleaned out, then the brown skin gets scraped off the long "neck", more guck is cleaned off, then they're rinsed, cut, rinsed again, pounded, coated and fried. No wonder the darn things are so expensive in the store. GMan coated the strips in flour, then an egg wash which included some hot sauce, followed by a dunk in a mixture of flour and corn meal. He fried them in corn oil outside on the burner attached to the barbecue. Dusted with a little coarse salt and some lemon pepper, they were indescribable.
I mean, I so didn't want to like them, but how can you not like something that is so tender, mild flavored and crispy? These clam strips were like the absolute best calamari I had ever tasted, only better cause they were CLAMS and very, very tender. Who'da thunk it? He served them with more of those sweet potato chips - hey they're addictive.
Dessert, as if we needed it, was what I call a cheater pumpkin cake. It takes about 5 minutes to throw together, an hour in the oven, a couple to cool and man, you've got something that looks like a cake, but tastes just like pumpkin pie. It is just plumb good. This recipe is from the Wall Drug & Cafe Cookbook from South Dakota. Download Pumpkin Pie Cake It's a little regional collection of recipes compiled by friends, relatives and employees of Wall Drug Store and it is loaded with wonderful little jewels.
Other than refusing to eat a darn thing (yeah, we'll see how long that lasts), who knows what today is going to bring. The guys have already left to hit the clamming beds again. It's early and the sun's not out yet, though the birds are. The sun didn't come out yesterday until late afternoon - it was one of those misty, rainy, grey perfect beach days. I love it here, even when it rains, and of course, it's cool. It's fun to brag about the weather here when it is heading for 108 in Tucson and 112 is just around the corner. Cruel, aren't I? Sorry Tucson.
This is truly amazing as all my guests will attest to. My son-in-law who never eats sweets had two pieces of this delightful cake. It will be a Fall regular in my house.
Betty
Posted by: Betty Prewitt | 10/18/2010 at 10:31 AM
This is kind of a "secret" pumpkin cake that I'd better make again too.I try to fool people into thinking I'm above using a cake mix, but this cake's too darn tasty to ignore. LOL I'm happy it was a hit with your family.
Posted by: June | 10/18/2010 at 12:26 PM