Clam Strips and Sweet Potato Chips

Good day and Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends & rellies. Hope this finds you happy, healthy and content with a turkey bird in the oven, a kitchen in chaos and snow on the ground. Hey it's Thanksgiving isn't it? Wish we were there to share it all with you.

Last night after working all day marking papers the big guy cooked an amazing dinner in the outside kitchen. He brought back great memories of our month at the beach in Oregon and prepared some gaper clam strips from the stash we brought back with us on dry ice. I'm telling you, I will NOT be touching those bare naked things again. He's now officially the clam cook. He pounded the clam necks, then aerated them like you would aerate your lawn (well kinda - with this fancy little pick thing). Finally, he dusted them in flour, then an egg wash with tons of hot sauce in it, followed by a final dip in fine cornmeal. Fried in canola oil for a minute and a half till golden brown, they were crispy on the outside and unbelievably tender inside. In fact, they're about as far from the rubber bands that went into the pasta as you can possibly get. They had the taste and texture of really tender calamari. We enjoyed them dipped in a homemade tartar sauce, concocted from sour cream, mayo, lemon juice, sweet onion, chopped dill pickles, dried dill, Tabasco sauce and a few capers. Sorry, no measurements or recipe available - I just "winged" it.

 
   
Along with the clam strips, the big guy cooked up some wonderful sweet potato chips - actually some were yam and some were sweet potato. He used a harp peeler to shave the spuds into long thin pieces, then cooked them twice - once for 30 seconds to a minute, then removed and drained them, and let 'em cool. They were returned to the oil and fried again until they expanded and "popped". Sorry people - that's all the instructions I got from the big guy, so I can't give you any more information. All I do know is that with coarse sea salt they were crisp, light and absolutely, totally addictive.

 
We had dinner outside at the bar under the stars, in the cool comfort of a beautiful evening breeze, watching the bats fly around playing air tag. It was lovely, just lovely.

Comments

[Mags]

You're so lucky to have the big guy cooking you dinner like that June. If hubby did that for me we'd be sitting down to PB&J sandwiches.

I'll be having a try at those sweet tater chips. (I'll admit that I had to Google harp peeler though, because I'd never heard of that.)

[Biz]

I wish I liked clams - that looks amazing!!

[June]

Mags - I should have posted a pic of the darn harp peeler. They're the best kitchen gadget in the whole world obviously invented by a woman. We bought them for making limoncello because they take the zest best and leave the pith behind.

Biz - there was a time I didn't think I liked clams either but these are very mild flavored. You need to give 'em a try. Thanks for visiting and commenting! Hope you come back soon.