I seem to have forgotten about clams. Silly me, they’re such a gorgeous shellfish, juicy, with a mild salty taste of the sea, (on a scale of 1-10, with oysters being a 10, clams come in around 2), and versatile. Think creamy chunky chowder, threaded through spaghetti for a classic spaghetti alle vongole, and steamed then topped with savoury ingredients before grilling until golden and crunchy.
I wrote at length about New Zealand clams in a food magazine some time ago and it’s worth posting the relevant parts of that feature here.
New Zealand Clams
If you or I were to order clams in a restaurant in Italy, chances are they would have been swimming in the pristine waters off the coast of New Zealand just a few days earlier. Likewise with clam chowder, that gloriously thick and chunky soup, consumed on the east coast of the States. The product, with a refrigerated shelf life of at least 12 days, is shipped live around the world by Otago company Southern Clams, and chefs are loving it. Which begs the question, why are clams not a hot restaurant ticket in this country?
Confusion over the name doesn’t help. Captain Cook caused the mix-up by calling our indigenous shellfish species (Austrovenus stutchburyi, tuaki or tuangi in Maori) cockles and the name has stuck, though it’s incorrect. Our species found only around New Zealand and the Chatham Islands fits into the clam family and is marketed internationally as New Zealand littleneck clams.
Roger Belton started Southern Clams in the 1980s. New Zealanders were slow to appreciate the product so he looked to exporting to countries where clams were entrenched in the local cuisine and these days the US, Europe and Asia are big customers. It’s a remarkably successful product, in no small part because of the pristine waters from whence it comes. Meticulous attention is paid to the condition and salinity of the water of the clam beds. Belton is acutely aware that a bacterial slip-up could be devastating. The company’s emphasis is squarely on sustainability and it would appear that we are not about to run out of clams any time soon. The clam beds are harvested on a rotational system and smaller clams, along with seaweed, sand and any other species caught in the hand-pushed riddling equipment used for harvesting the clams, are returned to the clam beds to grow on, conserving the resource for future generations.
Digging your own
Clams are found in sand flats in sheltered harbours and estuaries throughout New Zealand. They burrow down 2-3cm in the sand and come up to feed on the incoming tide. They are filter feeders and suck the nutrients out of the tide so it’s essential that the waters they are living in are unpolluted.
To clean clams
Scrub clams under running water to remove any clinging sand. Transfer to a colander and wash away any sand residue. Fill sink with cold water and add clams. Leave the clams in the water for several minutes, agitating them with your hands or a large spoon. Lift clams out of the water, empty water in the sink, and repeat the process. If the water still feels gritty, repeat the process one more time.
To store clams
Put clams in a double plastic bag pierced at the bottom with several holes. Put the bag in a large bowl to collect any expelled sea water. Cover clams with a clean damp cloth to keep them moist, then keep them refrigerated. Change the cloth every two days and pour off accumulated water. Clams will keep fresh for 12 days after harvest in the refrigerator, so ask your retailer for the harvest date (Southern Clams supply a harvesting and delivery docket with every order), or buy them the day they are delivered to the retailer. Do not put them on ice nor store them in water. Store at 2° to 4°. Before cooking, discard any clams which gape and will not close when tapped.
Easy to cook
Clams can be cooked like mussels, steamed open in their own juices, or with a little white wine, and served with little more than a squeeze of lemon. They can be cooked on a barbecue hot plate, in a wok or in a pot. They contain their own salt and dishes they are added to generally do not need any extra.
Add them to risotto, pasta dishes and seafood soups, or steam them open and top with savoury crumbs and grill until the topping is crisp as in the recipe here.
To cook them in a wok, stir-fry a few cloves of crushed garlic, some chopped or grated ginger and chopped chilli in hot oil in a wok, add clams, cover with a lid, shake wok once or twice, and remove clams to a bowl as they open. When all clams are cooked, pour the juices over them and serve.
Simplest way the best
My first taste of spaghetti alle vongole was one of those utterly rapturous ‘mmm, ahh’ moments. I ordered them at a seaside restaurant in Naples, as you do, a city as famous for its clams as it is for pizza. But in 1975 I didn’t know that. I was a recent convert to pasta, proper pasta that is, and so I ordered the local specialty, spaghetti alle vongole in bianca, which translates as spaghetti with clams without tomatoes (the same dish, with tomatoes is al pomodoro). The clams, much smaller than ours and closer in size to pippis, had been steamed open in white wine, olive oil and garlic and with all their juices deftly tossed with steaming spaghetti and a handful of chopped Italian parsley. Simplicity. Perfection. Addiction. I’ve been on a clam-drive ever since.
Availability
Southern Clams Ltd, a premium supplier (and exporter) of sustainably harvested New Zealand littleneck clams, include the harvesting date on every bag of clams. If buying loose clams from a supermarket, ask for the harvesting date of the clams. Southern Clams products are available in all the major supermarkets around the country as well as seafood suppliers. All the details are on their web site. Although they are available all year round, some stores may not stock them through winter.
Per 100g / 3-4 oz Southern Clams contain:
Calories 46
Cholesterol 30mg
Protein 7.6mg
Iron 5mg (that’s more than beef!)
Fat 0.9g
Sodium 716mg
Omega 3 0.1g
Calcium 51mg
Crunchy Baked Clams – get the recipe here
Leave a Reply