Good Fish_ Sustainable Seafood Recipes From the Pacific Coast - Becky Selengut [11]
Other clams you might find on the Pacific Coast are our native littleneck (Leukoma staminea), the Pacific razor clam (Siliqua patula), California’s pismo clam (Tivela stultorum), and the butter clam (Saxidona giganteus). A warning: Butter clams can hold toxins in their flesh for several years—check the beaches for reports of PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning, commonly referred to as “red tide”) if you plan to harvest them yourself. In Washington, call the Marine Biotoxin Hotline at 1-800-562-5632.
SEASON: Wild clams can be harvested year-round but are easiest to gather in spring and early summer when the lowest tides occur during the daylight hours. (Follow all state regulations for licensing, limits, and harvest method, paying close attention to water-quality reports and closed beaches to keep you safe.) Farmed clams are pretty great year-round, though I tend to avoid clams altogether in mid- to late summer when they spawn and their shelf life is shortened.
BUYING TIPS: Look for unbroken clams that smell neutral or pleasant. If a clam is open, close it with your fingers; if it springs back open and doesn’t gently close itself, it is probably dead. Pitch it. If the clam is mostly closed but you can see a bit of the foot sticking out, don’t be shy about touching it to check for movement—the foot should retreat back into the shell. Extremely cold clams may be a bit sluggish but will still react. When cooking clams, you may notice that a few don’t open. You may have heard that eating these clams will make you sick, but the truth is that they are either full of mud or just not cooked enough. Bivalves open when dead—it’s more important to discard any that gape open and won’t close before you cook them as these are the ones that could make you sick.
Sometimes you’ll see live razor clams, which are a special treat. I’ve also seen them cleaned and vacuum-packed on ice.
QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE YOU PULL OUT YOUR WALLET: Where are these clams from? Clams are an abundant worldwide resource, making it unnecessary to ship them from far-off places. Consider reducing your carbon footprint by buying clams sourced as close to your home as possible. Are they wild or farmed? The majority of commercially sold clams are farmed. Also ask, when were they harvested?
CARING FOR YOUR GOOD FISH: If your clams were wild, they are likely to be sandy or muddy. Scrub them really well under cold running water. If caught recreationally, I’d also consider purging them, as I’ve had one or two sandy clams ruin a whole pot. To purge clams, place them in clean seawater after harvest and let them sit for twenty minutes. (Soaking clams in fresh water will kill them, and, as a wise person once said, a dead clam is not a tasty clam.) Then switch out the water and let them sit for another twenty minutes—this will usually clean the clams of any sand. I’ve never had to purge commercially farmed clams, since they are purged prior to sale. I still give farmed clams a quick scrubbing, though.
Store clams in a bowl in a cold part of your refrigerator. Place a damp towel directly on top of the clams (refrigerators are very dry places, and the towel protects against dehydrating your live shellfish). Good fishmongers store them live in saltwater or on ice that can drain easily. If a supermarket stores them on plastic trays, there should be perforations in the packaging so the clams don’t suffocate. Ideally, use clams the day you buy them for best quality, but during the colder months they can last up to seven days after the harvest date, depending on how well they’ve been handled. In the warmer summer months, use clams within three days of the harvest date. Special geoduck care: Geoducks will “die within thirty seconds of being submerged in fresh water,” says Peter Downey, who grows geoducks for a living just outside Port Townsend, Washington. Store them in a bowl in the refrigerator, covered with a damp towel, and use within five days of harvest.
HOW THIS TYPE OF SEAFOOD IS RAISED OR HARVESTED: In commercial clam