This was our last meal together while on holiday. I think of this as a Northern meal when in fact we spent summers clamming in North Carolina. Of course, I saved the best meal for last. I think clams might be my favorite food if I had to choose; though I hope I never have to choose a favorite food since there really are so many.

Our last evening together, I enlisted the help of my mom and dad to prepare the meal. My dad did the shucking of clams, 15 pounds in all. My mom made the chowder and helped with the Clams Casino while I prepared the Clam Fritters. Everyone else waited in anticipation as to the meal ahead while feeding the kids, dogs, fish and guinea pigs.

Clams bring back memories of summers vacationing at Ocracoke Island. Ocracoke is off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We would rent a home on the bay and arrive armed with our trusty clam rakes, buckets and rafts for the kids to assist in gathering our meals. The girls would each have a designated bucket, one for steamers, one for clams casino, and finally the bucket to hold the large clams for chowder.

Their dad and I would rake chest deep in water, raking hard for our clams as we fought the currents. When our rakes hit a clam bed we would call out to the girls. Holding up the clams, the girls would then paddle to us to gather the catch. They would each grab clams depending on their size and call out “casino, steamers, or chowder” in excitement. Then the clams would drop into the bucket tied to the raft and they would paddle waiting for the next group that was to be harvested.

We clammed as much as 2-3 hours a day for our meals. I would prepare the feast in the kitchen, while they rested and napped. When they awoke they would rush to the kitchen to see what “Mom’s Clam Bar” had cooking. It was a fun ritual and the meal was most appreciated. Of course clams fresh from the waters can’t be beat. Nor can the memories that go with an experience like this.

We began our evening with Clams Casino. This almost didn’t happen, but my daughter Lindsey who doesn’t take a no lightly persisted in her request for these. This is one time I am glad she didn’t take no for an answer despite how tired we were getting. Our version of Casino consisted of of sauteed red sweet peppers and onion which was sauteed lightly in bacon fat. The bacon fat was leftover from partially cooking strips of bacon before cutting them into perfect clam size bites. After the peppers and onions were cooked for just a few minutes to soften them, we added homemade bread crumbs to the pan. In addition, I added a little butter when no one was looking.

The clams were then covered generously with the mixture and then topped with a piece of bacon before being put into the oven to broil till the bacon was crisp and the clams were hot. The broiling only took 2-3 minutes. I normally make these with green peppers but am now sold on red peppers. We were tired at the end of the day, so cheated big time by using clams that we steamed rather than shucking raw clams. They were still fantastic and this worked out rather well.

Our next course was the Clam Fritters. My knees go wobbly just thinking about how good these were. My mom and I jockeyed to see whose recipe we would use and I won. Let me tell you I was nervous having never made Clam Fritters before. Half of the clams were going into this recipe and if they didn’t turn out; well a disappointed crowd would not have been fun. But as it turned out- a standing ovation was given to the cooks in the kitchen. We devoured these, which is why you don’t see an image of an inside of a fritter. I had all I could do to take a shot of them before they were gone.

I did change the recipe some by adding more cornmeal and flour to make the right consistency. The recipe made about 12-16 more fritters than it predicted. I also was short an egg, this worked out just fine. The only thing I would change when making these again, is that I would make sure that my stomach was empty -so I could eat more. If you don’t like clams and frankly I couldn’t begin to understand if that were the case, I imagine you could use fish, shrimp or crab in making these. In fact if you don’t like clams give these a try and you surely will be a convert.

We served these with a simple Cocktail Sauce of ketchup and horseradish along with a Tarter Sauce of mayonnaise and chopped pickles. I fried them in batches of 6 serving- 3 a person and they were polished off with some serious oohs and ahas from the family.

The last course was a Clam Chowder made with potatoes, celery, onions, clam broth, cream, and chopped clams. We waited an hour or so following the first two courses before enjoying a warm bowl while sitting outside watching the sun go down. It was the perfect finish to our last evening together.

We all left the same time with one daughter and grandson returning to Alaska and another to Arizona. My other daughter and I drove home to Charleston safely arriving a few hours ago. Scout accompanied us and had his last swim before drying off to get in the car. He had a good time being a dog, and was grateful we weren’t going to leave him behind. A wonderful trip with wonderful memories shared with family, I miss them all already.

Clam Fritters

Adapted- James White; 50 Chowders

4 pounds of small quahogs or large cherry-stone clams

1/2 cup water

1 cup clam broth from steamed clams

2 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups stone ground cornmeal

1 tablespoon homemade baking powder

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup whole milk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

6 scallions sliced thinly

Corn or canola oil for frying

Kosher or Sea Salt

• Thoroughly wash clams, rinsing when done.
• Add water to a 4 quart pot, cover and bring to a boil. Add the clams and cover tightly.
• After 5 minutes, uncover and stir the clams. Quickly cover the pot again and cook another 5 minutes or until most of the clams have opened.
• As soon as you can remove the clams from the heat, carefully pour off the broth into a small container. Let the broth sit for 10 minutes, then carefully pour through a fine sieve.
• You should have 1 cup in all.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and pepper, stir and mix well.
• In a 1 quart saucepan, combine the milk, clam broth and butter and heat over low heat till the butter has melted and the mixture is almost hot. Do not let it boil.
• Stir the liquid into the flour mixture, and a soon as it is fairly blended, add the eggs.
• Continue to mix until the batter is almost smooth, then add the clams and scallions and mix thoroughly. Do not over-mix.
• Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
• Preheat an oven to 200 degrees, covering a sheet or oven proof platter with paper towel.
• The mixture should be firm enough that you can scoop it with an ice cream scoop and it will drop into the fat keeping it’s shape somewhat. Notice my fritters are somewhat round but not completely. If the batter is runny add a little more flour.
• Heat the oil to 350 degrees and when hot drop 5 to 6 scoops of the batter into the oil. keep turning to prevent browning if need be. It should take 3-4 minutes to cook each fritter all the way through if you use a medium size scoop. They should be a nice rich golden brown.
• Each fritter was about 2 inches in diameter so they are a nice size. If you want to make smaller ones, adjust the cooking time accordingly.
• Drain on paper towels and serve warm.
• These do not reheat well though you can save the batter for the next day to make again if need be.
• Also, the original recipe called for 4 eggs, so if you want to halve this do so using 2 eggs per half.