Baked Stuffed Clams (Almejas al Horno)

I’ll be the first to admit that I do, at times, lack coordination. Typical hand-eye stuff. In the past I’ve blamed this on my left handed-ness- after all, it’s a fact that lefties are more ambidextrous than righties, and sometimes I’m just not sure which hand should do what!- but I’m open to the fact that it might be more than that. For this reason, I’ve been avoiding fresh clams for some time. The idea of holding a tightly closed (living) shellfish in one hand and a sharp knife in the other was daunting, but this summer I decided to overcome my fear in the name of Spanish-style stuffed clams. I’m happy to report that I only sliced my hand open once.

At the end of the day, clam shucking is a good tool to have in the toolbox, I think, even if blood was shed during the learning process. Youtube videos were particularly helpful in my clam education, so I’d like to impart some of my newly acquired knowledge to any of you who might be clam novices like I was. Basically, you are overcoming two obstacles when it comes to clams- they are sandy and they are closed really, really tightly. A two step process will help to solve both of these problems. First, fill a large bowl with cold salted water and soak your clams for 20 minutes or up to overnight. During this time, they should spit out their sand. Next, take them out one by one and scrub them well, then put them in the freezer for another 20 minutes or so. This might seem like overkill, but there are few things more frustrating than trying to pry open a stubborn clam with a sharp knife, and this step really helps them loosen up.

To pry them open, you want a good clam knife and a steady hand (I was 1 for 2 on this requirement, unfortunately). While holding the clam in one hand, hinge facing towards your palm, you want to slide the edge of the knife into the side of the clam, where there’s a little node- that’s the muscle that holds the shell closed. Once you break it, you’ll hear it release, and then you can slide the knife around the whole clam and pry it open. Cut the meat out, put it in a bowl, and, for this recipe, wash your shells and choose half of them that are going to make the best serving vessels.

If it’s your first time, don’t worry. You’ll probably swear at a pile of mollusks, hopefully you don’t send yourself to the emergency room, but in the end you’ll secretly be oddly satisfied that you spent the better part of an hour prepping and prying open 18 clams.  And trust me- the reward is worth it.