Grilled Clams with Lemon Ginger Butter

Okay, so I know that clams are probably not the first thing you think of when you get that urge to crank up the grill.  Me either...my mind goes right to burgers, or chicken, or (my fave!) grilled pizza.  But one day I happened across a recipe for grilled clams with lemon ginger butter and grilled bread, and I just couldn't look away.  Live dangerously, I thought, and I went out and bought me a couple of pounds of clams.

Now, you aren't actually putting the clams directly on the grill itself.  They are going to cook in one of those big disposable aluminum pans that you can get in the supermarket, and which you can toss after dinner, thereby saving you (or your Southern husband) from washing yet another dish.  But before we get to the clams, we need to discuss the lemon ginger butter.  Prepare yourself.

You take a 1/2 a stick of soft butter, and mix it up with some minced shallot, some chopped fresh parsley, a little lemon juice, some lemon peel, and some minced fresh ginger.  Add in a little salt and pepper.  Now take a few slices of French bread and spread a thin layer of this fabulous butter on one side.

Now crank your barbecue up to high and lay the clams in a single layer in your aluminum pan.  You may need two pans, which worked out great for me since my store sells them in sets of two.  It's like it was meant to be.

Put the pan on the grill, close the cover, and open it up about 8-10 minutes later.  The clams should now be opened up and cooked.  So far so good!  Scoop the clams out with a slotted spoon and pop them in a big serving bowl.  Your pan will have a nice amount of clam juice in it - this is good.  Very good.  Grab the rest of the lemon butter that didn't go onto the bread, add it to the pan, and put the pan back on the grill until it is all melted and wonderful.

Now you have your lovely cooked clams...

And your hot melted butter sauce...now pop the buttered bread on the grill and toast it until it is all wonderfully charred and crispy.

Now take the pans of lemon butter juice and pour it over the clams in the bowl.  All of it.  Go crazy.

I don't bother dividing the clams among separate plates - I just put the big bowl in the center of the table with the toasted bread, give everyone a plate with some toasted bread, put another bowl on the table for the empty shells, and say "Dig in!!"

And you thought the grill was just for burgers.  :)

Grilled Clams with Lemon Ginger Butter, from Epicurious

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
• 4 teaspoons minced shallot
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
• 6 1/2-inch-thick diagonal baguette slices
• 2 pounds Manila clams, scrubbed

1.Prepare barbecue (high heat). Using spatula, blend butter, minced shallot, minced fresh parsley, fresh lemon juice, minced fresh ginger, and finely grated lemon peel in small bowl; season to taste with salt and pepper. Thinly spread lemon-ginger butter on 1 side of each bread slice. Arrange clams in single layer in disposable aluminum pan. Place pan on grill, cover barbecue, and cook just until clams open, 8 to 10 minutes (discard any clams that do not open).


2. Using slotted spoon, transfer grilled clams to 2 shallow bowls. Grill bread until slightly charred, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Add remaining lemon-ginger butter to juices in pan; stir on grill until melted. Pour juices from pan over clams. Serve with bread.

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Inside Out Pork Dumplings

Dumplings, dumplings.  I love 'em.  I love this kind:

Which believe it or not are REALLY easy to make.  I promise.  No fear.  Try it out yourself by clicking here, and then come back and tell me I was right.  (I love being right!)

I also love this kind of dumpling.  Especially delicious!

So when I ran across this recipe for inside out dumplings, I was raring to go.  The basic concept is that the filling that is usually INSIDE the dumpling cooks OUTSIDE the dumpling (you probably figured that out already), and the whole thing cooks together...the filling and the dumpling wrapper...all in one delicious mess of dumplingness.  Thus saving you the time of sealing all the dumpling filling inside the wrappers...which again is not hard (promise!), but it does take a little extra time.

As an extra added bonus, you get to cook with baby bok choy.  I was a little worried that it was going to be hard to find, but lo and behold, there it was right there in my regular supermarket. 

So here we go.  Heat up some oil in a skillet with some red pepper flakes to give it some zing.  Toss in some garlic, some ginger and some chopped scallion...more zing!  Now add ground pork, cook it through for a few minutes, and then in goes the chopped up baby bok choy...I also had some peas hanging around so I tossed them in too.  Cover your skillet so the bok choy can steam up nice and tender.  Now toss in some grated carrot and a little vinegar and salt.

Meanwhile, boil up a nice big pot of water, and add wonton wrappers (do this one at a time so they don't stick to each other.  You can usually find these in the veggie section of your supermarket in the refrigerated section.  They are basically squares of fresh pasta, and they are going to cook up in no time.  After about a minute they will be tender and perfect, so drain them, add them to the skillet with everything else and toss it all around.  Voila!  Inside Out Dumplings!

Inside Out Pork Dumplings, from Whole Living 

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
• 2 scallions, whites and greens separated, cut thinly on bias
• 8 ounces ground pork
• 1 pound baby bok choy, leaves separated and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces if large
• 1 carrot, finely grated
• 1 cup frozen peas (optional)
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 6 ounces fresh wonton wrappers
• Kosher salt

1. Heat oil and red pepper flakes in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, and scallion whites. Cook, stirring, until scallions are tender, about 1 minute. Add pork, breaking up with a spoon until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add bok choy and peas; cover and steam until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add carrots. Season with vinegar and salt. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil. Season with salt. Add wonton wrappers one at a time. Cook until al dente, about 1 minute. Drain. Add wonton wrappers to skillet and toss. Serve with scallion greens. 
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Tuna Tartare

I know that when it comes to raw fish, the world divides into two distinct camps.  There is the "I love it SO much I could eat it every day" camp.  That is the one I live in.  Then there is the "Get away from me with that raw fish" camp, and that is the one that the teenager lives in.  And while it is possible every once in a blue moon to get someone to cross from the teenager's camp to mine (I did it with the southern husband but it was before we were married and for all I know it was one of his tricky dating techniques), I'm not even gonna try.  All you anti-sushi people out there?  I love you anyway, and I will be back in a couple of days with something that is completely cooked.

In the meantime, however, we must discuss the tuna tartare recipe from the fabulous STONEWALL KITCHEN FAVORITES.  This is an amazingly quick, easy and (if you are pro-raw fish) spectacularly delicious little number.   You need to get sushi-grade tuna, which I promise is not hard...go to wherever you usually buy your fresh fish and ask.  You chop it up in tiny little pieces and mix it up with chopped tomato, scallions, some ginger and sesame oil and rice vinegar, and then scoop it out onto sliced cucumber rounds.  

It obviously makes a fabulous, dramatic appetizer, but the sushi-loving southern husband and I had it for a Friday Night Lights dinner and were deliriously happy.  Raw-fishing-eating people that we are.

Recipe below, and next post I will return you to your regularly scheduled cooked food.

Tuna Tartare, adapted from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites

8 ounces sushi-grade tuna, cut into 1.2 inch cubes

2 sliced scallions, white and green parts

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1 tablespoon grated, peeled fresh ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil

1 seedless cucumber, sliced diagonally into 1/4 inch thick rounds

1. Place the tuna, scallions, cilantro, ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil in a medium bowl and mix gently until well-blended.

2. Arrange the cucumber slices on a large serving tray and pile a generous tablespoon of the tuna mixture on each cucumber slice.  Serve immediately.

Click here for printable recipe

Chai Hot Chocolate

Here's the thing about this time of year.  It's heartwarming, and exciting, and magical...and exhausting.  Because let's face it, we were a little busy even BEFORE we started having to make all those lists and check them twice, right?  Don't get me wrong - I like the holidays as much as the next girl.  I love decorating the entire house within an inch of its life.  Even those parts that don't especially love being draped in jingle bells...I just can't help it.

In addition to all this, my birthday is in the middle of December - and the day after my birthday is the teenager's birthday.  And six days after that is my anniversary.  From now to New Year's Eve, it's a merry, action-packed blur of wrapping paper and champagne...and I know you can relate, even without birthdays and anniversaries thrown into the mix.  Which brings me to the reason (you knew I had a reason, right??) for this particular post.  Sometime amid all the shopping and the wrapping and the baking and the tinsel, take a few minutes and make this for yourself.  This is NOT your garden variety cup of hot chocolate.  This is the kind of hot chocolate that someone who has been running around like Santa's head elf deserves.  It's not made with powder, it's made with milk and bittersweet chocolate and chai spices and brown sugar and fresh ginger.  It's topped with a sweet ginger cream that slowly melts into the chocolate.  It's an amazing, once a year holiday treat that has to be sipped slowly and with your eyes closed.

So give yourself a gift sometime in the next few weeks and make this.  Turn your favorite holiday music on low, curl up in your favorite chair, and be quietly merry.

Chai Hot Chocolate, from Epicurious

• 4 cups low-fat milk
• 3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)
• 10 cardamom pods, coarsely cracked (and if you can't find these, don't give up!  Just use a little cardamom powder, or some extra allspice)
• 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice, cracked
• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 5 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar, divided
• 6 quarter-size slices fresh ginger plus 1/2 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, divided
• 1/2 cup chilled whipping cream

1. Combine first 6 ingredients, 4 tablespoons brown sugar, and ginger slices in medium saucepan. Bring almost to simmer, whisking frequently. Remove from heat; cover and steep 10 minutes. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

2. Meanwhile, whisk cream, remaining 1 tablespoon brown sugar, grated ginger, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in medium bowl to peaks.  Add more sugar to taste if not sweet enough for your taste.

3. Strain hot chocolate. Ladle into 6 mugs. Top each with dollop of ginger cream. 

Click here for printable recipe

Lobster Rolls and a Cookbook Contest!

Yes, that is a good old-fashioned lobster roll in front of you, and it come from one of my new favorite cookbooks, STONEWALL KITCHEN FAVORITES. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I would basically like to move into the Stonewall Kitchen and live there for the rest of my life. Click here for just a few of the many, many, many reasons why. At any rate, the folks at Stonewall Kitchen heard about my adoration and were nice enough to send me a copy of their amazing cookbook. First of all, the food photography made me both deliriously happy AND think I better practice a little more with my own Nikon. It's just glorious. And the recipes...every bit as wonderful as I hoped they would be.

And happily, I have one more of these fabulous cookbooks to give away!



More info on how to enter for the giveaway at the bottom of this post...but first we must discuss the lobster roll, which (of course) came from this fabulous cookbook.

Among the many, many other talented things that the Southern husband does is keep an eye on all the various supermarkets in the area for when lobster goes on sale. We just LOVE lobster in this house (who doesn't?), but it does make me squirm a little when the price of cooking dinner starts rivaling the mortgage payment. So whenever he spots it on sale he makes sure to pick up a few of those babies, and to have have supermarket steam them up so they are cooked and ready for action. I have a few recipes that I go back to again and again that call for cooked lobster, but some days there is nothing like a good old-fashioned lobster roll.

Enter the Stonewall Kitchen Favorites, which has a lobster roll recipe that has now become my favorite lobster roll recipe of all time. It's light and creamy and classic and perfect. And EASY. You take a couple of lobsters-worth of lobster meat, tear it into bite-sized pieces, and mix it up with lime zest, lime juice, fresh ginger, chopped scallion and just the teeny-tiny-est bit of mayo.

Then lightly toast a few hot dog rolls. In an ideal world, you will have top-split hot dog rolls (which are sometimes called New England-style. Why? I have no idea.). Butter them lightly, and then spoon the lobster salad into the rolls.

You have now pretty much achieved Lobster Roll Nirvana. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Recipe is below, but first the giveaway: I have one glorious copy of Stonewall Kitchen Favorites to give away to a lucky winner, and get this: it is also signed by the authors. All those spectacular recipes, and signed by the authors as well...it's almost as good as that lobster roll! Just leave me a comment on this post telling me your favorite summer recipe, and next Sunday I will pick one lucky, lucky recipient of this amazing cookbook. My beloved email subscribers, you can enter by clicking the post title, which will take you to the website where you can comment.

But first...lobster roll!

Lobster Rolls, adapted from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites

1 1/2 cups cooked lobster meat

1 teaspoon grated lime zest

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon grated, peeled fresh ginger

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 scallion, white and green parts, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Two hit dog buns, toasted and buttered

1. Mix together the lobster, lime zest and juice, ginger, mayonnaise and scallion in a small bowl until well combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Serve in a lightly toasted and buttered hot dog bun.

Click here for printable recipe

Scallop, Orange and Cucumber Kabobs

I should start by saying I am slightly kabob-phobic. Generally when I make kabobs I am using either chicken or steak and assorted vegetables, and invariably the meat is cooked right and the veggies are charred within an inch of their lives, or the veggies are perfect and the meat is, um, undercooked. Which may be fine with my carnivorous Southern husband if it is steak, but chicken...not a good scenario. So I pretty much skip over kabob recipes when I run across them, despite the fact that their general approach to life -- a complete meal all cooked together on a stick -- is SO in line with my kitchen mantra: SIMPLIFY.

However, I ran across this recipe in one of my favorite cooking magazines, which is EVERYDAY FOOD. It's a little tiny magazine published by Martha Stewart's company, and I find so many great and easy recipes in it. I have a subscription to it, but you can also usually find it on those racks right by the supermarket checkout -- pick up a copy next time you are there and check it out. Anyway, they recently had a recipe for scallop kabobs, and because scallops cook in the blink of an eye, I thought maybe, just maybe, this is a kabob recipe that I can't mess up? Since the scallops and the veggies probably need the same amount of cooking time? Could it be?

It was. Glory Hallelujah.

The scallops are threaded onto the skewers with cucumber slices, orange sections, thin sliced ginger (note to self: ginger is for flavor. Ginger should be discarded before serving or your adventurous husband will eat it and it's always heart-wrenching to see a tough guy with tears in his eyes). The kabobs are basted with a honey/orange juice sauce, and take a grand total of 6 minutes on the grill. I de-skewered them onto a plate of brown rice and voila! Kabob-phobia officially cured.

Now all I need is for someone to tell me the secret to making chicken and steak kabobs. Is there a Secret Kabob Society that I can join to learn some sort of special technique? Someone let me know. In the meantime, here is the recipe for scallop kabobs, adapted with thanks from EVERYDAY FOOD.

SCALLOP, ORANGE AND CUCUMBER KABOBS

Serves 4

• Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 navel orange, halved and cut into wedges. Juice the other half and save juice for sauce.
• 8 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2 cucumber, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 1 pound large scallops
• Salt and pepper

1. Heat grill to medium and oil the grates.

2. Combine honey and juice in small bowl

3. On 4 skewers, thread orange wedges (through skin), cucumber, ginger and scallops, beginning and ending with oranges

4. Season with salt and pepper

5. Grill until scallops are done, turning once or twice and basting with honey mixture throughout grilling time, about 6 minutes

6. Serve over brown or white rice.