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A Skinny Clam That’s Big With Chefs
UNTIL recently, the long, narrow razor clam was easier to find on a beach than in a restaurant. Except in Asian places, it rarely made the cut.
But in the quest by New York chefs for unusual ingredients, razor clams are now being scooped up.
At Strip House, the executive chef John Schenk steams them with bacon and garlic. He said he loved the "fantastic look of them."
It’s a matter of taste for Harold Dieterle, who serves chopped razor clams with Chiang Mai sausage in a congee with a duck egg at his Thai-style restaurant, Kin Shop. It’s the most popular item on his menu. "I think they add sweetness to the dish," he said.
If diners ever had an aversion to the wormlike creature in the shell, they’re overcoming it. The clams are “definitely trendy and people seem interested in trying them,” said Shaunna Sargent, the executive chef at Corsino, who tosses them with spaghetti alla chitarra.
When Jonathan Benno, the executive chef at Lincoln, took razor clams with cavatelli off the menu for a change of pace a few weeks ago, he said diners asked that they be brought back.
The reason for the common name of the Eastern razor clam (Ensis directus) is obvious. The shell looks like an old-fashioned straight razor. Empty, fragile shells are often scattered on the beaches of the Northeast. (There is a Western razor clam, larger with a more oval shell.) But if you’re not a seagull, collecting them can be a challenge.
“They burrow deep and they move fast,” said Skip Bennett, who runs Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Mass., and gathers wild razor clams as a sideline, selling thousands of pounds a month. He said razor clams were the most prolific shellfish in Duxbury Bay. “Duxbury is to razor clams what Ipswich is to steamers,” he said. They are temporarily unavailable from Duxbury due to tidal conditions, but Long Island razor clams are in New York markets now.
Nonetheless, Colin Mather rarely sells them at his Seafood Shop in Wainscott, N.Y. “When it comes to eating clams, there are other options,” he said “These are not the most attractive things in the world. And in seafood, eye appeal is buy appeal.”
Joseph Carlin, an associate editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, who is writing a book on clams, said, “There is little mention of the clams in print.” In fact, in his research he could not find a single recipe.
Still, they are popular among Chinese, Thais, Japanese and Koreans, and are grilled for tapas in Spain and are prized in Italy.
Francesca Bortolotto Possati, a Venetian who owns the Bauer Hotel in her native city, said that winter is the season for the smallest and best razor clams from the lagoon, often as slender as a pencil.
“Later they are bigger,” she said. “We prepare both kinds very, very simply, just broiled in the oven with maybe a little olive oil, garlic and parsley.”
She added: “And even though Venetians will put pasta with anything, they’re less popular with pasta because they’re so good alone.”
In New York, however, chefs often serve them in pasta dishes. But April Bloomfield at John Dory Oyster Bar, Dave Pasternack at Esca and Laurent Saillard at Ici in Brooklyn serve them lightly marinated in ceviche. At Mary’s Fish Camp in Greenwich Village, and Brooklyn Fish Camp in Park Slope, Mary Redding steams them and zaps them with honey and bold sriracha.
A shopping tip: the thinner the better. Though the shells usually gape a bit, they should nearly close when touched. Razor clams are much more perishable than hard clams, but their shelf life can be extended by steaming them for use in salads later.
Ms. Sargent of Corsino is one chef who freezes the clams for a few hours to make the meat easier to remove and more tender. Regardless of whether they are raw or frozen, a paring knife is all that is needed to shuck them. Be sure to scrub the shells first in running water to remove any sand or grit.
In addition to stores in Chinatown, razor clams are increasingly showing up at Citarella, Eataly and at Agata & Valentina, where they are especially slender. In Greenmarkets, seafood stands like Seatuck sell them, as will Blue Moon when it returns in April. Prices are about $4 to $10 a pound, with 12 to 18 clams in a pound, depending on size.
Razor clams will always be unusual, but with more demand and the advent of warmer weather, they should become more common.
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