This weekend is the official beginning of the summer season, although it is nearly a full month before the solstice that marks the astronomical beginning.
It's now perfectly permissible to take your seersucker suit out of mothballs, or dust off your huarache sandals, try on last year's swimsuit, and curse the 10 pounds you swore you wouldn't put on last winter. It's also time to tune up the barbecue. While everyone else is grilling burgers, steaks and ribs, let me make a shellfish suggestion or two, namely clams and oysters.
Several years ago, I discovered that clams baked in a very hot oven — or, in this case roasted with the grill cover closed — are much tastier and considerably more tender than those more commonly served steamed. By clams I mean the Eastern Hard Shell Clam that helped make New England seafood famous. Because oven-roasted clams are more tender, you can also get away with serving a larger clam than you might if you were steaming them.
New England hard shell clams are sold in several sizes; the smallest is called the Little Neck, named for a region on Long Island, New York. They ascend in size through Top Necks, to Cherry Stones and finally Quahogs or Chowder Clams.
The price of the clam rises as the size decreases. The three smallest sizes, however, are best for roasting.
To prepare oven-roasted clams, simply wash the shells to free them of mud and sand. Dry them and place them in a stainless steel pan that will fit into your covered grill. Don't use aluminum pans. The acid from the lemons and salt from the clams leach metal from the pan and discolor the sauce and cause it to taste "tinny". Not to mention what the aluminum might do to your brain stem.
Pour a little olive oil over the clams then add fresh-squeezed lemon juice and some fresh cracked pepper. Toss the clams to coat the shells in seasoned lemon oil and roast them at the highest temperature your grill will reach — 500 degrees or more is fine. I find that larger clams cook more quickly than small ones. I think it has something to do with surface area exposed to heat. When the clams pop open, they are done.
The natural clam juices mix with the seasoned oil and create a hearty, intensely flavored broth much more concentrated than the steamed equivalent. Slide them into a warmed heavy pottery serving bowl, garnish the clams with a generous handful of fresh chopped Italian parsley and serve them immediately with a loaf of dense heavy Italian or French bread for mopping up. Eat them fast as they tend to cool off quickly; that shouldn't be a problem, they are delicious.
With a little extra oil, clams cooked this way make an excellent linguini with white clam sauce. The whole dish only takes minutes to prepare and cook. With a cold, dry, crisp Italian white wine it makes a great addition to a holiday picnic. Soave, from the Veneto of Italy, is making a comeback and is delicious with roasted shellfish.
Oysters, on the other hand, are best grilled with the grill cover open. Use the largest deepest cup oysters you can find. Cooking them shrinks the meat considerably. Wash the shell thoroughly; oysters are bottom clingers and tend to have seaweed and bottom more firmly attached. Dry the oysters and let them relax awhile before grilling them. Oysters clam up, so to speak, when handled, and need a little persuasion to open after rough handling.
Prepare what is called a compound butter while the oysters rest. Mix softened room-temperature butter with lime juice, cracked pepper and chopped shallots or garlic to whatever intensity suits your taste. Remember that oysters are delicate. I like to keep the butter rather subtle. Keep the compound butter soft. Place the oysters on a very hot grill cup side down and heat them until they open. They steam in their own liqueur inside the shell. When they are slightly open you will need to then open them the rest of the way with an oyster knife in much the same way you would a raw oysters on the half shell.
Be careful not to over-cook grilled oysters. They will not open as conspicuously as clams. Sometimes only the slightest space between the top and bottom shells is enough to indicate the oysters are ready to be opened by hand and finished. Remove the flatter top shell and finish the grilled oyster with a dollop of compound butter. Grilled oysters prepared this way can be served as little as barely warm to thoroughly cooked depending on you or your guest's taste. That's why it is important to keep the compound butter soft and warm.
If you prefer oysters cooked completely, return them to the grill with the butter on them and finish them in the natural juice and butter combination. Enjoy your grilled oysters with a lightly oaked Chardonnay to complement the butter or Sauvignon Blanc to accentuate the citrus and the Grilled Oysters' natural minerality.
Have a great summer. Don't forget the sunscreen — and please; lose the white loafers.
Enjoy.
nnn
Jack Felber is a New England native and a regular Times columnist. Jack and his wife Marcia Felber are proprietors of the Olympia Tea Room, a Wine-Spectator-recognized harborside restaurat in Watch Hill, R.I.
