New England Clam Bake

Now that's a meal worthy of a 40th birthday! During our cottage getaway, Granny Tan and I attempted a paired down version of a New England Clam Bake. I'd seen a few recipes floating around and thought it was worth a try.

First we introduced Clancy to the lobster. My dogs have already met a lobster or two along the way but this was Clancy's first. He found it a little skittish.



We only had mussels, clams and lobster for our clam bake. We were suppose to head to the market but we never wanted to leave the cottage the whole time we were there. Typically a NE Clam Bake also has corn, potatoes, chicken and sausage but we're purists. Just seafood please.

Most recipes call for seaweed to put on the bbq to steam the mussels and clams open but I couldn't find any. Okay, I didn't take the time to walk one block from my house to get some from the shore. But I did get some dulse from the seafood market. I soaked that in water for a couple of hours then took the dulse out and used the water as the base in my pot to steam the mussels and clams. I added a wack of salt to give us that salt water taste. And I threw in some lemons, cause we had 'em. The lobsters were cooked ahead and just warmed on top of the mussels and clams.

I also did a flavoured butter mixed with chives and sweet paprika. What a flavour! It was great with the mussels but the lobster just screamed 'traditional' butter which we had too.

Finish off with libations and a great meal was had by all.



Okay there may have been a lot of libations...



So far '40' is great!