Simple Cooking - Grilled Clams

By Anthony Todd in Food on Jun 19, 2008 3:00PM

Everyone around us is frantically grilling their way into summer, and, as usual, big chunks of meat seem to rule the day. In our search for alternatives to steaks and chicken breasts, we ran across an article that suggested grilling clams. After doing a little research, we found out that this wasn’t as far-fetched as it sounds and decided to try it out. After a couple of attempts, we can whole-heartedly say that clam-grilling is both tasty and entertaining – but the recipe needed some tweaking to fit our tastes. Next time you’re looking for something new, try it out!

Grilled Clams
Inspired by Marcia Kiesel
This serves 1-2 as a main course or 3-4 as an appetizer

Juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp Siracha hot sauce
1 tbsp red wine
1 tbsp horseradish
salt and pepper
1 baguette, sliced
2 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed. Remember, always discard any clams that are open or cracked.

Prep/Heat up your grill. While it’s heating up, combine the first 4 ingredients in a small bowl and add extra Siracha to taste. When the grill is hot, first grill a few slices of baguette. Then, put the clams directly on the grate and close the grill.

If you don’t have an outdoor grill, you can use a grill pan (we did). However, you’ll have to figure out a way to cover the clams or they won’t open up. We put a small saucepan over the top of the clams on the grill.

The clams will open a little bit, and then after about a minute they’ll pop open completely. Flip them over and grill them meat-side down for about 1 minute to finish them off.

Serve the clams with the grilled bread and a small amount of the spicy sauce. You can top them with the sauce or you can give your guests a bowl and a brush. Eat them right out of the shells.