Kayak Catch & Cook: Clam Chow Chow

By: Annie Nagel, Pro Staff

One of my favorite activities is digging for clams. My Old Town Sportsman Bigwater PDL gives me access to clamming grounds you can only get to by boat which yields in bigger clams and less crowds. The rush clamming gives me makes me feel like a kid again. Reaching blindly into these dark sandy holes is more extreme than you would think. Sometimes you’ll grab innkeeper worms and other critters down there which really get your heart pumping. Wedging a clam out of the quicksand isn’t easy either and I find myself using more muscles clamming than pretty much any other fishing activity I do (except maybe spearfishing). Kayaking really rounds out the workout nicely.

Nick Chatelain and I clam mostly in the winter, which is when there isn’t a threat of high toxicity levels. I always check for closures by calling the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) “Biotoxin Information Line” at (800) 553-4133 or visiting the CDPH website. We bring our clams home in salt water, which we always get near the clams we find to ensure the salinity levels and water temperature won’t shock and kill the clams. We keep the water oxygenated by using a battery powered aerator so the clams can live. They can stay alive for several days. 

About 4-24 hours before we are ready to eat the clams, we put them in iced fresh water where they will continue to purge out the sand and relax, extending their siphons and becoming more tender, so you won’t need to tenderize them (although you still can if you want). If they are still tense and lively when you clean them, then I recommend tenderizing the meat a bit so it’s not chewy. I love making a thick, vegetable-heavy, chowder with my clams and love adding fresh Dungeness crab and fish, too. Shrimp is also a great addition to a seafood chowder. For this chowder, I just used Washington and Horseneck clams that we dug up on an island in Tomales Bay, California. 

This is our favorite chowder recipe and we always make some little tweaks to it. Sometimes we use bacon and it’s grease in place of butter, skip the cream if we don’t have any, use different broths like turkey, antelope, goat, etc., add fresh mushrooms that we foraged, and change up the seafood like mentioned before. Sometimes we make our own clam juice and use less or more depending how much we have on hand. Sometimes we skip the broth altogether and just use all clam juice. You can really cater this recipe to your liking and don’t have to stick exactly to the recipe. 

I mention in the video that I doubled the recipe, but I don’t usually double the butter, the flour, or the clam juice unless I have some homemade. I double the veggies and everything else. I typically use sweet yellow onions, rainbow carrots and a variety of purple gold and red potatoes as a fun way to add some color to the stew. I personally like the waxy potatoes, but if you prefer russet potatoes those are great in this recipe too. If you like your chowder really thick, double the rue and cook longer on low. We like to top it off with soup crackers, bacon, and/or a sprig of fresh thyme. A few dashes of hot sauce and some garlic bread on the side is the perfect way to enjoy this chowder. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 12 tbsp. (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, divided
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions 
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• 2 cups medium-diced celery 
• 2 cups medium-diced carrots 
• 2 cups peeled medium-diced potatoes 
• 1 ½  tsp. minced fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 1 tsp. kosher or sea salt
• 1  tsp. freshly ground black pepper 
• 1 tsp. old bay seasoning
• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 1 cup clam juice
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1  cup milk
• 1  cup heavy cream 
• 3 cups chopped fresh Horseneck, Washington, Geoduck etc. clams

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Melt 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of the butter in a large stockpot. Add the onions and cook over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes. 
2. Add the garlic, celery, carrots, potatoes, thyme, salt, pepper, and old bay and saute for 10-15 more minutes, or until the veggies are tender-crisp. This is a good time to clean clams if you haven’t already. Discard the guts and keep the clam foot, siphon, abductor/adductor muscles, and discard the guts and lips. Rinse sand off clam meat.)
3. Add the broth and clam juice, bring to a boil, and simmer, uncovered, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
4. In a medium pot, blanche the siphons and then remove the outer skin. Chop up the clams siphon and body meat. 
5. In a small pot, melt the remaining 8 tablespoons of butter and whisk in the flour. Cook over very low heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in a cup of the hot broth and then pour this mixture back into the cooked vegetables. Simmer until the broth is thickened.
6. Add the room-temperature milk and cream and simmer until soup thickens to your liking. If it’s too thick add more milk or cream and if you want it thicker simmer longer. Add your room-temperature clams and heat gently for a few minutes to cook the clams. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve hot.