Tag Archives: clams

Purveyor Highlight: Shore Catch

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Since we’ve been enjoying so much fresh seafood lately, we thought we’d take a post to highlight one of our favorite purveyors. Shore Catch, from Barnegat, NJ, is a regular at the Rittenhouse Farmers’ Market, and brings us a variety of fresh seafood from the Jersey Shore.

One of our favorite things to get from Shore Catch is their clams. Tom has a basic recipe for clams, which we vary a little bit each time depending on what we have available.

We also enjoy their scallops, which Tom has been known to sear up either for brunch or for dinner.

Shore Catch often has really nice cod, which we’ve used to make prosciutto-wrapped cod, or just simply baked with lemon and garlic.

When available, the mahi mahi we’ve gotten from Shore Catch has been incredible. Lately we’ve been making this with a piccata preparation and serving it over pasta.

We’ve also tried their flounder, which has been lovely, also prepared piccata-style and topped with fresh tomatoes and basil.

Shore Catch has plenty of other seafood choices, depending on the season, including oysters, squid, tuna, swordfish, and monkfish, but these have been our favorites so far. We’re thankful to have fresh, local fish so readily available!

The Rest of the Weekend Wasn’t Too Shabby

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Picking up where Tom left off with Saturday Mornings, little did we know after he posted that the rest of the weekend would turn out to be so awesome.

Beer

1612er Zwicklbier

After our morning routine, despite the heat we decided to take a walk and headed east. We ended up at Brauhaus Schmitz and enjoyed a few rare German beers. The menu looks promising, so I’m sure we’ll head back there some other time for food.

On the way back, we stopped by Isgro Pastries to pick up a few of their famous cannoli for after dinner. It was our first time trying them, and wow, they were exquisite. The shell was firm and not too crumbly, and the filling was delicious and not too sweet.

Isgro Cannoli

Isgro Cannoli

When we got home, we cooked up some clams that we had picked up earlier in the day from Shore Catch, a vendor that sells fresh sustainable New Jersey day boat seafood at the Rittenhouse Farmers’ Market. We cooked them with chorizo from Di Bruno Brothers, white wine, parsley from our CSA, and of course, tons of garlic.

Clams with Chorizo and White Wine and Garlic

Clams with Chorizo and White Wine and Garlic

On Sunday morning, we started with our usual routine of getting the Sunday paper and reading it at home. We decided to go out for brunch, but we have such a long list of places to try, it’s always so hard to decide. We settled on nearby Marathon Grill. We rarely go there, but the food always pleasantly surprises us when we do. Tom got some delicious whole wheat pancakes with bananas and almonds (the bananas were an homage to our upcoming read of Gravity’s Rainbow), and I got a breakfast burrito. Most of the breakfast burritos I’ve tried in Philly so far have been bland and disappointing, but this one was actually pretty good, made with chorizo, black beans, pepperjack cheese, jalapeño, spinach, and onions, topped with tomatillo salsa.

Breakfast Burrito at Marathon Grill

Breakfast Burrito at Marathon Grill

Our Sunday afternoon was much like our Saturday afternoon. We walked the same direction but this time ended up at Tapestry, a pleasant gastropub. We only had beers, but the cocktails looked well made, as did the food. I’m sure we’ll be back soon.

That night, we cooked up some vegetable enchiladas, for the second week in a row. I’ll post the recipe in a forthcoming post, but for now, here’s a picture:

Enchiladas with Veggies and Black Beans

Enchiladas with Veggies and Black Beans

What a delicious weekend! Let’s do it again!

Tom’s Clam Recipe

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I don’t really have A recipe for my clams, just a general method. Basically, I try to balance some spicy things with some sweeter things. This time around, I used garlic, shallots and black and crushed red pepper, and dried chorizo to provide some spice and peas, carrots and fennel for a little sweetness.

I began by frying up the garlic and shallots. I don’t really measure anything but for something like this, I was rather generous, using about 7-8 cloves of garlic and 1 rather large shallot.

I next threw in one chopped carrot, followed by about half a head of chopped fennel. I fried them until they just started to become soft.

Then I added the chopped chorizo, the black and crushed red pepper and some herbs. I usually use basil, thyme and oregano. Again, I tend to be generous with everything for this dish, but it’s all a matter of taste.

Since the chorizo didn’t need to really cook, I just fried everything enough to blend the flavors. Since the clams need to steam in this mixture, I needed to add liquid. I added some clam juice (maybe about 1/4 cup–again, I don’t measure) and about 1/3 a bottle of beer. I used Saison Dupont, which is also quite fine for drinking with the clams.

I let this come to a simmer and then add some frozen peas. I bring it back up to a healthy simmer and then add the clams and cook until they open.

That’s it! Simple and delicious. Pairs very well with lighter beers. We also had a nice multigrain sourdough bagette to dip in the juices.