Last week the Lovely Bride and I took a 9-day vacation, away from the frozen forests of New Hampshire to the warm(er), sandy shores of the Carolinas.

We spent a couple of days in Charleston, SC, and had the opportunity to enjoy some amazing food. At The Ordinary we had a lovely dinner of small plates, paired with some wonderful local beers and (non-local) wines. One dish that really grabbed me was the Chilled Razor Clams:

On our return I decided to take a shot at re-creating this sauce. The following is my Experimental Recipe for this dish, I have only made it once and it could use a couple of tweaks. This is enough for two good-sized appetizer portions.

Start by roasting some garlic and 1/2 shallot in a little olive oil in the oven, 30 minutes at 350 degrees. While this is going you can prep the rest of the puree.

I used my new digital scale to record the measurements for this recipe, the units are in grams (no I’m not going to convert them). You can get an inexpensive digital scale at many department or specialty food stores (and I recommend that you do).

For making the puree I used my NutriBullet, as it does an amazing job of it!

• 1/4 Granny Smith apple, peeled and cored 35g
• 1/3 Jalapeno pepper, seeded 12g
• bunch of Cilantro leaves (no stems) 16g
• 1/4 yellow Bell pepper, seeded 38g
• Peruvian Pink Rock salt 2g (this is optional, I picked this up at Southern Season and couldn’t resist trying it. You can use kosher salt)
• 1 Tbsp Apple Cider vinegar
• 1/8 tsp ground Cayenne pepper
• roasted Garlic 3g
• roasted Shallot 17g
• leftover roasting oil 5g

Put all of this into your blender and puree:

Chop one scallion on the bias and dice up another 1/4 of the Granny Smith apple for garnishing the plate. Put all of these components in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Chilled Seafood!

March in New Hampshire is no time to be looking for Razor Clams, so I substituted shrimp and the little scallops, about 1/4 pound of each. After they were peeled, rinsed and patted dry I tossed them into a skillet for a good sear on both sides.

When they are done take them out of the skillet and on a plate/container to be put into the fridge for chilling.

At dinner time spoon about three tablespoons of the puree into a small soup bowl, put some diced apple and chopped scallion on top, then add the shrimp and scallops. You can garnish with other items too, I used bell pepper rings, you can go with radish slices, maybe even a little sour cream.

Voila!

Experimental Postscript

When I make this dish again I am going to add more Jalapeno and Cayenne, to give it a bit more heat, probably double what I used here. The acid levels were good and the punch of the Cilantro was well-balanced by the apple and yellow Bell pepper. Maybe some Cayenne-infused sour cream on top…

Please feel free to share your thoughts.