Summer and seafood go together splendidly. We spend days at the beach and look forward to diving into a bucket of clams or tying on a paper bib to enjoy a 2-pound lobster. Aren’t we fortunate that we live an hour away from the Shore?
The Atlantic Ocean is filled with bluefish, flounder, striped bass and a variety of clams. The nearby Chesapeake Bay brings us blue crabs and soft-shell crabs. With the wonder of airfreight, we can enjoy pompano, grouper and red snapper from Florida, lobster from Maine and shrimp and crayfish from the Gulf Coast.
America’s coastlines — and their culinary benefits — are the subject of a new book, Coastal Cooking: 125 of the Best Recipes from the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts and Hawaii, by John Shields ($32.50, Broadway Books, hardbound with full-color photographs). It is the companion cookbook to a public television series to begin this fall. As soon as I leafed through it, I knew it would end up in my kitchen and not grow dusty on a shelf. The color photographs are enticing and the recipes easy to make.
The mid-Atlantic region is a prominent part of the book. Although it begins in New York and ends just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, I often think first of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay, where the blue crab is king.
When I was growing up, I loved to fish off the rocks on the beach in Atlantic City. I caught bluefish, flounder, kingfish and weakfish. I learned how to gut, clean and scale a fish when I was about 8 years old. Fish fresh from the Atlantic Ocean often turned up on our dinner table. Buying fresh fish from a reputable fishmonger is the next best thing to catching them yourself.
Here are recipes for a summer dinner from Coastal Cooking by John Shields.
Wedding Bell Clams
Ingredients:
2 dozen hard-shell clams
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes, cored, seeded and chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 to 8 strips of bacon, quartered
Directions:
Preheat the broiler.
Shuck the clams from their shells with a sharp knife, then leave them, with their liquor, on half of their shell. Check each shell and remove any grit or loose pieces of shell. Arrange the shells on a baking pan with a rim at least 3/4-inch high, such as a jelly roll pan.
Mix together the tomato and green pepper, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Place some of the mixture on top of each clam. Place a strip of bacon on top of the mixture and place the baking pan under the broiler until the bacon is crisp, four to six minutes. Watch to make sure the bacon doesn’t burn. Serve immediately.
Serves six. Note from Phyllis: You can substitute red pepper for the green. You can have your fishmonger open the clams for you, but make sure the liquor is reserved.
Phillips Crabmeat Scampi
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 stick butter, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup white wine
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over for shells
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound cooked pasta or 4 cups cooked rice
Directions:
Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until the garlic is lightly golden. Add the red pepper, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and white wine. Bring to a boil, and cook for four minutes.
Gently stir in the crabmeat and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Serve over pasta or rice.
Serves four.
Note from Phyllis: Shields received this recipe from Shirley Phillips, owner of Phillips Restaurant in Baltimore.
Clem and Ursie’s Squid Stew
Ingredients:
3 pounds prepared squid
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 onions, finely diced
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
4 ripe tomatoes, cored and chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
6 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Directions:
Clean and wash the squid thoroughly and cut into 2-inch pieces.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions, garlic and red pepper and saut� over medium heat for about five minutes. Add the squid, tomatoes, tomato paste and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for two hours or until squid is somewhat tender.
Add the potatoes and salt and continue cooking until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Add the vinegar and cook two minutes longer.
Serves six to eight.
Note from Phyllis: Cleaned squid is available in some supermarkets and from John Y in the Reading Terminal Market.
Mussels with Smoked Salmon and Cream
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
4 pounds mussels
3 ounces smoked salmon
Directions:
Pour the cream and wine into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the garlic. Simmer over medium-high heat for one minute. Add the mussels and crumble in the smoked salmon. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, uncovered for five to six minutes, or until the mussels open and the meat is opaque.
Discard any mussels that do not open. Do not allow the liquid to boil as the cream may curdle.
Serves four.
