Pacific Razor Clams – Cleaning & Pan-Frying

It’s an overcast, gray afternoon in Astoria, Oregon. There’s a chill in the misty, salty air, partly from the proximity of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean and partly from being February. A group of friends – some are fishermen, some are seafood processors and one is a chef – meet at fairly secluded area of rocky beach just south of the jetty and the wreck of the Peter Iredale. It’s low tide and it’s time to go digging for razor clams.

Pacific razor clams, Siliqua patula, like their smaller Atlantic razor clam cousins, Siliqua costata, get their name from their similar appearance to straight razors. Cleaning razors in the shell isn’t difficult but is a bit time consuming and ultimately rewarding.

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Aphrodisiacs – The Foods of Love

An aphrodisiac is a substance which is used in the belief that it increases sexual desire. The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sensuality. Throughout history, many foods, drinks, and behaviors have had a reputation for making sex more attainable and/or pleasurable.

Definition from thefreedictionary.com

In ancient times a distinction was made between a substance that increased fertility versus one that simply increased sex drive. Consumption was less about the type of food and more about simple nutrition. Undernourishment creates a loss of libido as well as reduces fertility rates.

Substances that “by nature” represent “seed or semen” such as bulbs, eggs, snails” were considered inherently to have sexual powers. Other types of foods were considered stimulating by their “physical resemblance to genitalia” Other foods deemed to have these aphrodisiac qualities were derived from mythology. Aphrodite was said to consider “sparrows” sacred because of their “amorous nature” and for that reason were included in various aphrodisiac brews. [1]

As everyone agrees the best way to a lover’s heart is through their stomach.

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[1] Source: The Cambridge World History of Food

 

Storing, Serving and Matching Artisan Cheese

Store, Slice, Arrange, Match, Enjoy, Repeat.

A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk’s leap toward immortality. – Clifton Fadiman

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Artisan Cheese Types – More than just Cow, Goat and Sheep

How do you go about categorizing cheese? It’s a subject that’s just too diverse. Some choose to  delineate by type of milk – cow’s milk, goat’s milk, sheep’s milk – while others come up with unorthodox categories such as mild, bland and stinky.

As in the wine world where vintage reflects the varietal, region and winemaker ’s philosophy, each artisan cheese reflects the animal, region and cheese maker’s philosophy.

The Artisan Cheese Lover’s Cheese Journal

The seven traditional cheese types are Fresh, Soft-ripened, Washed-rind, Natural -rind, Semi-hard/Hard, Blue-vein and Pasta-Filata.

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Artisan Cheese Primer – Food not Fuel

“Cheese is the Devil’s Play Thing!” – Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House

Great milk makes great cheese, and great grazing makes great milk. Taste comes from quality raw ingredients, handled with respect and grown naturally the way they are supposed to be.

Brian K. Mahoney in Blessed are the Cheesemakers from Chronogram magazine wrote,

Legend has it that cheese was “discovered” by an unknown Arab nomad. This nomad supposedly put his supply of milk into a pouch made from a sheep’s stomach, and set out across the desert. The enzymes in the lining of the pouch, known as rennet, combined with the heat of the sun, caused the milk to separate into curds and whey. The nomad, unconcerned with technical details, found the whey drinkable and the curds edible. Cheese was born!

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Alder Planked Salmon

Nothing matches the taste of salmon cooked on wood. It’s primal, capturing the essence of the both the fish and the wood. Planking is a cooking method that according to the Great Lakes Grilling Co., originated with

McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Market

Native Americans occupying the Pacific Northwest. [They] would spear or club salmon from the shores of the inland streams during the annual salmon runs. The fish were then brought back to their settlements for cleaning and smoking, then stored for the hard winter months ahead.

In the early days, the catch was hung over open fires or tacked to big wood slabs and then slowly cooked, absorbing the natural flavors from the smoke.

This slow cooking method is surprising easy and produces a sightly smoky-sweet, exceedingly moist and amazingly flavorful piece of salmon. Keep it simple. Avoid coating the fish with ingredients that cover up the true salmon flavor, like brown sugar, soy and mustard, All you’ll need is a touch of olive oil, a little acid from a squeeze of lemon and the best sea salt and cracked pepper you can find.

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