December 28, 2021
by Crystal Ward
This past boating season was so much fun for us, and honestly it was our best season yet since buying the Crystal Dawn! One of our favorite things is to catch or harvest something we can cook for dinner and share it with friends. Sometimes it's diving for lobsters or "bugs", other times it's spear fishing, and we also enjoy crabbing and clamming in the bay.
On this day in September 2021, we went out clamming in the Barnegat Bay with our good friend and boat neighbor Walt and his daughter Kim. Not every trip is successful but on this afternoon we found a great little spot for clamming and came up with enough clams for a yummy dockside dinner.
Walt has a small skiff which is perfect for clamming because it can go into much shallower water than our boat. Many spots in the bay are great for clamming and it's usually about 1-2 feet deep (less than 1 meter). We've come to really enjoy clamming, for the peacefulness and simple joy of searching and digging under water for these delicacies. It's exciting when you feel the clam rake hit something under the sand and then pull it up to find the little beauties.
Before heading back to the dock, we scooped up some bay water in a bucket and soaked the clams. Once at the dock we added a couple tablespoons of cornmeal. The clams suck this in and spit it out, which also means they spit out the sand. I find that leaving them for an hour or so in the bucket of bay water with the cornmeal is good to get all the sand out of the clams.
I like to steam the clams on the BBQ grill right at the dock. You can see here in our video how quick and easy it is to cook the clams. Once they're on the grill, it's only about 5-8 minutes before they open and are ready to eat. Serve with a fresh sliced baguette and you've got a terrific meal!
The best part...making these memories with our friends!
Cooking video link with recipe instructions, and please subscribe to my YouTube channel:
Me, Kim, Walt, and John out clamming
John and Walt clamming in the bay
Me and Walt at the skiff, clamming in the bay
Part of our clam catch
Comments