ROASTED SHELLFISH WITH TARRAGON AND THYME BROTH
NOT ONLY IS ROASTING A FABULOUS METHOD FOR PREPARING a variety of mollusks and crustaceans, it also encourages the use of a communal platter, one of my favorite ways to share a meal. It’s a festive sight, and it encourages festivity in the way you eat it. It’s also very easy.
You can use any shellfish that happens to look good. For this dish I found very good shellfish at my nearby Whole Foods Market. Be aware, though, that very large clams or quahogs will take a few minutes longer than the other items, so you may want to throw them into the roasting pan a couple of minutes before the rest. I like to cook the shrimp in the shells because they come out tenderer; I also like having to peel them to eat them (but if you are finicky about eating with your hands, you can add peeled shrimp at the very end, so that they cook as you finish the sauce).
The following recipe serves two, but it’s easy to scale it up. For each person, plan on about 5 mussels, 5 littleneck clams, 3 larger clams, half a small lobster tail, and 3 shrimp. Use one skillet or two as needed, allowing the shellfish to be fairly close together but not stacked high on top of each other. And remember that you’ll be serving this at the table, so choose pans that will look good there and be easy to serve from (low-sided round skillets rather than a high-sided rectangular roasting pan, though the latter would be fine for a large group).
10 littleneck or cherrystone clams
6 top neck clams or quahogs
1 (4-ounce/115-gram) lobster tail, halved lengthwise
6 medium shrimp
Olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced
¼ cup/60 milliliters dry white wine
1 small bunch thyme
5 leafy tarragon sprigs
¼ cup/60 grams butter, cut into 4 pieces
Freshly ground black pepper
SERVES 2
- PUT your roasting pan or pans in the oven and PREHEAT the oven to 450°F/230°C—you can go as high as 500°F/260°C if your oven is clean (otherwise you’ll have lots of smoke!).
- SOAK the mollusks in cold water and BRUSH their shells thoroughly under cold running water to wash off as much sand and grit as possible.
- COMBINE all of the shellfish in a large bowl and TOSS with enough olive oil to lightly coat them all. DUMP them into the hot pan or pans and ROAST for a few minutes (if using very large clams, ADD these first and ROAST them for 2 minutes before adding the remaining items). STIR or TOSS the shellfish to redistribute them. Just before the lobster and shrimp are cooked through—8 to 10 minutes total cooking time; the lobster should be firm but not rubbery—REMOVE the pan from the oven and SET it over a hot burner. The mollusks will have released liquid upon opening. BRING this liquid to a simmer over medium-high heat. PUSH the shellfish to the side and ADD the garlic and shallot. COOK for 20 to 30 seconds, and then ADD the wine and the herbs. BRING the liquid back to a simmer and WHISK in the butter, tablespoon by tablespoon, until it’s melted. GRIND some pepper into the broth. TOSS the shellfish so that everything is nicely cooked and coated with the broth. DISCARD any mollusks that haven’t opened.
- I like to pour the shellfish broth into large bowls and then let everyone serve themselves. SET out additional bowls as needed for shells. Corn on the cob is delicious when steamed or boiled and then rolled in the salty shellfish broth. SERVE some crusty bread to soak up the broth.
The mollusks release plentiful liquid in the high heat as they roast. Mounting butter into the liquid with herbs creates a fabulous sauce.