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Thursday, June 6, 2013

After you walk the beach.


I wrote a post a while back about harvesting shellfish and cooking it on the spot.
Since the 4th of July is coming up, you may want to go to your local beaches and do just that. You can eat the shellfish raw, with a splash of lemon juice or hot sauce, or cook it on hot coals.

Before you do:
1. call to see if there are any advisories on the health of the local shellfish.
2. prepare a picnic basket with crudites, lemons, snacks and beverages.
3. carry a bucket, a knife and glove, and a fishing licence. (Your local hardware might sell the license.)
4. if you plan on cooking your shellfish, pack fire-making supplies and tongues.

Mussels and clams BBQ
Wash your seafood in sea water to remove all visible sand and dirt
Wrap your small shells in foil and place on hot coals for ten minutes.
Open the wrap carefully and eat the open shells only.

Note: there is usually a limit on the amount of shellfish you can harvest with each licence. Do follow the rules, or your picnic may cost you a bundle.


8 comments:

  1. It sounds lovely, Rosaria! And those practical hints are so useful, too. But one of my favorite things about this post is the picture of you on a cool and foggy beach! Just looking at it helped cool me down as I sit here steaming on a day that is supposed to be about 108!

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  2. I have never done that. We used to crab though and we would take those back to the beach house to cook and clean.

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  3. This sounds like such a great thing to do. I have never lived near a beach. I am just not familiar with finding or cooking shell fish. I would love to take a walk on that beach with you. I think we'd have much to talk about.

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  4. Wish we could do that on French beaches....

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  5. It takes a bit of preparation, the license, the bucket and knife, and then arriving where rocky formations will have mussels and clams that have not been eaten already by the seabirds. We're lucky; all of our beaches provide plenty of opportunities.

    Harvesting crabs is another way to access fresh seafood. For this, you'll need a crab ring, something you can rent or purchase if you expect to do lots of crabbing. Each license will tell you which crabs to keep and which to return to the sea, and how many you can harvest each day.
    A young family can spend mornings at the dock collecting crabs, and take them to be cooked right down to the local fish-market where big pots are awaiting. They'll cook your crab perfectly, even clean it for you, and you can enjoy it right away. This kind of eating will spoil you for the rest of your life.

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  6. Wow, I never thought of that! Given, I'm totally landlocked at this time, but I remember living on the Oregon coast, with fires burning along the beach each night. I wonder if they were cooking some fresh seafood?

    Shannon at The Warrior Muse

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  7. Oh, Rosaria! I just love that shot of you on the beach! Such a little powerball of a woman, cooking shellfish on the sand...love, love, love it. Wish I could be there...but I'm somewhere out east in the cornfields :) Lots of rain here...farmers having a hard time getting the fields planted.

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