BaltimOregon to Maine

Bill Lackner, leading a clam clinic on Siletz Bay in Lincoln City Wednesday.

Our bountiful harvest of purple varnish and Eastern softshell (think Maine steamers) clams.

I am officially obsessed with foraging for food. And there are boundless opportunities to do it here. So when invited to try my hand at digging for clams on the nearby Oregon coast, of course I leapt at the opportunity. We went out at low tide Wednesday morning on the Siletz Bay just down the road from Mo’s Restaurant (famous for their chowder). Bill Lackner, who founded a local Clam-Diggers Association, was our generous guide. He offers free clinics up and down the coast to promote recreational clamming and ensure that the shellfish are harvested sustainably so all can enjoy them. He quickly demonstrated the technique and then we were off!

Let’s just say clam-digging is immensely easier than foraging for wild mushrooms. If you don’t mind coating yourself with cold, wet sand. You just use a spade or a clam gun to dig about a foot down and then feel your hand all around the perimeter of the whole. Almost every time I found a clam. Instant gratification. Of course, with the cold water, our fingers got numb, making it difficult to feel out the shells as the digging progressed. I also kept cracking the shells with the shovel or gun. It takes finesse not to do so.

Our Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife shellfish license entitled us to each collect 36 clams per day. Let’s just say you shouldn’t have a problem meeting that target.

We found mostly hearty purple varnish clams (native to Japan, planted on the Oregon coast in the 1990s) and a few large Eastern softshell, I believe the same species as our beloved, chewy necked steamer clams in Maine. And when life gives you clams, you make chowder. Spicy tomato Manhattan-style is my chowder of choice, which I fondly remember my Bronx-born Nonny would make. The applewood-smoked bacon and the Spanish chorizo I added to the broth really gave this chowder bite. I first made this recipe (see more details below), from Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food, for a review I penned for The Sun. I also threw in caraway seeds to make it like they did on Coney Island.

Ingredients

• 2 dozen large chowder clams, well-washed
• 4 ounces bacon or salt pork, cut into ½-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, cut into ¼-inch dice
• 1 medium carrot, cut into ¼-inch dice
• 1 large rib celery, cut into ¼-inch dice
• 1 large green pepper, cut into ¼-inch dice
• 1½ pounds potatoes, cut into ½-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
• 1 (28-ounce) can peeled plum tomatoes, with their juice, the tomatoes coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 large bay leaf
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Salt to taste

Make a Clamato cocktail with the leftover clam juice!

Directions

In a 5-quart pot, combine the clams and 6 cups of cold water. Cover and place over high heat. When the water begins to boil, uncover the pot and boil the clams until they open, 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove the clams from their shells. Set aside in a large bowl.

Strain the broth through a sieve lined with a few layers of cheesecloth or a tightly woven cloth napkin. Leave behind any sand that may have settled in the pot. You should have slightly less than 8 cups of liquid. Set aside.

Rinse out the 5-quart pot and dry it.

Put the bacon or salt pork in the pot and cook over medium-low heat until some of the fat has rendered and the meat has lost its raw color.

Add the diced onion, carrot, celery, and green pepper. Toss well, then cook over medium heat until the vegetables are well wilted, 10 to 12 minutes.

Add the potatoes and the reserved and strained clam broth. Bring to a boil, then adjust heat so broth just simmers. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, the thyme, and the bay leaf. Continue to simmer another 30 minutes or so, until the vegetables are very tender.

Meanwhile, push the clams through the medium blade of a meat grinder, or finely chop them in a food processor.

When the chowder has cooked for half an hour, add the clams, then shut off the heat.

Add freshly ground pepper to taste. Correct the salt—the chowder may not need any because clams are salty, and the tomatoes have salt, but usually it does.

The chowder is much better when it is allowed to stand for several hours, or refrigerated overnight, then gently reheated just to the simmering point.