The Pacific Northwest offers great opportunities for new experiences, especially if you’re looking for new hunting and fishing activities. I have spent time sea fishing, crab hunting, and clam hunting, all of which are foreign harvesting activities that I enjoy with the aim of at least reaching a good level, if not success.
Razor shells are deeply etched in my memory. Clammers armed with shovels and clam cannons spread out along the long sandy beaches of the Pacific Ocean at low tide. When the tide comes in, the newly exposed sandy beaches are filled with mate shells. Clam hunters comb the beach, tapping the surface with the tip of a shovel or gun, looking for small depressions in the sand that indicate shellfish are retreating. Finding dimples takes practice and patience. I still go clam hunting several times, but every time I go, I feel like I have to relearn the tricks of the trade.
Once they find the right fruitful dimple, the clammers plunge their shovels or guns deep into the beach and quickly pursue the shellfish. A clam gun is a long tube with a handle at the end. The tube is pushed into the sand, and the sand, water, and possibly shellfish are collected in a containment chamber. There is a small air hole in the handle, which Cramer covers with his finger when he is ready to take the gun out of the sand. Covering the hole creates pressure within the gun’s capsule, allowing the scavenger to pull prey to the surface.
Once the full gun emerges, the clam quickly dumps its contents onto the beach and immediately dives into the sand, groping its way through the soupy sand mixture in search of shellfish. It’s a race against the waves of the ocean, which are constantly reaching for the clams and trying to pull them back into the ocean, and a race against the mate shells, which are surprisingly quick to dig up to the beach.
As you hunt for clams on the beach, you can hear the excited cries of the triumphant clams. Those who successfully hunt for clams squeal with joy over their catch and store it in a net bag tied around their waist. Then keep looking down and looking for another dimple.
The mate shellfish is very voluminous and has a rich flesh. Yerba mate has a slightly firmer texture than other seafood such as crab or scallops, making it ideal for soups. It holds up well to the cooking process and retains its chewy texture, but no matter what dish you use it in, it adds a touch of sweetness and sea saltiness to the soup. My favorite way to prepare mate is in cioppino, a hearty fisherman’s stew. Along with various seafood.
material
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 2 medium shallots, diced
- 3 stalks of celery (diced)
- 3 carrots (diced)
- 2 fennel bulbs, stems removed and bulbs diced
- 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
- 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, preserved juice
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 8 oz jar of clam juice
- 2 bay leaves
- salt and pepper taste
- 1 pound mate clams, shelled, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 pound uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 pound snow crab legs
- Other desirable seafood includes a pound of halibut, bite-sized pieces of salmon or other firm fish, Manila clams, mussels, lobster tails and claws, scallops, squid, and octopus.
Instructions
- Prepare by chopping onions, shallots, celery, carrots, and fennel. Finely chop the garlic.
- Heat a Dutch oven or large deep-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add 3 tablespoons of oil and heat for 1 minute.
- Add onions and shallots to the pan, stir to coat with oil, and sauté for 3 minutes. When the onions begin to turn brown instead of translucent, reduce the heat. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the onions.
- Add celery, carrots, and fennel to the pot. Simmer for another 7 minutes to soften the carrots and celery.
- Add the minced garlic and 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, mix, and cover everything with tomato paste. Cook for 3 minutes.
- Deglaze the pot with white wine. Scrape any debris stuck to the bottom of the pan onto the top. You don’t want to miss out on any potential flavor. Bring the wine to a gentle boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the can of tomatoes, all of the can juice, and the entire bottle of vegetable stock and clam juice. Add the bay leaves to the soup base, cover, and simmer over low heat. Simmer for 1 hour, making sure the soup base remains boiling and does not start to boil too quickly.
- Add the clams, shrimp, and snow crab legs to the soup mixture, let the shrimp and clams soak, then cover. Simmer for 7 minutes. Finished shrimp should be slightly pink. Season with more salt and pepper if desired.
- Ladle into a large bowl and serve with some crusty bread to soak up the tomato soup.
