There is a little coastal town about half an hour north of where we live, perched right on the edge of the pacific ocean. One of these little New Zealand places where locals swear by the lifestyle; surfing, fishing or just sitting back enjoying the view.
My wife and I love to regularly make the trip north to this little coastal community, to visit friends, enjoy the weather (I really think it is at least a couple of degrees warmer up there) and of course collect the beautifully sweet little clams that live in the Warrington inlet.
We wander through the old pine trees and make our way across the mud flats to the low tide mark, where we eagerly scrape our hands through the muddy seabed to collect the little clams.
Meanwhile, our friends’ little girl searches for baby crabs. She carefully picks them from the seabed, taking great delight in showing us every little crab she catches.
Usually we just wack a big pot of pasta on the boil, chuck some clams in a pan with a little garlic and white wine and steam them open. For this post though, I thought I might try steaming the clams with beer. I am right into beer at the moment – there are so many great micro breweries popping up all over the place. So for this recipe why not try one of your favourite beers.
A little tip, so you don’t get a gritty dinner, if you can wait, it is best to leave the clams in a bucket of seawater overnight so they spit out all their sand.