shave the clams

Picked up some razor clams, or more appropriately, Atlantic jackknife's, the other day at the local Asian market. By local, I mean I had a two hour ride home to daydream about how to play with my new bounty, the ensis directus. These are a different genus than their name sharing Pacific cousins, the larger, more eliptically shaped shelled clam the siliqua patula. Jackknife's are also known as bamboo clams, so by the time we got back to our mountain kitchen, I guess it's legal to say we went bamboo.

First the clams were chilled in salted water and Thai basil for an hour. Next they were vacuum sealed with more basil and a red chile.

Having razors/jackknifes in front of me, it wasn't a far journey to go with a shaving theme. I had also picked up a banana blossom at the market. To make "hair", the blossom was shaved thinly and pickled with rice vinegar, fish sauce, palm sugar and star anise. For the shaving cream, kaffir lime leaf was added to coconut milk, shaken silly, allowed to infuse, and then added to an isi.

The clams were cooked sous vide at 65 C for 8 minutes. Then we opened the doors to our new Asian barber shop...

thai basil sous vide razor clam

pickled banana blossom hair

coconut-kaffir shaving cream

shaved pop's ham

pandan oil