Clams in rum with orange zest

A low-effort, high-reward, super versatile dish

HELLO.

I was in the middle of writing a really long-ass post just 24 hours ago. It’s a lot of rambling so I figured I’d write this first while it’s still frrrrresh and save the rambling for the next post. I’m pumped about this semi-recipe!! Because, did you know clams in rum finished with orange zest IS A WHOLE VIBE? I ain’t playing.

Welcome to your life. There’s no turning back. Even while we —

Ok. But for real. I know clams are always typically cooked with white wine and parsley and finished with lemon juice and zest. Not always. But usually. That’s the typical route we go down. There’s also clams in sake, which is DEEELISH. But a couple of days back when I was scouring the internet for something I can’t remember (probably an uncommon ingredient and/or flavour pairing), I stumbled upon a recipe that mentioned clams in rum. And I was like, wait hold up, what? I’ve never heard of that before HMM is it sus or is it.. a thing? I continued reading other posts on this blog and was convinced I should give it a go and I am so proud of old me 2-3 days back for bookmarking this idea.

I love cooking clams.

This love of cooking clams (not necessarily eating them) was probably borne out of cooking for my dad. My dad loves clams. He loves mussels. Oysters. Cockles. He goes to town on mollusks. Sure I like eating clams, but I can’t say I LOVE eating them. I’m not a fan of their shell-to-meat ratio. What I can say, though, is I love cooking them and I love their flavour. (Caesars > > > bloody marys because clamato juice, ok everyone??)

It so happens that my partner ALSO loves clams. You know what they say about how you end up dating your parents? I’ve been hoping this prophecy isn’t true because my dad makes me want to strangle him, but... Anyway. I like cooking FOR people, which naturally means I like cooking things that people like. Seafood for my dad, meatballs/pasta for my brother, kinda just realised not-sure-what for my mum..

On saturdays I try to cook dinner for my partner when I can, because he spends the day helping me out with pickups which I am eternally grateful for. Because clams are so easy to whip up and he loves them and I had some sourdough on hand, the stars basically aligned and the universe conspired blahblah and I made clams.

The best part about cooking with clams is that you can easily impress people by not doing much because clams have so much going on — they’re briny, sweet, complex and fancy without trying to be. You don’t even have to really season the dish. If you wanted to just steam clams in butter and sake and finish off with spring onions and eat that with rice and call it a day, that would be LUXE. (now i want clams in sake with a steaming bowl of short-grain rice.)

So we had clams with rum and chorizo yesterday, with garlic bread and roasted broccoli and we both agreed it was HEAVEN. My folks thought it was on the salty side but I love my food boldly seasoned (i know the difference between overly salty) and I say they’re WEAK.

In marvin gaye’s words,

LET’S GET IT ON