With Summer leaving, I figured it was only appropriate to do a post on fried clams. 

One, because I love them.
And two, because they’re super easy to make at home, which should help our collective wallets, amirite?

I’m not gunna lie, I had some concerns about opening the clams seeing as I’ve never done it before, but I think I came out (almost) unscathed!

Ingredients

Tools
oyster knife (or if you’re a clown like me try to use a knife you already own) 

•    bag of clams (1-2 pounds)
•    1 egg
•    1/4 cup of cream or milk
•    secret ingredient : saltines for breading!
•    flour
•    lemon
•    2 cups oil (vegetable, canola, etc.) for frying

Tartar Sauce
•    mayonnaise
•    1 tablespoon minced onion

Optional
•    1 tablespoon minced pickles
•    pinch of sugar

Instructions

Prep Time 20 mins | Cook Time  10-20 mins | Total Time 30-40 mins | Yields Happy As A Clam

Okay so the first thing you have to do it clean the clams before we (successfully) open them. 
To do this, all you need to do it get a large bowl, put the clams in and fills it with water and let them sit for about 5-10 minutes.

While the clams are doing their thing, you can prep the dredge station. Take two plates, on one you should have a decent amount of flour, and on the other crushed saltines. I use saltines because they not only offer a richer color, but they lend an irresistible crunch that I love!  In a small bowl add the milk and egg along with some salt and pepper and whisk.

Now for the hard part, getting the clams out of their shell. I didn’t have the proper knife when I was doing this, please please get one of these, it will save you time and energy, not to mention it’s way safer. There are plenty of good tutorials out there on how to shuck clams here are a few here and here.

You did it! You got your clams out of there yay! Hopefully you didn’t cut yourself on a shell like me in the process. All that’s left is to dredge and fry. You’ll want to heat the oil up (medium-high heat) so that it’s nice and ready by the time you’re done. Flour, egg wash, saltines, flour egg wash, saltines. 

Once you’ve got all of your clams dredged, start placing them into the oil being sure not to crowd, you know they’re done when they’re a golden brown! Make sure your clams are then placed on some paper towels to soak up any extra grease.

The tartar sauce is an optional step, and it’s super easy to make yourself. Take your mayonnaise, add in a squeeze of lemon, the onion, and salt and pepper to taste – whisk. There’s no need to adhere to strict measurements here, and feel free to jazz it up with other additions – I like to add in scallions!

Voila! Fried clams that shouldn’t have cost you more than 12 bucks give or take.