Today was a perfect example of what I love most about New York. I walked out my door with absolutely no plan for the day. There was no destination in mind, just mindless wandering to get me out of the house.

My boyfriend mentioned maybe wanting bahn mhi, I said I liked An Choi on Orchard street, and we started to make our way downtown. As I wandered through Chinatown past all the strange smells and exotic fruits I noticed a fish merchant with live razor clams in a bucket. We both love to eat razor clams, but had never tried making them before. $6 dollars later we now had a Sunday night adventure to embark on!

We took our live razor clams on a little tour of the lower east side so we could get bahn mhi and then made a trip to wholefoods for a few provisions. Back upstairs there was a frenzy of google searching on how to clean and prepare the razor clams. The most important discovery I made was that we had Atlantic razor clams. After a little debate (I like my razor clams breaded and baked, he likes them sautéed) we decide to prepare them like mussels in a white wine sauce.

Here is a rough description of how they were made. The results were definitely deliciousness!

1st Attempt Razor Clams

1 pound Atlantic razor clams

4 cloves of garlic roughly chopped

1 large shallot roughly chopped

2 tablespoons of olive oil

3/4 cup of white wine, I used an albarino

1 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1 large handful of parsley roughly chopped

Brush the outside of the clam shells under cold water. In a large pan sautee garlic and shallot in olive oil, about 3 minutes. Add white wine and bring up to a simmer. Lay the razor clams in the skillet and let simmer covered until they open up, about 2 minutes. Once open take them out for a quick cleaning** (I removed the foot that contained sand) and discarded any unopened ones. Place back into the pan and continue cooking for about another minute. Turn off heat, top with parsley and serve!

*Tip- when serving muscles or clams don’t forget to set the table with a discard bowl for the shells!

**Since this was the first attempt here are a few notes for what I’ll do differently next time. I’d like to reduce the wine a bit more before adding the clams, at least 2 1/2 tablespoons of butter, and I don’t believe removing the foot would have been necessary if I had had the time to soak the clams for a few hours before I started cooking them. I’ll update with my second attempt soon so stay tuned!