I am a huge fan of all kinds of seafood. It’s abundance of variety, texture, taste and adaptability to all cooking method lends itself to almost infinite variety. Since I tire of eating the same foods (or at least the same application of an ingredient) quite quickly, this variety means multiple seafood meals a week. I regularly change from freshwater fish, saltwater fish, shellfish and crustaceans.
I was in the mood for some bivalve goodness, but wanted something different from the traditional steamed preparation. Oysters and clams are my favorites and I had some ideas for stuffing and baking them. I could not decide between a bacon red pepper stuffing or a greens and horseradish stuffing, so in my typical self-indulgent fashion, I did both. There are practically limitless options and combinations for stuffing seafood, everything from savory, salty, spicy or even fruity. Seafood is wonderful this way.
Since oysters have a lot more body and texture than clams, I wend with the horseradish greens stuffing for them, and went with the red pepper bacon stuffing for the clams. I also chose this pairing as I thought it would be difficult to stuff the tiny clams with the greens.
Horseradish Kale stuffing.
You can use any greens you like. Spinach, mustard greens, kale, Swiss chard all make excellent choices. I had kale on hand so I went with that. I chopped the kale and sauteed it with finely chopped white onion and garlic in a little olive oil. While that was cooking, I melted butter and used it to moisten panko bread crumbs, mixing in a generous portion of prepared horseradish. When the kale was cooked to my liking, I combined the greens mixture with the breadcrumb mixture. I still thought it needed a little something, so I added a little cooked and crumbled bacon (since I had some for the clam stuffing).
Bacon Red Pepper Stuffing
For the clams, I created a bacon red pepper stuffing, similar to a clams casino preparation. Cook a few peices of bacon and crumble. Finely chop red onions, red bell pepper and garlic and saute in a little butter or olive oil. once the onions become translucent and the peppers are soft mix together with bacon.
Cooking:
For the clams, steam in a shallow pan in a little white wine. Once clams open, empty juice from clams into wine and add to stuffing mix. Open each clam on the half shell and top with stuffing mixture. For Oysters open on the half shell and top with stuffing mixture. Sprinkle both with a little grated Parmesan cheese and bake at 350 until a crust forms (8-10 minutes).
Extemporary Eats 