rkingfish's Full Review: Brooke Dojny - The New England Clam Shack Cookbook
Those of us with a passion for kitchen creativity eventually commit our favorite and frequent recipes to memory. For me, this includes most main dishes and a variety of breads and cakes that are a family tradition; or soon will be.
Whether it be the price or availability of local seafood as a contributing factor, the semi-experienced chef will seek assistance in the world of the double-digit-per-pound bay scallop - for if you overcook these tasty morsels, they will take on the texture of Tupperware.
Some exceptional cookbooks get a preferred spot on the bookshelf; their pages chock-full of bookmarks denoting past favorites in dog-eared splendor. With the publication of The New England Clam Shack Cookbook, author Brooke Dojny has assembled an entertaining and informative top-shelf seafood handbook. Following a standard Foreword and Preface (does anyone but the lowly reviewer read these?), nine chapters highlight recipes from appetizers to the Best Of The Best Old-Fashioned Yankee Desserts.
“Sleeves are just napkins we wear . . .”
Part of the book’s appeal lies in the author’s unusual approach - her intent in Chapter One is to define the Clam Shack and how it differs from your average Lobster Pound or Chowder House. Instructions for “Eating in the Rough” (we Nor’easters refer to this as “Caveman Protocol”) accompany a semi-comical hand-drawn map marking the location of all shacks, pounds and houses on display; with the clear emphasis on coastal establishments. The author even offers instruction as to how the book should be used - giving it value as a travel guide to a shack of interest that may await your future arrival.
Arranged amongst the double-page restaurant profiles are the recipes specific to said eatery, or those with a similar regional appeal; Evelyn’s Nanaquaket Drive In (Tiverton, RI) offers three such recipes for Clam Cakes, Pan-Grilled Sea Scallops and Grape-Nuts Pudding. The inclusion of current and retro photography combined with water color panels (presented in a semi-impressionist style) give the book a 1940s quaintness that stops well shy of cutesy or cloying.
Grilled Cheese, Anyone?
Pick up any seafood cookbook and you may find recipes for a Haddock Sandwich (page 98) or Fried Calamari with Pickled Peppers (page 110) - but what’s a clambake without Roast Corn (page 191) or a presentable pile of Chickie’s Cole Slaw? (page 190). For those with a seafood allergy (or just hate the thought of eating sentient beings from the sea), the Cod End in Tenant’s Harbor, Maine submits its take on the Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Tomato (page 82), which employs four ounces of Vermont cheddar with thinly sliced tomato arranged between thick slices of Cape Ann Anadama Bread (page 84). Three ounces of butter are suggested to fulfill the “grilled” aspect of my favorite all-time sandwich. This version is a keeper.
Soup du Jour . . .
If chowder or stew is your passion, The New England Clam Shack Cookbook offers-up the gamut; from the alliterative Creamy Cape Cod Clam Chowder, which uses whole milk as a base, to the ironically titled Milky Maine Steamer Chowder, which contains two cups of heavy cream just to confuse and beguile the prospective diner. The Rhode Island Red Clam Chowder (page 55) requires condensed tomato soup to mimic that Manhattan effect. A full-page thumbnail history (page 50) chronicles the battle between the differing factions that proclaim the superiority of milky, red or clear. Serve me up a cup of each, dear waiter...
"Lobster bib not included . . ."
Never cooked a bit of seafood in your life? Not to worry, for the author has included several sidebars that fully instruct the novice in the ways of the Cod and Clam. Illustrated full-page panels instruct one in the proper art of How to Shuck Clams (page 34) and Oysters (page 109) which, with practice, may eliminate your fears while retaining your fingers. Lobster Pound Protocol (page 118) should not be confused with The Best Way to Eat a Lobster (page122), for dissecting lobster bodies can be a minefield of roe and tomalley for the claw-and-tail-eating non-New Englander. Believe me... there are items in there not fit for human consumption.
Chicken of the Sea? . . .
One of my favorite recipes from the book is the Wood-Grilled Barbecued Chicken (page 156); where (skin on) boneless chicken breasts are smothered in Smooth and Tangy Tomato Barbecue Sauce (with Worcestershire, garlic and cayenne pepper) and roasted on a moderate charcoal fire. The secret to The Rhode Island Stuffie (page 14) is the plethora of ground bacon and single stick of butter that reside inside. Around here, a stuffed clam ain’t a stuffie without Chourico (pronounced shore-ease) - a spicy Portugese sausage that gives The Ultimate Stuffie (page 16) its kickin’ personality. Kudos to the author for giving the proper phonetic description of this consistently mispronounced popular southern New England staple.
There’s always room for pie . . .
If you still have room, the Maine Wild Blueberry Pie is as simple and tasty as it gets - though I’ve yet to include the twelve tablespoons of lard called for in the Hot Water Crust. A mix of monounsaturated walnut and canola oils will better assist in the control of your cholesterol - for the informed and experienced baker is forever tweaking the seemingly perfect recipe - it’s just our nature.
With the publication of The New England Clam Shack Cookbook, author Brooke Dojny has achieved a fine balance of formula, instruction and retro-styled travelogue entertainment to assist the beginner and experienced cook in the art of proper seafood preparation. The 243 page 7.25 x 9.25 inch softcover offers a full and comprehensive index, along with several appendices regarding establishments cited, resources and additional eateries of interest not included in the text.
As is the standard of convenience, all recipes are contained on one page or facing pages. The only downside concerns the stamina of a softbound cookbook; though the binding appears to be of adequate quality to withstand repeated kitchen counter abuse.
I was so impressed with The New England Clam Shack Cookbook, I paid the cover price - high praise from this non-impulse-buying oyster-eating cheapskate.
The New England Clam Shack Cookbook (2008)
Author: Brooke Dojny
Illustrations: John Dykes
Storey Publishing
N. Adams, Massachusetts 01247
ISBN: 9781603420266
Printed in Hong Kong
Cover Price: $16.95 Clams (US)
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