Focus on food: April 14, 2009

Stuffed Quahogs

Ingredients:
10 each quahogs
1 loaf French bread
1 green pepper, chopped fine
½ cup celery, chopped fine
1 onion, chopped fine
¾ lb. chourico meat, ground (mild or spicy)
8 oz clam juice
¼ lb. butter
2 tablespoon crushed red pepper (pimento mouida)
salt and pepper to taste

“New England Clamboil Recipes...”

Directions:
Begin by shucking quahogs, being careful to retain clam liquid. Break bread into 1 inch pieces and place in a 1 gal stock pot with the 8 oz of clam juice.

In a large skillet, saute green pepper, celery, and onion in butter over medium heat until wilted and translucent. Add chourico meat to saute and continue cooking until chourico begins to brown. Add clam juice from shucked quahogs and scrape bottom of saute pan.

Grind quahog meat to 1/4 inch pieces and add to saute mix. Remove from heat and add to the bread mixture. Stir saute into the bread mixture thouroughly and add crushed red pepper. Cook over medium heat, approximately 15 minutes.

Stir the mixture constantly while cooking. Remove from heat and cool in refrigerator 20 minutes. Split quahog shells and wash half, making sure to scrub the outside of the shell.

Add stuffing the shell and bake 15 - 20 minutes. You can also freeze the stuffies using plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Remove wrap before cooking.