Shrimp and clam Po Boys

All the voice overs have been recorded for our upcoming first video blog, and now all the video is being spliced together for our amazing take on chicken tacos. You can check out the first two teasers for the upcoming video here and here if you haven't seen them yet. Just to keep you hooked a little bit longer, here are two more photos from the recording:





Trust me when I say the final product will be well worth the wait! Now onto the purpose of this week's blog: fried shrimp and clam Po' Boys! I'd been craving seafood and wanted to try something a little different, so we went the route of making sandwiches with them. To get started I put together the coating for the shrimp and clams, which consisted of tempura batter and a few other spices.


Megan and her siblings frequently get me new seasonings for gift giving occasions, and one of them was an all seafood themed seasoning mix. The "South Seas" seasoning has a great savory taste, and it works for things other than seafood as well. I tossed in a liberal sprinkling of South Seas and cayenne to give the batter a little kick.


Next up was trying to figure out how to shuck clams. It only took us all day, but we did finally find a kitchen store that had clam shucking knives. My first attempt was a disaster, but I got it down pretty quick. The secret is to use the entire length of the blade to find the best point of entry, instead of trying to use the tip. Once the knife is in you can then twist it around from vertical to horizontal to pop open the shell. Here's me on my first try, about to gash open my thumb:


After pulling the tails off the shrimp and getting the clams out of their shells I dipped all the seafood in milk and then coated it in the batter.

Because they are so small, the shrimp and clams only take about four or five minutes to fully fry in the oil.



The condiment is the most important part of any sandwich, and I wanted this Po' Boy to be something spectacular. Instead of using any of my standard mustard or horseradish concoctions, I put together a spicy remoulade sauce. The sauce is made by blending together mayo, garlic, capers, Chalula hot sauce, horseradish, pickle juice, coarse ground mustard, and a few spices.


A couple of layers of remoulade sauce and some lettuce top the sandwich, and then we are ready to start adding on the seafood.





For a little more zest and tang, I squeezed fresh lemon juice all over the shrimp and clams.


Here's the finished sandwich, with a heaping helping of curly fries.