**A Simple yet Elegant Recipe: Clams Casino**

As I stand in front of my stovetop, I'm excited to share with you one of my favorite recipes that never fails to impress. Today, we're going to make a classic dish that's sure to become a staple in your household: Clams Casino. This recipe is easy to follow, and the result is a deliciously flavorful and beautifully presented appetizer or main course.

**The Ingredients**

To start, I'll need a few simple ingredients that will come together to create this mouthwatering dish. First, I'll have one clove of garlic that I'll toss in with it just smashed and add to the mix. Next, I'll have about two tablespoons of fresh parsley, which will not only add a burst of freshness but also a pop of color to our dish. A pinch of salt is all I need to season this mixture, along with some extra virgin olive oil that will bring everything together in harmony.

**Toasting the Breadcrumbs**

One of the key components of Clams Casino is the breadcrumbs. To make them crispy and golden, I'll toss them in a pan over medium heat, stirring constantly to ensure they don't burn on one side. This process won't take long, but it's essential to achieve that perfect toastiness. The breadcrumbs will start to turn golden brown, and that's when you know they're done.

**Assembling the Dish**

Now that our breadcrumbs are toasted, it's time to assemble the dish. I'll add a little bit of crushed red pepper to give our Clams Casino an extra kick. Then, I'll stir in two tablespoons of parsley and a spoonful of olive oil to bring everything together. The key is to mix these ingredients well so that they're evenly distributed.

**Adding the Garlic**

As we near the end of our preparation, it's time to add the star ingredient: garlic. I'll simply chop up my clove of garlic and toss it into the bowl with the breadcrumb mixture. This will not only infuse our dish with a savory flavor but also add an aromatic quality that's sure to tantalize your taste buds.

**The Final Touches**

With all our ingredients in place, it's time to take our Clams Casino to the next level. I'll remove the garlic from the bowl and add another spoonful of breadcrumbs, followed by a generous helping of olive oil. This will not only add moisture but also bring everything together in harmony.

**Cooking the Clams**

The final step is cooking the clams. I'll simply place them in a hot oven at 425°F for eight to ten minutes, or until they're golden brown and heated through. As we wait for our clams to cook, we can take a moment to appreciate the aromas wafting from the dish.

**The Finished Dish**

And then, it's time to reveal the finished Clams Casino! I'll remove them from the oven and let them rest for a minute or two before serving. The result is a beautifully presented appetizer that's sure to impress your family and friends. With its crispy breadcrumb topping and savory flavors, this dish is sure to become a staple in your household.

**Tips and Variations**

One of the best things about Clams Casino is its versatility. If you're feeling adventurous, try adding some lemon juice or zest to give your dish an extra burst of citrus flavor. Alternatively, you can pop these babies in the freezer ahead of time and thaw them when you need a quick appetizer or main course.

**The Story Behind Clams Casino**

For me, Clams Casino is more than just a recipe – it's a sensory experience that transports me back to my childhood. Growing up, I spent countless hours at the beach with my family, where we'd often feast on fresh seafood and enjoy each other's company. This dish has been passed down through generations, and every time I make it, I'm reminded of those special moments with my loved ones.

**The Fun Part**

Now that our Clams Casino is ready to be served, it's time for the fun part! To assemble the dish, I'll take a tablespoon or so of the breadcrumb mixture and spoon it into each clam shell. Then, I'll top it off with another helping of breadcrumbs, followed by a sprinkle of parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice (optional). This is where the magic happens – every bite is a delightful combination of flavors and textures that will leave you wanting more.

**A Delicious Finish**

As we take our first bites of Clams Casino, I hope you'll agree that this dish is truly something special. The crunchy breadcrumbs provide a satisfying texture, while the savory clams and fresh parsley add an incredible depth of flavor. And let's not forget the aroma – it's like a warm hug for your senses.

**The End Result**

With its crispy breadcrumb topping and deliciously flavored clams, Clams Casino is a dish that's sure to impress even the pickiest eaters. It's easy to make, yet packed with flavor and texture, making it perfect for special occasions or everyday meals alike. So go ahead, give this recipe a try, and experience the magic of Clams Casino for yourself!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everybody Scott Conant here I am making for you today in my home kitchen welcome we're gonna make some clams casino Clams Casino I remember these from my first job ever in a restaurant we would make dozens of these for service every night I just have such great fond memories of these Clams Casino uh and I want to share them with you so a couple things you should have prepared before we get started for this class make sure you have your butter at room temperature make sure you have an ice bath ready make sure your oven is at 425 degrees preheated and also at least two lemons cut into wedges this is how we're going to start I have some little neck clams here I'm going to turn this flame on in a large a pretty good sized pot I'm going to turn it on to about a medium high in the pot I'm going to add the clams and I'm going to add about half a cup of water that's it I'm going to cover it and I'm gonna let it go just like that and what we're going to do is just allow that to cook while that is cooking in a separate pot I'm going to put over a really low heat just to start it heating up I have some smoked bacon here I'm going to take this bacon I'm going to mince it up very fine let's do this mince this up or render it out nicely we'll get all that flavor into that fat and then we'll saute some some shallots and some red pepper and a little bit of garlic and create a butter out of this later and we'll stuff the clams with that we'll make some beautiful breadcrumbs also that will top with these Clams Casino will pop them in the oven for a little while and then we will enjoy them because they're delicious and there's something about a Clams Casino that just Harkens back for me in a you know it's like the All-American uh dish I feel like to to a certain extent and this restaurant that I first worked at that I mentioned earlier at you know they had this beautiful Lounge piano bar so you know they would have people in there singing and drinking probably more than they should and eating clams and clams casino and and uh we had a clam Pizza on the menu also that was delicious so there's just a lot of memories for this for these you know these ingredients with me and I and I they're just special they have a place in my heart so all right so I have this pot on on a low heat I'm going to turn it up to medium now I'm gonna add this bacon it is nicely minced and I'm just going to let that render you know it's going to take like eight ten minutes or so while that is rendering I'm going to rinse off this cutting board foreign wash this bit off really quickly you could hear that bacon starting to crisp up I'm going to turn that flame down just a touch I don't want it to go too quickly I really want that fat to be rendered out nicely it smells so nice I love that so while we're doing that I have a shallot here a couple shallots I'm going to mince up very fine also so they mix nicely with this butter remember the the way we cut these shallots that's the way they're going to be in our mouth the flavor and the texture on our mouth so I want to make sure that they are really nice minced nicely and I don't like cross cutting onions so it's really important to get it right on the first time around here like this good get rid of those bits shallots nicely diced you hear the bacon cooking the clam should be opening up momentarily let's take a peek yeah they're starting to boil there that water's starting to boil it's on a medium-high heat that bacon and clams just something about that classic flavor combination that just smells absolutely delicious to me maybe it's you know the growing up growing up in New England all right a little more shallot chop these up super fine beautiful let's turn that flame down a touch stir it nicely with The Wooden Spoon sometimes if that bacon doesn't ring around feel free to add if you feel like it needs a little more fat to saute the the shallots and the bell pepper feel free to um feel free to add a touch of olive oil to it a little bit of oil something even you could add a nut of butter or something just a touch of it to help saute these other vegetables so if you don't want them to be without the fat that they're cooking in but this should be good all right mint shallots beautiful these clams are starting to open up as you can see I'm going to let them go a little longer the bacon is cooking away I'm just gonna do about half of this uh bell pepper I'm going to chop these I'm going to mince this up about the same as I did the shallots so there's a nice uniform cooking here yeah half a bell pepper should be nice should be good all right so once that oh that bacon is rendering out nicely right now I'm about to take that out and utilize that fat to saute these vegetables here and the clams are I can smell them steaming and opening it smells so good all right so here is the bacon Rend it out nicely I'm gonna let it go for another couple seconds it's a little inconsistent right now you can see some of it is starting to crisp up and some other bits are not so I'm going to let that go a little longer you can see these clams still opening they're all coming together right there get a nice facial at the same time good stuff that's that's going that's on medium high here we go all right so I'm going to remove the bacon from here with a slotted spoon and just let it sit on the side and again we're going to reserve that fat as much of that fat as we can to saute the vegetables in and again this is all such delicious flavor so shallots red peppers minced very fine going right inside here while this is cooking I'm going to double check on these clams they should almost be done they may have another minute or two if you want to cover that up a little bit to get it along cooking along I'm going to add a pinch of salt to that a pepper mixture a pinch of Crusher and pepper as well I like it a little spicy so I'm going to go a little heavier on that crushed red pepper and I'm going to allow that to cook these clams are almost done look at the amount I added a half a cup of liquid look at the amount of liquid that has been extracted from the clams themselves you could see that they are really um nice and fresh I mean they really smell great I'm gonna let that go a little longer you want them to cook not just open because when they when they're just open they still have a little bit longer to go we're going to take those clams we're going to reserve the bottom shell discard the top shell take the meat and chop it up and mix it in with the butter mixture that's going to go back into that shell and then roast it with bread crumbs on top it's going to be delicious trust me while that is all going what I'm going to do is chop some of this garlic good I'm going to mince this garlic up well I'm also going to mince up a little bit of thyme so we can add the thyme and the garlic to that pepper and shallot mixture momentarily as it's cooking you know this is these clams you know they're not I would say they're not for subtle nuance and flavor you want these flavors to be really jumping out at you when you take a bite of it so all right so these clams are finished I am going to put them in a separate container shut that flame off these clams are done I can tell because here they're fully opened and they're extracted from the the bottom muscle for the most part and then we could just remove this other uh from the shell so it's really easy to work with I'm going to reserve these separately also really important that we take out about a quarter cup of this juice and reserve it for the butter as well so about a quarter cup there and we're going to take these clams I'm just going to for now get them off the fire throw some on the floor all good so that's going to cool down a little bit I'll work with them momentarily I reserved a little bit of that juice that's good to go these peppers and shallots are cooking nicely here again as I said if you don't feel like there's a there's enough fat inside this I'm going to add just a touch of olive oil to to help it along a little bit I'm mincing this garlic that we're going to add to that momentarily I'm also going to add some chopped thyme to that mixture so let me chop this up about a tape about a teaspoon of thyme as well a little bit of thyme a little bit of minced garlic good to go add that all together beautiful so I'm going to let all those flavors intermingle allow that garlic to cook nicely see how it's nicely uniform in size as well that'll help it cook more evenly all right while that is going I have a little bit of oregano we're going to finish with later I'll chop this up now and have it ready at the go perfect we are also going to add to finish a little bit of parsley so I'll have the parsley let's chop The Parsley up also we're not going to add that in the cooking process we're going to finish it right at the end so I like that nice fresh parsley flavor goes so nice with seafood all right so parsley vegetables are cooking while those vegetables are still cooking what I'm going to do just on the side here is take the clams and put them take out the the clam itself remove the top half and then Reserve that on the side let's do this this is what I'm going to cook the clams in I like to cook clams and things like this because I can also serve the clam directly in this in this pan that I'm roasting them in so um there's that here we go remove the clam loose clown here somewhere we'll find it in the bottom see that there's always that temptation to remove a clam like this and pop one in your mouth don't do that because then you run you know you're gonna have the wrong number I know this from experience all right so you get the idea here going through this all removing the clams removing the tops saving the bottoms going through all this good foreign thing you also want to check for is any residual sand or anything in these clams this is a great opportunity to remove that that sand now so that it's not in the butter in the butter mixture that we're making so all right that is cooking nicely I'm going to add the oregano to this just so it blooms right as that is blooming okay what I want to do I wish you could smell this because it smells delicious I'm gonna have a little bit of white wine here to glaze it and that reserved quarter cup of clam juice and I'm going to allow that to reduce by about 80 percent so as we are reducing that we will get back to the clams as I said we're reserving the clams themselves and if you run into a clam that is not opened Don't Force It open just discard it because it probably means it's not good anymore so sometimes these things speak to you and you got to trust it telling you it's not good trust it I see how this is not open I'm just not going to use that one right some of them what I'm doing is this is the bottom shell because it's the clam is still stuck to it right so we're moving it from that muscle and then I'm saving the bottom one and I'm discarding the top there's no real reason why it's just what I'm doing all right here we go I think that's enough in this container I don't think we need to do any more there's a few left in here I'll just take the clams out and good so what's happening with the shallot and bell pepper mixture is the wine is added and it really smells like raw wine it's really important you get rid of that that white wine scent so that's why I want to really reduce it down nicely it's overly acidic what happens is wine starts to cook down white wine in particular this is a sauvignon blanc um the the the sugar content will start to really come through and that acidity will turn into a sweetness and that's the acidity will still be there but there'll be a nice sweet acidity to the wine once that alcohol is truly cooked out so that's what we want to do we want to let that keep going for a little while while that is going I'm going to take a moment and just clean up this mess of a station that I have here going to reserve this parsley that we have chopped all right this is done nice and clean good this is reducing almost finished not quite done yet let's chop these clams so I'm just gonna mince these up nicely sometimes if you have a large clam and you cook it like this it'll become very tough so one of the reasons why I chop it is to kind of help tenderize it a little bit so I haven't made these Clams Casino in years and so excited for the final result all right I have an oven preheated right now to 425 degrees that's an important point to make sure you have that oven preheated if I had a live fire I would love to cook these right over a live fire also not necessary to do but it would really impart a great flavor to it foreign yes all right that's good I'm gonna put these right back in this same Bowl clean this clean this off all right good stuff that is finished I'm going to take this off the fire I'm going to add the bacon back into this mixture foreign so let's add this we have this ice bath with the clams I'm going to add the butter to this also and allow it to melt and the parsley how about a teaspoon of parsley to this nice okay take this mixture I'm going to put it inside this bowl here it's nice and warm I want to cool it down I want to add the clams and the butter to it stick of butter about four ounces the clams as well and add all this together and mix it up and really allow these flavors to intermingle look at that that's exactly what he wanted to be so I'm going to let it cool down like this for a few minutes and really what you're creating here is a very well seasoned compound butter that's essentially what this is clams bacon shallots bell peppers a little spice with the crushed red pepper as well delicious so I'm just going to let this cool that butter will help so it will solidify momentarily as well as the the fat from the bacon that's inside there so that'll really kind of suspend all these delicious ingredients and flavors together will fill up some of these clam shells top it with a breadcrumb mixture that we will come right back and make so I'm going to take a moment and clean this up and get ready for the next step and if you haven't done it already set your oven to 425 degrees and uh we'll get right to it so we're back I cleaned up the mess that I've made we have this beautiful butter mixture with the smoked bacon and bell peppers a little white wine it is absolutely delicious lots of herbs inside there we're going to make a breadcrumb for this just to top these clams the clams are also in with this butter over a medium heat I have about a half a cup of bread crumbs here medium heat I'm just gonna I'm gonna toss these breadcrumbs together I have a clove of garlic that I'm going to toss in with it just smashed and I'm gonna just toss them together nice and simple like this I have about two tablespoons of uh of parsley I'm gonna add a little bit of salt just a pinch of salt to season I am also going to finish it with some extra virgin olive oil that that uh those breadcrumbs also um and it's going to have a nice toastiness to them it's gonna have a beautiful texture with the olive oil good flavor obviously with the parsley and the crushed red pepper and the salt medium Heat toasting toasting these bread crumbs all good I have some lemon wedges here as well you could squeeze a little lemon on top of that it's always a nice touch and this will start toasting momentarily foreign crumbs to be tossed because I don't want them to burn on one side what you'll notice is once they start to toast they go really quickly so that's going to be an important thing to to almost keep them in constant motion you could always already start to see some of that toasting color coming on some of the smaller bits of the breadcrumb and like all things if you're toasting it and then you get impatient which is which is what I kind of do so it's better I speak to you than be impatient and turn the heat up uh and and start to you know try to move it along a little quicker inevitably what's going to happen is it goes a little bit too fast and the pan itself gets too hot so what you want to do keep it on a medium heat be very patient but when the toast is done when it's toasted the way you want it to be toasted really remove it from the pan move remove those breadcrumbs from the pan put them in a bowl so the cooking process stops immediately if they stay in the pan itself obviously the pan is hot there's residual heat and it will burn your bread crumbs I have made this mistake many times so you don't have to how about that see that toast starting to happen any minute now any minute now that garlic is also in there because we really want that flavor transferred see how that nice nice toast I think we are almost there nice golden I'm going to add a pinch of crushed red pepper to it now all right we're good I'm going to add uh two tablespoons of parsley to that bowl we're good bread crumbs in there a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and what is very important here is I like to use a fork to stir these breadcrumbs around because it helps get things a little more consistent so good perfect we can remove that crushed garlic clove if you want good all right here we go now to the fun part I'm going to shut that flame off don't forget clams are in the bowl with the butter the clam shells are here I'm going to remove this foreign good so this is what I like to do I like to take a little bit about a tablespoon of that mixture right inside the shell and then another spoon of these bread crumbs and just go right over the top with that you can do these relatively quickly um again in the restaurants obviously we make hundreds of these at a time if you are pressed for time one of the things you could easily do is make it just like this and then don't put the breadcrumbs on yet particularly if you're entertaining and pop them in the freezer allow yourself you know a little time on the day of you can prep these a couple days ahead pop them in the freezer and allow yourself a little bit of relaxation on the day of your your party and then take them right from the freezer allow them to thaw at room temperature for 20 minutes or so and then pop them right in the oven see that and then just like just like that you have enough of this so let's do that might as well use it all up kind of shake off shake off the excess a little foreign there we go all right now I'm going to take these clams I'm going to pop them in this oven for eight to ten minutes again at 4 25 and this is going to be good looking look at look at how nice those look perfect let's do that foreign what we're looking for is a deep golden color on top with all that butter kind of melted with those clams it'll just be sizzling and delicious looking you we'll we'll talk about a little bit if I can control myself and not scoff one down I'm really excited about this the scent and smells of what's coming off of these clams are just it's spectacular so these Clams Casino for me they're just such a beautiful sense of nostalgia I I absolutely love them I hope that you enjoy making them with your family creating these memories with your family um most importantly I just hope you enjoy the way they taste cheers wow wow that's goodhey everybody Scott Conant here I am making for you today in my home kitchen welcome we're gonna make some clams casino Clams Casino I remember these from my first job ever in a restaurant we would make dozens of these for service every night I just have such great fond memories of these Clams Casino uh and I want to share them with you so a couple things you should have prepared before we get started for this class make sure you have your butter at room temperature make sure you have an ice bath ready make sure your oven is at 425 degrees preheated and also at least two lemons cut into wedges this is how we're going to start I have some little neck clams here I'm going to turn this flame on in a large a pretty good sized pot I'm going to turn it on to about a medium high in the pot I'm going to add the clams and I'm going to add about half a cup of water that's it I'm going to cover it and I'm gonna let it go just like that and what we're going to do is just allow that to cook while that is cooking in a separate pot I'm going to put over a really low heat just to start it heating up I have some smoked bacon here I'm going to take this bacon I'm going to mince it up very fine let's do this mince this up or render it out nicely we'll get all that flavor into that fat and then we'll saute some some shallots and some red pepper and a little bit of garlic and create a butter out of this later and we'll stuff the clams with that we'll make some beautiful breadcrumbs also that will top with these Clams Casino will pop them in the oven for a little while and then we will enjoy them because they're delicious and there's something about a Clams Casino that just Harkens back for me in a you know it's like the All-American uh dish I feel like to to a certain extent and this restaurant that I first worked at that I mentioned earlier at you know they had this beautiful Lounge piano bar so you know they would have people in there singing and drinking probably more than they should and eating clams and clams casino and and uh we had a clam Pizza on the menu also that was delicious so there's just a lot of memories for this for these you know these ingredients with me and I and I they're just special they have a place in my heart so all right so I have this pot on on a low heat I'm going to turn it up to medium now I'm gonna add this bacon it is nicely minced and I'm just going to let that render you know it's going to take like eight ten minutes or so while that is rendering I'm going to rinse off this cutting board foreign wash this bit off really quickly you could hear that bacon starting to crisp up I'm going to turn that flame down just a touch I don't want it to go too quickly I really want that fat to be rendered out nicely it smells so nice I love that so while we're doing that I have a shallot here a couple shallots I'm going to mince up very fine also so they mix nicely with this butter remember the the way we cut these shallots that's the way they're going to be in our mouth the flavor and the texture on our mouth so I want to make sure that they are really nice minced nicely and I don't like cross cutting onions so it's really important to get it right on the first time around here like this good get rid of those bits shallots nicely diced you hear the bacon cooking the clam should be opening up momentarily let's take a peek yeah they're starting to boil there that water's starting to boil it's on a medium-high heat that bacon and clams just something about that classic flavor combination that just smells absolutely delicious to me maybe it's you know the growing up growing up in New England all right a little more shallot chop these up super fine beautiful let's turn that flame down a touch stir it nicely with The Wooden Spoon sometimes if that bacon doesn't ring around feel free to add if you feel like it needs a little more fat to saute the the shallots and the bell pepper feel free to um feel free to add a touch of olive oil to it a little bit of oil something even you could add a nut of butter or something just a touch of it to help saute these other vegetables so if you don't want them to be without the fat that they're cooking in but this should be good all right mint shallots beautiful these clams are starting to open up as you can see I'm going to let them go a little longer the bacon is cooking away I'm just gonna do about half of this uh bell pepper I'm going to chop these I'm going to mince this up about the same as I did the shallots so there's a nice uniform cooking here yeah half a bell pepper should be nice should be good all right so once that oh that bacon is rendering out nicely right now I'm about to take that out and utilize that fat to saute these vegetables here and the clams are I can smell them steaming and opening it smells so good all right so here is the bacon Rend it out nicely I'm gonna let it go for another couple seconds it's a little inconsistent right now you can see some of it is starting to crisp up and some other bits are not so I'm going to let that go a little longer you can see these clams still opening they're all coming together right there get a nice facial at the same time good stuff that's that's going that's on medium high here we go all right so I'm going to remove the bacon from here with a slotted spoon and just let it sit on the side and again we're going to reserve that fat as much of that fat as we can to saute the vegetables in and again this is all such delicious flavor so shallots red peppers minced very fine going right inside here while this is cooking I'm going to double check on these clams they should almost be done they may have another minute or two if you want to cover that up a little bit to get it along cooking along I'm going to add a pinch of salt to that a pepper mixture a pinch of Crusher and pepper as well I like it a little spicy so I'm going to go a little heavier on that crushed red pepper and I'm going to allow that to cook these clams are almost done look at the amount I added a half a cup of liquid look at the amount of liquid that has been extracted from the clams themselves you could see that they are really um nice and fresh I mean they really smell great I'm gonna let that go a little longer you want them to cook not just open because when they when they're just open they still have a little bit longer to go we're going to take those clams we're going to reserve the bottom shell discard the top shell take the meat and chop it up and mix it in with the butter mixture that's going to go back into that shell and then roast it with bread crumbs on top it's going to be delicious trust me while that is all going what I'm going to do is chop some of this garlic good I'm going to mince this garlic up well I'm also going to mince up a little bit of thyme so we can add the thyme and the garlic to that pepper and shallot mixture momentarily as it's cooking you know this is these clams you know they're not I would say they're not for subtle nuance and flavor you want these flavors to be really jumping out at you when you take a bite of it so all right so these clams are finished I am going to put them in a separate container shut that flame off these clams are done I can tell because here they're fully opened and they're extracted from the the bottom muscle for the most part and then we could just remove this other uh from the shell so it's really easy to work with I'm going to reserve these separately also really important that we take out about a quarter cup of this juice and reserve it for the butter as well so about a quarter cup there and we're going to take these clams I'm just going to for now get them off the fire throw some on the floor all good so that's going to cool down a little bit I'll work with them momentarily I reserved a little bit of that juice that's good to go these peppers and shallots are cooking nicely here again as I said if you don't feel like there's a there's enough fat inside this I'm going to add just a touch of olive oil to to help it along a little bit I'm mincing this garlic that we're going to add to that momentarily I'm also going to add some chopped thyme to that mixture so let me chop this up about a tape about a teaspoon of thyme as well a little bit of thyme a little bit of minced garlic good to go add that all together beautiful so I'm going to let all those flavors intermingle allow that garlic to cook nicely see how it's nicely uniform in size as well that'll help it cook more evenly all right while that is going I have a little bit of oregano we're going to finish with later I'll chop this up now and have it ready at the go perfect we are also going to add to finish a little bit of parsley so I'll have the parsley let's chop The Parsley up also we're not going to add that in the cooking process we're going to finish it right at the end so I like that nice fresh parsley flavor goes so nice with seafood all right so parsley vegetables are cooking while those vegetables are still cooking what I'm going to do just on the side here is take the clams and put them take out the the clam itself remove the top half and then Reserve that on the side let's do this this is what I'm going to cook the clams in I like to cook clams and things like this because I can also serve the clam directly in this in this pan that I'm roasting them in so um there's that here we go remove the clam loose clown here somewhere we'll find it in the bottom see that there's always that temptation to remove a clam like this and pop one in your mouth don't do that because then you run you know you're gonna have the wrong number I know this from experience all right so you get the idea here going through this all removing the clams removing the tops saving the bottoms going through all this good foreign thing you also want to check for is any residual sand or anything in these clams this is a great opportunity to remove that that sand now so that it's not in the butter in the butter mixture that we're making so all right that is cooking nicely I'm going to add the oregano to this just so it blooms right as that is blooming okay what I want to do I wish you could smell this because it smells delicious I'm gonna have a little bit of white wine here to glaze it and that reserved quarter cup of clam juice and I'm going to allow that to reduce by about 80 percent so as we are reducing that we will get back to the clams as I said we're reserving the clams themselves and if you run into a clam that is not opened Don't Force It open just discard it because it probably means it's not good anymore so sometimes these things speak to you and you got to trust it telling you it's not good trust it I see how this is not open I'm just not going to use that one right some of them what I'm doing is this is the bottom shell because it's the clam is still stuck to it right so we're moving it from that muscle and then I'm saving the bottom one and I'm discarding the top there's no real reason why it's just what I'm doing all right here we go I think that's enough in this container I don't think we need to do any more there's a few left in here I'll just take the clams out and good so what's happening with the shallot and bell pepper mixture is the wine is added and it really smells like raw wine it's really important you get rid of that that white wine scent so that's why I want to really reduce it down nicely it's overly acidic what happens is wine starts to cook down white wine in particular this is a sauvignon blanc um the the the sugar content will start to really come through and that acidity will turn into a sweetness and that's the acidity will still be there but there'll be a nice sweet acidity to the wine once that alcohol is truly cooked out so that's what we want to do we want to let that keep going for a little while while that is going I'm going to take a moment and just clean up this mess of a station that I have here going to reserve this parsley that we have chopped all right this is done nice and clean good this is reducing almost finished not quite done yet let's chop these clams so I'm just gonna mince these up nicely sometimes if you have a large clam and you cook it like this it'll become very tough so one of the reasons why I chop it is to kind of help tenderize it a little bit so I haven't made these Clams Casino in years and so excited for the final result all right I have an oven preheated right now to 425 degrees that's an important point to make sure you have that oven preheated if I had a live fire I would love to cook these right over a live fire also not necessary to do but it would really impart a great flavor to it foreign yes all right that's good I'm gonna put these right back in this same Bowl clean this clean this off all right good stuff that is finished I'm going to take this off the fire I'm going to add the bacon back into this mixture foreign so let's add this we have this ice bath with the clams I'm going to add the butter to this also and allow it to melt and the parsley how about a teaspoon of parsley to this nice okay take this mixture I'm going to put it inside this bowl here it's nice and warm I want to cool it down I want to add the clams and the butter to it stick of butter about four ounces the clams as well and add all this together and mix it up and really allow these flavors to intermingle look at that that's exactly what he wanted to be so I'm going to let it cool down like this for a few minutes and really what you're creating here is a very well seasoned compound butter that's essentially what this is clams bacon shallots bell peppers a little spice with the crushed red pepper as well delicious so I'm just going to let this cool that butter will help so it will solidify momentarily as well as the the fat from the bacon that's inside there so that'll really kind of suspend all these delicious ingredients and flavors together will fill up some of these clam shells top it with a breadcrumb mixture that we will come right back and make so I'm going to take a moment and clean this up and get ready for the next step and if you haven't done it already set your oven to 425 degrees and uh we'll get right to it so we're back I cleaned up the mess that I've made we have this beautiful butter mixture with the smoked bacon and bell peppers a little white wine it is absolutely delicious lots of herbs inside there we're going to make a breadcrumb for this just to top these clams the clams are also in with this butter over a medium heat I have about a half a cup of bread crumbs here medium heat I'm just gonna I'm gonna toss these breadcrumbs together I have a clove of garlic that I'm going to toss in with it just smashed and I'm gonna just toss them together nice and simple like this I have about two tablespoons of uh of parsley I'm gonna add a little bit of salt just a pinch of salt to season I am also going to finish it with some extra virgin olive oil that that uh those breadcrumbs also um and it's going to have a nice toastiness to them it's gonna have a beautiful texture with the olive oil good flavor obviously with the parsley and the crushed red pepper and the salt medium Heat toasting toasting these bread crumbs all good I have some lemon wedges here as well you could squeeze a little lemon on top of that it's always a nice touch and this will start toasting momentarily foreign crumbs to be tossed because I don't want them to burn on one side what you'll notice is once they start to toast they go really quickly so that's going to be an important thing to to almost keep them in constant motion you could always already start to see some of that toasting color coming on some of the smaller bits of the breadcrumb and like all things if you're toasting it and then you get impatient which is which is what I kind of do so it's better I speak to you than be impatient and turn the heat up uh and and start to you know try to move it along a little quicker inevitably what's going to happen is it goes a little bit too fast and the pan itself gets too hot so what you want to do keep it on a medium heat be very patient but when the toast is done when it's toasted the way you want it to be toasted really remove it from the pan move remove those breadcrumbs from the pan put them in a bowl so the cooking process stops immediately if they stay in the pan itself obviously the pan is hot there's residual heat and it will burn your bread crumbs I have made this mistake many times so you don't have to how about that see that toast starting to happen any minute now any minute now that garlic is also in there because we really want that flavor transferred see how that nice nice toast I think we are almost there nice golden I'm going to add a pinch of crushed red pepper to it now all right we're good I'm going to add uh two tablespoons of parsley to that bowl we're good bread crumbs in there a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and what is very important here is I like to use a fork to stir these breadcrumbs around because it helps get things a little more consistent so good perfect we can remove that crushed garlic clove if you want good all right here we go now to the fun part I'm going to shut that flame off don't forget clams are in the bowl with the butter the clam shells are here I'm going to remove this foreign good so this is what I like to do I like to take a little bit about a tablespoon of that mixture right inside the shell and then another spoon of these bread crumbs and just go right over the top with that you can do these relatively quickly um again in the restaurants obviously we make hundreds of these at a time if you are pressed for time one of the things you could easily do is make it just like this and then don't put the breadcrumbs on yet particularly if you're entertaining and pop them in the freezer allow yourself you know a little time on the day of you can prep these a couple days ahead pop them in the freezer and allow yourself a little bit of relaxation on the day of your your party and then take them right from the freezer allow them to thaw at room temperature for 20 minutes or so and then pop them right in the oven see that and then just like just like that you have enough of this so let's do that might as well use it all up kind of shake off shake off the excess a little foreign there we go all right now I'm going to take these clams I'm going to pop them in this oven for eight to ten minutes again at 4 25 and this is going to be good looking look at look at how nice those look perfect let's do that foreign what we're looking for is a deep golden color on top with all that butter kind of melted with those clams it'll just be sizzling and delicious looking you we'll we'll talk about a little bit if I can control myself and not scoff one down I'm really excited about this the scent and smells of what's coming off of these clams are just it's spectacular so these Clams Casino for me they're just such a beautiful sense of nostalgia I I absolutely love them I hope that you enjoy making them with your family creating these memories with your family um most importantly I just hope you enjoy the way they taste cheers wow wow that's good\n"