After a fun Friday on Long Island and a stop at the Southold Fish Market on the way home, we revisited Real Simple’s  Sheet-Pan Clambake With Mussels, Shrimp, and Chorizo. Unlike the last time though, we paired it up with fresh corn on the cob, which we bought at Long Season Farms, one of the many farm stands that dot the main road to Greenport, NY. Tony describes how he made the dish this time.

We were excited to have this dish again, especially since we were able to get so much fresh seafood. The basic steps were the same as the last time, but we did use some different ingredients. The first time I made this dish, I used a large Yukon gold potato that I cut into pieces. This time, I was able to get a bunch of baby Yukon gold potatoes, which is what the recipe calls for. I also used a different kind of chorizo, one made by Hudson Valley Harvest using local heritage pork. I cooked the potatoes and chorizo together for about 25 minutes. This turned out to be the perfect amount of time for the potatoes, which came out very tender, but a little too long for the chorizo, which came out a little dry. I plan to cut the cooking time back to 20 minutes the next time I make the clambake, which should still be enough time for the potatoes to cook fully, since they are so small.

While the chorizo and potatoes were in the oven, I put a pot of salted water on to boil for the corn. I didn’t want to over cook the corn and left to my own devices, I’m sure I would have. Thankfully, we found a simple recipe on epicurious (www.epicurious.com) that calls for dropping the corn into a pot of boiling water, putting the lid on the pot, bringing the water back up to a boil (which took all of 2 or 3 minutes), and then turning off the heat. At this point, you can leave the corn in the pot for another 15 minutes. The timing of this worked out perfectly: the water took about 25 minutes to boil, the same time as the chorizo and potatoes did to cook, and the 15 minutes that the corn sat in the water was more than enough time to cook the seafood.

As for the seafood, while I used the same things as last time, the proportions were very different. Last time I used 2 pound of mussels and half a pound of clams, while this time I stuck to the recipe and used a pound of each. (As usual, I was halving the recipe.) I also used jumbo shrimp, instead of large shrimp. This meant that I only had four really big shrimp in the mix, versus over a dozen large ones last time. It would have been nice to have a couple more, but they were so large, it worked out fine. As before, I cooked the clams on their own sheet pan and mixed the mussels and shrimp in to cook with the chorizo and potatoes (plus butter and Old Bay seasoning). After fifteen minutes in the oven the final step was to mix everything together, sprinkle on some parsley, and serve.

All of the seafood was perfect – the clams were plump and juicy, the shrimp was firm but not tough, and the mussels were flavorful and not overdone. The corn, which we smeared with butter and sprinkled with salt, was sweet and not the least bit soggy. We paired dinner up with the Greenport Harbor Brewing Company’s (harborbrewing.com)  Otherside IPA (India Pale Ale), which we purchased at their new brewery in Peconic, NY.