Wow, it has been forever since I wrote up a little recap of our Monday Night Supper Club get-togethers. This past Monday, we all congregated at my friend Michelle’s house to have our second annual clambake. Last August, 14 of us feasted on a mountain of seafood and I’ve been craving a round two ever since!
 

Bon Appetit magazine rocks my life, so when I saw this amazing recipe for a one pot clambake in an issue last summer, I called my supper club friends and said: “That’s it! We’re going to have a god damn clambake!” This recipe is super simple; it just involves layering the ingredients in a massive pot, leaving various lengths of cooking time in-between. Within 45 minutes, you will have the most gigantic seafood feast, fit for a king!
 

My friend Eric Giesbrecht runs Meta4Foods which supplies top notch seafood to most of Calgary’s top restaurants, so I knew he could set me up with all of the shellfish I required. I got ahold of some handsome looking oysters, mussels and Manila clams from Eric. Since he flies most of his seafood in fresh the day of (thumbs up!), I was not lucky enough to land on one of his lobster delivery days. I grabbed a handful of lively lobsters from Boyd’s Seafood the afternoon of the clambake instead.
 

Once people started arriving for the dinner, I made everyone learn how to shuck an oyster or two. I mean, I love my friends, but I don’t love them enough to shuck 36 oysters all by myself!  I also made a quick, mildly spicy mignonette from balsamic vinegar, minced red onions and sambal oleok to top the oysters with which went over nicely. When I’m serving oysters for a dinner party or gathering, I like to get a decent layer of ice in a large serving platter, then sprinkle some salt all over the ice to make extra cool (temperature-wise, not social status), then lay the shucked oysters on top.
 

   
The most entertaining part of our giant seafood feast was removing the rubber bands around the lobsters’ claws and fitting them into the giant pot. I don’t scream like a little girl very often, but this is one of those times…don’t ask me why...

One of the lobsters was particularly feisty and refused to let go of the container he was in. I think he knew what fate awaited him. We eventually got the little fellow into the pot as well as the rest of the ingredients. From there, all we had to do was pop the lid on tight, wait and melt a couple blocks of butter to dip the finished product in. Butter and seafood, there is no better combination in the whole world!

Dan Clapson is a food writer and culinary instructor based out of Calgary. He is constantly creating new recipes and striving to expand his culinary horizons. He thinks yam fries are overrated.

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