Wegmans Grilled Clams and Oysters

Everybody loves to go to a clam bake,
but I bet you there's not a lot of people that would like
to actually go through the process of putting one on.
We've come up with a great technique to help you get clams,
and actually oysters, as well, out on the table in a pretty easy way.
Summertime, you've got the grill on and we're gonna use that
to actually cook both these clams and oysters.
Um, what I've done here, uh, is I've just taken
these clams and oysters and I've just given 'em a good scrub.
I run 'em under cold water and just brush the outsides.
Sometimes in travel you get a little bit of shell
and your oysters are actually raised in the mud in the bottom of the, uh,
in the bottom of the water.
So you just want to just give them a little scrub on the outside
before you go and that's what we've done here.
And I've got my grill preheated.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna take these, pop open my grill.
And, again, a lot of time in the summer what we like to try to do
is let people know that they can use their grill as they would an oven.
As soon as you close it, you're really trapping that heat
and it gives you a little bit of freedom to maybe take care
of some other parts of the meal because things aren't cooking
as quickly as they are with the top open, okay?
So I'm just gonna set these down.
And what's gonna happen during this process
for both the clams and oysters alike is,
whatever juice is in them is gonna start to actually bubble inside the shell
and that's gonna cause them to pop open naturally.
I think that if most people were just given a plate of, uh, raw oysters
and we tell them, "Good luck,"
I think everybody would be a little bit bamboozled,
so this is a great way to get 'em open without having to worry
about using an oyster knife.
And these are gonna take about five or six minutes.
I'm gonna go ahead and close the grill,
I'll come back and check 'em in a couple.
As soon as they open, they're done.
All right, so it's been about four or five minutes.
I just want to give a peek here.
So I'll just pop the grill and look at that.
It's exactly what I'm looking for.
I'll just take my tongs, these are absolutely gonna be hot,
but these clams are perfectly open.
What I would suggest is you always be a little bit careful
taking 'em off because you want to save that juice
that the shell has kept for ya.
So you're just gonna set these clams right on here.
If your clams do not open after a certain number of time,
feel free to go ahead and just discard them.
That means that, uh, they're probably not gonna be the best tasting.
So if they don't open, just let 'em go.
But you can see, this one's starting to open.
I'm just gonna go ahead and put that on the plate, too, all right.
And that's pretty much all you have to do.
What I've got here is I've just got some melted garlic and cheese butter.
And I would set that right along.
Some lemons, some Tabasco,
however you want to eat your steamed clams.
But that's easy.
They go right in there, you're not messing around with water,
these clams are ready to go.
And now we'll take a look and see if our oysters are ready.
Ah, and that looks great, too, all right?
So I'm just gonna go ahead and get these off.
And what you can see, the oysters are not gonna pop open
quite as much as the clams do,
but they're certainly gonna get open enough
so that you can go ahead and pop that top shell off.
Same idea here.
Careful getting them off 'cause what you want to do
is reserve all that nice juice that's inside the oyster.
It's sitting right in the bottom of that shell, right?
Set those right on the plate.
Okay, now, with the oyster, it is open,
but you're still gonna have to get in there a little bit
and I--you can just use a spoon at this point.
You just want to pry that top shell off, just like that.
And you can set 'em out on the plate.
And this would be great with just a squeeze of lemon
or your traditional cocktail sauce.
But, uh, I'm gonna take a play on a classic sauce for oysters
which is called mignonette, which is simply minced shallot,
cracked pepper, and some sort of vinegar.
So I have some minced shallot that I'm just gonna put a little bit on,
you don't want to overdo 'cause every oyster is designed--it's perfect, right?
Nature's so great, perfect.
One bite.
So I'm gonna put the shallot on there.
We've got these beautiful spray vinegars,
which is perfect for portion control.
I've got apple cider vinegar here.
I'm just gonna give it one quick shot of vinegar, okay?
I'm gonna crack a little pepper.
And then I'm gonna take just a little bit of basting oil, got a little fat in it.
We know it's got herbs, we know it's got garlic,
so I'm just gonna take just the smallest amount of basting oil
and just give that a little bit of a drizzle right there over that warm oyster.
It's really gonna absorb all those flavors, you pop it in your mouth.
It's gonna be great, you're gonna love it, all right?
So we've got steamed clams done on the grill,
we've got roasted oysters done on the grill.
You've gotta try it at home this summer.
I guarantee you're gonna love it.