A delicious dish of Canned, Smoked Wildfish Geoduck – from Rich Collins’ Kitchen
Listen to this week’s Podcast – all about our tinned fish tasting! Or read on for the recipe on cooking with smoked Geoduck!
The Fish Nerds were fortunate enough to get their hands on some *premium* tinned fish (not the gag-worthy cheap style we “enjoyed” in prior podcasts.) We thought it was time to take tinned fish seriously and see just how good it *can* be. And it truly was delicious.
Now, let’s start this off by saying the following:
Geoduck – it’s terrifying. It’s a giant ugly elephant penis in a really big, really pointless mollusk shell.
And as East Coast kids (or central US kids) – Clay, Tim, and Rich don’t have a lot of exposure to geoduck, so it sounds scarier than it is. Thankfully, its about as neutral of a protein as you can get from a can, at least from Wildfish Cannery.
Interested in playing along? Here’s where you procure some of your own: https://wildfishcannery.com/products/smoked-geoduck
Even these folks who smoke it up know that it’s odd. They call it “Clam Bacon” (yes, this is true…look it up!)
Tasting notes from the Cannery: “It’s big. It’s weird. It’s delicious. Geoduck (pronounced “gooey-duck”) is a large clam with a mild flavor, a firm texture and an appetizing golden color. Dry-cured with salt, sugar and spices before smoking. We call it clam bacon.”
Yet in reality – its little strips of protein in a delicious smoky, briny broth. Nothing in a can has been more appetizing (provided you don’t think about the giant hippopotamus wang it resembles in the real world) – canned is the way to go! Just look how pretty the cannery makes it look!
,But this is real life and I have a kitchen, and gladly just about eat anything. Just about. This totally at random makes me think of a discussion I had with fellow Fish Nerd Tim Bete who clued me into this podcast all about the learned notion of “disgust.” Check it out on the Freakanomics podcast here.
But now – onto the recipe.
I based my meal loosely on the recipe on the cannery website.
A) Because it is simple
B) Because I thought it would highlight the flavor of the geoduck.
Bonus points because anything sauteed in butter, oil and garlic is a definite win. You can find the recipe here: https://wildfishcannery.com/blogs/news/linguine-and-geoduck
It was surprisingly easy to make, wonderfully briny, smoky and delicious, and dare I say rivals many of the linguine with clam recipes you’ll find in nearly every Italian restaurant.
I simply drained the geoduck, chopped it fine, sauteed some garlic in butter and olive oil, reduced the brine from the can – and tossed in some fresh pasta. Garish with a little wine, parsley and lemon – and a sprinkling of aleppo pepper for some spice – and a terrific dish was made!
Here’s a little photo journey of the experience:
The final product? Delicious. Highly recommended.
