Almejas Tatemadas de Loreto

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide metal pan or sheet tray with three-inch sides (if cooking off the beach)
• •Coarse rock salt or clean dry sand, enough for a three-inch bed
• •Long fireplace tongs
• •Metal scoop or small shovel for clearing embers
• •Stiff brush for scrubbing shells
• •Heavy work gloves

Instructions

1. 1

   Scrub and purge the clams

   Scrub each clam under cold running water with a stiff brush. Discard any clam that is open and does not close when tapped, or any with a cracked shell. Place the live clams in a bowl of cold salted water for 20 minutes so they spit out any sand. The chocolata clam is what the pescadores of Loreto use, with its dark brown shell and meat the color of caramel. If you cannot find them, the largest hard-shell clam at your fishmonger will work. The size matters because the clam has to stand upright in the sand.

2. 2

   Build the bed

   Find an area of clean dry sand or build a bed in a wide metal pan filled with kosher salt or clean sand at least three inches deep. The clams need to stand hinge-up so the juices stay sealed inside the shells while they cook. This is the technique. Almejas tatemadas means clams cooked face-down in the earth itself. The sand is the cooking vessel.

   If you are doing this at home in a pan, a layer of coarse rock salt three inches deep mimics the beach sand and conducts the heat the same way. Asi se hace y punto.
3. 3

   Plant the clams

   Press each clam into the sand or salt with the hinge pointing up and the open seam pointing down into the bed. Pack the sand gently around each one so it stands on its own. Arrange them in tight rows, almost touching. The shells need to stay vertical for the next twenty minutes. If a clam falls over, the broth inside will run out into the sand and you will lose the best part of the dish.

4. 4

   Lay the romerillo

   Pile the dried romerillo brush over the planted clams in a generous mound, six to eight inches deep. The romerillo is the Baja desert shrub that grows wild in the sierras around Loreto. It burns hot and fast and gives the clams their resinous, almost piney smoke. Without the romerillo this is just clams on the beach. With it, this is tatemada. If you cannot find romerillo, dried mesquite twigs with a handful of fresh rosemary will get you most of the way there. Most of the way is not all the way. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.

5. 5

   Light the fire

   Light the brush from several points so the whole pile catches at once. The fire will roar up tall and orange for the first three or four minutes, then settle into a fast crackling burn. The flames should reach over the top of the brush and lick the air above. Do not stir or rearrange. Let the fire do its work. The brush will burn down in fifteen to twenty minutes, leaving a layer of glowing embers and white ash over the clams.

6. 6

   Make the salsa de mantequilla

   While the brush burns, melt the butter in a small pan over low heat. Add the minced garlic and cook for one minute, just until fragrant, never browned. Pull off the heat and stir in the lime juice, salsa Huichol, Maggi, and oregano. Taste it. It should be rich, tangy, and a little hot. This sauce is what the pescadores of Loreto pour over the open clams the second they come out of the embers. La manteca es el sabor, even when the manteca is butter.

7. 7

   Pull the clams from the embers

   Once the brush has burned down and the embers are glowing, use long tongs and a metal scoop to brush the ash and embers off the top of the clams. The shells will have opened from the heat, hinge-up, holding all the broth inside the cup of the lower shell. Any clam that did not open is dead. Throw it out. Lift the open clams carefully so the liquor stays in the shell.

8. 8

   Dress and serve at the table

   Arrange the open clams on a wide platter or directly on a wooden board, broth-side up. Spoon a teaspoon of the warm garlic-lime butter over each clam. Scatter the chopped cilantro and a pinch of sea salt across the top. Set out lime halves, warm flour tortillas (in Baja Sur, the flour tortilla rules; corn is for the south), and cold beer. Eat them with your hands, sliding the meat and the smoky broth straight from the shell. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •The chocolata clam is what makes this dish. If you live in Baja or have access to a good Mexican fishmonger on the Pacific coast, ask for almeja chocolata by name. East coast hard-shell clams, the larger the better, are a substitution. They are not the original.
• •Romerillo is sold in bundles at Baja markets in the dry season. Outside Mexico, dried mesquite or oak twigs with a handful of fresh rosemary tucked in mimics the resinous quality. Do not use pine or cedar. Pine and cedar burn medicinal and ruin the clam.
• •The clams must stand hinge-up. This is the whole technique. If they tip over during cooking, the broth runs out and you have wasted the best part. Pack the sand or salt firmly around each one before you light the fire.
• •In Baja Sur the flour tortilla rules. This is the north. Do not bring corn tortillas to a Baja seafood plate and pretend it is the same. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Advance Preparation

• •The garlic-lime butter sauce can be made up to two hours ahead and held warm. Reheat gently before serving so it pours easily over the open clams.
• •Clams should be purchased the same day you cook them. Hold them in the refrigerator on a tray covered with a damp cloth, never in fresh water or sealed in plastic. They need to breathe.
• •The romerillo bundle should be dried for at least one full week before burning. Green brush smolders and steams. Dry brush burns hot and fast, which is what tatemar requires.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 160g)