Thank G-d It's...Fried

by Erin & Xani

We know it's been a while since we've shared one our Sunday dinners with you, and that's because due to the MPILP auction and some other events (post coming soon!), we haven't had a chance to make dinner together recently. We have one fabulous Sunday dinner in our archives though, and we are just now getting the chance to write it up, so enjoy!

As some of you may know, the BCD parents are building a house on the Eastern shore of Maryland, near Cambridge. (We lovingly refer to the house as "Blackacre" - if you don't get it, you're probably not a lawyer/law student; ask one if you're truly curious.) Because they travel to the shore often to check on the progress of the house, they have started coming home with great local seafood. We didn't hesitate to incorporate some great-looking shucked oysters and clams (whole belly clams! no strips here!) into our menu, which was:

• Cocktails!
• Cornmeal-crusted fried belly clams with homemade tartar sauce
• Oyster stew
• Buffalo chicken wings with Mom's famous bleu cheese dressing
• Garlic fries

Wow, fried anyone? We went a little crazy with the amount of fried items, but they were so good! Every once in a while isn't so bad, right? Right. Anyway, we started off with cocktails (the ladies each had champagne cocktails and Dad had a martini) as we began cooking each of the different items.

Dad was in charge of the clams. First he dipped the clams into a mixture of milk, eggs, salt, and pepper, and then he dipped them into yellow cornmeal. We busted out the Fry Daddy (yes, we actually own one) and in they went! Meanwhile, Xani put together a quick tartar sauce made from mayonnaise, relish, and hot sauce.

Caught stealin'!

These clams turned out great! They had a great texture without being too chewy (is this because they are belly and not strips?), and the cornmeal coating was nice and crunchy. Served with the tartar sauce, they were a great nosh as we continued to cook the rest of the meal.

EP was in charge of putting together the oyster stew. Now, oyster stew is not really a stew at all. It's basically a creamy soup with oysters in it - yum! We used a recipe from The New York Times Cookbook, which began by sauteeing some thinly-sliced garlic and grated shallot in butter. Then milk and cream are a little white pepper are added and heated through, and then the oysters and their liquor (the liquid that they come in) are added until they oysters are cooked (only a few minutes). The dish is finished with some salt and chopped parsley.

We enjoyed the stew in mugs and it was so awesome - rich, creamy, and oyster-y. This is a great simple recipe if you have some extra oysters lying around (who has oysters just lying around? Get a job, oysters!).

For the main course, we had WINGS! BCD Mom makes some killer Buffalo wings and the best bleu cheese dressing ever. It is a real treat when we have them because (a) they are so good!, and (b) they are a huge pain in the ass so we don't do it often. Mom uses the Hooters recipe (we're classy like that) and they turn out great every time.

The wings are coated in a light coating of flour, paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt. Then they are refrigerated for a bit so the coating sticks better. Then the wings are fried up (we use an electric fry pan for more even heat), drained on wire racks, and then tossed with the wing sauce (butter, hot sauce, ground black pepper, and garlic powder) while still hot. Yum!

The wings were served with Mom's famous bleu cheese dressing, a (secret?) family recipe made with sour cream, mayo, bleu cheese, garlic pepper, ground black pepper, and hot sauce. OMG this is good stuff, even on a salad!

Lastly, Xani made her famous fries (wow, that link is from our first post ever!), and this time she tried to emulate the great garlic fries at Don't Know. She took finely chopped garlic and tossed it on the almost-done fries while they were in the hot oven. They turned out great, but next time she says she wants to use even MORE garlic to give them even more flavor. More garlic? Yes, please!

Gellie loves fries...can't blame him

Finished plate - yum!

Our little chicken- and fish-fry was a really fun, casual Sunday dinner filled with new experimental recipes and old family favorites. Good times!

Happy frying,

E & X