Gluten Free: Steamers

Beautiful.

There are many delicious gluten-free products that are the counterparts of the (original) glutinous varieties, but I think it's very important to have a regular intake of food that is incidentally gluten-free.  It would be difficult to be a true foodie without having a strong, continual connection to the dishes that have been eaten all of one's life.  Unless you're a two-year-old like my daughter and are or were raised gluten-free, it's highly unlikely that items that stock gluten-free shelves in the supermarket or on Amazon are the ones that hold comfort or happy childhood memories.  Particularly, local dishes from one's hometown have this effect.

I've spent a lot of time outside Massachusetts -- in three other countries and one other state, making up most of my adult life & adding a citizenship -- but I grew up just off Route 128 in Burlington.  My father's family hails from Lynn, Hull, and mid-century Dorchester and West Roxbury for generations.  Being celiac may have taken many things from me, but it can pry my seafood out of my cold dead hands.  This is especially true with steamers, about which I've been regaled with the story of how my first experience with them at three-years-old in Nantasket (RIP Paragon Park) resulted in two pounds of steamers down my gullet and me being called the "dip-dip kid" for years.  I also spent many a hot summer day digging in the sand for my own dinner.

As an adult, the price of steamers in the grocery store versus the price of other seafood has made them a very attractive proposition this summer and autumn.  Normal prices as well as regular sales have made them considerably cheaper than they used to be and less than half the price per pound of most fish.  The quality has been very good this year as well; there was little Red Tide this summer to hurt the industry and drive the prices up, and the sustainability methods that have been used in recent years has allowed for a bumper crop.  It's also very easy to make and is a favorite of my child as well as myself.

Omnomnom.

Still, whether gluten-free or not: many New Englanders do not know how to properly buy, cook and eat steamers.  (Steamed clams to you recent transplants.  Steamahs if you're a lifer like my family.)

A complete primer and recipe: