Shellfish Preparation

One of the many ways to prep seafood at a restaurant or at home is to serve the clams and oysters raw. For those who have not does this your self, be warned, it is difficult. Your first step is to clean the shells of any sand or sea grim, this is also the time to tap on all open shells. This is to check if the animal is still alive, if it does not open discard immediately. For mussels you also want to remove "the beard", a long hairy string that dangles from the side of the opening of the mussel. The second step, also the hardest, is to open them with either steaming them to cook them or prying them open to eat raw. Steaming is easy because you just heat water, aromatics and a little bit of wine, toss in the seafood and cook till they open. Just like before, do not eat any closed shellfish and discard immediately. For the raw method you are doing to need a oyster or clam knife to pry them open with. The trick is to open them when they least expect it (refrigerate before hand) and stick the knife through the opening in the back if the shellfish. if it still gives you trouble them let it rest and try another one. The last step for this is to dislocate the shellfish from the shell and clean out any shell or sand that got in.