In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar (optional). Mix ingredients together well. Add diced butter. For best results use chilled butter –keep the diced butter in the refrigerator until needed. Cut butter into the flour using a pastry cutter or knives.
Butter should be cut into pea-sized bits, but there’s no reason to be militant about it…nice chunks of butter are nice. Once the butter is cut into the flour, add buttermilk. Keep the buttermilk chilled until you are ready to use it–cold butter and buttermilk are best for this recipe.
Pour the buttermilk into the bowl, and using a spatula (or your hand), roll the flour around the edge of the bowl until the buttermilk is absorbed and the dry flour begins sticking together. Roll until there is very little loose flour…add a drop more buttermilk if needed, but do so sparingly–you don’t want the flour to be “wet”.
On a lightly floured surface, empty the bowl and press the flour together, knead once or twice and then spread the dough out into a flat, ½ inch thickness. Do not knead or “handle” the dough too much.
Flour the edges of a biscuit cutter or drinking glass and cut out biscuits. I like my buttermilk biscuit about 2″-3″ across, but make whatever size you like. Giant biscuits can be fun :^) Cut the biscuits closely and get as many out of the first press as you can. Once all of the biscuits are cut from the first press, bring the dough together again and cut out remaining biscuits–again trying to handle the dough as little as possible.
Arrange the biscuits touching side by side on a lightly greased pan or on parchment paper. Lightly brush the tops of the biscuits with buttermilk or melted butter–this will help them to brown nicely. Place biscuits in the oven and bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 15 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown to your liking.
7 ounce of geoduck
2 ounce of miso (white or Saikyo miso)
1/2 teaspoon Shichimi Pepper or Cayenne pepper
0.2 ounce of garlic
0.4 ounce of sesame oil
1 ounce of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of butter
Directions
Take a paring knife and cut along the sides of the shell. Once the sides are free, separate the shell & upper meat, leaving the stomach.
Put the entire geoduck in slightly cooler than boiling water for 10 seconds (no longer or it will get tough), then immediately transfer into ice water. Pull off the brown outer skin.
Cut down the middle part of upper meat to open it up and wash to remove any sand or other debris. (Optional) Cut off the tough “hind end” of the geoduck. Separate the geoduck into (2) halves.
Cut the upper meat into very thin slices. Cut the mantle into thicker pieces.
It’s time to dig for a geoduck on the beaches of Puget Sound and Hood Canal as extremely low tides are looming on the near horizon allowing shellfish gatherers a rare chance to get these deep-dwelling shellfish.
For those who don’t want to be in waist-deep sand and muck can purchase them at many seafood stores in the Seattle area. Just be ready for a bit of sticker shock as the price per pound can be on the high end.
This week, chef “Joe” Sato at Shiro’s Sushi in Seattle’s Belltown offers a delightful geoduck recipe, which is a rare and expensive treat in Asia. The meat is very sweet and has a great crunchy texture.
Sato was born and raised in Tokyo, and acquired his skills in Japan before moving to Canada. He has managed the Japanese Culinary division of the Pan Pacific Hotel as a head chef in Vancouver, BC.
In 2006, Sato moved to the Puget Sound area, where he refined his sushi making skills, and worked as a GM/Executive Sushi Chef at I Love Sushi on Lake Bellevue for nearly a decade long.
In 1994, master sushi chef Shiro Kashiba opened his namesake restaurant, blending his knowledge with the Pacific Northwest’s wealth of local seafood and ingredients and “set the bar that others aspire to,” according to the highly regarded Zagat Guide.
Target geoduck during extreme low tides
The geoduck is one of the oldest and most impressive clams, which can weigh up to 10 pounds (average weight is about 2 pounds) and live as long as 140 years.
It is one of the tastiest in the shellfish family, and inhabits the sandy beaches at depths of about 3 to 4 feet deep.
The big myth is a geoduck digs down to escape when pursued. The retraction of the long neck fools you into thinking the clam is escaping downward. A burrowed adult geoduck’s siphon can stretch about 39 inches into the sea bed.
That is likely why their name originated from a Native American word meaning “to dig deep.”
Geoducks reside along the West Coast as far south as Baja California, but harvestable populations are found only in Puget Sound-Hood Canal, British Columbia and southeast Alaska.
Puget Sound’s bays and estuaries host the highest density of geoducks in the United States.
The best areas to locate geoduck are below the intertidal beach area beyond the zero feet to minus-2 feet.
State fisheries has a page devoted to geoduck at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/geoduck/.
Low tides: Thursday (May 25), minus-2.2 feet at 10:33 a.m.; Friday (May 26), -2.9 at 11:17 a.m.; Saturday (May 27), -3.1 at 12:03 p.m.; Sunday (May 28), -2.9 at 12:52 p.m.; Monday (May 29), -2.3 at 1:42 p.m.; Tuesday (May 30), -1.4 at 2:35 p.m.; Wednesday (May 31), -0.3 at 3:30 p.m. The next low tide series in June is from June 7-14 and June 21-28. Additional low tides for summer can be found at http://www.saltwatertides.com/dynamic.dir/washingtonsites.html.
Diggers should note that all eastern mainland beaches from Everett south into southern Puget Sound are also closed for shellfish due to unsafe pollution levels.
Before heading to a beach, call the marine biotoxin hotline at 800-562-5632 or visit the website at www.doh.wa.gov. Also check the state fisheries hotline at 866-880-5431 and website at http://wdfw.wa.gov. State Fish and Wildlife offers a good interactive shellfish map at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/beachreg.
Geoduck Miso Butter
Ingredients
7 ounce of geoduck
2 ounce of miso (white or Saikyo miso)
1/2 teaspoon Shichimi Pepper or Cayenne pepper
0.2 ounce of garlic
0.4 ounce of sesame oil
1 ounce of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of butter
Directions
Take a paring knife and cut along the sides of the shell. Once the sides are free, separate the shell & upper meat, leaving the stomach.
Put the entire geoduck in slightly cooler than boiling water for 10 seconds (no longer or it will get tough), then immediately transfer into ice water. Pull off the brown outer skin.
Cut down the middle part of upper meat to open it up and wash to remove any sand or other debris. (Optional) Cut off the tough “hind end” of the geoduck. Separate the geoduck into (2) halves.
Cut the upper meat into very thin slices. Cut the mantle into thicker pieces.
Directions for Miso sauce
Mix and stir miso, garlic, sesame oil and sugar into a bowl. Then put the sauce and geoduck in a Ziploc bag and take all the air out. Marinate in the fridge over night for eight hours.
Directions for sauteing geoduck
Wash the geoduck (take off all the sauce). Heat up the pan and throw in butter (1/2 teaspoon) then saute’ geoduck for two minutes.
Presentation
Put a few pieces of geoduck onto the skewers and splash Shichimi or Cayenne pepper on top
Multi-Purpose Ginger & Garlic Sauce
Ingredients:
Application of the Sauce
Stir-Fried Pork Ginger ("Buta no Shouga Yaki" buta means pork)
