Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook.

And we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

-Today on "Cook's Country," Ashley makes a party favorite -- clams casino, and Bryan and I make a flavorful seafood risotto.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast, with a lineup of gas grills designed with durability in mind, including the Eminence 605 with LED touch panels and side and rear infrared burners.

Learn more at MonumentGrills.com.

-Teakhaus -- inspired by a passion for cooking and respect for our planet, each board is handcrafted from sustainably sourced wood designed for every step, from food prep to presentation.

Teakhaus.

-Clams casino is a classic New England appetizer.

It's littleneck clams topped with butter, bacon, bell peppers, and breadcrumbs, then run under the broiler.

And today, Ashley is going to show us how they're made.

-You bet I am.

So with all of those elements, it's really important for this recipe to cook each item individually so that they're going to be the perfect version of themselves at the end of the recipe.

-That makes sense, because bacon, bell peppers, and clams do not cook at the same rate.

-Exactly.

So first I've got 2 tablespoons of melted butter here over medium heat in this 12-inch nonstick skillet.

And I have a 3/4 cup of panko breadcrumbs, which as you know, are the Japanese breadcrumbs, really coarse in texture.

-Mm-hmm.

-I'm actually toasting the breadcrumbs here because we're going to be able to control their doneness and their brownness here, as opposed to the end of the recipe.

Alright, Julia, so check out that color.

That is a perfect golden brown.

I'd say so myself.

So now I'm going to add some aromatics.

I've got some garlic and some thyme because we're going to be packing each element of this recipe with as much flavor as possible.

So that's 3 cloves of garlic.

And then I have a good amount of thyme.

I have 1 tablespoon of minced fresh thyme.

And you just want to let this cook for about 30 seconds just until you can smell it.

I can definitely smell everything there.

I'm going to take it off the heat.

And now the final step here for the breadcrumbs is to add some minced fresh parsley.

I have 1/4 cup here.

Alright, so I'm going to take these breadcrumbs and just leave them in this plate just to hang out until later on.

In the meantime, I'm just going to just wipe out the skillet because we're going to be using this again to cook the clams.

Now let's talk about our clams.

These are the star of the show today.

-These are beauties.

-Aren't they?

So these are littleneck clams.

For this recipe, you want 36 clams in total, which is usually between 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 pounds.

And when you're at the seafood counter, just look for clams that are about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches wide.

-Mm-hmm.

-That's going to ensure that they all cook at the same rate.

So these now are going to go hang out in our nonstick skillet for a little bit.

-[ Laughs ] -I'm just going to add them.

So I'm going to put this over medium high heat.

And now I'm going to add some dry white wine.

This is a 1/2 cup.

So I'm going to pop this lid on here.

You want to have a really nice fitted lid for this recipe.

Now you want to go in there after about 4 minutes just to check to see if any of the clams have opened, but it can take up to 10 minutes in total for all of them to open.

And you want to go in there and just kind of shake the pan every once in a while just to ensure all of them get cooked properly.

-Okay.

-Okay, Julia, some of the clams have opened.

-Mm-hmm.

-Some of them haven't.

And that's totally normal.

That's why we have a good range for this recipe.

And any of the ones that have opened, it's time for them to get out of their wine bath.

-[ Laughs ] -I love a wine bath.

-Their wine hot tub.

-[ Laughs ] Alright, I'll pop the lid back on just to see if that helps to get them to open.

-Oh, look at that.

-Bing bong.

-The last rebel.

-Yep.

-Oh.

-There we go.

-Oh.

Nicely done.

-Nicely done, everybody.

-[ Chuckles ] -Alright, so let's set this aside because we're going to let these cool.

Now I have a fine mesh strainer.

And I did line this with a coffee filter because you want to trap any grit or sand that was still hanging on in those clams.

You're going to trap it right here.

-Gotcha.

-We're going to be using this broth throughout the recipe.

So I'm going to pour this through.

And again, essentially, this is just all that clam juice, all that briny seafood-y flavors with the white wine.

-Delicious.

-Yeah.

I know.

So you want to strain this out.

Alright, so I'm going to pop this in the fridge to cool it down for about 15 minutes.

And again, you want to let the clams cool as well until they're cool enough to handle.

-Okay.

-Let's cook some bacon.

I've got this nonstick skillet again.

We're going to use it for the third time.

Now I have 6 slices of bacon that I went ahead and chopped.

So I'm going to let this go for about 7 to 10 minutes over medium heat until lightly browned.

Alright.

So it's been 7 to 10 minutes.

And as you can see the bacon is beginning to brown.

Now it's time to add bell pepper.

I've got 1/2 of a green bell pepper that I finely chopped here.

We found that we really love the contrast of bell pepper with the smokiness of the bacon and the garlicky breadcrumbs.

And then I'm also going to add a couple shallots that I went ahead and minced.

This is 2 shallots in total.

I'm going to cook this for about 2 to 5 minutes until the pepper and shallots are beginning to soften.

The vegetables have softened, so it's time to add our reserved broth mixture from earlier.

So this is about a 1/2 cup.

And if you don't have a 1/2 cup that comes once you strain it, you want to just add a little bit of extra dry white wine to bring it up to the 1/2 cup mark.

-Okay.

-So I'm going to add this, bring this to a vigorous simmer and cook until almost dry, which should take 3 to 5 minutes.

So as you can see, we are almost dry here.

Alright, I'm going to turn the heat off.

So I'm going to transfer this to this bowl.

This mixture just needs to cool down before we stuff the clams.

So I'm going to pop this in the fridge for 15 minutes.

-Okay.

-It's been 15 minutes.

This bacon mixture is nice and cool to the touch.

So I'm going to add some softened butter.

I've got 8 tablespoons more butter here.

Now this is what you want it to look like when it's all fully mashed.

-It looks gorgeous.

-Very appetizing.

It will be, though, I promise.

So let's head downtown here.

-[ Chuckles ] Downtown.

-Downtown.

I've got some foil, obviously.

The clams are going to bake on this rimmed baking sheet.

Now I'm going to crumple this foil because it's going to give the clams a stable spot for them to sit while they're in the oven.

-Okay.

-Alright, now I was wondering, can you give me a hand because we need to remove the clam meat from each clam shell.

-I'd be happy to.

-Alright.

I found it best just to twist off one half.

-Okay.

-We don't need this.

-Okay.

-Bye-bye.

And now, with a paring knife, you could also use your fingers or a cocktail fork, you want to just go in there and separate the meat from the shell.

-Okay.

-And that is only going to ensure that it's easier to eat.

Last two.

-Mm-hmm.

-And now it's time to assemble.

So we've got the butter mixture.

Now what I would love your help with -- topping each clam.

What you're going to do is grab a scant 2 teaspoons per clam.

-Okay.

-And you want to make sure you get all the good stuff in one spoon and just go through and top the clam.

But the trick here is making sure that the butter is nice and flat so that it doesn't go into the pan.

All that goodness stays in the shell.

-Okay.

Melts down around the clam.

-Mm-hmm.

-Alright.

So you said scant 2 teaspoons?

-Mm-hmm.

-Alright.

-Nicely done.

-Thank you.

-Alright.

-Mm, mm.

-Alright.

Final step before these go in the oven, we need to top the clams with the breadcrumb mixture.

Now because we worked so hard to get all that flavor in there, you don't want the sheet pan to have any of it.

You want to really get in there and top each clam.

Take a few extra seconds here because it is worth it.

-You're really focusing the pinch on top of the clam.

It sticks right to the butter.

-Mm-hmm.

-Oh, those are gorgeous.

-Now these are going to go one final step before eating, into a preheated 450-degree oven.

Oven rack is at the upper middle position.

And these are only going to hang out in there for about 5 minutes.

-Okay, that's not very long, but that makes sense because the clams have already been par cooked, so you didn't want to overcook them in the oven.

-Exactly.

And don't forget the breadcrumb topping already golden brown.

-Okay.

5 minutes.

-5 minutes.

-I smell them.

-Mm-hmm.

-Oh, Ashley, they're gorgeous.

-Good.

-Yum.

-Alright.

Oh yes.

-Oh!

-Table for two?

-Yes.

Seriously.

Those are beauties.

Let's dig in then.

-Alright.

Let's do it.

-Mm, mm, mm.

I'm going to start with three.

-Ooh.

I would love a little lemon.

-Alright.

-Very much.

Nothing like clams and lemon.

-Oh, yeah.

Oh!

-Mm-hmm.

-Alrighty.

-Mm.

-Mmm.

Mm.

The clam is perfectly cooked.

-Mm-hmm.

-And the white wine adds a nice zing.

And you get the bell peppers, the bacon, and of course, the butter.

-Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And they're briny.

-Mm.

-They taste like they just came out of the sea.

-Mm-hmm.

-So good.

-The toasted breadcrumbs have that good crunch.

Thank goodness you parcooked them.

-Mm-hmm.

-Ashley, these are awesome.

Thank you.

-You're very welcome.

-If you want to make this classic New England appetizer, toast and season the breadcrumbs.

Cook the clams in white wine until just opened.

Then stuff with a flavorful butter and finish in a hot oven.

From "Cook's Country," a terrific recipe for clams casino.

-We're going to need a bigger boat.

[ Both laugh ] -Risotto is one of those delicious rice dishes that you can adapt with almost any flavors, whether your favorites are asparagus or mushrooms or whatever you prefer.

And Bryan is here.

He's going to show us a few tricks for making a seafood risotto.

-Yeah, I love risotto.

And on its surface, it's a very simple, straightforward recipe.

Usually just rice, some liquid.

But there's a lot of technique involved.

You know, you want to get that perfect creamy texture and nice al dente bite to the rice kernels.

And if you add seafood to the mix, now you have two things you're trying to perfect -- the texture of seafood, the texture of the rice, and of course, the overall flavor.

So speaking of flavor, we are going to start with a flavored base of our risotto, and that is fennel.

We are going to start with a full fennel bulb.

So you can see we have fronds, we have stalks, and we have the core.

I'm going to start by removing these fronds.

And we're going to cut these up, and we're going to use these as a bit of a garnish later on in the risotto.

We're looking for about 1/4 cup of the fronds.

So we'll just give those a coarse chop.

Alright, and now we're going to remove our stalks of the fennel here.

And this is going to end up in our stock.

So we can remove these loose bits of fronds.

Don't really have to be too particular about this.

And then we're going to cut these stalks into about 2-inch pieces.

And that'll end up in our seafood stock.

And then finally, we have our fennel bulb.

And we want to remove the core.

I like to take the paring knife, grab the blade like this, have my thumb about 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch up from the tip of the blade and just go in at about a 45-degree angle and just kind of rotate like that.

We're going to look for a small dice on this, about 1/4 of an inch.

-Does that size really matter?

-We don't want to be eating the risotto and have big chunks of fennel.

So this will be about the same size as the onion we add later.

We'll just cut it into little sticks there.

And now we're just going to line all this up and give it a nice chop here.

Looking for something small, about 1/4 of an inch or so.

Alright.

So that's about 1 cup of fennel.

Now we could focus on our seafood.

So we have three different types of seafood here.

We have shrimp, mussels, and squid.

And with the shrimp, we're going to peel and devein these.

Take the knife, I invert the knife so the blade is facing up, and hold the shrimp and just kind of run it down the vein which loosens the shell.

And squeeze the tail.

If you have a vein, just use your knife and pull it out.

Okay, and we want to cut this shrimp into three 1/4-inch pieces.

Then we have 2 pounds of mussels here.

Mussels contribute a ton of flavor.

We're going to use these as the basis for our stock because there's a lot of juice inside these things.

So we want to remove the beards from these.

So it's a little hairy piece.

It's how the mussels attach to the rope or the rocks when they're growing.

And then finally, we're going to use some squid.

Squid is one of those ingredients that we don't use very often here in the test kitchen.

But it is one of those things that packs a ton of flavor.

It's really interesting, it's very affordable.

You can always find it in the frozen food section, and it just adds a lot of texture to this risotto.

So we want to take the bodies and we want to cut them into 1/4-inch rings.

-And this is just frozen?

-Yep.

And then the tentacles, we just want to split those in half.

They have a little base there.

Just split those in half.

So there's all our seafood.

Our fennel is prepped.

I'm just going to wash up, and we'll make our stock.

-Okay.

-Alright.

We're going to make our stock now.

So we have 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter that we've melted here.

And we're going to throw our shrimp shells in there.

We'll put them in here.

We'll let them cook for about 3 minutes or so until they start to toast up nicely.

Alright, Toni, you can see that these shrimp shells have darkened in color.

You can really smell that aroma.

Toasty shrimp.

So now we're going to add our fennel stalks, 1 cup of white wine -- this is a dry white wine -- [ Sizzling ] ...and then our 2 pounds of mussels.

Now, that wine's already come to a boil 'cause the pot was so hot, so we're going to cover this and let it go for about 5 minutes until those mussels start to pop open.

Alright.

It's been about 5 minutes.

Take a look at our mussels.

See?

They've all popped open.

-Oh, they're gorgeous.

So I'm going to kill the heat on this.

Right now we're going to pull all the mussels out of here.

And you can see now how much more liquid we have in the pot than when we started.

-Yeah.

--That's what the mussels contributed to adding something to this party here.

They didn't come empty-handed.

Now, at this point we're going to add 7 cups of water to this.

We're going to crank the heat back up, bring it to a boil.

And when it hits a boil, we're going to reduce the heat to low, put a lid on it, and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Only 10 minutes.

We found that simmering shrimp shells any longer than 10 minutes doesn't really draw any more flavor out of it.

-Okay.

-Okay, so while that's coming to a boil, we want to find 8 ideal perfect-looking mussels in the shell.

And we're going to use these as a garnish for our finished risotto.

So 2, 3... Okay.

And that is 8.

And we can just hold those off to the side.

And we'll use those as garnish for our finished risotto.

And now we can take the rest of these mussels, and we're just going to pop them out of their shells.

And these are going to be the mussels that we stir into the risotto.

And Toni, our stock has been simmering for 10 minutes.

We'll kill the heat on that.

Oh, you can just smell it.

-Mm.

Oh, yeah.

-It smells buttery.

Buttery seafood.

And then we're going to drain it right through this fine mesh strainer here into a bowl.

And then we're going to add our stock back to our saucepan.

Then we'll put this on the back burner.

-Smells great.

-Cover it and put it on low just to keep it warm.

Alright, then here in this Dutch oven we have 4 tablespoons of butter we're melting over medium heat.

And to that we're going to add our chopped fennel... ...1 cup of chopped onion, and 1 teaspoon of table salt.

And we're just going to cook this until the vegetables become translucent.

So we're going to throw a lid on it and let it go just for about 5 minutes.

Alright, Toni, it's been about 6 minutes.

You can see our vegetables are nice and translucent.

And to that we're going to add 3 cloves of garlic that have been minced, along with 2 tablespoons of tomato paste.

The tomato paste is really in there to kind of bump the umami quotient and also give it a little bit of a light red hue.

So we'll cook this for about a minute till that garlic really becomes fragrant.

Alright.

So our garlic is very fragrant.

Our tomato paste is incorporated.

And at this point we're going to add our squid.

So you can treat squid two ways.

You can cook it hot and fast, or you have to simmer it for a little while to make it tender.

-Okay.

-So we're opting to simmer it for a little while and make it more tender.

And it's also going to contribute a lot of flavor.

So we're going to add it to the pot, stir it in, and we're going to cook this for about 3 minutes until a little bit of fond begins to form on the bottom of the pot and the squid starts to kind of shrivel up a little bit.

Alright, so it's been a good 3 minutes.

Now you can see how the squid has really changed texture.

It's more opaque.

It's almost like these little rubber bands.

So that's going to get really tender as it cooks.

And at this point we could add our rice.

We have 2 cups of arborio rice.

So we're going to add that.

And we're going to stir that just to coat the grains evenly with all the fat and the tomato paste and all that flavor that's in the pot.

And we're going to cook this for a couple of minutes until we start to see the edges of the rice turn translucent.

So it's been about 2 minutes.

You can see there's a little bit of fond beginning to form on the bottom of the pot.

The aromas are starting to change.

It's a little bit more roasted.

That squid, the garlic, everything's starting to kind of evolve a little bit.

So now we're going to add a cup of dry white wine.

And we're going to let it cook for a couple of minutes until the rice fully absorbs the wine.

And while that's going on, I'm going to take some of our seafood broth.

I'm going to measure out about 5 cups.

Alright, you see the rice has now fully absorbed all the wine.

And this is the moment where we sort of diverge from the classic method, which is you would typically add a little bit of stock, stir it into the rice, let it cook until the rice fully absorbs the stock, add a little bit more, and just repeat that over and over again.

What we're going to do is we're going to add the majority of our stock up front.

-Whoa.

-That's crazy, right?

You weren't -- You weren't prepared for this.

What we're going to do is we're going to stir pretty aggressively towards the end so we get that creaminess.

But at this point, we're really just focused on getting the rice about 80% of the way there.

So we're going to add 2 1/2 teaspoons of table salt to this as well.

And we're going to cook this for about 20 minutes.

And once it comes to a simmer, we're going to reduce the heat to medium low.

And over the next 20 to 22 minutes, we'll stir the rice every 3 minutes.

Alright, Toni, our risotto has been simmering for about 20 minutes.

And you can see if we drag a spoon through it, it leaves a trail that fills in slowly.

And that's exactly what we're looking for.

So at this point, we're going to add another cup of our broth.

This is a 1/2 cup ladle.

So we'll add a couple of ladles here.

And at this point, we're going to start stirring it constantly for the next 3 minutes.

This is where we really bring out that creaminess of the rice.

You can see that the texture of the risotto has really changed.

It's nice and creamy.

It looks like a real risotto.

Huh?

-It does.

-So I just want to taste to make sure that we're good with the al dente.

Mm-hmm.

A little bit of bite still on the rice.

It's perfect.

So at this point, we're going to add another 4 tablespoons of butter, our shrimp... ...our shelled mussels, 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley, and this is 1/4 cup of fennel, so we'll use about half of it.

These are our fennel fronds.

And just stir this in for a minute until the butter is melted.

Now that this is all incorporated, we're gonna cover it... ...remove it from the heat... and we're gonna let it sit for 5 minutes.

And during that time, the shrimp is going to finish cooking nice and gently.

The rice will kind of coast into perfect doneness.

And then we'll come back and season to taste and adjust the final consistency.

Alright.

It's been 5 minutes.

We'll take a look at our risotto.

Okay, you see the shrimp is nice and pink.

Just smells wonderful.

It's thickened up a little bit, too.

-Yup.

-So we want to have it a little bit looser than that.

So we're going to add a little bit more of our warm broth.

Kind of work that in.

-Oh, my.

Smells great.

It's beautiful.

-Okay.

Now we're ready to garnish.

We'll take our 8 mussels.

We'll just jab them in there.

So this is meant to bring the entire pot to the table, impress your guests, and then our remaining 2 tablespoons of fennel fronds.

We'll just hit over top.

And I think we're ready to serve.

A couple of mussels for you.

-Just gorgeous.

-Let's give a little squeeze of lemon over top.

Alright.

-Okay.

Mm.

-That's good, right?

-It's really good.

-Oh, my God.

-You get that amazing texture where there's just a little bit of a bite in the rice, but still creamy.

And the seafood comes through.

That bright flavor.

-Yeah.

Notice the texture of the squid.

Just perfectly tender.

-So good.

-And that shrimp, too.

-Everything's perfectly cooked.

And I love the way that that tomato paste, the subtlety of it, you don't even notice.

-Mm-hmm.

The same with the fennel, too.

-Mm-hmm.

-It all comes together really nicely.

-This was really great, Bryan.

Thank you so much for sharing this recipe today.

-You're very welcome.

-And for a creamy risotto that's easier to make, make your own seafood broth.

Front load most of the broth in the rice and stir every 3 minutes.

And finally, top with mussels and herbs and serve from the pot.

From "Cook's Country," a great recipe for seafood risotto.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our product reviews and select episodes at our website, CooksCountry.com/TV.

I cannot wait to make this at home.

-I'm so glad.

-It's really good.

-Let us help with dinner tonight.

Visit our website anytime for the newest season's rigorously tested recipes, full episodes, ingredient advice, and equipment reviews.

CooksCountry.com/TV.

-"The Complete Cook's Country TV Show Cookbook" brings together every recipe, tasting, and test from 18 seasons of the beloved TV show.

With trusted equipment recommendations and insights from the entire cast, this book is your guide to the very best in regional cooking.

The cost is $24.99, $15 off the cover price of $40.

To order, head to our online shop CooksCountry.com/book.

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast, with a lineup of gas grills designed with durability in mind, including the Eminence 605 with LED touch panels and side and rear infrared burners.

Learn more at MonumentGrills.com.

-Teakhaus -- inspired by a passion for cooking and respect for our planet, each board is handcrafted from sustainably sourced wood designed for every step, from food prep to presentation.

Teakhaus.