Coquina Clams

By Oliver

This type of clam is called a Coquina. After many weeks we have found that the only time we can find coquinas is when the surf is calm and you are able to get to where the waves break.

There are a few different ways to catch these clams but first there is something you need to know; the coquinas are small, so they live close to the top of the sand. This means that you do not have to dig that far down. Anyway, back to how to catch them. We have found three easy ways to catch coquinas:

1. You dig a shallow hole and let the coquinas be uncovered and washed into your hole. This method does not require much effort but you don’t catch very many. Also, you have to make lots of holes because there is a limited amount of coquinas in each spot.
2. If you have very sharp eyes you can look when the waves crash there are some coquinas that get tumbled and you can just grab them. This way isn’t easy but you get a fair amount of coquinas.
3. My favorite way to catch coquinas is by standing in the shallow water with your feet in a v with the point of the v pointing to the sea. When the waves pass by your feet they create a moat around your feet leaving all the coquinas turned up by the waves and under your feet in that moat.

How to Cook Coquina Clams
When cooking coquinas, the part that takes the longest is preparing them. As we all know clams are filter feeders, for
this reason you must let them rinse out all the sand in their body.

1. The first step of filtering out the sand is to put the coquinas in a glass jar and fill it up halfway with salt water. Once you have done that, leave them in the glass for thirty minutes.
2. The second step is to pour out the salt water and wash all the coquinas off. Then you fill the jar with new salt water and put the coquinas back in the jar.
   You leave them in there for thirty more minutes. The only difference is that this time you put a dash of vinegar in the jar. Clams don’t like vinegar so as they try to push it out of their body, in the process they also push almost all the sand out of their body.
3. The third step of cleaning your coquinas is to rinse them all off, pour the water out and repeat step two but put a little more vinegar and replace the salt water with fresh water.
4. Finally, after all that, you can now rinse off your coquinas and begin to cook them.
   

The actual process of cooking the coquinas only takes about ten minutes. What you need: olive oil, white wine (optional), garlic and, obviously, coquinas.

1. First, put a small layer of olive oil in a pan then turn the burner on high.
2. Then add diced garlic in the pan (the amount of garlic should be about the amount of coquinas).
3. When the garlic starts to brown put the coquinas in. You will know they are ready when the coquinas pop open. If some of them are not opening, take the ones that are cooked out of the pan and put the ones that have not popped open over direct heat. If they still don’t open that means they are not good coquinas.

Now you may serve your cooked coquinas.

Note: Freezing coquinas will make cooking them impossible. Frozen coquinas will never pop open. I learned that from experience.