Geoduck trial with Bill from Taylor Shellfish
I have always been curious about the weird looking geoduck. Bill Whitbeck from Taylor Shellfish has been trying to get me to use it at Campagne for quite some time. Last Wednesday, Bill came by with a couple 2 pound samples and made a presentation to Randy, Campagne’s Chef de Cuisine, and me. Well I think I am hooked.
It turns out that peeling and cleaning the geoduck is pretty straight forward. A quick blanch in hot water and a shock in an ice bath and the skin comes off like a sock. After separating the flesh from the shell on either side, most everything is usable. We just trimmed the gills and the other dangling bits and we were ready to go.
Typically the siphon (the part that is outside of the shell) is used for raw or nearly raw preparations and the mantle (body) is cooked. The mantle was sauteed, deep fried in flour and deep fried in a tempura batter (yes I know tempura is not French). The best siphon preparation was a salad of shallots, cucumber, lemon juice and organic canola oil. We started getting this great organic canola oil from some guys out in Snohomish. I was very surprised at the amount of flavor in the oil.
We topped the salad with a little tempura fried mantle. voila:
We are now serving it as a special, so come in and give it a try.
Cheers,
Daisley
Tags: Daisley Gordon, french cuisine, northwest cusine, pike place market
