The Simple Things: GF Fried Clams

Every so often, when someone discovers I can't eat gluten, they ask me what I miss the most. It's a hard question to answer. For one thing, it changes depending on my mood and, for another, I don't like to dwell on the foods I miss- it's hard enough already sticking to a GF diet! The foods I miss change depending on my mood. Often I really miss donuts, Boston Creme was my favorite. And I definitely miss pie crust, I'm still working on perfecting a GF version. Another is chicken nuggets (stay tuned for the results to my search for the best GF chicken nuggets!) and - well, I guess I could go on and on . . .

This summer I was really missing fried clams. I grew up in coastal Maine and fried clams seem like an integral part of summer. There's something about Maine, summer and the ocean that demands fried clams- or lobster rolls. I'd contemplated asking Santa for a deep fryer this Christmas, something that would help with the fried clams and the donuts (something I'm definitely still considering!), but we stumbled upon a more immediate solution. At my brother's graduation celebration dinner at the Kennebec Tavern in Bath, we discovered they use a rice flour batter for their calamari. That got our wheels turning and we decided to ask the kitchen staff if they could make me some gluten-free fried clams. The answer: yes!

So, a few weeks ago, I finally ate some gluten-free fried clams. They weren't quite as good as the gluten-full original (always the case), but they were a pretty good substitute and I was completely thrilled to enjoy something as simple as fried clams again. I'll definitely be calling ahead to order these again.