Steamers with Champagne (of butters)

At the beginning of our trip, my partner and I stopped at the Skagit Valley Food Co-Op: a lovely grocery that my Aunt depends on for her gourmet food intake. This is where we accidentally bought the champagne of butters. Really, we were just trying to find unsalted butter so we snagged the only package that said 'unsalted'. It was rather expensive for its size, but we just assumed it was the green market prices and carried on. Little did we know this butter had been treated with Swiss Cultures almost like a cheese, to develop the natural sweetness and complex flavours in such a simple thing as milk fat.

The first time we used this butter was on our first night: we slathered it on baguette with beer-steamed mussels we bought from Taylor's Shellfish Farm in Washington (just off Chuckanut Drive- please check it out!). By the time we bit into the tasty mollusks we were exhausted and cranky after getting lost and trying to find an open campground. It was probably 930pm and thus, no pictures were taken.

The next time we paired the butter with shellfish was after a jaunt at Nehalem State Park and other beaches where I snagged some sea asparagus. We passed Kelly's Marina on our way back to the Jetty so we figured, why not? When we arrived some friendly Yakima farmers were cleaning their daily crab haul so we had a little chat. They got us to taste the hearts of those little crustaceans (which are the best part if you ask me) and then tossed us a couple legs to gnaw on while we gabbed. They mentioned the melons were lovely this year at their farm and too bad they hadn't brought any to trade for seafood. What a great barter, if you ask me.

Huge oysters that got lost- 7yrs old. Apparently pretty delicious when prepped like a baked potato. I assumed the guy we were talking with was Kelly of Kelly's Marina but maybe not? Either way, he wore a lobster hat so I assumed he was a foremost authority on all things shellfish. At this marina you could buy things fresh or they'd steam it up or grill it right there for you. They had oysters, mussels, clams, crab, tuna loins, salmon, and other local delights. We decided on the steamer clams which were likely from Taylor's Shellfish where we got the mussels. We bought 2 pounds for 11 bucks. 

Red Coconut Thai Curry Clams with Sea Asparagus and Baguette smothered in Champagne butter. We ate this with Happy Camper Chardonnay and a couple of games of cribbage.