Crunchy Coconut Fried Razor Clams (or Any Other Seafood)
We particularly enjoy this recipe for razor clams but it’s also great for squid or fresh fish like rockfish or lingcod. We make different dipping sauces depending on what we have available, but sriracha-lime is our go-to because it’s super easy.
In this case, we fried razor clams and squid tentacles. Squid can be caught in Puget Sound from public fishing piers especially at night, which makes them a really popular and fun seafood to harvest in the late fall/winter around Seattle and Tacoma.
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- Juice of 4 limes
- Sriracha – 2 Tbsp for medium, 4 Tbsp for hot
For the seafood and breading
- 1 pound Razor clams, squid, rockfish, lingcod, halibut, or any other fresh seafood
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup coconut milk (the thicker the better)
- 2 cups panko
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 4 – 6 cups Oil – coconut oil makes for the best coconut flavor but is usually more expensive, so any high-heat oil will work. Vegetable oil seems to provide the best crispiness for us.
Instructions
- Make the sauce ahead of time in a small bowl by mixing the mayonnaise, lime juice, and sriracha. We like to use 4 tablespoons of sriracha – start with one and increase to your taste.
- Cut the clams into bite-sized pieces and pat dry. If using fish, cut into fish-stick-sized strips about 1/2″ thick.
- Mix the flour and salt in one bowl. Whisk the egg and coconut milk in another bowl. If the coconut flakes are large, chop or food process them until they are about the size of a grain of rice. Mix the bread crumbs and coconut flakes and split evenly into two bowls.
- If you want to serve it all at once, preheat the oven to 130 and put something below an open rack to catch any oil dripping (if you put fried food straight onto a baking sheet it might get soggy on the bottom).
- Put a cooling rack on top of a rimmed baking sheet or just put a paper towel on a plate. This is where you’ll put the seafood after it is fried to drain off excess oil. You can serve it from here, or you can put it in the warm oven until it’s all been fried and serve it all at once.
- If you haven’t deep fried food before, be aware that it can pop and splatter hot oil. To protect yourself, use a splatter screen or just use a pot lid if you don’t have one. Use an apron if you have one, and don’t wear your favorite clothes.
- Fill a heavy bottomed pan with oil to half of the height of the pieces of seafood you are frying. Heat to medium-high until a pinch of flour bubbles like crazy when you drop it in. You want it to be very hot (375 if you have a thermometer), but if it starts smoking turn it down.
- Working with one piece of seafood at a time, coat it in the flour, then quickly dip it in the egg, then into one of the bowls of bread crumbs/coconut mixture, and then carefully place each piece of seafood in the oil until the pan is full. The goal is to get the seafood completely coated in the bread crumbs mixture. If the mixture gets damp and sticky/doughy after a while and isn’t coating the meat well, or when you are halfway through, switch to the second bowl of bread crumbs.
- Allow the pieces to cook until they are golden brown underneath, 1-5 minutes per side. Frying time is really dependent on your stove and the type of pan you are using (we use cast iron) – just check underneath and flip them when they’re golden brown.
- Once they are golden brown on both sides, move them onto the drying rack until they’re cool enough to eat. Or, put them on a rack in the oven on warm until you are finished and serve it all at once.
- Oh, and that sticky, doughy panko and coconut flake mixture that is left behind can be rolled into a ball and fried at the end like a coconut hush puppy.
Enjoy!
