It's a dry clambake - but fun

Don't let geography deter you from having a clambake, even if the nearest body of water is your backyard pool.

Our sandy stretches may hug cactus and rock rather than the pounding surf, but that doesn't mean desert dwellers can't steam seafood nestled in layers of seaweed the way they do in Cape Cod, Mass.

All you need, according to Bryan Elliott, chef and owner of Painted Horse Restaurant in Scottsdale, is a 25- to 30-quart pot, seaweed, lobsters, clams, sausage, Old Bay seasoning, corn, potatoes, onions and a few other special ingredients. OK, it sounds like a lot. But all these items are available locally, even the seaweed.

And all you need to host the party are friends, bibs, libations and a crash course on cracking open a lobster.

Elliott grew up in East Orleans, on the elbow of Cape Cod. Although his summer weekends frequently were spent on the beach, gathering driftwood for a bonfire and finding the perfect flat rocks on which to layer the clambake, our desert version requires much less labor.

We may not be able to jump into the ocean to rinse off the buttery, lobster-laced residue from our fingers and chins, but this easy, one-pot meal can feed a crew, and it's a novel departure from the traditional backyard barbecue.

Here's a step-by-step plan for throwing a clambake when the ocean is virtual and the sandy beach is just a concept, but the sweet lobster meat is as real and as good as it gets.