Dinner RECIPES / HOME COOKING Seafood

Home-cooking: Steamed Clams in Chinese Wine

Boyfriend and I chose to splurge on a home-cooked dinner one night.  We both love shellfish, and they seem easy enough to prepare, so that’s what we had.

Besides clams I really didn’t want to have to buy anything extra, but most of the recipes online call for dry white wine, which we don’t have.  So I tried to make do with what I had at home.

Chinese Wine

And this was what I had.  Now I’m not really sure what these taste like but that one on the left I’ve seen used to make crabs and prawns, so I figured it’ll be ok.

So to prepare the clams, I followed instructions from Blue Lotus.  They were first soaked in enough water to cover them, plus 1 tsp of salt per 200mL of water.  They could be soaked for several hours or overnight.  Afterwards, instead of pouring the clams out along with the water, I picked out the clams into a strainer then poured out the water, so the dirt doesn’t get mixed around again.  Then, the clams were scrubbed and rinsed and placed aside.

Steamed Clams in Chinese Wine

So I wasn’t sure how much of each should be in, but I put in enough to cover half the clams, then a few dashes of the Rose Wine, plus a few sprinkles of fish sauce.  I also added two cloves of garlic and a slice of garlic, plus a LARGE bunch of cilantro (I love cilantro!!).  Once things come to a boil, lower to heat to a simmer.  When all the clams are opened, you can remove the pot from the heat and they’re ready for eating!!

Stir-fried kale

For the same meal I also stir-fried some Kale.  They are so good and uber nutritious!!  After washing, squeeze dry and stir-fry with some oil, garlic, sesame oil and fish sauce.  Boyfriend enjoyed this meal very very much.

Make sure you save the broth from the clams afterwards!!

Udon in clam broth

Because it makes a great soup base for udon noodles!!

I had this concoction for lunch the next day and it was SO SO GOOD.  The soup was so sweet from the clams and it was just heavenly.  A note though, I didn’t notice that the Xiao Shin (Fa Diu) wine was salted, which made the broth really salty, so I just used half of the saved broth and enough water to make one bowl of soup.  It didn’t get watered-down too much.  I also added more cilantro and some mushroom fishballs.

A meal that turned into TWO meals!!  So yum!  🙂

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