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.
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.
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!!
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!!
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! 🙂
