Two steps decide whether this plate tastes of the sea or of sand. The purge is one: salt and sesame oil in warm water, lid on, shaken hard for ten minutes until the water clouds, then rinsed until it runs clear. The blanch is the other, two spoons of rice wine in boiling water, just long enough for the shells to open.
Chinese · Main
Clams Stir Fried in Chili Bean Sauce With Scallion
Clams purge their sand in salt and sesame oil, blanch once in rice wine, then finish in a pan of doubanjiang red oil, ginger and steamed fish soy.
- Prep20 min
- Cook10 min
- Serves3
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 720 g | clams , scrubbed |
| 5 stalks | scallion , white and green separated |
| 1 piece | ginger , cut into shreds |
| 1 tbsp | chili bean paste (doubanjiang) |
| 2 tbsp | seasoned soy sauce for seafood |
| 2 tbsp | Shaoxing rice wine |
| as needed | rapeseed oil |
| 1 tbsp | salt , for purging |
| 2 tbsp | sesame oil , for purging |
Method
- Cover the clams with warm water, add the salt and sesame oil, clamp on a lid and shake hard for about 10 minutes, until the water turns cloudy; then rinse them several times until it stays clear.
- Bring a pan of water to the boil with the rice wine, add the clams and blanch just until the shells open, then drain.
- Cut the scallion whites and greens into separate lengths and shred the ginger.
- Heat the rapeseed oil in a wok and fry the scallion whites and ginger until fragrant.
- Add the chili bean paste and stir until the oil turns red.
- Tip in the clams and toss to coat them in the red oil.
- Add the seasoned soy sauce and the scallion greens, toss once more and take the pan off the heat.
Notes
- Do not salt the pan. The bean paste and the soy are both salty and the clams bring their own.
- Blanch only until the shells open. Clams left in boiling water go tight and rubbery in under a minute.
- Discard any clam that stays shut through the blanch; it was dead before it hit the water.
Ratios and technique checked against 妞妞妈美食 on Douguo (酱炒花甲). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.