Clams with Black Bean Sauce 豉汁炒蜆

Ingredients

• 2 lbs Fresh clams
• 20 g Fermented black beans
• 6 cloves Garlic
• 1 Large shallot
• 1 Jalapeno chili
• 2 Thai chilis
• 1 stalk Green onions
• 2 ½ tbsp Salt (for soaking clams)
• 1 L Water (for soaking clams)
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp Light soy sauce
• 1 tsp Dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 100 ml Water (for slurry)
• 1 tsp Corn starch (for slurry)
• 3 tbsp Oil

Steps

1. 1

   Rinse clams with water

2. 2

   Make saltwater by adding 2 ½ tbsp (approx. 35g) of sea salt to 1 L water

3. 3

   Soak ½ to ¾ of the shell in saltwater. Soak for 45 minutes to get the clams to spit out sand. It’s preferable if you use a sieve/grid to elevate the clams. This way the sand sinks to the bottom without getting reabsorbed by the clam. The video shows one of the clams spitting out water. At one point, quite a few of them were spitting together but I was too late to capture it on video

4. 4

   After 45 minutes, rinse the clams, let dry in a colander and set aside

5. 5

   Bring a pot of water to a boil and put the clams in the pot. Cook for approx. 8 minutes or until most of the clams open up.

6. 6

   Remove the clams from the pot and rinse with water. For the ones that didn’t open, you can discard them but I usually pry them open and if they’re not foul smelling, I would put them with the rest of the clams

7. 7

   Rinse 20 g fermented black beans in water, and mash them with a rubber mallet or in a mortar and pestle along with 6 cloves of garlic. Set aside I like to mash them with a rubber mallet on a cutting board with some plastic wrap on top. It’s easy to clean up

8. 8

   Chop chilis, shallots and green onions(separating the green and white parts). Set aside

9. 9

   Combine 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp corn starch and 100 ml water in a bowl or cup and mix well. Set aside I combined everything for the sauce together beforehand for simplicity sake. However, to maximize “wok hei”, here’s an alternative: combine all the ingredients except for the light soy sauce and dark soy sauce and stir well, combine the light and dark soy, drizzle the soy sauces into the wok around the food (not on the food), quickly stir-fry until well mixed, then add the slurry mixture. Remember, do everything quickly so that nothing burns

10. 10

    Heat wok on medium-high heat for a few minutes

11. 11

    Add 3 tbsp oil, shallots and white parts of the green onion. Fry until aromatic

12. 12

    Add chilis and the mashed fermented black beans and garlic. Fry until garlic is aromatic

13. 13

    Turn heat onto high and let the wok heat up for a minute. Keep stir frying to prevent burning the ingredients

14. 14

    Add clams to the wok, stir-fry for 1 minute until well mixed

15. 15

    Add 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine to the side around the wok so that the wine can trickle to the bottom of the wok This brings out the aroma of the Shaoxing wine. Just to be clear, don’t pour the wine directly on the ingredients. Instead, pour it onto the wok so that the heat from the wok can quickly evaporate the wine, hence the ingredients can absorb the steam of the wine. Repeat this for the sauce in step 16

16. 16

    Stir the soy sauce mixture and also pour into the side around the wok. Stir fry until sauce has thickened and is mixed well with the clams by pouring the sauce onto the metal part of the wok allows the sauce to get toasted by the wok before reaching the food. This is how to get “wok hei” or a toasty aroma for this dish

17. 17

    Add the remaining green onions and put onto a serving plate

18. 18

    Serve