Razor Clams in Black Bean Sauce

[Prawncrackers]

Razor Clams in Black Bean Sauce

This is a classic Cantonese dish that is a favourite in my household. It's an impressive looking dish that eats as good as it looks. I've never read a recipe for this but i'm sure there are many out there. This is another one of mine that has just evolved over time and is a mixture of east and west techniques. Traditionally the clams are steamed on the actual serving plate and presented whole dressed with a black bean sauce that has been cooked separately. This recipe has a more 'Moules Mariniere' style of cooking them.

Razor Clams (or Razor Fish in the UK) vary in size but i would suggest that 3 average sized ones per person is ideal. I've only ever cooked this dish with live clams so cannot vouch for the quality of frozen ones. The other ingredients for 6 clams are:

• 2 T BLACK BEANS
  
• 1 large clove of GARLIC, finely minced
  
• 1 fingertip sized piece of peeled GINGER, smashed
  
• 1 T VEG OIL
  
• 100 ml MIRIN
  
• 2 SCALLIONS, green tops finely sliced lengthways, whites finely sliced across
  
• 1 T LIGHT SOY, to taste
  
• 1 tsp CORN FLOUR, slaked with a little water
  
• 150 ml CHICKEN STOCK or WATER
  

1. Soak the black beans in a little hot water for ten minutes to soften them and to soften the flavour also. Drain and crush them gently before using.

2. Scrub the outside of the clams well. If you are feeling adventurous then open them up now and squeeze the greeney brown stuff out of their digestive tracts while they're still wriggling. Otherwise clean the stuff out after they're cooked...

3. Heat a large lidded saute pan and fry on a moderate heat the black beans, garlic, ginger and scallion whites in the veg oil. Before the garlic catches tip in the clams, toss all around then pour in the mirin and clamp the lid on. Increase the heat slightly and steam for two minutes - no more. (I started using mirin when i ran out of shaosing once and found that the sweetness complimented the clams superbly.)

The dish now needs to be plated up as quickly as possible.

4. Remove the clams from the pan leaving as much of the aromatics as possible in the pan. Add the soy and stock to the pan to make the sauce and let it bubble away gently whilst you separate the meat from the shells...

5. Arrange the shells on your serving plate. Slice your clams into bite sized pieces, cleaning as you go any gunk, discard the beaky mouth pieces. Scatter the pieces of clam meat back into the shells (presentation tip: six clams fill the six faces of three open shells perfectly).

6. Taste the sauce and adjust with soy if required. Thicken with the corn flour and sieve over the clams. Garnish with the green onion tops and eat immediately.

Keywords: Main Dish, Intermediate, Chinese, Seafood

( RG2020 )