Spicy Steamed Clams with Garlic, Ginger, Chilli and Soy Sauce (Chinese Style Steamed Clam Recipe)

Spicy Steamed Clams with Garlic, Ginger, Chilli and Soy Sauce Recipe

Steamed clams with garlic, ginger, chilli and soy sauce recipe  is a very simple and easy classic chinese recipe. Steaming clams is a classic Cantonese preparation for live clams to preserved it’s natural flesh sweetness. Eversince my asian licking didn’t much appreciate bland and mild taste, then i decide to steaming my clams with spicy seasoning. I’m using garlic, ginger, and chilli with a splash of lime juice, light soy sauce and sesame oil for slighly drench the clams meat.

Recipe Chinese Style Steamed Clams with Garlic, Ginger, Chilli and Soy Sauce

Spicy steamed clams with lots of chillies a quicky and too easy recipe that can be prepared a few minutes before the dinner, but i guess this must be a foolproof recipe. My mom use to made the seasoning separately and then place it in the clams and then steaming it just before serving it. The clams must be pre-steamed or preboiled  to pop out the shell and allowed us to season the meat, but i recommend to steam it to prevent the natural juices and flavours dissolved if it’s boiled first.

Cantonese Style Spicy Steamed Clams with Garlic, Ginger, Chilli and Soy Sauce

Perfecly cooked steamed sea scallop texture is superb, a combination of  bounchy, slightly rubberry but easy to chew. The natural juice is come out and it’s taste superior. Make sure you use the live clams for steaming, the frozen or dead clams will be ruined the whole dish, trust me for that.Live clams should be plump, smell fresh, and feel heavy for their size, avoid those with strange odor, escecially with ammonia odor. The clam juice should be clear with no shell fragments.

Kerang Madu, Giant Clams

I’m using kerang madu, a rather large local clams with good meat and shell ratio. Kerang madu or literrary means honey clams in english because it had a sweet squid-like flesh taste. Kerang madu can reach up  500 grams and i’m using about 300 grams weighed clams. Kerang madu usually tagged about 1-2 US$ (10.000-20.000 IDR) for each of it on the seafood restaurant, but since i purchased it directly from the  fisherman in Muara Angke fishmarket, North Jakarta, it only cost me about 50 cents (IDR 5000) for each of it. If you have no cloth bags, store the clams in a bowl covered with a wet cloth in the bottom of the refrigerator, not on ice. Never store them in sealed plastic or submerged in water because they will die from lack of oxygen. Inspect the shell. If the shells of the clams or mussels are slightly open, tap them lightly. They should slowly close. If they do not close when tapped, they may not be alive and should be avoided. Never purchasing clams and mussels that have already been unshelled, even this is sometimes easier, the clams or mussels may not be very fresh.

I usually served steamed shellfish or clams  with rice vermicelly or beehoon, just like my Steamed Sea Scallop with Black Bean Sauce. Beehon or bihun (Bahasa) is a small round and translucent noodle made of rice. The beehon is used within the steamed scallop or clams recipe to absorb the shellfish dripping while steaming process to infused the natural juice into it. Unfortunately i run out the beehoon and i’m too lazy to move round to purchased it for this recipe.

Recipe Spicy Steamed Clams with Garlic, Ginger, Chilli and Soy Sauce (Chinese Style Steamed Clam Recipe):

Recipe Spicy Steamed Clams with Garlic, Ginger, Chilli  and Soy Sauce (Chinese Style Steamed Clam Recipe):

Ingredient :

• 1 kg clams
• 3 cm ginger, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 chilli pepper (or bird eye chilli pepper), finely chopped
• 1 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp kaffir lime juice
• 2 tbs of premium light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp of sesame oil
• 1/3 cup of chinese cooking wine
• shaved spring onion for garnish
• 1 tbsp oil for stir frying

Instruction :

• Brush and clean the clams throughly under running water, pat dry
• Preheat the steamer, set aside
• Heat up 1 tbsp oil in the wok pan, saute the shallots, garlic and ginger util slighly browned and fragrance
• Mix the sauteed mixture with lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine in a glass bowl, set aside
  
• Put the clams in a heatproof pyrex bowl,stem it in high flame for about 30 seconds until the clams shell opened
  
• Put the opened clams out,  then continue to steam it untill all the clams shells opened, discard the clams that won’t opened until steamed for more than 2 minutes
• Discard the juice that running out from the clams, put the seasoning mixture above the clams meat

• Put it back in the steamer, steam for another about 3-5 minutes, depend on the size of your clams. Do Not Overcooked It!
• Garnish with shaved spring onion and serve immediately
  

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Deep Fried Marble Goby Soon Hock with Vietnamese Chilli and Lemongrass Sauce Recipe

Deep Fried Marble Goby Soon Hock with Vietnamese Chilli and Lemongrass Sauce

Spicy chilli and lemongrass sauce or Tuong Ot Xa is popular condiment in Vietnamese cuisine. Even the name is chilli and lemongrass, this kickin sauce consist a lot of ingredients. Basic vietnamese style consist chilli, lemongrass, garlic, and shallots. Beside, rice vinegar, fish sauce, palm sugar and sometimes dried prawn added to enhanced the flavour. For making a pleasant chilli and lemongrass sauce texture, i use only the soft white inner part of the lemongrass. Tuong Ot Xa can be served as a condiment for noodle, grilled protein, or even steamed fish. I like to make a couple jar of this chilli and lemongrass sauce and using it for quicky chicken stir fry, mushrooms stir fry or nasi goreng (fried rice).

Vietnamese Lemongrass & Chilli Sauce served with Deep Fried Soon Hock Marble Goby Fish and Pickled Shredded Cucumber & Carrot

Marble Goby Fish or Oxyeleotris marmorata, the marbled sleeper, marbled gudgeon, or Soon Hock in Cantonese. Betutu, ketutu, betutu, bakut, bakutut, belosoh , boso, boboso, bodobodo, ikan bodoh, gabus bodoh, ikan sioto, ketutuk, ikan malas, ikan hantu or ghost fish in Indonesian lives in the Mekong and Chao Praya basins, rivers and other water bodies in Malaysia, Singapore, Indochina, Philippines and Indonesia. Marble goby fish is famous among indonesia chinese descent for it’s pricey succulent meat. This largest freshwater goby can reach 10 kg in suitable inviroment. Though it’s had some scarry looks, it so delicacy hand the high ratio of albumin protein can help u healing your wound. Steaming it’s the best way to preserve the natural flavour of this fish, yet it’s so simple, healty and delicacy. But since my sister not really like steamed fish, she asked me to deep fried it. Make sure you set the fire at the highest and put the fish right after the oil reach smoking hot. This technique make the fish skin is crispy and the flessh is still moist and succulent.

Deep Fried Fish with Spicy Vietnamese Style Chilli and Lemongrass Sauce

This species is an economically important fish in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. It is highly popular among the Chinese community due to its fine texture, tasty white flesh and is believed to have healing properties. It is said, best eaten after surgeries or childbirths. In Malaysia, commercialization of this type of fish is not widely established. Demands are largely dependent on wild populations thus fetching high prices in the market. Marble goby derived from the marble stone colored skin. This fish is ultimately pricey because it’s white and succulent meat and rarely farm raised because the fish neglect a commercial pellet. Marble goby like live catch for their prey and it’s become a cost production problems.

Vietnamese Spicy Chili and Lemongrass Sauce with Deep Fried Fish (Sun Hock or Marble Goby)

Live Marble Goby Fish, Ikan Betutu or Ikan Ketutu

Angry looks of Marble Goby Fish, Soon Hock, Sun Hok, Ikan Betutu or Ikan Malas

Expensive Marble Goby Fish Rp.320.000 (32 USD ) per Kg

Deep Fried Marble Goby or Soon Hock Fish Recipe:

• 1 Medium size marble goby or soon hock fish, scaled, gutted, buterflied
• 1/2 kafir lime juice
• a pinch of turmeric powder
• salt and pepper to taste

How to Make Deep Fried Marble Goby or Soon Hock Fish :

• Season the fish with salt, pepper, kaffir lime juice and turmeric powder
• Let it marinated for about 30 minutes in the fridge
• Drain the fish well
• Heat up enought oil for deep frying in a deep fryer until smoking hot
• Put the fish into the deep fryer and deep fried it for about 7-8 minutes until the skin is nice golden brown
• Drain the fish from the oil

Vietnamese Chilli and Lemongrass Sauce Recipe :

• 1/2 cup red cayenne chili peppers
• 1/2 cup red bird eyes chili peppers
• 6 lemongrass stalks, use the soft white part only
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 6 shallots
• 1 tbsp dried prawn*optional
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 4 tbsp or more vegetable oil
• Salt, pepper and palm sugar for taste
• 1 cup Water

How to make Spicy Vietnamese Chilli and Lemongrass Sauce:

• Soak the dried dried prawn, drain and process it until formed fine paste, set aside
• Process the all the chilli, lemongrass, garlic, and shallots until formed a fine paste, set aside
• Heat up the oil in a heavy bottom sauce pan until fragrant
• add the chilli paste and saute another 3 minutes
• Add the vinegar, fish sauce and season with salt, pepper and palm sugar
• Add the water and bring it to boil, simmer it until the liquid evaporates and the sauce thicken.

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