This is merely a serving suggestion; and also one for the album ;)Check out the size of those clams; massive eh?
Yea it's time for another recipe. I've tried this pasta a little over thrice and tweaked and played with the ingredients and flavours along the way.
The freshest produce and ingredients are always a joy to work with. Get the freshest seafood for this dish, not necessarily still swimming but as fresh as you can get, it really makes a difference. But if you're hard up on time and you've got to get some chow on the table, defrosting your seafood is fine too, just that you'd lose a bit of its sweetness and 'seafood-y' flavour. But don't despair, all is not lost.
This pasta dish is sort of like a cross between an aglio olio and a pasta con vongole, garlic olive oil and clam pasta respectively. But I've added a rather peculiar and unconventional mix, using Chinese Cooking Wine (Shao Hsing Hua Tiao Chiew) instead of white wine. Reasons being that I actually the heady taste of it and there were no white wines around my house at the time of cooking. Yes the latter is pretty sad. Cos my parents are pretty devoted fans of red and I'm well not of legal age. (Hmm..?). Back to the Chinese Cooking Wine; if you don't like it, you can leave it out, no problem. This recipe also doesn't require the use of cream.
The prawns; I coked them separately and later added them to the clams and pasta. But you can cook them together with the clams as well. Spaghettini is a thinner version of spaghetti, often referred to as 'angel hair pasta'. Fret not, spaghetti or linguine can be used as well.
Okay enough talk, here it is.
Razor Clam Spaghettini
Recipe by Tan Kel Vin.
(Serves 4)
- 2 heaped tablespoonfuls of finely chopped garlic
- 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1-2 fresh chillies, finely chopped
- A large handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 1/2 a lemon
- Some olive oil
- 500g good-quality dried spaghettini or spaghetti
- 800g-1kg of razor clams, preferably the large ones,
cleaned and debearded
- 8-10 large king prawns, peeled, heads removed and deveined
(save the heads to make seafood or fish stock, very flavourful)
- 1/2 a cup of Chinese Cooking Wine; alternatively a large
wineglass of white wine.
- Salt and black pepper
First of all, soak clams in salted water for a few minutes. Drain and pick through the clams, removing any impurities and barnacles. Discard the bad and nasty-smelling ones, obviously.
Cook the spaghetti or whatever pasta you'd be using according to packet instructions in a large pan of salted boiling water. When cooked al dente, drain the pasta in a colander. To cook pasta al dente, simply cook pasta 1 minute less than packet instructions. And using salted water to cook pasta is a MUST.
While the pasta is cooking, heat a splash of olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions. Then add the garlic. Once the onions have turned a little translucent, throw in the clams and prawns with the white wine or Chinese Cooking Wine. Cover with a lid and give it a good shake. Cook for a couple of minutes until all the clams have opened. Discard the ones that remain closed. Toss in your cooked pasta and stir around, adding a little more olive oil if necessary. Squeeze some lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper while tossing the pasta around. Serve immediately.
To garnish and add a little more flavour to the pasta, sprinkle the chopped chilli and parsley all around and over the pasta.
It's that simple.
Laters.
- Some olive oil
- 500g good-quality dried spaghettini or spaghetti
- 800g-1kg of razor clams, preferably the large ones,
cleaned and debearded
- 8-10 large king prawns, peeled, heads removed and deveined
(save the heads to make seafood or fish stock, very flavourful)
- 1/2 a cup of Chinese Cooking Wine; alternatively a large
wineglass of white wine.
- Salt and black pepper
First of all, soak clams in salted water for a few minutes. Drain and pick through the clams, removing any impurities and barnacles. Discard the bad and nasty-smelling ones, obviously.
Cook the spaghetti or whatever pasta you'd be using according to packet instructions in a large pan of salted boiling water. When cooked al dente, drain the pasta in a colander. To cook pasta al dente, simply cook pasta 1 minute less than packet instructions. And using salted water to cook pasta is a MUST.
While the pasta is cooking, heat a splash of olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions. Then add the garlic. Once the onions have turned a little translucent, throw in the clams and prawns with the white wine or Chinese Cooking Wine. Cover with a lid and give it a good shake. Cook for a couple of minutes until all the clams have opened. Discard the ones that remain closed. Toss in your cooked pasta and stir around, adding a little more olive oil if necessary. Squeeze some lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper while tossing the pasta around. Serve immediately.
To garnish and add a little more flavour to the pasta, sprinkle the chopped chilli and parsley all around and over the pasta.
It's that simple.
Laters.
