This is seriously called lala in Malay. A pretty and dainty shell fish cooked in a way that anyone could do blind-folded. The simple way in which it is made into a soup brings out it's sweet delicate flavour without it being overwhelmed by hot chillies and spicy sambals that are so typical of Malay cooking.
This is so easy to do that you don't need a recipe..
'Lala' clams - as much or as little as you like
1 or 2 stalks lemon grass, the bulbous part bruised with a pestle
3 -4 slices of ginger or more if you're making a huge pot of it
1/2 a red chillie , chopped
salt
Wash and rinse the clams at least 3 times to rid it of sand or grit. Fill a pot with water that is enough to just cover the clams. Bring it to a boil. Put in the clams, the lemon grass, ginger and add salt and bring to a boil and then let it simmer. It will cook in no time. Probably 7-8 minutes.
When done sprinkle with chopped chillies, taste for salt and serve with white rice. Slurp and fiddle.
4 comments:
I'm so into clams but they are so scarce in KK, hardly see any fresh ones around the wet markets. U know once I found Snow's canned minced clams for my clam chowder(I'm a great fan) & kept going going back for more until I bought the last can. Oh back to the soup, this is so unique, I guess the taste must be sweet, aromatic, spicy yet not oily ?
lorrine's right, it's so hard to get fresh clams here. i don't trust the ones in the wet market--u don't know if they got them from some poo swamp. also, i find tt our clams r not 'fat' enough prolly bc our waters r too hot. like our veg, which r thinner n never as crispy.
Ganache : Yes come to thnk of it I done remember seeing too many clams or cockles in kk...never realizedt hat b4...thus clam soup has no oil in it at all just water and the lemon grass and ginger ..a clear soup..but lovely so u just get totaste the lovely clams..but they must be fresh of course..
Terri, Poo swamp! lol..never thot of that!...cld be LOLOL..nver realized ur veggies ar thinner either (Puzzled) Maybe theyre better in the sense that here perhaps they use too much pesticides and all the whatnot chemicals too make them nice n fat wh is why i buy organic all the time...dont trust the veggies here at all esp from cameron highlands!
The love the ease of this recipe. The clams' shells are so photogenic :)
~ Jen (palatetopen.com)
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