Stir-fried clams can be found throughout China, and we’ve done a Cantonese variety with garlic and douchi (fermented black soybeans). Now we also wanted to show you guys a different sort of variety, so as I was saying in the video, check out sarcasmo57’s spicy Hubei version here:

Detailed, written recipe for both ours and sarcasmo57’s dish is over here on /r/cooking:

Recipe(s): Fried Clams, two ways – Cantonese-style with douchi and Hubei-style with chilis (豉汁炒花蛤/辣炒花蛤) from Cooking

Outro Music: “Add And” by Broke For Free

ABOUT US
—————————————————————————————–
Learn how to cook real deal, authentic Chinese food! We post recipes every Tuesday (unless we happen to be travelling) 🙂

We’re Steph and Chris – a food-obsessed couple that lives in Shenzhen, China. Steph is from Guangzhou and loves cooking food from throughout China – you’ll usually be watching her behind the wok. Chris is a long-term expat from America that’s been living in China and loving it for the last nine years – you’ll be listening to his explanations and recipe details, and doing some cooking at times as well.

This channel is all about learning how to cook the same taste that you’d get in China. Our goal for each video is to give you a recipe that would at least get you close to what’s made by some of our favorite restaurants here. Because of that, our recipes are no-holds-barred Chinese when it comes to style and ingredients – but feel free to ask for tips about adaptations and sourcing too!

source

34 thoughts on “Stir Fried Clams – Cantonese-style with Garlic and Fermented Black Soybeans (豉汁炒花蛤)”

  22. Smart trick at 0:45 using corn starch to purge the clams … even a lot of pro chefs dont seem to know it. When I was growing up, clams were a semi regular staple in our household. We always used a little plain flour, but i can see how corn starch wouldwork just as well and possibly even slightly better.

    For the benefit of onlookers, clams are filter feeders, and flour acts like an irritant that forces them to purge.

    Anway, small and med-small clams we either ate raw or steamed with butter and lemon on the side, or we used em to make white clam sauce for pasta. Medium and large clams we usually ground to make chowder.

    When I foraged for clams as kid back in the early 70's, my method was simple … pump up a car tire innertube (this was way back when some older cars on the road still had innertubes inside their tires), lash a wire clam basket into the center (so it cant fall through), then use length of twine with a slip knotted at either end, to serve as a lanyard. Then i waded out into the water at low tide to chest deep water, and felt around in the mud with my bare feet, to locate the buried lips of clams (usually larger chowder size). Then just duck under the water and pluck it out of the mud, and pop it in the basket floating next to me. About 8-10 ft of slack in the line was just right. Good times.

  27. I think when it comes to the fermented black bean paste/sauce you can replace it with some 老干妈 which feels like the same thing. If it's not garlicy enough then add like a clove or two of finely minced garlic.

  29. I love your channel so much. Explanatory, informative, clear and then some. I've been trying to share a lot of your videos cause I have so many friends who are struggling on cooking ideas and techniques. Keep it up! 💞💞

  30. So we got a message from /u/hapigood over on reddit with a Dongbei version of the same dish 🙂 His comment if interested:

    "I missed this last week. The Liaoning/Dongbei version somewhat similar. Heck, it's tasty stuff and clams.

    Main difference with the above is letting the clams cook in their own juices, rather than pre-boiling. For this, clean clams need to be used otherwise sand-crunch when chewing them will ruin the dish.

    Peppers tend to be green or sometimes green and red landrace peppers, julienned. Small amount of green onion similarly julienned. Garlic is finely sliced. Some dried red chilli. A tiny amount of ginger is finely sliced (the ginger's about its traditional role of removing any lingering fishy taste and enhancing the garlic, not about making the dish taste of ginger).

    Fry the tasty spices for a few seconds on a hot heat until fragrant, then add the uncooked clams (pick and drop them in, you want a dry pan at this point).

    After 15-45 seconds they should all be open to an extent, and starting to release juices. Add in a pre-made mix of a little water, cornstarch soy sauce and a little seasoning in order to thicken the juices.

    Get the clams stirring around rapidly so each shell is capturing some of the stock that's just formed in the pan. Add some chopped coriander not as cold garnish but while the flame is still on so it too gets melted into the stock for around 10 seconds.

    Plate. Just pour onto a dish. The clams should have a light coating of the stock, there shouln't be any watery residue left in the plan, and you should have used little enough cornstarch to mean the exterior of the shells don't bear any glistening/stickyness.
    When eating, discard any unopened shells."

  32. I've had several of my friends tell me to create a youtube channel for my cooking. Lately I've been pointing them to yours, stating that this is how it should be done. Awesome job on everything as always. I've been trying to introduce more Cantonese cooking into my household, but my wife being from Beijing, it is hit or miss sometimes.

Comments are closed.