Clams in Garlic and Wine Sauce

If you read the previous post you may be wondering what happened to the clams I bought? I made a really simple Clam in Garlic and Wine sauce:

1 1/2 - 2 1/2 Lbs Manila Clams rinsed and scrubbed
8 cloves of garlic minced
1 Medium Onion chopped fine
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 Tb Butter
1 Tb Canola or Vegetable Oil
2 Tb Olive Oil
Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper to taste
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes to taste

Place wok over stove and heat to smoking. When wok is smoking season wok with 1 Tb Oil and drain. Add 1Tb Oil and 1 Tb Olive Oil to wok. Immediately add Clams and stir until clams are coated. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and onions stir to combine. Once clams start giving up their liquid, add white wine, stir and bring to a boil, lower heat and cover, checking every few minutes until all clams are open stir in butter and serve. Do not overcook clams! Serve with crusty bread, rice, pasta or just eat them all!

This is a good base recipe. I add more butter, oregano, parsley, and other herbs to use as a pasta sauce. Cilantro also goes well with this dish.

Comments

[Reid]

Hey Kirk,

Nice work with the clams. I almost never cook them at home because I always thought that it was too much work. I guess not huh?

Looks good, and sounds delicious. There is a dish at Assaggio called clams casino. Not on the menu, but so delicious!

[Kirk]

Reid - Clams are really easy if:
- They're fresh
- You don't overcook them
I've found that this is a nice base recipe that you can wack out in 20-25 minutes - 10 for prep, 10-15 to cook! You can delete the wine and add grated ginger(or galangal), coconut milk, and lemongrass, and make it Thai style; or replace the wine with 1/4 cup sake, some dashi, grated ginger and shoyu; add some good diced tomato for some "tang".....

[Nina]

I have a question. I have a wok that has never been used. How do I season it? It is made out of cast iron. I would appreciate if anyone could help me out. Thankyou.

[Kirk]

Hi Nina - I've emailed you a link to some instructions you may wany to try.

[jeff c]

Kirk, as you can probably tell, its a slow day at the office but it gives me a chance to catch up on your posts. This is a great recipe and the first time I tasted this was at a restaurant in Los Angeles called Il Moro. I happened upon a similar recipe in Ruth Reichl's book Garlic and Sapphires. Though I think her version didn't have the parsley. I'll have to check. For some reason Parsley, garlic and butter seem to form a holy trinity of taste. If you look at garlic fries, the good ones use this same trinity.

[Kirk]

Hi Jeffrey - Oh my.....you're going waaay back! Funny thing, I just made this again recently, I even took a photo...maybe I'll do a quick update or something. It is one of my simple go to dishes.