Vol. 25
Asari no Sakamushi
(Sake-Steamed Clams)
あさりの酒蒸しの作り方

　“Asari no Sakamushi” is one of the easiest and tastiest recipe using short-necked clams. If you find good clams, I would suggest first of all, making this recipe by “steaming the clams with sake”.

　When the clams are steamed with sake, dashi will pour out of the clams so I’ve added a lot of trefoils and naga-negi onions in this recipe.

- 500g of short-necked clams
- 1 naga-negi onion
- 1 sheaf of trefoil
- 100ml of sake
- Appropriate amount of salt if necessary

1. Remove the sand from the clam shells

　You will need to remove the sand from the clams before cooking.

　Add salt into water so that it tastes like seawater. Cover the clams with the salted water and place it in a dark place. Cover the bowl with wet newspaper or if the temperature is warm, put it in the refrigerator. Clams will spill out the sand from the mouth.

　Before cooking, rub the clam shells against each other and rinse well.

2. Steam with vegetables

　Asari no Sakamushi is a very simple recipe, but the dashi, which comes out from the clams, has a wonderful taste. So when you cook the vegetables such as naga-negi onions, trefoils, mizuna or spring cabbages with this dashi, it becomes a delicious dish.

　Cut the naga-negi onion into thin diagonal strips and the trefoils lengthways into 2 to 3cm strips. When you cut the trefoils, you can leave the tip of the trefoils to show the three leaves and it will look decorative.

　This time, we will combine naga-negi onion and trefoil. Place the naga-negi onion first at the bottom of the pot and then add the clams and the appropriate amount of sake.

　Place the pot over high heat and wait until it comes to a boil. When you see big bubbles coming out from the sake, lower the heat a little so that it will not spill out of the pot. Place the lid on the pot and turn the heat to high temperature to cook the clams.

　Depending on the size of the clam, the shells will start to open in about 3 minutes after simmering for large clams. When the clams start to open, add the stem of the trefoils and when the shells are completely open put in the leaves of the trefoil and mix together lightly and the dish is complete.

* When you season the Asari no Sakamushi, first taste one clam to see the saltiness. Normally it will have enough salt but if you want more or if you think it is too salty, you can add salt or water to match your taste.

（レシピ・写真： 冨田唯介　英訳： 中西 直）

日本語の詳しいレシピは「白ごはん.com」をご覧ください。