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| argh, red peppers not that visible, dang! |
ingredients
500 gms Clams; Fresh - adjust for more to your fancy
1 pkt - Pumpkin Noodles - or any type of noodles of your choice, cook and drained.
2 nos Capsicum; Red - I diced it up since having them in strips might not be the look I'm looking for
1 nos Chinese White Cabbage
1 bulb Garlic; Minced - the more the merrier
1 nos Onion; Red - wedges or anyway you see fit
1/2 inch Ginger; Young - minced
4-5 sprigs Curry Leaves - minced
4-5 sprigs Coriander (atau nama matsaleh Cilantro) - chopped
A good dollop of Shaoxin Wine
A very generous drizzle of Fish Sauce (I counted 35 dashes in total when I was adjusting the taste)
Pepper to taste
method
1. Wash clams and cook in a covered empty pan. Let cool and discard shells, try and get the muscles stuck on the shells. Drain and scoop the top layer of the brine, discard the bottom level that might contain mud.
2. Heat oil with the minced garlic, ginger & curry leaves. Add the separate muscles when fragrant.
3. Add bell peppers and onions. Flambe with wine and add the cabbage (or any vegs yo!)
4. Gradually add the reserved clam juice, and add in the cooked noodles & chopped cilantro
5. Season with pepper and fish sauce, stirring well to coat evenly. Plate & serve
notes
* I use more fish sauce in this, as I omitted any salt (even the noodles since it ain't pasta)
* variations : chilies, other leafy vegs, salted egg yolk (?), of course cooking white wine as substitute or omit it all together for halal
* omissions : all the vegs, leaving only the garlic and clams for a closer to spaghetti vongole? of course, the clams would have to go to the pan when cooking.
* serves 4 I suppose, like very full 4 pax. Prep + cook time I suppose lesser than 30 mins, eating time 7 and a half minutes minus instragramming the damn pics?
Ma woke me up to ask if I'd take over the kitchen as she:
1) thought of the times Heidi took her to Spaghetti Vongole dinners, and
2) wanted to use the time for gardening (new ideas in landscaping for recycled home garden spots)
As I sipped my morning coffee the recipe ran through my mind; hey it is such a dead easy recipe ain't it. I didn't think much about it as I decided to let Ma come back with whichever food items to go and basically just swing it when I am cooking.
True enough she came back with Chinese White Cabbages, and even her favorite capsicum of them all! Well, actually it isn't just that red is her favorite per se, I remembered she likes em Yellow, Orange, White, and Purple too, she just detested the Greens. You Lacist!
So yeah.
Mothers. As much as she gave me the directions and ingredients; cooking competition-style , she conveniently prepped the clams before she changed and headed to the garden. All this while while I was finishing my coffee from my morning smokes (it is unfortunately a separate activity ever since)
I found the bunch of clams well cooked in a pot and we had a bit misconception. since I am pretty sure my sister wouldn't bring her to lesser establishments which serves pre-cooked clam spaghettis anyway (since I remembered Heidi well that amongst pastas, she has her preference when it comes to her much-favored vongoles) I suppose Ma must've mixed up with her own cooking principles of cooking clams soonest possible if those clams must've been sitting alive in room temperature for extended period.
In addition, as I combed through the ingredients laid out like an eager contestant this morn; I found to my (half) dismay that the 2 tiny packets of 'dried pasta' were in fact; a locally produced dried pumpkin noodles; which was interesting enough for us to buy it in the first place, as the packaging is different to others in its class, it resembles a spaghetti packet. No wonder.
From the initial plan to do pasta vongole, and looking at the cooked clams, a bunch of vegetables certainly not found on 'proper' spaghetti vongoles and asian pumpkin noodles, in a manner of 0.03 seconds it chimed in my head...."It's bastardizing time!"
So there you have it, a fusion of sorts, ingredients mostly Chinese, cooking-wise a mixture of both; but the results were still fabulous I might say. Til the next batch of clams, maybe tomorrow?
Happy Valentine's, folks!
