Curry Clams (咖喱蝲蝲)

“Quick Clams Recipe and Delicious Clams Dish in Curry Flavour!”

Yes, I cooked clams again.

Slightly different kind of clam. The shell is thicker, rounder in shape and darker in colour. This kind of clam is more common in Singapore. This thicker shelled clam is similar to the thinner one I used in my previous post (Chili & Tomato Sauces Clams recipe here), but I find the flesh of this clam is fuller and more juicy.

In Singapore and Malaysia, we called the clam as “La La (蝲蝲)” in Chinese, but the actual name of clam in Chinese is (pronounce in mandarin as: ge li, 蛤蜊), while in Cantonese, they like to call it (pronounce in cantonese as: hin, 蜆). Whatever you call it, I love 蝲蝲! I cooked it in curry this time! Curry flavour, more robust and tasty, which goes so well with hot steamed rice! Yummy….

Ingredients
1 kg clams (about half a small bucket full)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
2 small shallots, chopped (shallot = small red ‘onion’)
Handful of curry leaves
5 tablespoon of curry powder (meat or seafood type)
Sprinkle of sugar
Sprinkle of salt
½ small cup of water
1 tablespoon of corn starch (mix with water to make into slurry)
1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Method
1) Wash and soak clams in clean salted water for 30 minutes to an hour. Rinse and set aside.

2) Heat a large wok with oil over medium fire. Add garlic and shallot, fry till fragrant. Add clams, and stir fry for 3 minutes.

3) Add curry leaves, and stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until fragrant and slightly crispy. Add in curry powder and water. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes.

4) Add clams and sprinkle salt, and then sugar. Stir-fry for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low fire, and cover with lid for 3 minutes, or until almost all clam shells are opened.

5) Lastly, stir-in corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce. Heat off. Serve warm with rice or steamed.

Tips: Do not overcook clams in order to retain its juiciness and to prevent shrinkage.
* Do not add too much salt as this type of clams taste a little salty by nature.
* Water adjustable depends on how watery its curry gravy you wish to make.