- Hey, I'm Crystal, and I'm the producer
behind one of our favorite recipes here at Goodful,
which is healthy, delicious,
and most importantly, sustainable.
So grab a colander, and let's get started.
So the first thing we're gonna do
is separate the live clams from the dead clams.
We're gonna toss out the dead ones
and put the live ones into our colander.
So the way to tell if a clam is dead is to take a look at it
and if you give it a little tap or you squeeze it closed
and it doesn't shut on its own, it's probably dead.
So you can go ahead and discard it.
If, however, you pick up a clam and you tap on it
and it shuts on its own, then you know it's alive.
Just be careful to not let it pinch on your fingers.
So a really important step when cooking with clams
is to make sure that we clean them really well beforehand.
We're gonna want to scrub off all the impurities
on the outside of the shell, like barnacles,
and then we're also going to clean the inside.
And the way we do that is by salting a bowl of water
really, really well, so it sort of emulates seawater.
And then we just let the clams sit in there for a few hours
up to overnight.
The salty water allows the clams to purge themselves
of grit and sand and filter the water,
pushing out any of the impurities.
After we let them sit in the salted water,
we're gonna move them to a bowl of clean water,
and that'll allow them to sort of spit out all that salt
and get them ready for cooking.
There are a lot of benefits to choosing clams
over other types of seafood.
Not only are they a really great source of protein,
but they're also high in Omega-3 fatty acids,
iron, Vitamin B6, and B12.
And on top of that, they're just a responsible choice
because they're more sustainable.
What we mean is that hand-farmed clams
are more sustainable because they cause less disruption
to the environment.
You see, normally with farmed fish,
they require food to maintain themselves,
and that food is generally other, smaller fish
that are harvested from the ocean,
which obviously has negative impacts,
because by feeding the fish from the ocean
to the farmed fish, we're depleting the food supply
for the wild fish.
But the cool thing about clams
is that they don't require feeding,
since they filter their nutrients
from the water that they're in.
There is nothing better to serve this dish with
than a really nice baguette,
and it's super easy to make it look really impressive.
All you need to do is slice it off,
put some olive oil and a little bit of sea salt
on either side, and then use a grill pan
to get those nice, crispy marks in it.
And it's perfect to dip in the juice
and it's the best.
I like to add red pepper flakes to this dish
because I love the little bite that it gives it,
but if you don't like spice,
feel free to leave this step out.
Next we want to add a little bit of dry white wine
to our aromatics.
A cheap Sauvignon Blanc always works for me.
And we just want to give it enough time
to let the alcohol sort of cook out
but leave behind all that great flavor.
We're gonna finish up our broth
by adding a little bit of brown sugar, fish sauce,
and vegetable broth.
If you don't have fish sauce at home, don't worry.
You can totally replace this with soy sauce.
Make sure to go with a canned coconut milk here
and not the one that comes in a carton.
There's a really big difference,
and the one that comes in a can is gonna give us
that little bit of creaminess that we're looking for.
It's the final step.
All we have to do is add our clams to our broth.
And when you do this, be ready,
because they're gonna cook so fast.
Finally, I like to garnish the clams
with some scallions and cilantro because I think it gives it
just a really bright, fresh flavor.
So the next time that you're craving seafood,
you should definitely try this recipe,
or another one that has maybe mussels or oysters.
'Cause at the end of the day,
they're just a more responsible and sustainable option.
(laughs)
Did you hear my stomach growl?
- It's 'cause I'm thinking about the clams.
I have one more thing to add.
What do clams do on their birthday?
They shell-ebrate.
(laughs)
Was that bad?