Clams a la marinera

How to make clams a la marinera .

A very simple seafood recipe but in which you have to scratch your pockets a little … but it is worth it, they are made of bread and dipping.

Clams a la marinera or  ameixas á mariñeira is a stew with a lot of sea flavor as well as a famous Galician cuisine dish, very popular especially in the Rías Baixas.

This classic on Christmas dates is present in most restaurants in Galicia.

It has been assumed as a traditional dish of our gastronomic culture, even if it is a more or less recent dish.

This recipe is the one that my mother Rosa prepared with care every year at Christmas. But it is not the only and exclusive of this date. Also in each house it is put to the taste of the family and I assure you that it admits multiple variants.

In ” La Cocina Española Antigua “, by Emilia Pardo Bazán we find a recipe called “clams marinated”. Very similar to clams a la marinera as I present them here. In 1933 we already found the recipe as such in “La Cocina Completa”, by the Marquesa de Parabere.

We can see it in one of my bedside books, this recipe and the blog, ” La Cocina Gallega ” by Álvaro Cunqueiro and Araceli Filgueira, from where my mother Rosa has obtained the recipe. Wherever you are, the touch of each one is essential. The dishes are not to make them in an exact way but to the taste of each one, like today’s clams.

We can serve them in cold dishes or cook them with this sauce that I present today. I hope you like it and surprise yours in the next dates.

Before cooking the clams

1. It is essential to remove the sand that clams usually bring so that it is not bothersome and does not spoil the recipe. It is convenient to have them about three hours before cooking them in a saucepan or large plastic container.
2. We must add water, a good handful of coarse salt (50/60 grams per liter of water) and change the water three or four times.
3. Clams drink and often drop a lot of sand. Do not panic because it is a sign that the clam is of good quality, directly brought from the sand of the Ría de Pontevedra.
4. Try to buy the live clams and cook them the same day that you are going to have Christmas lunch or dinner. So you take advantage of the good quality of the clam and at lunchtime it will be ready.
5. So that they come out of yummy I advise you to open them in a little liquid to avoid major ills. Some of them do not usually open and we will have to throw them away, also those that are broken.
6. To make them in the saucepan we wash the clams very well in cold water and remove all the impurities.
7. We put to heat half a glass of white wine in the saucepan.
8. When the white wine begins to boil add a bay leaf and then the clams.
9. We leave them cooking covered for about 2 minutes (since the liquid is boiling at the top) and as soon as they are all open we remove them with a slotted spoon.
10. Let cool and reserve in a source. We will not throw the cooking water (resulting from the wine and what the clams release), we strain it and leave it in a glass.

Preparation of the clam sauce

1. Peel the onions and garlic. We remove the center of the garlic so that it does not repeat or chop.
2. Finely chop the onions, the garlic cloves and the piece of chilli (if you like that spicy touch, you know, skip this ingredient).
3. There should be very small pieces, so that at the end of the stew neither of the two ingredients is appreciated.
4. We put the casserole that we have used to steam the clams with the olive oil and add the onion and garlic. When everything is well cooked and with a characteristic tan color.
5. Add the sweet paprika and stir over low heat for 1 minute. Important that it does not burn or the sauce will spoil.
6. Sprinkle the flour in the casserole and stir carefully to mix it well. The effect of the flour with the onion and especially the oil is called Roux, it will help us to bind and thicken the sauce.
7. We let it cook taking some color but without burning. Perfect, we already have the base of the seafood sauce.
8. Add the glass of white wine. Always use a good wine, the same one that you are going to drink at lunch, the recipe will thank you.
9. We remove thickening the sauce and letting the alcohol evaporate. We introduce what is left of the water to make the steamed clams and the homemade fried tomato .
10. We let it thicken for about 10 minutes over medium heat while stirring.

Preparation of the clams a la marinera. Final presentation

1. We try salt and if necessary, season with salt and pepper if necessary. Although it is not normally necessary to add salt, the salt left by the clam juice is sufficient.
2. Next we add the clams that we already had selected and opened to the steam.
3. We link the sauce and the clams a couple of minutes, stirring very carefully. We wait a couple of minutes more with the fire turned off until the clams are well impregnated with the sauce.
4. We serve immediately in a clay pot or a large tray sprinkling with the chopped parsley.

Have the loaf of bread you like best prepared. I assure you that the flavor of this sauce is spectacular.

Here you have a step by step in photos where I show how to prepare this recipe for clams a la marinera . Do not miss any detail so that it comes out perfect.

Tips for some seafood-style clams

• For this dish to be the triumph of a special lunch or dinner, the most important thing is the ingredients. They must be of quality, here we play it. In Galicia we breed several types of clams, those in today’s recipe are of the Japanese type.
• This variety is found in the Carril area in the Arousa estuary. Rich and not very expensive clams, although not native. We can also use the fine and slimy varieties, the latter from the Ría de Ferrol. For me better than the Japanese but prohibitive for its price.
• Let yourself be advised by your fishmonger and that he sell you the freshest. Both have a powerful sea flavor. I recommend you eat them raw or grilled, clams in wine  or with some noodles ,  a la malagueña , with some fabes , in a clam stew with potatoes (delicious).
• If you like them to have a spicier sprig, add a pinch of spicy paprika in addition to the half chilli. Although you dip and dip bread, there is usually plenty of sauce. If you freeze it you can use it for soups or fish stews.
• If you cannot cook the clams the same day to heat them and that the sauce does not thicken too much. Do it in a bain-marie or over very low heat until they catch heat.
• We can also thicken the sauce without flour with a few slices of fried bread. Adding them to the mixture at the same time as the wine and the broth. The sauce will be a little less linked but very rich too.