Clams in green sauce

Ameixas in green sauce  is a classic in many of Galicia’s kitchens all year round, but especially for Christmas. In the same way as another of the most famous recipes on the blog, clams a la marinera , in this dish we have all the flavor of the sea. It is a simple dish but you have to scratch your pockets because the clams on these dates start to rise in price like foam … but it is worth it, they are made of bread and dips.

The friend Álvaro Cunqueiro in his book Galician cuisine gives us a masterful lesson on the types of clams that we can find in Galicia, although some more variety has been introduced, such as the Japanese one, cheaper than the fine one or the slug. It also explains the different preparations, on the blog you can now find these in green sauce, the Italian recipe with spaghetti a vongole , the famous beans with clams or some broth noodles with clams , all of them exquisite.

“There are several kinds of clams in the Galician sea, the so-called caste or fina , its colored shell, almost always tan or tawny; the slug , the tapes pullastra, somewhat larger than the previous one, with more fragile and convex valves, and its more varied drawings and colors: it is the most appreciated for cooking, with its somewhat harder meat; the slug cadela or beak , the pates aurea, which owes this name to the golden color of the interior of its valves, and the roiba clam, blonde , so called because of its reddish color. The riversides of the Arousa or Marín estuaries dispute over the quality of each other. They are cooked seafood style, or with rice, or eaten alive, with their drop of lemon, like oysters. There are those who like spicy seafood clams , but I am not in favor of that. The more these delicately flavored or fragrant things are simply cooked, the better. We must save its natural flavor above all else. ”

Let yourself be advised by your fishmonger and that he sell you the freshest. I recommend eating them raw or grilled as Cunqueiro says, the taste of the sea is impressive, but occasionally accompany them with a sauce like this or in the seafood style and dip with a nice piece of bread … glorious. I hope you like and surprise yours on the next Christmas dates, although it is a recipe that can be prepared on any special occasion or daily, remember that they are not closed and can be consumed all year round.

Before cooking

This recipe is super easy to prepare although it is important to choose the main ingredient well:  clams .

1. Like all molluscs, clams must go through an expedition center or a treatment plant before being put on the market for consumption, but we still have to remove the sand that they 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. We must add water, a good handful of coarse salt and change the water three or four times. The clams drink and usually drop a lot of sand, do not panic because it is a sign that the clam is of good quality. They will open and take out “the siphon” to drink, if we touch them they will close quickly.
2. Try to buy live clams whenever possible and cook them the same day that you are going to have Christmas lunch or dinner (if it is not possible I give you a tip at the end of the recipe). This way you take advantage of the good quality of the clam and at lunchtime it will be ready.
3. So that they come out of yummy I advise you to open them to the steam to avoid greater evils. Some of them do not usually open and we will have to throw them away, also those that are broken. To steam them, we wash the clams very well in cold water and remove all the impurities. We put to heat half a glass of water in the saucepan. When the water starts to boil add a bay leaf and then the clams. We leave them cooking covered for 2 minutillos (no more) and as soon as they are all open we remove them with a slotted spoon. Let cool and reserve in a source. We will not throw the cooking water, we strain it and leave it in a glass, we will reserve it for other recipes (a rice or a fish soup for example).

Preparation of clams in green sauce

1. Peel the garlic cloves and chop them very very fine. We wash the parsley, shake it well to dry a little, and then chop it very finely with a sharp knife until we have about three tablespoons of it. We reserve.
2. Next, we put in a clay pot or lower the heat with the extra virgin olive oil and the minced garlic. When these begin to brown, make sure they don’t burn, add the flour and cook a little, half a minute arrives. The conjunction of the flour with the oil is called Roux, it will help us to bind and thicken the sauce. We let it cook taking some color but without burning, we already have the base of the green sauce. Before it takes color, add the white wine and stir well with a wooden spoon, let the alcohol evaporate, in a minute it will be ready. Add a few tablespoons of the broth that the clams have released and that we have reserved in a glass and boil five more minutes until it reduces. It is time to introduce the chopped parsley that we have reserved and integrate it into the sauce.
3. We try salt, if necessary we add more, although normally it is not necessary.
4. Next we add the clams that we already had selected and opened to the steam. We bind 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 they are well impregnated with the sauce.
5. We serve immediately in a clay pot or a large tray sprinkling with more chopped parsley (for garnish). Have the bread you like best prepared because I assure you that the flavor of this sauce is spectacular.

Tips and recommendations

• This recipe is one of those quick, in 15 minutes it is ready. It is a perfect way of not getting involved on those holidays where we want to have everything ready, because it will not take long either. If there are leftovers the best to eat them the next day is to cook them in a bain-marie or on a very low heat until they get hot, nothing more. And remember that the best way to cook seafood is to do it as little time as possible, if we overcook them they lose all their texture and become gummy. As I said in the recipe, a few minutes is enough.
• If you like that they have a spicier sprig add a 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. You have some more recipe on the blog with the use of this sauce, just yummy.
• You can also make this sauce to accompany cockles, mussels or razors, the result will be 10 points. Remember that you have to tune your recipes, with this base of green sauce you can prepare a lot of recipes for fish and seafood.

Be sure to enjoy all the recipes for fish and seafood that we have on the blog, I assure you that you will find a lot of ideas to make yours much happier.