Fabes with Clams. Asturian recipe

How to prepare fabes with clams. A legume recipe that has become a world famous dish. These Asturians have known how to put on the map a plate full of sea flavor, but with the best beans, those of their land.

If you go to Asturias and do not try an Asturian bean stew or this recipe, they will not let you return. It is like going to Galicia and not trying a little empanada , they have always told me ” wherever you go, do what you see ” and it works.

Asturian chefs who base their creative cuisine on what they have sucked at their mothers’ homes. Among which I recommend Casa Gerardo and Casa Marcial, with their chef Nacho Manzano, who bet on this recipe.

A typical dish of Asturian cuisine in which the main ingredients are beans (fabes) and clams (amasueles). Always mixed wisely in a pot that purists say should be made of clay. If you like the spoon, you can not fail to try its famous bean stew  and its spectacular verdinas .

In Asturias, you not only eat well, but also in abundance. In addition to being a natural paradise, it is accompanied by a great companion, its enviable gastronomy. I recommend these recipes to fall in love a little more with this green paradise.

Before cooking you fabe them with clams

1. One of the key points is the choice of fabes or fabas (in Galicia). I use the most typical one on the bean: the “de la Granja” beans that are found in any supermarket. They are a soft and buttery variety appropriate for this recipe.
2. Asturias cultivates it throughout its territory. They are characterized by having a great flavor and a smooth texture after cooking, a gastronomic treasure.
3. We spread the beans on a flat surface and discard those that are damaged. We wash them to remove impurities.
4. We leave them in a bowl with cold water to soak overnight. Normally 12 hours. It is not necessary to add salt at the time of soaking. The next day we drain them and set aside until it is time to prepare them.
5. On the clams. It is essential to remove the sand that clams usually bring so that the recipe does not spoil us. It is convenient to have them about three hours before cooking them in water in a saucepan or large plastic container.
6. We must add water, a good handful of coarse salt and change them three or four times the water. 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.
7. Try to buy the live clams and cook them the same day that you are going to have the food. This takes advantage of the good quality of the clam and at lunchtime it will be ready.

Preparation of fabes with clams

1. This recipe is super easy to prepare although it is important to choose the ingredients well, they have to be of great quality. For this we add in a casserole, if possible low and wide (if it is made of clay better, say the experts)
2. Beans with a good fish or seafood broth (a good quality seafood fumet or broth will make the recipe a success). We cover with that broth until there are a couple of fingers above them.
3. We stir again so that everything comes together well. Add a generous stream of extra virgin olive oil and heat over high heat until it starts to boil.
4. When it starts to boil we introduce the onion cut in two, three peeled garlic cloves and half a green pepper. If we see that it foams, we remove it with a slotted spoon.
5. When it takes 1/2 hour cooking over high heat we add the saffron threads diluted in a little hot broth from the casserole and a teaspoon type of sweet paprika, although I like that it is a mixture of sweet and spicy paprika.
6. We lower the cooking temperature and add salt to taste. It is important to try the broth, we should not add much salt because the clams are salty and we can go from the optimum point, better to leave them a little bland.
7. We allow the beans to cook slowly at low temperature for 2 hours, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon without breaking them.
8. When they have been an hour, we remove from the casserole what is left of the onion, garlic, pepper and those beans that we see that they have broken, we pass everything through the mixer with a little broth and we put it back into the pot .
9. During these two hours of cooking, we add cold water twice to “scare” the beans (it breaks the boil and helps them to cook perfectly).
10. We test the beans to see if they are already tender, once tasted and tender we remove them from the heat and let them rest a bit. Meanwhile we prepare the clams.

Preparation of the clams and final presentation

1. To make them delicious, I advise you to make them when we have the beans ready, we will only have to open them steamed with a little garlic and a touch of chilli. Some of them do not usually open and we will have to throw them away, also those that are broken.
2. To steam them, we wash the clams very well in cold water and remove all the impurities.
3. We cut the garlic very fine and sauté in a low casserole without it getting to brown, add some cayenne beans previously crushed with the fingers and the clams, stir over high heat for a few seconds. We introduce half a glass of white wine and let it boil.
4. We leave them cooking covered about 2 minutes on high heat and, as soon as they are all open, we add them directly to the casserole with the beans, that simple.
5. We strain the broth that the clams have released when boiling and we also add the beans.
6. Now yes, we test the salt point and remove everything carefully without breaking the beans. We serve directly to a deep plate and enjoy. Gastronomic tribute where there is.

Be sure to enjoy all the recipes for fish and seafood that we have on the blog. You can see all the photos of the step by step in this recipe for beans with clams . Follow them and I assure you that you will not get lost and the recipe will come out the first time.

Tips for some fabes with yummy clams

• Flavor them with a little salt shaker, a spicy touch with a chilli tip and some good clams from the Galician estuary. In this dish it is not advisable that fabes take a lot of vegetables. The clams already have enough taste to change those flavors that the stewed fabes have.
• Although it may not seem like it, it is a dish of recent invention, from the last century. They say it was invented in a restaurant in Oviedo to celebrate gastronomic days.
• In Llanes they celebrate  “the Gastronomic Days of Fabada, fabes and verdinas”.  In November, do not stop going to taste the best beans of Asturias.
• I recommend the Covadonga Restaurant, the La Cueva Cider House, the La Arcea restaurant or the Siete Puertas restaurant. You will not be hungry in any, quality at the top, I assure you.
• Meritxell Velázquez recommends us to buy fabes and verdinas at “La Madreña Grocery Store “. Where you can find a selection of the best products from Asturias, on Calle Instituto 8 in Gijon.
• The Salmantino Agustín Sudón has prepared them this Sunday for 12 people and used some beans from Navacepedilla de Corneja or Villafranca de la Sierra in the province of Ávila. He says that with that genre the recipe is unbeatable.
• I have received an email from a friend, Elvira Medina. He recommends the following question to me in the beans with clams that I will follow rigorously in the next preparation: “I am Asturian and in my house I always saw them put to soak with cold fish broth the day before. It totally changes the flavor of putting them to soak in fish broth to simply put them in water or even cook them with fish stock. ”
• I strongly recommend this stew, perhaps for a special occasion due to its price (15 euros per kilo of clams). But with which you will be deluxe for specific dates, such as Christmas , birthdays, family visits or tribute with friends.