Clams with Black Bean Sauce 豉汁炒蜆 (Cantonese: si jup chao heen) is an iconic Cantonese alley restaurant (大排檔, dai pai dong) dish. It’s one of my favourite dishes to order when eating “midnight congee” or 打冷燒夜 （da lang siu ye). This is truly a dish that requires some “鍋氣 or wok hei” to give it its signature taste. I’ll show you how to recreate this dish with a wok and a gas burner.
Clams are one of my favourite seafoods. I stopped eating them for a while when I ate one with a little stone in it at a restaurant and it cracked my tooth! Restaurants typically don’t take as much care in getting rid of the sand. So now, I make it at home. This way I can take the proper steps to clean it properly….so far, so good! Besides soaking them in salt water, I also parboil them as an extra precaution to get rid of the sand inside the clams. At first I thought it might make the clam meat tough because I’d be cooking them twice, but the clams turn out tender.
I’ve tried using other ingredients such as XO sauce and chili sauce to replace the black bean sauce. But I think that clams and black bean sauce is the perfect combination. The black beans help bring out the natural sweetness of the clams. This combination isn’t the essence though. The essence of this dish is the “wok hei” from the quick evaporation of the Shaoxing wine and soy sauce.
Shaoxing wine and soy sauce drizzled into a hot wok, quickly singes and creates a toasty aroma. This is why in Chinese stir-frying, wine and soy sauce is not poured directly onto the food. Condiments should have direct contact with the wok and around the food so that the aroma from the singe coats the food. Even though residential burners aren’t as hot as the ones at restaurants, “wok hei” can still be created. Let me show you how using Clams with Black Bean Sauce 豉汁炒蜆!
Looking for more Cantonese alley restaurant (大排檔, dai pai dong) dishes? Try my Minced Beef Congee 碎牛粥 or Hong Kong Satay Beef Noodles 沙爹牛肉麵 recipes.
Clams with Black Bean Sauce 豉汁炒蜆
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Fresh clams
- 20 g Fermented black beans
- 6 cloves Garlic
- 1 Large shallot
- 1 Jalapeno chili
- 2 Thai chilis
- 1 stalk Green onions
- 2 ½ tbsp Salt for soaking clams
- 1 L Water for soaking clams
- 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 tsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 100 ml Water for slurry
- 1 tsp Corn starch for slurry
- 3 tbsp Oil
Instructions
- Rinse clams with water
- Make saltwater by adding 2 ½ tbsp (approx. 35g) of sea salt to 1 L water
- Soak ½ to ¾ of the shell in saltwater. Soak for 45 minutes to get the clams to spit out sand. It’s preferable if you use a sieve/grid to elevate the clams. This way the sand sinks to the bottom without getting reabsorbed by the clam.
The video shows one of the clams spitting out water. At one point, quite a few of them were spitting together but I was too late to capture it on video - After 45 minutes, rinse the clams, let dry in a colander and set aside
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and put the clams in the pot. Cook for approx. 8 minutes or until most of the clams open up.
- Remove the clams from the pot and rinse with water. For the ones that didn’t open, you can discard them but I usually pry them open and if they’re not foul smelling, I would put them with the rest of the clams
- Rinse 20 g fermented black beans in water, and mash them with a rubber mallet or in a mortar and pestle along with 6 cloves of garlic. Set aside
I like to mash them with a rubber mallet on a cutting board with some plastic wrap on top. It’s easy to clean up - Chop chilis, shallots and green onions(separating the green and white parts). Set aside
- Combine 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp corn starch and 100 ml water in a bowl or cup and mix well. Set aside
I combined everything for the sauce together beforehand for simplicity sake. However, to maximize “wok hei”, here’s an alternative: combine all the ingredients except for the light soy sauce and dark soy sauce and stir well, combine the light and dark soy, drizzle the soy sauces into the wok around the food (not on the food), quickly stir-fry until well mixed, then add the slurry mixture. Remember, do everything quickly so that nothing burns - Heat wok on medium-high heat for a few minutes
- Add 3 tbsp oil, shallots and white parts of the green onion. Fry until aromatic
- Add chilis and the mashed fermented black beans and garlic. Fry until garlic is aromatic
- Turn heat onto high and let the wok heat up for a minute. Keep stir frying to prevent burning the ingredients
- Add clams to the wok, stir-fry for 1 minute until well mixed
- Add 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine to the side around the wok so that the wine can trickle to the bottom of the wok
This brings out the aroma of the Shaoxing wine. Just to be clear, don’t pour the wine directly on the ingredients. Instead, pour it onto the wok so that the heat from the wok can quickly evaporate the wine, hence the ingredients can absorb the steam of the wine. Repeat this for the sauce in step 16 - Stir the soy sauce mixture and also pour into the side around the wok. Stir fry until sauce has thickened and is mixed well with the clams
by pouring the sauce onto the metal part of the wok allows the sauce to get toasted by the wok before reaching the food. This is how to get “wok hei” or a toasty aroma for this dish - Add the remaining green onions and put onto a serving plate
- Serve
Second recipe I have tried from auntie Emily and it didn't disappoint. I find that mashing the black beans with garlic added a more fragrant dish that other tausi clams recipes. I didn't need to add the soy sauce since mine turned out flavorful enough by sauteing the ingredients over high heat - can I guess taper this depending on the flavors at hand. Family loved this instantly. Dish was too good and was finished before I remembered to take a photo. Easy to do and would definitely make again! 😋