According to former Masterchef contestant Khanh Ong if you ask any Vietnamese person about lemongrass clams or as the locals call it Ngheu Hap Xa, you’ll see their face light up with excitement.
The final twist on this dish is that Khanh has added more lemon flavours, to complement the lemongrass through his use of kaffir lime leaves and adds sweetness to the dish from sake.
Serves 2 as an entree
INGREDIENTS
- 2 birds eye chilis
- 75ml sake
- 20g ginger half smashed and half finely chopped
- 2 lemongrass stalks chopped into 5 cm pieces, smashed and 1 tbsp finely chopped
- 2 tbsp smashed garlic
- 1kg live clams
- 2 birds eye chilia2 tbsp coriander leavess
- 2 tsp thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves
METHOD
1 In a wide shallow pot with a lid heat chilis, sake, smashed ginger, smashed lemongrass, smashed garlic and 300mls of water.
2 Once the liquid in the pot comes to a boil add clams, over to steam and infuse for 3 minutes. As the clams open they release the beautiful salty juices that are protected by the shell.
3Remove the clams as they open into a serving bowl along with some stems of cooked lemongrass.
4 Once all the clams are removed pour hot broth over them and then scatter over finely chopped ginger, finely chopped lemongrass, coriander leaves and kaffir lime leaves.
5 If you like it hot, feel free to add chopped fresh chili and nice crack of black pepper.
