Steamed Razor Clams With a Vietnamese-style Scallion Butter Sauce- Recipe

There's many ways of cooking the razor clams including steaming, baking, and broiling them whole in their shells. One of the most popular methods is steaming them in a Vietnamese butter/wine sauce with scallion onions and garlic.

Raw, live, razor clams (cleaned and purged).

HOW TO CLEAN RAZOR CLAMS:

For this technique- We are going to create a 3.5% salinity solution that emulates sea water for these clams to expel all the impurities.

Fresh clams should be prepared preferably within 24 hours, however, if they are really fresh, they will last a few days.

The first day I kept the clams in the fridge with a damp cloth over the bowl (no water) overnight.

The next day I cleaned them and put them in this salt solution in the fridge overnight and changed the salt solution a couple times so they had fresh oxygenated water. I wouldn’t keep them in the salt water any longer than that (I knew I had at least 2-3 days before cooking these because Citarella is known for their super fresh seafood).

To get rid of excess sand from your clams add salt (4 tbs) and cold water (8 cups) to a large bowl and make sure all clams are covered in water and let soak for 30 minutes before cooking.

Drain the water and rinse the clams with cold running water to remove excess sand.

Any clams that are open should close when gently tapped - if they don’t close or move then TOSS them out. If any shells are broken and they don’t move, toss those out as well.

Then gently place clams into a colander to drain any excess water.

INGREDIENTS

6 tbs unsalted butter (pre-melted)
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 tsp black pepper corn (freshly coarse grounded)
2 Thai red chili pepper (thinly sliced)
2-3 stalks green scallion (thin diagonal slices, reserve about 1/8 cup for final garnishing)

1 tbs YouYou Teaseed oil (light olive oil, or any neutral cooking oil)

1 bag of razor clams (1-2 lbs, I used almost 2 lbs from Citarella)
1/2 cup water
1-2 tsp fish sauce
1/4 cup dry white wine

PREPARATION

1. Melt butter in a small bowl in the microwave (10 seconds at a time or it will explode) then add garlic, black pepper, thai red chili peppers, and combine well.

2. Heat up a cast iron skillet over high heat, then add oil (just enough to oil the bottom of pan) until almost smoking.

3. Add razor clams to skillet, add water, wine, fish sauce and then pour butter mixture over clams. Cover for a a few minutes until clams start to open up, then give it a light mix and ladle the butter sauce over the clams.

4. After a minute or two and all clams are open sprinkle transfer to a serving bowl or dish.

5. Garnish with reserved scallion slices.