Steamed clams with white wine, fennel & butter

Vessy — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 14:09:49 +0000

Clams like most shellfish are super quick to prepare and amazingly delicious. My favorite clams are steamed in wine, served with lots of melted butter and a side of freshly grilled bread, and don’t forget a glass of chilled sauvignon blan or riesling.

This recipe is one of our favorites, so I decided to share it with you guys too.

These clams take about 15 minutes to prepare, so I can proudly say that this recipe is good for any day of the week.

Before cooking the clams it’s recommended to soak them in cold water for about 30 minutes to get rid of the sand (if any). This could also be done overnight, as I usually do when I don’t have the time to cook them on the day I bought them. Once soaked and rinsed, then it will be a matter of minutes before you sit down and enjoy these beautiful gems.

Ingredients:
1 kg. (2 pounds) littleneck clams
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium fennel bulb, chopped into small pieces
1 medium onion, chopped into small pieces
1 small jalapeno pepper, chopped into small pieces
3 garlic cloves, chopped into small pieces
1 glass white wine
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dry thyme
1/2 teaspoon dry basil
Zest from 1 lime
Salt & pepper
For serving: melted butter
To clean clams: place them in a large bowl and cover with cold water. While sitting the sand (if any) will come out of the clams and set in the bottom of the bowl. Carefully transfer the clams into another bowl. Cover with water again and let them sit for another 20 minutes.
Remove from the water and rinse.
To cook clams: In a large saucepan heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add fennel, onion, garlic and jalapeno pepper. Cook until soft and golden brown. Add wine and let reduce by half. Add sugar and clams and stir /sugar is added here to balance the acidity of the wine, so it’s better if you adjust the amount to taste/. Cover the saucepan with a lit and let clams cook for 2 minutes, then open the lit and stir to coat with the wine sauce and the fennel and onion. Season with basil, thyme, zest, salt and pepper. Cook for another minute or until all clams open.
Before serving pour a little bit of melted butter over the clams. *Discard all clams that had not opened.
Serve with grilled bread.

Shrimp with saffron sauce and butter pasta

Vessy — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 17:11:58 +0000

For quite some time I have a few pinches of saffron in my kitchen and could not find the right moment to use it. As we all know saffron is very interesting spice and I wanted to give it a special attention!

I saw this tutorial for a saffron creamy sauce and I decided that this would go perfectly with some garlic shrimp and buttery pasta.

It turned out to be a great combination of tastes and I am definitely preparing this recipe again.

This sauce is good for any kind of fish! I can’t imagine it in a combination of pork, but lamb I guess would be a good match.

Ingredients:

For the pasta:

200 grams (7 oz) pasta (any kind)

40 grams (7 oz) butter

Salt and pepper

For the shrimp:

500 grams (17 oz) shrimp (uncooked or frozen, peeled and clean)

20 (1 oz) grams of butter

4-5 garlic cloves (cut into small pieces)

salt, pepper and red chili flakes

Here you can find my recipe for saffron sauce.

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions.

Mix the hot pasta with the butter and season with salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a medium non-stick pan and add the garlic. Cook for a minute. Add the shrimp and cook on both sides about 1-2 minutes, or until pink.

Season with salt and pepper.Pour a little bit of the saffron sauce in your serving plate. Add some of the pasta over the sauce. Top with the shrimp.

Serve hot!

Vessy's day » butter

Steamed clams with white wine, fennel & butter

Shrimp with saffron sauce and butter pasta