Natural way to clean, cook clams

Lorong Abbas 2 in Tanjung Tokong is a good place to collect clean seawater. — Photos: ARNOLD LOH/The Star

Beach off Tanjung Tokong best place to collect seawater to purge molluscs

HERE is a culinary idea for people in Penang to try out — one that is both fun and delicious.

It involves collecting seawater, buying live clams at a wet market, leaving the clams to sit in the seawater so that they purge gut contents thoroughly and then cooking stir-fried clams or clam soup for dinner.

The first item on the agenda is clean seawater and for this, consider the beach off Lorong Abbas 2 in Tanjung Tokong.

If you look at this beach through Google Earth’s satellite picture, you will see that for over 1km on either side there are no dense residential projects — just a few luxury condominium towers, bungalows and Penang Swimming Club.

A little further inland behind Lorong Abbas 2 is a hillock that locals call Pearl Hill, which is a green lung for the northern side of Penang island.

Except in Tanjung Bungah, almost 3km away, and Gurney Drive, which is over 4km away, there are no other river mouths or canals spilling rubbish into the nearby sea.

So, without needing to drive to far corners of Penang island, you can collect relatively clean seawater from here.

Just be civic-minded because parking space for beachgoers is limited; be prepared to park further and walk to the beach. Five to 10 litres of seawater will suffice.

Now for the clams, and this might be an eccentricity for non-Penangites; there are several wet markets in Penang that do not open in the mornings but at noon.

One of these afternoon wet markets is in Batu Lanchang, and there are several traders selling a wide variety of clams.

Clams opening up in shallow seawater.

You will find them to your left after the main entrance.

About a week ago, I bought large clams for RM16 per kg. The prices depend on their sizes.

A kilogramme of clams should fit nicely into most household pots and pans during the cooking part but before that, you must rinse and scrub the clams clean under running water.

Next, you need a wide basin or polystyrene box.

Lay the clams in the basin or box without piling them up, then pour in your seawater.

Not too much seawater, because the clams need oxygen and if they are fully submerged, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water will eventually run out.

So pour in your seawater only to the point that they are almost submerged, allowing the surface action between the atmosphere and the water to supply dissolved oxygen.

If you have children at home, I guarantee they will spend a long time sitting around the clams and watching them open up and start purging. Change the seawater every hour or so.

Some home cooks do this purging part for just half an hour.

I do it for about three hours because I have seen them extruding little bits of black stuff even till then.

Come evening, it will be time to cook them, which is really the simplest and fastest part.

For stir-frying, consider using slices of young ginger and lemongrass, and maybe a cili padi or two to counter the flavour of the sea.

There will be no need to add salt; leaving the clams to purge in clean seawater gives the perfect amount of saltiness to your dish.

I stopped purging clams using table salt after realising that it is usually fortified with iodine.

The iodine will kill the clams and that is why I switched to clean seawater instead.