Jessie Makes Drunken Clams & Noodles

Would Chris Morocco

think this is a good [chuckles] size tasting spoon?

I don't know.

[utensil clanking] Is that a spoon?

[background laughter] Whoa! [chuckles]

Chris just drop this off

and walked away.

We're gonna taste with this. [laughs]

[groovy music]

Hi, my name is Jesse.

I'm the assistant food editor at Bon Appetit.

We are at the test kitchen today

making drunken clam noodles.

It's a dish that's inspired by a lot of Taiwanese flavors.

It's made with Taiwanese rice wine,

black sesame oil,

Thai basil,

garlic and fried ginger.

Is marinades really well with the clams,

it brings down the freshness,

it comes to get a really, really fast,

and it has very intense flavors.

You can find these combination of flavors

on the street of Taiwan.

It's what I grew up eating a lot.

I find these combination flavors

really, really soothing and comforting.

It's called drunken clam noodles

because the clams are literally cooked in wine.

Some cooks will even use only the one

and not a drop of water.

We're using a mix of both.

Today, we're using little neck clams.

So after I pick up clams from the store,

I like to clean them really well, scrub them,

and after I do that,

I like to store them in salted water,

mimicking the environment that they come from.

So they keep fresh and alive until you need them.

Also helps them drawn out some sand in them.

So you will have no sand in your broth.

We're gonna cut up our aromatics.

I like to put a bowl down [garlic crackling]

to collect scraps when I'm cooking.

It just like easier to clean up

and you don't leave a mess after you cook.

When I'm peeling a garlic,

I like to use a knife instead of my nails,

I'd like a lot of ginger in my broth.

I'm not peeling it

just because it's just not necessary in this recipe.

Personally, I don't mind having chunks of ginger

in my noodles,

but if you do mind that,

and if you do mind the peel,

you can feel free to peel your ginger.

And the next thing we're gonna do is read Thai chili.

You can adjust the heat as you like;

Three is good for me.

Red Thai chilies are pretty spicy,

of the scale of one to 10,

I'll give it a eight.

So be careful with them.

All right, now we're gonna measure out our sauces

and wine and sesame oil or sauce.

Oyster sauce, we're gonna use about two tablespoon

and we can adjust it after if it's not salty enough;

it adds a nice umami flavor to your savory dishes.

Black sesame oil is different

from regular toasted sesame oil,

it's made with black sesame seeds,

and it just has a deeper nutty or flavor

than white sesame seeds.

This is Taiwanese rice wine.

It's a staple and Taiwanese kitchen.

I use it in pretty much everything that I cooked;

Really versatile and adds a very nice aromatic

and clean flavor.

Always removed flammables around your pot

before you start cooking,

especially if you're cooking with any alcohol.

I have my ramen noodles.

This is a brand that I really like is from Sun Noodle.

It's very nice, fresh ramen noodle.

If you don't use fresh ramen noodle,

you can also use [noodles wrap crackling]

instant ramen noodles if you like.

[water burbles] We have our boiling water here

ready for our noodles.

It is very important to not salt your water

for the noodles in this recipe.

The broth we're making is really flavorful,

so you don't need the extra salt in your noodle water.

And I love cooking my noodles in basket like this;

You don't need to fish for them.

Now, these noodles are ready.

I'm just gonna pull them out,

and I'm gonna just rest them in the serving bowl.

Next, we're gonna build a broth.

We have a Dutch oven here,

and we're gonna add about one tablespoon

of vegetable oil.

And we're gonna fry our ginger

until lightly golden brown on both sides.

It gives this broth a nice fried ginger flavor.

The ginger is starting to caramelize

and it's smelling like fried ginger in the room now.

So now we're gonna add in all of our clamps.

[clams clanging]

[clams sizzling]

And then our rice wine,

be careful when you add the wine.

Sometimes I forgot I'm pouring wine

and flames comes up.

You're gonna add our oyster sauce,

our chili and garlic

and our sesame oil.

And we're gonna add about a cup and half of noodle water.

I like to keep my noodle water hot,

so it doesn't slow down the cooking process.

[Clams crackling]

We're gonna cover it up

and let it cook for three to five minutes.

You know when the clams are done and ready to serve,

when they're open;

if they're not open,

just pick them out and don't eat them.

They might be bad or dead,

and you don't wanna eat them

because they might make you sick.

Let's take a look and see if they're ready.

I can see that most of the clams are open.

I think we are in a really good place.

So now we're just gonna add in our fresh Thai basil,

about like a handful is good.

[bowl crackling]

We're not trying to like cut the Thai basil too much;

We just needed so kind of wilt.

So the freshness and licorice Thai basil flavors

goes into the broth a little more.

Now we're stirred in the basil

and we're gonna move back to the island for plating.

What I like to do is in a smaller bowl,

kinda push this aside a little bit

so we have more space for our clams.

It's smelling really good in here;

You can really smell the clams, the rice wine,

the fried ginger broth.

[clams crackling]

Now we're gonna ladle our fried ginger broth

all over the noodles and the clams.

And I like that it kind of acts like little spoons here.

You can have a little broth in here,

a little garlic, maybe.

There you go.

[Jesse slurps]

Woo.

It's very gingery, in a good way.

It really warms you up instantly.

There's a little bit of a heat from the red side chili,

and it kinda lingers in your tongue,

which is really, really nice.

It's a classic combination to have white wine with seafood

and the rice wine kinda does the same thing,

but in a Taiwanese way.

It's really good; I can drink this all day.

[Jesse sniffing]

It's a mouthful.