THAI SPICY BRINY COCKLE SALAD

Ingredients

• 3 lbs assortment of cockles and clams
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup rice wine or white wine
• 2 ~ 3 small red Thai chili
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 lime leaf (if available), with the stem removed
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp light brown sugar
• 4 small Asian shallots, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp chopped mint leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro

Instructions

1. Bring 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and 1/4 cup of rice wine (or white wine if you prefer) to a boil. Add the clams and cover the lid. Cook for 2 min, then remove the lid and start picking out clams as they open (clams open at different speed so this way, you can avoid over-cooking them). Once all the clams have opened, continue to simmer the liquid until it's reduced to 1/4 cup.
2. Meanwhile, remove the clams from the shells (you should have about 1 cup of clam-meats). Keeping a few shells that are bigger and prettier.
3. In a stone-mortar, mash the red chili, the garlics and lime leaf until paste-like. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, light brown sugar, finely sliced Asian shallots, chopped mint leaves, chopped cilantro and the clam-meats. Mix to combine.
4. Scatter the preserved shells over the serving platter, then spoon the clams to fill the shells. Pour the reduced clam-juice over. Serve with extra lime.