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Clear Soup with Clam
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
5 mins
Total Time
10 mins
 

Clear Soup with Clam is an elegant soup and is often served at special occasions such as the Doll Day festival on 3rd March. The soup is packed with the great flavour of the clams. Clear Soup with Clam is surprisingly easy to make.

PS: I added a new section ‘MEAL IDEAS’ below the recipe card. It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and the new recipe in this post that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you!

Recipe Type: Soup
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: clam, clear soup, cockles, pipi, vongole
Serves: 2
Author: Yumiko
Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)
  • 200g / 7.1oz live clams/pipis , sand removed (note 1)
  • 500ml / 1.1pt water
  • 5cm2 / 2” 2 konbu (Dried Kelp, optional)
  • 1 tbsp cooking sake
  • tsp light soy sauce
  • Salt to adjust flavour
Garnish (optional)
  • Mizuna leaves (note 2)
Instructions
  1. Take a handful of clams at a time, rub the shells against each other inside your hands with running water to clean the surface of the shells.

  2. Put water, konbu, then clams in a pot and heat over medium low heat (note 3).
  3. When the water starts boiling, remove the konbu and reduce the heat to low.

  4. When the clams are all opened, turned the heat off. If there is white bublly scam on the surface, remove.

  5. Add sake and soy sauce to the pot and gently mix. Taste test and add a pinch of salt or two if required.

  6. Heat the soup with the clams again just before serving. Serve in a bowl (note 4) with a small mizuna leaf.

Recipe Notes

1. I used pipis as shown in the post because they are always available in Sydney.

Clams are often sold as 'no sand' at fish shops. But if you are still concerned, leave the shells in 3-4% salt water for 1 hour. The water level is just below the surface of the clams so that they can breathe.

If you can, put the clams in a sieve, a strainer or a rack, then place it in a bowl or a tray of salt water so that the shells will not suck in the dropped sand again.

If your clams appear to have a lot of sand, you need to leave the clams in the salty water for ½ day.

2. Other than mizuna, commonly used green garnishes are mitsuba (Japanese parsley), spinach or Asian greens. Do not use green leaves with strong flavour, e.g. shallots/scallions.

3. If you have time, leave the konbu in the 500ml / 1.1pt water 30 minutes before cooking so that more flavours from the konbu will be extracted.

4. If the shell is not opening, discard as it was probably dead before cooking and you wouldn't know how long it had been dead for.

5. Nutrition per serving.

serving: 363g calories: 98kcal fat: 1g (2%) saturated fat: 0.2g (1%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.2g monounsaturated fat: 0.1g cholesterol: 30mg (10%) sodium: 711mg (30%) potassium: 54mg (2%) carbohydrates: 4.4g (1%) dietary fibre: 0.1g (0%) sugar: 0g protein: 15g vitamin a: 6% vitamin c: 0.3% calcium: 4.3% iron: 9.9%