Nuts and seafood don’t exactly scream good combination – in my mind anyway. But this is one of my favourite Spanish dishes. Packed full of flavour and texture, you should really try this delicious recipe for clams in almond sauce yourself!
So, what exactly is it?
My boyfriend’s aunty is really one of the best cooks I’ve ever met. Whenever we’re in Spain, we go out of our way (literally) to go to hers for lunch. Every time there’s something new and every time something delicious. From the best fideuà to steamed mussels, salads to grilled fish. But it’s this particular dish that I always ask for. It’s the perfect mixture of sweet, salty and creamy deliciousness. So, here is her own recipe for this yummy dish to bring a bit of the Mediterranean to your dinner table!
The first time she made it, I wasn’t sure that I’d fully understood the Spanish. I’d never heard of nuts and seafood being cooked together. But I was right. The salty ocean clams go amazingly with the sweet onion and roasted almonds and the smell whilst they’re cooking is quite frankly heavenly. Like with most shellfish cooked this way, my favourite part is actually the sauce left at the bottom of the pan. So make sure you serve it with an abundance of crusty bread to mojar (dip in) and large spoons!
Recipe for clams in creamy almond sauce:
The cooking time for this recipe is roughly twenty minutes – but you do need to prepare the clams two hours before serving.
Serves four as a starter.
Ingredients
- 800g fresh clams (it really isn’t the same with frozen!)
- 1 small onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 120ml white wine
- 50g roasted almonds
- Parsley
- 100ml single cream
Method
- 2 hours before you start cooking, put the clams in a large bowl. Cover with cold water and a tablespoon of salt and leave to soak in the fridge. This makes the clams release the sand stuck inside.
- Cut up the onion and garlic very small. In a mid-sized pan, gently soften them with a bit of olive oil over a low heat until just turning golden.
- Whilst the onions are cooking, in a pestle and mortar, grind the almonds until roughly the size of a pepper corn.
- Add the parsley (roughly the leaves of 5 sprigs) to the almonds and mix.
- To the onions and garlic, add the wine and cook for three minutes.
- Add the almond mix to the onions.
- Add the clams to the almonds and onions.
- Cover with the lid of the pan and cook over a low heat until the clams have opened.
- Add the cream and cook for three more minutes.
- Serve with plenty of crusty bread and crisp white wine!
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