(Note: to a special friend of mine, who has been waiting for my lamb recipe, I'm sorry, but today you are being cockled. Wait ah)
Saturday night, staying at home with not much to do, was on the agenda. We had plans to go out earlier, but it was raining all afternoon. So, we stayed at home instead. Besides, I was waiting for the latest season of Grimm to come on, I was pretty excited.
We had a big lunch so I don't feel like eating too much at dinner. But, of course, being myself, I got hungry, and I was craving for something tasty. 'Should I ask my husband to get me McDonald's fries shaker?' I thought. It's just a hop across the street. I was even too lazy to get my own snack. Correction: I'm always lazy to get my own snack. So usually, I would coax my husband to get something for himself, and while he's at it, maybe he can buy some for me too :). Win win situation, don't you think?
But that night, I didn't feel like junk food, and I felt like cooking to cheer myself up, what with staying at home on a Saturday night and all. So, I pulled this out of the fridge!
Cockles! It's an easy, quick to make recipe, perfect.
I had about a bowl of cockles, which I washed thoroughly under running water. Then I prepared the herbs to boil the cockles with: ginger and lemon grass.
I have been craving for this type of snack for the past week actually. In Jakarta, you can easily find this snack even by the side of the road. All you have to do is just look for a seafood stall/tent, it doesn't even have to be respectable, and pretty sure they will sell these. I have to say, the size of the cockles in Jakarta (or Indonesia in general) are much larger than the ones in Singapore. The ones in Singapore are just so tiny, like baby cockles*disappointed.
My favorite seafood tent has always been this one, be sure to visit if you're ever in Jakarta. Wait, let me change that, be sure to have medicines to treat diarrhea with you if you plan to visit stalls or tents like these in Jakarta. I don't want to be responsible for your food poisoning, so I thought this is a better piece of advice.
I pride myself for having an Indonesian stomach, I have always been able to withstand eating street food in Indonesia. But ever since I live in Singapore, over the years somehow my immune system has started to fail me, now I have such delicate stomach, how boring. I always get food poisoning when I don't watch what I eat. Was it coincidence? Why am I so lucky?*annoyed.
Anyways, these tents sell delicious food, they really do, but are they worth the misery to your bowel that comes afterwards? I'll let you be your own judge, but for me: YESSS!
Back to the snack making at hand.
I sliced the ginger and pounded the lemongrass.
Put them in a pot of water which had salt added into it. Here I cut the lemongrass to fit it into the pot.
While I wait until the water is boiling, I prepared the sauce. I was not very satisfied with it this time, it tastes good but it can taste better if only I had the ingredients required, however I had to work with what I had.
I grated some garlic and mixed it in together with chili sauce. That's about it. You can choose any chili sauce you like, whichever you think will go well with your seafood. But, I would strongly suggest you use this one:
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| Source: www.sukamart.com |
The grated garlic, about a teaspoon here, but you can add to your liking.
Mix together with the chili sauce. This is just enough to give it a kick and kill the fishy aroma from the cockles as well. But again, if you like the aroma of garlic, feel free to add in more.
Some recipes may also include peanut sauce and grated pineapple, and if I had some, I would have added them here. The secret to a good boiled cockles recipe lies in the sauce, if the sauce is divine then you hit it right in the head. In reality, the cockles are just vehicles to transport the chili sauce into my mouth. I love spicy food by the way, can you tell?
When the water is boiling, all the cockles can go in. Boil them for about 6 minutes or so, until you see all the shells (or most of them) have opened up, then that means they are ready.
And there they are, smells faintly of ginger and lemon grass, combined with the aroma of boiled cockles, and I must say the combination of those smells, is one of the best in the world.
I like this snack. Makes me feel like I didn't break my diet, and I really didn't. Cockles are high in protein, low in carbohydrates and only have 79 calories (per 100 grams). Did it make me full? Of course not (are you kidding?), but it relieved my hunger pangs, and satisfied my cravings for something savory. Were it not for this, I would've had a large bowl of french fries to watch Grimm with. So, I'm a bit happier with that night's decision. Good job Dewi. By this time, my husband would roll his eyes at me, or shake his head, or anything else to show disdain.
I had Naylla to try some for the first time in her life, without the chili, and to my surprise, she totally loved it! She was never a fan of muscles or other types of shell fish, so I didn't expect her to like the cockles, but she did. And I'm glad.
Those were my daughter's fingers in the background trying to steal a cockle while I was trying to take a picture. She loved it so much, she decided to have the whole bowl to herself. At this point, it was my turn to shake my head in disdain. She's my daughter alright*sigh.
Ingredients:
A bowl of cockles
4 centimeters of ginger
1 stalk of lemon grass
2 table spoons of salt
Sauce:
5 table spoons of ABC chili sauce
1 tea spoon of grated garlic
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