Sunday I made the Cantonese-Style Clams in Black Bean Sauce from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

Dried fermented black beans were the only unusual ingredient in this dish, and they’re pretty common in Chinese cooking; certainly common so far in this cookbook. Clams can be an unfamiliar ingredient for some people, but their not foreign to me.

The cook was pretty easy: you stir-fry the aromatics, then add the sauce and clams. They simmer for a few minutes, and then the sauce is thickened with corn starch.

My wife and I thought the clams were tasty. My son tried one and ended up eating 7 or 8 of them, so he liked them. My daughter did not try them. Overall, they were good, but clams are a bit of work to eat, and we were still hungry (after clams + rice + salad). I won’t go out of my way to make this again, but I’ll happily make it if we’re wanting clams.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.