Monday, February 2, 2009

Pacific Clams in Wine Sauce (Palourdes Marinieres)



This dish has been waiting in queue for a long time. Simply because I could not find nice and fresh, large mussels! The recipe I have is actually for mussels (moules). But I so want to make this French dish, so I settled for clams instead. I wonder if they have this dish in France so I googled, and yes! They do have this dish. This is an authentic French recipe! Even if I made the substitution first before doing the research. :)

When I first attempted to try French recipes for the Regional Recipes event, I wanted to make this easy to prepare dish ever since I found the recipe. It sounds so delicious! It has to be, clams are flavorful enough, and then you add a cup of wine!

From my corner of the world, French dishes are always associated with intricate preparations or hard to find ingredients like foie gras, or escargot. But happily, as I try to explore the world of French cooking, I am able to find several recipes which I think are full of flavor and yet easy to prepare. This dish is one of them.


1 kilo fresh Pacific clams
1 C dry white wine
3 T butter
1 onion, chopped
1/4 t dried thyme
1/2 bay leaf
dash of ground black pepper
2 stalks green onion, chopped to 2 inches lenght


1. Clean the clams very well by brushing them under running water.

2. Heat up the cooking pan, and melt the butter. Add in the onions and cook until caramelized, around 3 - 5 minutes. Add in the wine and thyme and bay leaf. Let boil for around 3 minutes.

3. Add in the clams and boil over high heat until shells open. Add in the chopped green onions. Stir once or twice to move the clams from top to bottom.

4. When the shells open, stop the fire. Add in a dash of ground pepper. Discard any clams that have not opened.



I have some prawns on hand, so I added the prawns together with the clams. And everything tastes so good!!! So, the title of this dish should be Seafood in Wine Sauce. I just wanted to show you that it is okay to do substitution with other kinds of seafood and this dish will still taste great!





This dish is super flavorful! You can serve this with bread, or rice just like we did. But you know what? I think this (specially the flavorful sauce) is perfect with pasta. The next time I am cooking this, I will top this on pasta.




I am sharing this dish on our foodie virtual tour with Joan of Foodalogue. We're going to meet in France today. Oh dear, I hope I am not too late. I have not been to France but hoping that this dish will give me a taste of France. The Culinary Tour Around the World is an event that aims to raise awareness about world food hunger, and what you can do about it. Please visit BloggerAid for more details.



Also sharing this dish with the Bookmarked Recipes community. I got the recipe and modified it from Cuisine-France.com. Bookmarked Recipes is a weekly event launched by Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments.

19 comments:

  1. Great job! The clams look delicious -- and then to add prawns! ooh la la! Thanks for participating. Hope to see you in the Philippines on March 23 -- if not somewhere else along the way.

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  2. Yum! I made a dish similar to this but using mussels. the wine takes the taste to a whole new level! good job.

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  3. Can I have the whole plate of clams for myself? ;p

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  4. wow... this is something really special... oui... :)

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  5. oh my!! your clam and shrimp is calling my name!! look so good!

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  6. these babies are sooo popular in hongkong. normally just boiled, steamed or grilled with a pinch of salt or soy :)

    yours sound excellent!

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  7. clams cooked in wine ... my fave! :)

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  8. well done !! i love calms ... hmm.. yummy !!

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  9. O mon Dieu. This sounds delicious. Great job Ning.

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  10. those photos are so tempting, and your seafood is so huge - we only get small stuff here, while the big stuff is overpriced
    these look absolutely delicious

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  11. oh my this clam dish made me hungry! sarap! i love mussels and clams specially on pasta.;but everytime in manila i love them as it is....:-)

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  12. I love its simplicity. And yumminess.:)

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  13. Wow Joan! I'm honored that the Culinary tour will drop by the Philippines! I hope you and our fellow travelers will discover that our food is great!!! :)

    Hi Jescel! Yup, the wine made this dish taste really good!

    Yes, Tigerfish! And more! :D Philippines, being a country with more than 7 thousand islands have a lot of seafood, and its cheap!

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  14. Yes, Mikky, so super flavorful!

    Thanks Lesley!

    Hi Rita! Simply boiled or grilled is already good because of the clams' natural flavor. But add wine, and the taste becomes explosive!

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  15. Thanks Noobcook! Thanks Jin Hooi! Thanks Ivy!

    Thanks Maria, clams and other seafood are not expensive here because we do have a lot of seas... :)

    Hi Dangghit! This dish is in your territory!

    Thanks Oggi! Another easy-to-do French dish!

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  16. Got my mouth watering - I like clams almost more than mussells.

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  17. I love to eat sea food every weekend, so I think that Pacific clams in winw sauce is a great reset and is so delicious and very healthy

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  18. Wow, nice post,there are many person searching about that now they will find enough resources by your post

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