Cooking Coquinas

This is one of my favorite food. Coquinas. Some people call it Tellina or Donax Variablilis, its scientific name, is a species of small edible saltwater clam. It is a warm water species which occurs in shallow water on sandy beaches. In Indonesia we call it Remis. Chinese ethnic in Indonesia call it Lemeh. Preparation time is much longer than the cooking time. Hard to cook? No, absolutely not.

We always cook a kilogram of coquinas, that is portion for four adults. Your kids will love it too for sure.

1. One kilogram of Coquinas.
2. One spoonful of Olive oil.
3. Six cloves of garlic (finely chopped).
4. Two slices of ginger.
5. Some white wine (at desired amount).
6. Parsley (finely chopped, at desired amount).

As I said before, preparation time is much longer. Immerse the coquinas in a large bowl of salt water for about 6 or 7 hours. Some say two hours, some say overnight. This process is intended to clear the sand inside the clams. In practical cookery, two hours is not enough to clear all sand. We need at least six hours, so prepare in the morning for lunch and prepare mid day for dinner ^^

One thing to note : Put a knife (iron) in the bowl on immersing process. It is believed to make the coquinas spill out the sand. Either it is only a myth or there is a logical explanation among salt water, sand, and iron, you can try with or without knife (iron) to compare.

• Put the olive oil in a large frying pan and set on high heat.
• When the oil is hot, put the finely chopped garlic in.
• Then drain the coquinas before you put them in the pan.
• Set on medium heat.
• Smear some white wine at desired amount.
• Stir a while to let the garlic and wine spread evenly.
• Cover it for a while with glass lid, so that you can see the inside. The lid will gather more juice from the clams.
• When the clams start opening and the juice from the clams start bubbling, open the lid and pour the parsley and ginger in.
• Turn off the stove, stir the coquinas and let it sit for a minute or two.
• Serve it on a bowl along with the juice. Add some lemon drops if you love to.

Some people say that the close clams should be removed, it means they are already dead before the cooking process and they are toxic. Well you can remove them while eating ^_^