Dried fish roe (烏魚子，or 魚春乾) is the star of any seafood market in Hong Kong. Add them to Cantonese stir-fry, or barbecue. Here, it works as a direct substitute of dried mullet roe (bottarga) used in Italy. It costs around HKD95 for a year’s worth of supply. Take out a piece at a time and freeze the rest.
Serves 2
Time: 🕰🕰
Effort: 💪💪
Ingredients:
250g high-quality spaghetti
1 catty (around 600g) fresh clams
1/3 piece dried yellow croaker roe (黃花魚春乾, see note)
2 garlic cloves
Fish stock
Prawn stock
Dry white wine
1 chili
1/2 tomato
1 teaspoon tomato concentrate
Olive oil
Coriander
Method:
1. Wash and soak clams in cold tap water for 1 hour
2. In a medium pot, infuse one garlic clove, chili, tomato (diced) and some coriander stalks in olive oil on low heat
3. Meanwhile, bring a separate pot of water to the boil
4. Add salt to water until it has the saltiness of a light soup
5. Add pasta to the water and maintain the boil
6. In a large frying pan, add remaining garlic clove, olive oil, a ladle of fish stock, a ladle of prawn stock, and 2 ladles of pasta water (see laksa post on broths)
7. Bring liquids to an active boil until volume reduces by half
8. The chili infusion should be ready by now
9. Remove clams from water and add them to the infusion
10. Add half a glass of white wine and turn up the heat to high
11. Shake and cook clams for about 4 minutes, until clams have fully opened; discard unopened clams
12. The spaghetti should be almost done by now but still a little hard in the centre
13. Transfer spaghetti to the stock
14. Add tomato concentrate for colour, and actively stir on reasonably high heat until liquids thicken to a very creamy sauce; remove from flame
14. Deshell half the clams and mix into the pasta
15. Add a ladle of the clam cooking juice for a hint of acidity
16. Add the softened tomato pieces from the clam juice for extra texture and colour
17. Plate the pasta
18. Decorate plate with the remaining clams, shell-on
19. Generously grate bottarga over pasta
20. Spoon over any remaining pasta sauce
21. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil
22. Garnish and serve
Nat & E Homecooking 