Ameijoas à Bulhão Pato. Classic Portuguese petisco. Fresh enough for early spring evenings, solacing enough for chilly autumn nights.
The name of this dish can cause some confusion. Pato usually refers to duck, which is a common enough ingredient in Portuguese cuisine. But this dish certainly doesn’t contain duck. There’s no secret addition of duck stock. Nothing of the sort.
In fact, the dish is named after a renowned 19th century writer and memoirist. A certain Raimundo António de Bulhão Pato was a famed figure in Portuguese intellectual circles throughout the second half of the 19th century. He lived in Caparica, just over the bridge from Lisbon, and the story goes that he once stopped into a restaurant called Estrela de Ouro, in the Graça area of Lisbon (it’s still there today) and had the pleasure of sampling a clam dish that impressed him so much, he included it in one of his books.
The chef, exuberant that such a distinguished figure would footnote him in his works, decided to name his recipe after Senhor Bulhão Pato; hence, Ameijoas à Bulhão Pato.
It’s basically garlic, coriander, clams and wine. The clams are kind of boiled in the wine, kind of steamed. I like to add chili for a slight kick, but it’s optional. Touch of lemon and butter to finish the sauce. Holy stuff.
Whenever I eat Ameijoas à Bulhão Pato in that restaurant, or any restaurant, I make sure to order pão torrada – buttered toasted bread. Because the juices of a good bulhão pato are a delicacy to be savoured. You’ll see what I mean.
The best clam for the job
Fresh clams are readily available in Portugal, so I picked up half a kilo of them from the supermarket and used those. If you can’t find fresh, you can use frozen, just make sure to defrost them for a day in the fridge, or submerge them in a bowl of cold water until completely thawed.
Other recipes for this dish suggest using berbigãos (cockles) instead of clams. I haven’t tried that. Maybe you should. The recipe won’t change; just cook them with the lid on until the shells open up.
Also, please try to not overcook the clams. Overcooked clams are chewy and nasty. To get the right texture, keep the heat very low, and stop cooking as soon the shells start to open. They’ll continue to cook on residual heat from this point anyway, and the shells should be fully open by the time you serve.
Thin as a garlic clove
Ameijoas à Bulhão Pato, like many shellfish based petiscos, begins with garlic. Very thinly sliced garlic.
A good way to get garlic sliced thin is to top and tail the fibrous end bits of the cloves, then take off the papery peel. That way, it stays whole, and you can slice along the length of the clove.
The reason for this is twofold. First, slicing thinly imparts a milder garlic flavour, so it doesn’t overpower the dish. That’s essential here. Second, all those bits of garlic in the dish at the end look nice, taste nice, and add a bit of texture to what is otherwise quite a saucy dish.
The flipside is that these thin garlic slices can burn pretty quickly. Keep the heat low, and turn it off if anything begins to darken too drastically.
Another tip to keep the garlic from burning is to stir only gently at this point. Since the garlic is very thin, some of it can break apart into smaller pieces from vigorous stirring, and these pieces will burn quicker than the bigger pieces.
Slice thin, cook low.
Coriander leaves =/= stems
I have added the slightly burdensome step of separating the stems and leaves of the coriander, and chopping them separately.
Pretty pointless, you might say. Well, perfection is lots of little things done well, so hear me out.
Coriander stems, when added as part of the base of a dish, add an earthiness and texture to whatever comes after. That’s a tip from Indian cooking.
If you add coriander leaves in the beginning, they’ll lose some of the freshness that they’d give to the dish if they were added at the end. They’ll also crisp up a bit. Which is nice, sometimes, but not here.
So, try dealing with each part of the coriander bunch separately, and see if you like it.
Toasted bread, à cervejaria
There are probably at least ten ways to make buttered toasted bread, and you probably have your own way of doing it. So do that, if you want.
Here, though, I’ve tried to approximate the type of toasted buttered bread you’ll get in a good cervejaria (seafood and beer joint) which is made bespoke to mop up the juices of legions of plates of shellfish. And to make you drink more beer.
It wasn’t perfect, but it did the trick. Should have cut them in half lengthwise. Will revise later. Maybe.
Ameijoas à bulhão pato c/ pão torrada (Portuguese clams with toasted bread)
Ingredients
The clams
- 2.5 tbsp olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- 1 bunch coriander/cilantro stems and leaves separated
- 1/2 tsp diced chili pepper, seeds removed optional
- 500 g fresh white clams washed and scrubbed
- 1 cup white wine or beer
- 1 lemon quartered
- 1 tbsp butter
The toast
- 4 slices bread rustic
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tsp oregano or to taste
Instructions
Prep
- Wash the clams under cold running water, and scrub with a brush if necessary to remove any lingering sand.
- Cut the garlic cloves into very thin slices.
- Separate the coriander into stems and leaves. Finely mince the stems, then chop the leaves.
- Cut the lemon into quarters and dice the chili pepper, if using.
The clams
- Heat olive oil in a pan wide enough to fit all the clams without stacking too much.
- Throw in the thinly sliced garlic and cook on medium-low heat for about 1 minute.
- Add the coriander stems, maintain a medium-low heat, and cook for a further 1 minute or until garlic is golden and browning, but not darkening.
- Add the clams and wine, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to very low and cover. Don't worry if the wine doesn't cover the clams completely, since we are partly steaming them by covering the pan. Cook slowly for about 4-5 minutes, or until the first clams start to open their shells.
- Once the shells start to open, turn off the heat, add the coriander and butter, and stir gently (so as to not detach the clams from their shells) to combine.
- Squeeze the juice of one quarter of lemon over the clams, then serve in the pan or a bowl with the rest of the lemon quarters and the toasted bread.
The toasted bread
- In a bowl, mix together butter, olive oil and oregano together until it reaches a liquid consistency. You might want to apply some heat to do this; if so, use a heatproof bowl over your heat source of choice.
- Top the bread with the mixture and place the bread in a baking tray in the oven at around 150C for 10-15 minutes, turning them over halfway through.
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