A Trip to Portugal – Clams with Garlic and Cilantro (Amêijoas á Bulhão Pato)

My wife Marci and I just returned from a lovely trip to Portugal. The weather was beautiful. We saw lots of churches, met interesting people, walked up and down miles of hills through narrow streets, had astonishing views, listened to amazing music, saw beautiful tile everywhere, discovered good wine, and we ate very well.

The food in Portugal is interesting; heavy on meat and seafood, light on green vegetables. There was pork everywhere, from sausages to sandwiches. I had different cuts grilled and piled high on platters. It was stewed, with olives and pickled vegetables. There was piglet, roasted, sliced, and stuffed into rolls. And cured pork was served as an appetizer with cheese and on the buffets at breakfast. The seafood was just as plentiful. We had simple grilled sardines, shrimp, calamari, swordfish, and whole sea bream (dorado) on our first day there. Shrimp were cooked in garlic and olive oil, perfect for dipping bread. I ordered a pile of snails so small that they had to be removed from their shells using a toothpick or slurped directly to extract them. And our favorite was Amêijoas á Bulhão Pato – Clams with Garlic and Cilantro.

Olives were available at every meal and carbohydrates were aplenty; there were delicious crusty breads and rolls, and entrees were often served with both potatoes (usually French fries) and rice. Steak was not uncommon, but poultry was relatively rare, save for Alheira, a traditionally Jewish “sausage” made from chicken or turkey, bread, and spices, an attempt to hide their religion and dietary restrictions during the Inquisition. While a token dab of salad appeared on plates from time to time, other vegetables were infrequent and often overcooked when they did materialize.

The meals we ate ranged from elaborate tasting menus and small plates dinners to local luncheonettes and simple street food. While not every meal was spectacular, some stood out more than others. Our fanciest dinner was a five-course feast in the northern city of Porto, featuring local and seasonal ingredients, fancy sauces, and beautiful plating, not what your average Portuguese citizen eats on a typical day. It was excellent. Just outside the castle walls of the hilltop town of Obidos we had a more rustic, but no less delicious supper of braised meats, wispy fried potato skins, and shrimp. Lunch was often a simple roasted pork sandwich. We stopped at a local, decidedly non-tourist restaurant in the coastal town of Peniche, looking for a small midday snack, knowing a substantial dinner was to come. Instead, we were served heaping platters of meats and clams from a steam table with a huge pile of rice and fries. With salad, pickled vegetables, and olives on the side it was far more than we could eat and ridiculously inexpensive. While it was not the best food we ate on our trip, it was an interesting experience, and I had a similar version of the same meal a few nights later that was much tastier, more carefully prepared, and reasonable in size.

Breakfast was often at the hotel with a typical sprawling buffet of yogurt, cheeses, cured meats, and breads. There was always fruit, sometimes vegetables, and piles of baked goods and pastries, including wonderful crispy rice muffins and ever-present Pastel de Nata. These extra-sweet, custardy egg tarts with a crunchy crust could be found night and day in every café and restaurant. They were especially good fresh from the oven, still warm, late at night on the streets of Lisbon and Porto.

As for wine, the reds were always good, local, and inexpensive. But our most exciting discovery was Vinho Verde or green wine. These refreshing whites, sometimes with a bare touch of effervescence, are not green in color, but rather are young wines. The green may also refer to the lushness of the northern region of Portugal from which they come, depending on who you talk to. They tend to be inexpensive and relatively low in alcohol, and along with some of the foods we sampled, will become part of our summer culinary repertoire.

Amêijoas á Bulhão Pato – Portuguese Clams with Garlic and Cilantro

The moment we were served a heaping, steaming bowl of these clams, I knew it was a recipe I would have to re-create. With slivers of garlic, fresh green cilantro, and a white wine sauce with olive oil prefect for dipping crusty bread, my senses went into overdrive trying to identify the components so I could make it when we got home. I realized this traditional Portuguese dish we saw on menus wherever we went was simple, with only a handful of ingredients seasoning the steamed clams. A quick review of online recipes confirmed my intuition.

While adding a small amount of butter at the end is not essential and may not be traditional, it does make for a smoother, silkier sauce. And lemon juice, while optional, may be beneficial to give it a boost, depending on the acidity of your wine.

In Portugal, the clams we ate were a species unknown to me and significantly smaller. But our local Long Island hard clams, preferably littlenecks, the smallest size available, make a perfectly good substitute. And while we may not be able to get the same bread as across the Atlantic, a hearty, crusty loaf to dip in the flavorful sauce is an essential part of the dish.

serves 2 as a hearty appetizer, about 20 minutes, plus 1 hour of soaking time

¼ cup plus ½ tsp. kosher salt, divided

3 lbs. hard clams, the smallest available

2 Tbsp. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced or cut into rough chunks

½ cup Vinho Verde, or other dry white wine

½ tsp. fresh ground pepper

1 bunch cilantro, washed and roughly chopped, divided

1 Tbsp. butter, optional

juice of 1 lemon, optional

crusty bread for serving

1. Dissolve ¼ cup salt in a half gallon of cold water in a bowl large enough to hold all of the clams. Rinse and scrub clams under cold running water. Place the clams in the water and the bowl in the refrigerator for at least an hour to allow them to purge any sediment. Remove the clams carefully from the water leaving any sediment behind and rinse the clams again quickly when ready to cook.
2. Heat the olive oil and garlic over medium heat in a Dutch oven or other heavy pot and cook for a few minutes until the garlic is softened but not browning.
3. Add the white wine, ½ teaspoon of salt, pepper, and about half of the cilantro and give it a quick stir.
4. Add the clams and mix. Cover and cook until all the clams have opened, 5 to 10 minutes. Discard any that have not opened. Taste the sauce and add butter and lemon juice if using.
5. Stir in most of the remaining cilantro, saving a couple of tablespoons to sprinkle on top as a garnish.
6. Divide the clams and broth between two bowls and sprinkle with the last of the cilantro. Serve hot with crusty bread for dipping.

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