Vietnamese Lemongrass Cockles Recipe: BEST EVER
Vietnamese Lemongrass Cockles Recipe:
Lemongrass cockles prepared in the Vietnamese way
Inspiration for this next dish came from a Hanoi food experience one year
Visiting just before Christmas with my family, and my mate and his son from the UK, we explored Hanoi hard from a food perspective – no stone left unturned.
I had read about this place prior to the trip and was determined to go experience it. You should too. It's a local place just walking distance from our hotel. The great thing was that it was a series of food stations surrounding an open courtyard. Unlike Singaporean food courts, they had waiting staff taking your order – from 8 or so different stations. It was fantastic. One of the dishes was made with cockles.
That very dish gave me inspiration to create my own version.
So simple, but very impressive and really very tasty. You'll need for 4:
- A tray of cockles (or mussels, clams);
- 3 stalks of lemongrass, finely sliced;
- 3 garlic cloves, finely sliced;
- 2 chili padi, thinly sliced;
- Half a glass of white wine;
- 1 yam basket or serve with spaghetti.
In a large pot, add white wine, chilies, garlic, and lemongrass. Heat until the strong wine smell fades.
Add in the cockles, shaking continuously until they open (around 5 minutes). Discard any that do not open.
Bake the yam basket at 200°C for 10 minutes. Spoon the cockles into the basket and arrange neatly.
Add fresh basil leaves at the end for extra flavour and colour.
What is Vietnamese Cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine is what happens when simple ingredients get treated properly instead of being buried under loads of nonsense. It’s fresh herbs everywhere, broths that have clearly been simmering since yesterday, smoky grilled meats, crunchy pickles, noodles in every direction, and enough fish sauce to either scare you or completely change your life. One minute you’re sipping a clean, fragrant bowl of pho thinking, “this is lovely and delicate,” and the next you’re smashing chilli into everything and sweating happily over a tiny plastic table on the side of the road. That’s Vietnam for you — fresh, fast, loud, and ridiculously addictive.
What makes Vietnamese food so good is the balance. Sweet, salty, sour, spicy… somehow all happening at once without turning into chaos. You’ve got banh mi stuffed with crispy pork and herbs, fresh spring rolls pretending to be healthy until you dunk them into peanut sauce, and grilled seafood smelling so good you’ll follow it down the street like a cartoon character floating through the air. And the best part? It never feels too heavy. You leave full, happy, and already thinking about what you’re eating next. That’s proper cuisine — food that quietly gets under your skin until suddenly you’re planning holidays around noodles.