Beolgyo Kkomak Muchim

Ingredients

• 1kg blood cockles (kkomak)
• 3 tbsp coarse salt
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1.5 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes)
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp rice syrup or honey
• 2 spring onions
• 1 green chilli
• 1 red chilli
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Before you cook

• Put the cockles in a bowl of cold water with the coarse salt stirred through, cover the bowl with a cloth to keep it dark and leave them for 1 hour to spit out their sand.
• Rub the cockles against each other under running water to scrub the shells clean, then drain them.
• Discard any cockle whose shell is already gaping and does not close when you tap it.
• Chop the spring onions and both chillies as finely as you can.
• Whisk the soy sauce, gochugaru, sesame oil, garlic, sugar and rice syrup into a dressing, then stir in the chopped spring onion, chillies and half the sesame seeds.

Steps

1. Bring a large pan of water to just under the boil, when small bubbles are rising but the surface is not yet rolling.
2. Tip in the cockles all at once.
3. Stir them steadily in one direction with a wooden spoon for about 3 minutes, which keeps the meat attached to the shell rather than tearing away.
4. Watch for the moment when the first shells begin to part, then count 30 seconds and take the pan off the heat.
5. Drain the cockles at once and run cold water over them for a few seconds to stop the cooking.
6. Slide a teaspoon handle into the hinge of each shell and twist to open it.
7. Discard the empty half of each shell, leaving the meat sitting in the other half.
8. Arrange the filled half shells in a single layer on a serving plate.
9. Spoon a small amount of the dressing onto each cockle, so it pools around the meat rather than drowning it.
10. Scatter the remaining sesame seeds over the plate and serve at room temperature alongside rice.