Com Hen

Ingredients

• 600 g cooked jasmine rice, cooked the day before and left at room temperature
• 1 kg small clams or cockles in the shell
• 1.5 litres water
• 1 thumb of ginger, sliced
• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp fermented shrimp paste (mam ruoc)
• 80 g roasted peanuts, roughly crushed
• 60 g crisp pork crackling or fried pork skin, broken up
• 1 handful crisp fried rice paper or sesame crackers, broken up
• 1 small banana blossom, finely shredded
• 1 star fruit, thinly sliced
• 1 large handful rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) and mint, shredded
• 1 handful pennywort (rau ma) or watercress, shredded
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 3 tbsp fried shallots
• 3 tbsp Hue chilli paste or sliced bird's eye chillies
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

Before you cook

• Soak the clams in cold salted water for 30 minutes so they spit out their sand, then scrub the shells.
• Shred the banana blossom and drop it into water with a squeeze of lime so it stays pale.
• Shred the herbs and pennywort, and slice the star fruit thinly.
• Break up the pork crackling and the crisp rice paper into bite-sized shards.
• Fluff the day-old rice with a fork and leave it at room temperature.

Steps

1. Put the scrubbed clams in a large pot with the 1.5 litres of water and the sliced ginger.
2. Bring the pot to the boil over high heat and cook for 5 minutes until every shell has opened.
3. Strain the clams through a sieve set over a bowl, keeping all the cooking liquid.
4. Throw away any clams that stayed shut.
5. Pick the clam meat out of the shells and put it in a small bowl.
6. Pour the cooking liquid slowly into a clean pan, leaving the last of the gritty sediment behind.
7. Simmer the clam broth for 10 minutes, season it with 1 tbsp of the fish sauce and keep it hot.
8. Heat the 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
9. Fry the chopped shallots and garlic for 2 minutes until fragrant.
10. Add the picked clam meat and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
11. Season the clams with the remaining 1 tbsp of fish sauce, the sugar and the black pepper, then take the pan off the heat.
12. Divide the room-temperature rice between four wide bowls.
13. Spoon the stir-fried clams over the rice.
14. Add a small pile of banana blossom, star fruit, herbs, pennywort and bean sprouts to each bowl.
15. Scatter over the crushed peanuts, pork crackling, broken rice paper and fried shallots.
16. Add half a teaspoon of shrimp paste and a spoonful of chilli paste to each bowl.
17. Pour the hot clam broth into four small separate bowls and set one beside each serving.
18. Tell everyone to mix their bowl thoroughly, then spoon in as much hot broth as they like.