asian jewish deli

Oh my. This dish is so delicious. In the Momofuku cookbook David Chang writes about the substitution of smoky American bacon for dried and smoked Japanese fish in dashi broth as an important early success  and an example of the philosophy behind their cooking.

We respect tradition and we revere many traditional flavor profiles, but we do not subscribe to the idea that there’s one set of blueprints that everyone should follow. I think that in the questioning of basic assumptions–about how we cook and why we cook with what we do–is when a lot of the coolest cooking happens.

Bacon dashi really does look and smell like traditional dashi, but is unctuously porky instead of fishy. I simmered quartered new Yukon potatoes in the bacon dashi, then tossed in Manila clams just until they opened. Topped with julienned green onions and crispy bacon, this dish is so simple, warming, and fulfilling. There really isn’t anything more to say.

This dish, based off of a recipe by Thomas Keller, begins with two ingredents that take several hours to make, but could be considered staples that you should keep around at all times. Garlic confit is simply garlic immersed in oil and cooked over super low heat for hours, and soffritto involves onions and tomatoes slowly fried in oil also for hours. The garlic confit is similar to roasted garlic, and the soffritto comes out sweet, savory, reflects the hours of simmering. Spreading some garlic confit on bread and topping with soffritto is a worthy meal in itself.

These clams are very easy and start out by sweating shallots in oil, then adding in garlic confit and soffritto. (If you dodn’t want to spend the time to make the confit and soffritto, you could substitute in fresh tomato, onion, and garlic. The flavor will be different—fresher instead of the the deep roasted flavors from the soffritto. Different, but not bad.) Throw in the clams, some white wine, a few tablespoons of butter, and clamp the lid on tightly. About a minute later, you’ll find most if not all of the clams will have opened. Some of the more stubborn clams can be coaxed open with a stir or a shake.

Spoon the clams into a deep bowl, top with plenty of the broth, and serve alongside toast topped with aioli and more soffritto. Delicious!