Have you ever had diwal? These are known as “Angel Wing” Clams. They’re, I believe, native to either Iloilo or Bacolod (someone please correct me if I’m wrong).
Last week, after our trip to the Manila Ocean Park and Hotel H2o, I decided to drop by the Seaside Market along Macapagal Avenue (near World Trade Center). To my surprise, they were selling diwal. I got a kilo of these diwal clams after a lightbulb went off my head– I was going to attempt baking diwal clams for the family.
Now I’ve never prepared baked clams or oysters or anything like that for the family, so I was quite scared to try, but hah, I was in the mood to try making them. After all, what’s the worse thing that could happen ? (Erhm, everyone making a mad dash to the toilet? Hehehe we have a good supply of Immodium, FYI hahaha)
When I got the diwal, they were still alive and “spitting”.
When we got home, I think I made the mistake of putting them in fresh water *as opposed to salt water?* and I guess they just dropped dead *hahaha woops clams killer!!*. So I cleaned the diwal by slicing the midsection of the fleshy part to ensure no sand was left trapped in its meat. I dropped a few slices of ginger into the water and some salt and allowed the cleaned diwal to sit for a bit.
I boiled water, dropped ginger slices and salt, and dropped the diwal clams into the boiling water. After a minute or so, I drained them and left them to cool.
Now, how to make Lemon Ginger Butter Sauce!
I scooped a few teaspoons of unsalted butter, melted it with ginger, and squeezed calamansi (or lemon) juice into the mixture. From there, I brushed the lemon ginger butter sauce onto the meat, sprinkled some minced garlic
and then spread grated cheese over the meat.
In a heated oven 200 deg up, I placed the tray of diwal into the oven and allowed it to bake.
After the cheese has melted, it’s time to remove the diwal from the oven, and Voila 🙂
Baked Diwal Clams with cheese, garlic and lemon ginger sauce 🙂
Hope this was an easy- enough recipe for you peeps to try. If you don’t find diwal clams, there’s always mussels or oysters 🙂
Happy Sunday, peeps!!
x
Mrs. T
aka domestic goddess wannabe 😀 *hehehe*