Editor’s note: The theme of Gohan Lab is to help people make simple, tasty “gohan” (meals).

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Having frozen food at the ready is convenient when you need a small amount of something to use in a dish during cooking. The “asari” clams featured this week are a handy, versatile ingredient for using in soup and as side dishes if you remove the sand in them beforehand and they add color to the dinner table.

This time, we'll saute and steam frozen clams with cabbage and snap peas. Taking advantage of the natural saltiness of the clams, we've kept the seasoning simple.

After cooking with sake and water, feel free to add a pinch of salt to suit your taste. Add some flavor with sesame oil, and you will have a delicacy in merely 10 minutes or so.

You can give it a twist by adding some chili oil if you prefer. Chef Katsuhiko Yoshida, who oversaw the recipe's cooking aspect, says he freezes leftover shellfish and uses them when cooking meals for his staff.

The arranged version is for making “sanratan,” a soup that offers a fine balance of spiciness and sourness. In this dish as well, clams and vegetables are simmered and simply seasoned.

“The savory umami flavor of the clams adds depth. It's simple to make yet turns out delicious,” Yoshida says.

REMOVE SAND IN CLAMS BEFORE FREEZING

Yoshida advises that when removing sand from the clams, you lay them in a flat container and add water with about 3 percent salinity (ratio of 1 tsp of salt to 200 ml water) so that the top of the shell peeks out a little. This ratio will taste rather salty and is about the same as sea water.

Since the clams are usually buried in the sand, they'll spit out more of it if you block light from getting inside them with aluminum foil or some other covering. 

Then place them in room temperature for about an hour, drain water containing sand, rinse briefly, and they're ready to be used.

When freezing, lightly pat the water on the shells dry before placing them in a storage bag.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

(Supervised by Katsuhiko Yoshida in the cooking aspect and Kazuhito Kajiwara in the cookery science aspect)

* Ingredients (Serve two)

200 grams asari clams (with shells), 180 grams cabbage, 8 snap peas, 1 clove garlic finely chopped, 1 Tbsp oil, 1 Tbsp sake, 1 tsp sesame oil

About 135 kcal and 1.4 grams salt per portion

1. [Freeze clams] Remove sand from clams. Rinse briefly, pat dry and place in freezing storage bag with shell and freeze (PHOTO A).

2. [Cook] Cut cabbage into largish pieces. Remove string from snap peas.

3. Pour oil in frying pan, place on high heat and cook garlic. When aroma rises, add clams in frozen state (PHOTO B) and cover with cabbage and peas. Pour in sake and 100 ml water, lower to medium heat and cover with lid.

4. When water droplets form on the underside of the lid, mix contents using large motions. Place lid back on and cook for a few more minutes. When cabbage softens and clams open (PHOTO C), add a pinch of salt to season. Pour in sesame oil in a circular motion.

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Katsuhiko Yoshida is the chef and owner of Jeeten, a restaurant in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Uehara offering Chinese home cooking.

Kazuhito Kajiwara is a former professor at the Tokyo University of Technology who specializes in the study of food preservation.

ARRANGED VERSION

Hot and sour soup with clams (Serves one)

Chop 1 okra in rounds. Slice 20 grams celery without removing the strings. Cut off root part from 30 grams of "enoki" mushrooms and cut into 1-cm widths. Quarter 1 cherry tomato. Heat 100 grams frozen asari clams (with shells) and 300 ml water in frying pan. When it comes to a boil, add vegetables including enoki, cover with lid and simmer for a few minutes on low heat. When the clams open, add 1 Tbsp sake, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 Tbsp vinegar and mix. As a finishing touch, pour in 1/2 tsp chili oil.

COOKERY SCIENCE

Ice crystals become their largest between 1 and 5 degrees below zero and are liable to damage food. It is best to pass this temperature range quickly when freezing.

Though food undergoes quick-freezing at specialized facilities in factories, household freezers are higher in temperature and it takes longer to freeze. To freeze food faster, you should place it in the freezer in forms that are thin and flat.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Gohan Lab column