sinabawang halaan (clam soup)

i've been craving for this one for as long as i remember. since we got here in uae, i think i only ate this dish once. i should be having this more often now and specially after i give birth since it is important in producing breastmilk.

this dish is best with malunggay leaves. unfortunately, we don't have it and no supermarket here sell malinggay leaves. when we were still living in jabal, k planted a malunggay plant and we get our malunngay supplies there. i told k to plant malunggay again here in al wagan, even just in large pot, as long as we have malunggay plant.


k gave me a tip... in buying clams make sure that you choose those still closed, they are fresh and still alive. opened clams are dead already and should be discarded. k cleaned the clams with a brush to get the sand off of its shells. make sure also that you clean them very well since you don't want any sand on your soup.

ingredients:
1/2 kl. clams, cleaned
1/2 small onion, sliced
1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced
1 small tomato, seeded and sliced
1 spring onion, separate the white part from the green part and chopped
1 siling haba
2-3 cups water
salt and pepper

procedure:
in a casserole, put the onion, white part on the spring onion, ginger and water. bring to a boil.

add the clams, tomato and siling haba. simmer until the clams opened. if they are all opened, it means they are already cooked.

season with salt and pepper. turn off the heat and put the green part of spring onion.

serve hot.

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best with malunggay leaves. if you planned to add malunggay leaves, just before seasoning the soup, add the malunggay leaves.