Xarém (Portuguese Cornmeal with Clams and Linguiça)
In Portugal, xarém (or xerém) is a traditional dish in the Algarve region in the south and is common in the city of Olhão. In that city, the dish has clams, bacon and ham.[12]Its ingredients include greaves, pork and grilled sardines.[
Ingredients
- 2½ pounds clams cleaned
- 10 oz pork belly (bacon)
- 8 oz linguiça or chouriço
- 1 cup corn meal
- 4 cups chicken or fish stock
- 1 red bell pepper sliced
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- ½ cup green onions sliced
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Rinse the clams with cold water, so you clean them from any dirt they might have. After that cover them totally with water and leave them to soak for 1 to 24 hours, this will allow any sand to be expelled out.
- Cut the bacon and the cured ham in small slices.
- Slice the sausage in thin slices.
- Dice the onions
- Slice the red bell pepper in strips
- slice the green onions in small slices
- Heat of a pot (about 1.5 to 3 gallons in size) Add the olive oil, bacon, yellow onions, garlic and red bell pepper to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the sausage and continue cooking for about 5 minutes.
- Add the Clam and cook until they open- about 10 minutes
- Remove the on the contents from the pot and reserve to be used later.
- Now in the empty pot add 4 cups of stock or 4 cups of water with some bullion.
- Begin heating up the stock while gradually adding the corn meal and continually mixing until the cornmeal thickens -about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Add the clam mixture to the pot with the cornmeal. Reserve a few clams and linguiça to put on top as garnish. Whore in individual bowls or a casserole dish and garnish with some clams, linguiça , and green onions.
