Chilean Cooking Class: Machas a la parmesana/Baked Razor Clams with Parmesan

Machas a la parmesana/Baked Razor Clams with Parmesan was another classic Chilean dish that we learnt to make in our cooking class in Valparaiso. Chile has a long coast line and therefore an abundance of fresh seafood. Unfortunately, Chileans can be quite heavy-handed with the use of cheese and butter in their handling of seafood (often also deep fried) which personally doesn't suit my taste; I was therefore very pleasantly surprised that our wonderful teacher Carolina taught us to use a delicate hand when it came to cooking seafood, and instilled in us her passion of making the flavours of the fresh seafood the star of the show. The baked razor clams were delightful. They had a nice bitiness from the parmesan, and just enough richness from butter and white wine.

As I've done with the other posts in my South America cooking class series, I've taken the recipe and instructions directly from our lesson.  

This recipe was created fifty years ago in the city of Viña del Mar. A classic starter dish. Chileans serve the razor clams in their shell and mix them with cheese, which gives a unique touch to this dish.

4 people

Ingredients

24 razor clams

24 bits of butter

24 tsp of white wine

24 tsp of cream

24 small pieces of garlic

12 tsp of Parmesan cheese

Salt & pepper(optional)

Procedure

1. Open the shells with a knife and wash the clam’s tongues under a cold water stream, remove the black side and sand. Wash the shells and save some of them.

2. Put the shells in a baking pan and put butter and a clam’s tongue in each shell.

3. Season with salt & pepper. Add white wine, cream and pieces of butter and garlic. Dust every shell with Parmesan cheese.

4. Put the oven to 180ª and cook from 5 to 7 minutes until the cheese has melted and the clam’s tongues turn into an intense pink. Serve right away.