Lotte Mart had clams, I had lemongrass my mom sent me. It’s time to try my hand at my favorite clam soup.

I adapted my own version of this recipe.

Ingredients:

• as much clam as you can handle, but probably one pound
• a teaspoon of mashed ginger
• one shallot (chopped)
• a teaspoon of chopped garlic
• cooking oil
• lemongrass (it’s better to use a whole stalk, and pound the white part, but I only had chopped lemongrass my mom sent me)
• fish sauce
• a dash of sugar
• a dash of salt
• A LOT of pepper
• one Thai chili (I didn’t have this, so I used chili pepper flakes)
• 3 cups of water

Directions:

1. Saute ginger, onion, and garlic in oil
2. Toss in clams
3. Pour water in
4. Add lemongrass, fish sauce, salt and sugar to taste
5. Put in a generous portion of pepper (the pepper gives it a good kick, so judge how much you can handle)
6. Cover with a lid and let it simmer for five minutes

I’ll be honest. I’m awfully terrible at cooking – especially the first time I try a recipe. This time, however, I loved it! I can probably tweak the flavoring a bit more next time, but I’m pretty proud of the end result.