Cơm Hến (Huế Baby-Clam Rice)

Name: Cơm Hến (Huế Baby-Clam Rice)
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Vietnamese (Huế / Central)
Ingredients: 4 bowls Cooked jasmine rice, cooled; 300 g Baby clams (hến) or small cockles, shelled meat; 1 L Clam cooking water or light fish stock; 2 stalks Lemongrass, minced; 3 Shallots, sliced; 1 tbsp Chilli flakes or sate chilli oil; 1 tbsp Fermented shrimp paste (mắm ruốc); 1 tbsp Fish sauce; 3 tbsp Neutral oil; 4 tbsp Roasted peanuts, crushed; 40 g Fried pork rind (crackling), crumbled; 1 cup Banana blossom, shredded (or shredded cabbage); 1 Starfruit or green mango, sliced thin; 2 cups Mint, Vietnamese coriander, perilla and bean sprouts; 3 tbsp Fried shallots and white sesame

Cold rice, a heap of tiny river clams fried with lemongrass and chilli, then crushed peanuts, crackling pork rind, shrimp paste, chilli jam, banana blossom, starfruit and a dozen herbs — and a cup of the clams' own hot broth on the side to pour over. Huế's poor-man's dish, born on the clam-diggers' island in the Perfume River, and the one dish the city defends hardest.

Source

Recette de Huế kitchens · 🏺 Traditionnel · Central Vietnamese cooking from the old imperial capital — smaller plates, sharper chilli, fermented shrimp paste

Huế · the clam-diggers' rice — An ownerless regional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms cơm hến as a Vietnamese rice dish from Huế of cooked baby river mussels (basket clams), rice, peanuts, pork rinds, shrimp paste, chilli paste, starfruit and bạc hà stems, normally served with the broth of the cooked mussels. The lemongrass stir-fry, the cold-rice rule, timings and quantities are this book's own.

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chewyy Hue Oi Bếp Cô Minh

⏱ 60 min🍽 4 portions🔥 470 kcal🇻🇳 Vietnam🌶️🌶️

Sans produits laitiersSans gluten

Étapes

Bring the clam water or stock to a simmer with a pinch of salt and half the shrimp paste. Keep it hot — it is served on the side, not poured in the kitchen.
Fry the shallots and lemongrass in the oil 2 minutes. Add the clam meat, the remaining shrimp paste, chilli and fish sauce and stir-fry hard 3 minutes until the clams are dry-edged and the paste smells toasted.
💡 Dry, not saucy. The clams must be fried until they seize a little; a wet clam stir-fry turns the rice to porridge before the broth even arrives.
Build each bowl: cold rice at the bottom, then banana blossom, herbs, bean sprouts and starfruit around the edge.
Pile the hot clams in the centre. Scatter the peanuts, crackling, fried shallots and sesame over everything.
Serve with a small cup of the hot broth beside each bowl. Pour a little over, mix, eat, pour again — the rice stays cold, the clams hot, the broth in between.

💡 Astuces

Cold rice is not a shortcut — it is the recipe. Huế cooks use yesterday's rice on purpose so the grains stay separate under the broth.
Bún hến swaps the rice for rice vermicelli; everything else is identical.