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1
Inspect clams and discard any that are chipped or ones that are open and do not close after you tap them. Clean clams by placing them in a bowl of cold water for 30-60 minutes. Add a few good grinds of fresh black pepper to encourage clams to spit out more sand. When you are ready to cook them, remove clams by lifting out of the dirty water, scrub the shells and discard the water. Rinse out the bowl and replace clams. Place bowl near the stove.
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2
While you are cleaning your clams, start your sambal. Using a sharp knife carefully cut the mango on either side of the large oval pit. You should have two meaty halves and a third piece with the pit. Score each half lengthwise and crosswise without cutting the skin. Make the fruit pop out and easy to cut from the skin by pressing the skin side up with your thumbs, while pulling the edges away from each other with your index fingers. Slice the fruit surrounding the pit by making long cuts (stem to end) on either side and making crosswise cuts to release the fruit (see photo). Place fruit (you should have about 2 cups) in the bowl of a food processor.
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3
Rehydrate shrimp by placing in a small bowl and covering with 1/4-cup hot water. Let shrimp soak for 10 minutes, then drain and add to mango.
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4
Add the remaining sambal ingredients to the food processor and process until you have a paste, occasionally scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Make sure that there are no big chunks of shrimp or pieces of lime leaf. Remove bowl and place near stove.
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5
Heat vegetable oil over medium heat in a saute pan with a glass lid. Add grated red onion, garlic and cumin seed and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about a minute. Add sake, followed immediately by the cleaned clams. Cover pan and let clams steam for 7-10 minutes (liquid should be simmering), giving the pan a good shake once during cooking time.
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6
Once all your clams have opened (discard any that have not opened) remove pan from heat and spoon in green mango sambal. Gently fold sambal into clams to combine. Serve immediately, with generous amounts of the sambal and starch of choice to soak it all up. Enjoy!
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7
Note: The color and texture of your sambal will vary depending on type and ripeness of mango used. The first time I made this my mangoes were very green - the flesh was hard and sour - but it made a beautiful and delicious lighter colored sambal. The version in the photo was using half ripe mangoes - still very tart but with softer flesh, resulting in a more orange colored sambal. Either is fine, though I think I prefer very green mangoes in it. Just be sure to save your ripe mangoes for dessert!
