Vongole pie tee with fennel & white onion

How to cook vongole

1 kilogram	vongole
1	onion
2	bay leaves
100 grams	white wine

First rinse the vongoles under some cold water to remove any sand. The ones that start to float you need to throw, these are bad. Now drain them for at least 5 minutes. Meanwhile cut the onion in half and clean it. Then chop it. After that pour a drizzle of oil into a big pan and glaze the onions on a medium heat with the bay leaves. When they start to color directly add the vongoles and pan fry them for 30 seconds. Then deglaze the pan with the white wine and boil them till the vongoles open up. This takes around 1 minute. Now drain them and keep the liquid for later. Let them cool down completely in your fridge. Once cold remove the vongoles from the shells. You can already eat them like this, but I like to clean them once more. For this cut the colored part of the rest. Then transfer them into a bowl and pass the cooking liquid through a kitchen paper on the cockles. This will prevent them from drying out. Keep them in your fridge.

Vongole pie tee

150 grams	vongole cooking liquid
150 grams	milk
50 grams	flour
50 grams	rice flour
25 grams	corn flour
1	egg
3 grams	salt

First mix the cooking liquid with the milk, the flour, the rice flour, the corn flour, the egg and the salt. Now blend this till it’s a smooth batter. You can also do this in a blender. After that heat up some frying oil till it’s 170 degrees Celsius and also put in your pie tee stamp to heat it up. Click here for info on the stamp. Then take the stamp and gently press it in the batter for 5 seconds. Now let it airdry for a couple minutes before you can submerge the stamp into the hot oil and deep fry it for 30 seconds to a minute. Then the pie tee should let go from the stamp. Deep fry it till golden and then repeat this process with the remaining batter. Keep them dry and covered for later.

White onion cream

5	white onions
5 grams	salt
80 grams	cream
10 grams	white wine vinegar
	Xanthan gum

First cut the white onions in half and clean them. Now chop them. Then add a drizzle of oil to a cold pan add glaze the onions together with the salt on a low heat. This is going to take a couple of hours. Almost all the moisture needs to be vaporized without coloring the onions for a super intense flavor. Then add the cream with the white wine vinegar and bring this to a boil for 1 minute. Now transfer it into a blender and blend it till smooth. Once smooth add a knife tip of the xanthan gum or any other binder like unique binder. Then blend it for another minute to prevent the cream from splitting. This is not 100% necessary, because the flavor and texture will stay the same. It will only stabilize the cream making sure that it won’t leek any liquid on the plate and that will bring your cream to the next level!

Fennel compote

1	fennel
1	shallot
3 grams	salt
50 grams	Pernord
100 grams	vegetable broth
1	lemon

First cut the shallot in half and clean it. Then chop it in a fine brunoise. Now pour a drizzle of oil in a pan and soften the shallot with the salt for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile clean the fennel and separate the layers from each other. Then cut the layers in small brunoise as well. Once the shallot has softened add the fennel and glaze it for a couple more minutes without adding color. Then deglaze the pan with the pernord and the vegetable broth and turn down the heat. Now cook the fennel till the liquid has fully reduced. After that season when necessary with salt and some lemon zest.

How to finish the pie tee's

First add a drizzle of the onion cream on the bottom of the pie tee and then cover it with the fennel compote. Now place the vongole on top and add a fresh note by zesting some lemon zest on top. The amuse is served cold, but if preferred you could heat up the components before plating. Enjoy!