Spicy Clam Bibimbap (Kkomak Bibimbap)

Briefly boiled clams chopped and tossed with soy sauce, red and green chiles, garlic, gochugaru and sesame, served over rice with garlic chives, onion and crumbled seaweed. Serves 4.

Spicy clam bibimbap platter with rice, seasoned clams, garlic chives, onion and seaweed, with perilla leaves and dipping sauces
  • Prep 25 min
  • Cook 10 min
  • Purge clams 30 min
  • Total 1 hr 5 min
  • Yield 4 servings

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Kkomak bibimbap comes from the southern coast of Korea, where small cockles called kkomak are boiled, shucked and dressed in a spicy soy seasoning, then piled onto rice. It went viral in Korea as a dish people would line up for, and it is easy to make at home with littleneck or Manila clams.

Serve it as a platter for the table to share, with garlic chives, sliced onion and crumbled seaweed on the side. Mix everything together just before eating, and if you like, wrap spoonfuls in perilla leaves or sheets of seaweed.

Ingredients

Clams

  • 3 pounds littleneck or Manila clams, or cockles, scrubbed
  • 2 tablespoons salt, for purging

Seasoning

  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes)
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 red chile, finely chopped
  • 1 green chile, finely chopped
  • 2 green onions, finely chopped

To serve

  • 4 cups hot cooked short-grain rice
  • 1 cup garlic chives or green onion tops, cut into 2-inch lengths
  • 1/2 small onion, very thinly sliced and rinsed in cold water
  • 1 cup crumbled roasted seaweed (gim)
  • Perilla leaves and sheets of roasted seaweed, for wrapping (optional)

Instructions

  1. Purge the clams. Dissolve the 2 tablespoons salt in 8 cups of cold water and soak the clams for 30 minutes in a cool, dark place so they spit out their sand. Lift them out and rinse well. Discard any clams that are cracked or that stay open when tapped.
  2. Mix the seasoning. Stir together the soy sauce, gochugaru, sesame oil, sesame seeds, sugar, garlic, chiles and green onions.
  3. Cook the clams. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. Add the clams and cook, stirring often, for 4 to 6 minutes, lifting them out with a slotted spoon as they open. Discard any that do not open.
  4. Shuck and season. When cool enough to handle, pull the clam meat from the shells, roughly chop the larger pieces, and toss with the seasoning.
  5. Assemble. Spread the hot rice over one side of a large platter or divide among bowls. Arrange the seasoned clams, garlic chives, onion and crumbled seaweed on top.
  6. Serve. Mix everything together at the table. Eat it as is or wrapped in perilla leaves or seaweed.

Tips

  • Stirring the clams in one direction as they cook is a Korean trick that helps the meat come away from the shell cleanly.
  • A few tablespoons of the clam cooking liquid stirred into the seasoning makes it juicier.
  • Garlic chives and perilla leaves are sold at Korean and other Asian markets. Green onion tops and lettuce leaves can stand in.

Questions about this recipe

Can I use canned or frozen clams?
Frozen cooked clam meat works well; thaw and drain it. Canned chopped clams are too soft and lose their flavor in the seasoning.
How do I know the clams are cooked?
Clams are done when the shells open. Take each one out as it opens so it does not get tough, and throw away any that stay shut.

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