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You are here: Home / Recipes / How To Cook Balay Shells or Ugpan

12.10.2014

How To Cook Balay Shells or Ugpan

How To Cook Balay Shells or Ugpan

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Balay Shells or Ugpan but I’ve seen them for time to time being sold at the local wet market near our place. I don’t remember this shellfish served at home but now that I regularly go to the market my curiosity is piqued! I actually made a mental note to try out all the seafood/shellfish/fish that I haven’t tried before and to see how they taste.

And I’m starting with this: Balay Shells or Ugpan. I think this is called Tongue Shells in English and it’s fairly cheap. We got 300g of Ugpan for ₱30 which is a lot and it could serve 3-4 persons.

How To Cook Balay Shells or Ugpan

uncooked Balay Shells or Ugpan

This is what uncooked Balay Shells looks like. It has that black-thingy at the end of it’s “tongue” (or whatever you call it). You have to trim it off before cooking so that you can coax the meat from it later on.

Since I didn’t know how to cook it, peanutbutter♥ and I asked the vendor how the cook it. He told us it’s scrumptious when cooked like Totcho. So it was  sauteed in tahure (fermented tofu), onion, tomato, garlic, and ginger. Unlike mussels and clams, this shellfish doesn’t open even when cooked. You have to open it yourself to get the meat inside the shell.

I like the white meat that comes out of it’s tongue but I find the meat inside to rubbery for my taste. I still prefer oysters, mussels, and clams but it’s great that I got to try it.

Watch The Video Here:

How To Cook Balay Shells or Ugpan

a closer look

4.8 from 5 reviews
How To Cook Balay Shells or Ugpan
 
Print
Author: Peachy Adarne
Ingredients
  • 300g Balay Shells or Ugpan, cleaned and trimmed of the end part of their "tongue" (or whatever you call them)
  • 1 pc tahure (fermented tofu)
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 tomato, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small knob of ginger, sliced
  • ½ cup vinegar
  • ⅓ cup water
  • ¼ cup tausi (black beans)
  • 1 tbsp cooking oil
Directions
  1. In a small bowl, Mash tahure, add vinegar and water.Set aside.
  2. Heat oil in a pan, sauté garlic, then add ginger, onions, and tomatoes.
  3. Sauté until onions are translucent then add Balay Shells or Ugpan.
  4. Pour in tahure mixture and tausi. Mix well.
  5. Bring it to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes.
  6. Turn off heat and serve with steamed rice.
3.5.3251

 

Filed Under: Recipes, Seafood, Shellfish Tagged With: shellfish, ugpan recipe

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. lalaine says

    12.10.2014 at 3:50 pm

    Sorry, pass ako. Masyadong nakakatot tignan hehehehe

    Reply
    • Peachy Adarne says

      12.10.2014 at 4:07 pm

      LOL!

      Reply
  2. wok with ray says

    12.14.2014 at 6:10 am

    You know Peach, at first I thought there were mussels and enoki mushrooms. My goodness, I’ve never seen this before. It’s interesting. 🙂

    Reply
    • Peachy Adarne says

      12.16.2014 at 6:47 pm

      It is interesting! It’s not always sold in the market.

      Reply
  3. Catherine says

    12.14.2014 at 9:52 am

    A healthy and delicious meal.

    Reply
    • Peachy Adarne says

      12.16.2014 at 6:50 pm

      It is indeed a healthy meal!

      Reply
  4. EverydayKim says

    12.15.2014 at 8:48 am

    That soup looks delish! I haven’t seen this kind of shellfish before – I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for them because I’d like to taste them, too! 😀

    K of everydaykim.blogspot.com

    Reply
    • Peachy Adarne says

      12.16.2014 at 6:54 pm

      I don’t see these shellfish often in the market too! I do hope you’ll see some so that you can give it a try

      Reply
  5. edelweiza says

    12.15.2014 at 4:12 pm

    Scary looking pala ang ugpan pero mukhang masarap yung sabaw! 🙂

    Reply
    • Peachy Adarne says

      12.16.2014 at 6:54 pm

      LOL! dami nagsasabi nga na scary-looking. Siguro kasi hindi lang tayo sanay?

      Reply
  6. Raymund says

    12.16.2014 at 2:53 am

    Mukhang masarap yan ha! I love seafood

    Reply
  7. John@Kitchen Riffs says

    12.17.2014 at 10:33 am

    This is totally new to me! Looks really interesting — and tasty! Fun post — thanks.

    Reply
    • Peachy Adarne says

      12.18.2014 at 7:19 am

      you’re welcome John!

      Reply
  8. myls says

    03.15.2015 at 9:48 pm

    I remembered getting those UGPAN along the seashore of my grandfather’s hometown in Pawa,Tabaco City,Albay.
    There were tiny holes like eyes in the sand then my lolo will use his shovel to dig it then we were excited picking them up.We washed it at the beach after we got almost 1kl.My lolo will remove the black tip at the end because its not edible.The white root we ate it raw or much delicious with kalamansi and KUYOG(fermented small brown fish) with siling labuyo.While my lolo prepared these he dipped the shells in water to remove some of its sands inside.(in tagalog,pinapasuka).After 30mins.he will saute onion,garlic and ginger then add the ugpan shells then finish it with coconut cream.Simply and soo delicious.I miss it much in our place.

    Reply
    • Peachy Adarne says

      03.18.2015 at 5:55 am

      I’ll try your recipe the next time we buy Ugpan! Thanks Myls.

      Reply
      • Gary liban says

        12.11.2019 at 3:15 am

        Out of the blue I thought of balay. I remember my mom cooking them several decades ago. Me and my sister loved the meat inside the “plastic ” tail. I assumed they went extinct coz they are nowhere to be found. People give me that doubtful look when I describe that wonderful “seashell with a plastic tail.” We’re flying home to Manila in a month and definitely look for them. Possibly go to where you are and hoping to taste them again.

        Reply
    • Kuk says

      08.28.2016 at 3:47 pm

      We used to eat the “tongue” raw too, like kinilaw. And the shells, we used to makemas soip, similar to sinabawang imbao. Do not overcook or it gets rubbery.

      Reply
      • Peachy Adarne says

        08.30.2016 at 6:04 am

        Thanks Kuk!

        Reply
  9. Jayhan says

    04.09.2016 at 8:18 am

    It has been 3 years since i’ve last cooked balay… went to obando bulacan market yesterday and suprised to see some because they are kinda rare nowadays, so I bought some, aside from cutting off the tail end i also brush the blackish things on the shell, yung nasa tip ng mought niya, they easily come off with a hard brush (a laundry brush to be exact, lol). I kinda forgot how to cook it so I went online and found this page, which was a relief… i’m half bicolano so naturally i made mine spicy hehe.
    thank you very much..

    Reply
    • Peachy Adarne says

      04.12.2016 at 5:23 am

      You’re welcome. I’m so glad you left a comment!

      Reply
  10. Anna Mae says

    09.03.2018 at 11:52 am

    Hi! Where did you buy Ugpan? My mother is looking for it for a long time now and I want to help her. Please help me/us. Thank you!!

    Reply
    • Peachy Adarne says

      09.03.2018 at 4:20 pm

      Hi. I’m from Caloocan. I usually buy Ugpan in Sangandaan Market or at Bayan in Malabon.

      Reply

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