A Shellfish Love Letter
Shellfish and I have been through a lot.
To me, there is something extremely ceremonious and nostalgic in the indulging of shellfish. Even though the hard outer/soft inner beings have a familiar stamp on every portion of our oceanic planet, it feels like a rare specialty whenever I am tucking into their beautiful, sweet bits.
This is probably because shellfish is best enjoyed with loved ones, by the sea on some gorgeous, warm holiday with a cold beer or a glass of wine (sigh!).
I have very fond memories and some not-so-fond-yet-still-oddly-fond memories when it comes to molluscs.
The sweet, briny buttery "New England Steamers" of my childhood. Their scary appearance terrified me but when dipped in hot salty butter the experience was oh so beautiful!
Moules Frites at a very good Belgian beer pub in the West Village on an intoxicatingly sweaty New York City's summer's night.
An amazing dinner in a remote seaside place in Italy that unfortunately led to insane hair-pulling food poisoning. I forgave you mussels, but I never forgot!
And in France on the beach with my family...my son tucking into a steamy pot of clams (proud, proud Mummy).
From a slurpy bouillabaisse to a swirly vongole, that fresh ocean taste just cannot be compared to any other kind of food on the planet.
Through thick and thin, shellfish have played a major role in my memories, and I forever look forward to the next encounter.
As it turns out my love letter is not so unique, and we have got real history because shellfish have pretty much always been consumed for our pleasure. In 2007 Scientists discovered a bowl of edible shellfish when excavating a cave in South Africa that dates to 164,000 years. In fact, this is one of the earliest documented examples of modern behaviour.
If humans have been tucking into seafood like this for so long it makes me turn to the realisation that they are on the pedestal of my shellfish food affair because they do not need much, if anything at all, to simply taste amazing. A bag of mussels or clams cooked in salt water, for example can deliver one of the quickest, most delectable and affordable meals.
Seeing that it is summer, but day to day life cannot be one ongoing holiday, I would urge you to make a delicious meal out of a mollusc. Even though we might not always be out in the world using them to play a role in our romantic vaca experience- there is concrete history, there is beauty in simplicity… and they are so bloody delicious.
Here I have created a clam dish with a twist. Fennel caramelised is deliciously sweet. When combined with clams, punchy fennel fronds and spring onion it is quite simply awesome.
This can be enjoyed with crusty bread or pasta. There is lots of parmesan in this shellfish dish which (I don't find sacrilege) you can omit but I promise it tastes better with it!
Buttery Clams with Caramalised Fennel, Asparagus and Spring Onion.
Ingredients:
1.4 kg fresh clams
3 garlic cloves thinly sliced
240 ml dry white wine
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
50 grams butter divided
100 grams very thin asparagus sliced on diagonal* (or 100 grams samphire)
1 bulb fennel sliced into long planks
½ lemon
Handful of fennel fronds
25 grams finely shredded parmesan cheese
Method:
In a frying pan in medium high heat add 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil then add the fennel planks so that they don’t overlap.
Cook for four minutes on one side until nice and brown then flip and cook for an additional two minutes.
Plate on a platter and sprinkle with about two tablespoons of the parmesan cheese.
Heat a large sauté pan with a lid on medium high heat and add half of the butter and the remaining olive oil. Stir in the garlic and cook until lightly browned.
Add the wine and bring to a simmer. Add the clams, sprinkle with some salt and cover shaking from time to time.
The timing of the clams all depends on how large they are. On average they take about eight minutes to cook. They should completely open when they are done*. When they are half opened (about one minute before they fully open) throw the asparagus or samphire into the pan to steam and dot with remaining butter.
Plate the hot clams and asparagus immediately over the fennel, ladle the hot liquor over them and give it a good squeeze of lemon juice. Garnish with fennel fronds, parmesan cheese, and spring onion.
Serve as a sharing platter with lots of crusty bread for dipping.
*Discard and do not eat any clams that have not fully opened when cooking.
*If you don’t have access to thin asparagus, you can cut them lengthwise in half and then on the diagonal.
Jenny is “The Salty Chilli” an obsessive cook and food writer who lives in Moseley.
To read more check out her Instagram @thesaltychilli, her blog www.thesaltychilli.com .