Clams - otherwise known as cockles or pipis
When I opened this page in Robert Carrier's book for my lucky dip, my heart sank. Clams - don't eat them. But then I remembered the clam chowder that I had enjoyed so much in America, and then that clam was vongole in Italian and that there is a famous spaghetti dish with clams. So I thought I would investigate a bit more.
The final decider was picking up Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion today and discovering that clams are also cockles and pipis. Like sardines and anchovies, daisies and roses there are an endless variety of the things, all closely related.
In addition, they are one of those foods of the poor that have become fashionable and expensive. I read a couple of blogs about people reminiscing about collecting them on the beach - which I never did, but I do remember the cockles and whelks stalls at Southend and how you bought them by the pint. They were already cooked I think and you just prised them out of the shell. Or maybe you could also buy them shelled - as at left below. Here in Australia we apparently call them pipis.
I checked out the supermarket and did not find any - not in tins anyway. Now that I think about it I did not check the fresh fish section. Must look next time I go to the market. I do not know whether you can get them in England but back when Robert Carrier was writing you could - clam juice too. Indeed the three recipes that he gives all rely on a canned product. Surely back in America, where clams are big - on the east coast anyway - you can get fresh? And certainly no self-respecting modern chef would use a tin! Surely? Before he gets on to clams themselves though he has quite a rave about clam juice - definitely not available in my local supermarket. I see you can get a bottle of it for $17.57 online here in Australia - and it's only 247ml. Hardly a food of the poor.
This is what Robert Carrier says about it.
"Clam juice ... is another of those perfect products. In restaurants and homes all along the New England costs, cans of clam juice are being opened to serve, with a spark of fresh lemon juice, as a freshener before the meal, so near to the actual flavour is it. ... Try a fresh, well-iced clam juice cocktail, to bring you for a tenth of the price the rare delight of the liquor that rests in the shell of a newly opened fresh clam - the veritable taste of the sea. Use this precious broth to add flavour to fish soups, stews and sauces."
Mmm - not sure about that. I do like clam chowder though and he has a couple of recipes - one very simple from James Beard and one slightly more complicated from himself. The James Beard one is just clams, cream, butter, paprika and salt and pepper. His own includes a little bacon, potato, onion and bay leaf, which I think is more traditional - apparently there is generally some potato and some bacon or salt pork in there. The recipes are endless, but i do recommend you try it some time. Nigel Slater tasted one in Maine whose " flavour was like someone had stirred cream into a white-crested wave." My other favourite American cook, Bert Greene has a wonderful, though more complex looking recipe for a corn and clam chowder, thus combining the two most famous chowders together. And you have to serve it with a cracker - or biscuit. The Americans do this with soup - biscuits, not bread. I remember finding this a bit unsatisfactory when I was there.
The other classic use of clams is in the Italian pasta dish - spaghetti or linguine (there seems to be some conflict here) alle vongole - which emanates from Rome apparently, although there are regional variations. The big controversy here is whether you add tomatoes or not. The Guardian's Perfect Spaghetti alle Vongole article claims that the tomatoes drown out the taste of the clams, and my other searches, mostly found recipes without tomatoes I have to say, although Stephanie seems to favour them. I think it's supposed to be a pretty simple dish with minimal flavourings - perhaps some chilli? And you don't have cheese on top.
Apparently if you can't get clams you can do everything you do with clams with mussels which are more generally available. But then maybe they are just waiting to be the next big thing. Keep it simple seems to be the thing.
And lastly the enemy of clams is grit. Soak them in water for a while before cooking them and they will disgorge the dirt. Don't like to think about cooking shellfish really. Vegetarianism is well on the way.
TWO SMALL HAPPINESSES TODAY
I walked into Eltham today. As I walked down the final hill I met a young man dressed in shorts and T-shirt, carrying a bag with two rolls in it and with a huge smile on his face. As I passed he grinned and said 'What a beautiful day!". And it is - and this made me happy.
Then David introduced me to a young French girl who had accosted him for money for cancer research and sort of insisted I spoke some French, which I did. And she said I had a really good accent and my French was good. She was probably being polite, but nevertheless it was a boost.
