12 October 2015

La Danse des coques

Saturday morning, Walt went to the outdoor market in Saint-Aignan and bought a kilogram of cockles, called coques in France. He wanted to cook eat them with linguine, garlic, white wine, and olive oil. You can do the same with clams (palourdes or praires), but cockles are less expensive (in France, anyway) and just as good.


We kept the little cockles in the refrigerator for more than 24 hours. I assume they had been out of the water for at least 24 hours before Walt brought them home. The people who run the fish stand at the market drive to Saint-Aignan every Saturday morning from a town on the Atlantic coast, four hours distant, between La Rochelle and Bordeaux. Part of preparing cockles or clams is purging them in clean salted water so that they will expel any sand they contain. Here's a one-minute video showing what happened when I put them in the water bath.



I read on the Internet that ocean water contains 35 grams of salt per liter, so that's the mixture I made up to wash and purge the cockles in. They went wild, if cockles can do such a thing, sticking their feet out of their shells, "dancing" around in the water, and releasing a lot of air bubbles as well as a certain quantity of sand. I added a tablespoon of semolina to the water to give them something to feed on.


And they were delicious cooked in olive oil with garlic and white wine. There's no need to salt them, but a good amount of black pepper and hot red pepper flakes is called for. Cook the cockles first, covering the pan so that they will steam through. As soon as the shells open up, the cockles are done.


Put some linguine or spaghetti on to cook before you put the cockles in the pan, and as soon as the coques are opened use a pasta server to transfer the slightly al dente pasta into the pan with the cockles. Stir it around and the pasta will start absorbing the cooking liquid and become flavorful. Add a lump of butter to the pan if you want, for richness, and some chopped fresh herbs like parsley or basil. Most of the cockles will fall out of their shells, and you can eat the ones that don't with your fingers.

9 comments:

  1. When I was young it would be a real treat to visit Swansea market. We would buy cockles in a light vinegar which were absolutely delicious. I can taste them now...

    Your meal looks wonderful.

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    1. That does sound good. In North Carolina, we used to eat a lot of things more or less pickled in vinegar. The local barbecue sauce for pork or chicken is vinegar too.

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  2. Well, now, I never knew what Cockle Shells were all about... didn't realize there was an actual creature by that name.
    Your video is cool! But, it does make me realize that there was something living there, that just got steamed to death LOL.

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    1. I thought about that. But a lot of seafood needs to be alive when you put it in the pot or pan to cook it. Or you can just eat it alive, as is the case with oysters or raw clams.

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  3. Didn't know the oysters were still alive when you ate them raw...no wonder I never developed a taste for them. Your cockle dish looks relish!

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    1. You can't eat a dead oyster, E., unless it has been cooked before it died. Growing up on the coast really makes you aware of the realities involved in preparing and eating seafood. The oysters we had at L'Européen in August were really good.

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    2. I grew up inland, but my dad liked oyster stew. I think the oysters came from a can and the stew was butter and milk. I loved seeing you and Claude enjoy those oysters at L'Européen (Lewis, too).

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  4. After I voiced my pity for the poor shellfish that were steamed alive in a pot, my husband got this funny/irritating habit of .. when he made lobster .. he would throw it in the boiling water, put the lid over it then make these screaming noises LOL
    He tried really hard to be a ventriloquist but he was lousy .. but made me laugh every time .. hep me ! hep me ! I'm boiling !

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    1. Reminds me of Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall.

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