Recipe: Cockles with Sea Lavender
Good enough to lick your fingers? Let’s just say you’ll want to eat them, they’re that delicious. Both the cockles and the sea lavender come from Dutch waters. Cockles are available all year round, but sea lavender is a protected sea vegetable, which means it may only be harvested from early April to early July. You can replace the sea lavender with samphire if you like.
Preparation
1. Rinse the cockles under cold running water. Fill the sink with plenty of cold water and lots of salt, and soak the cockles in it for approx. 15 minutes. Rinse the cockles under cold running water. Drain.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large wok over medium-high heat. Sauté the garlic, shallots and red chili pepper for approx. 4 minutes. Turn the heat up a little and stir-fry the cockles for approx. 4 minutes, until the shells open. After approx. 2 minutes, add the sea lavender (or samphire). After approx. 3 minutes, add the parsley and butter. Stir well so that all the shells are coated with butter, and season with black pepper.
3. Serve the cockles with the released juices in a large bowl or simply in the wok. Scatter the lemon wedges over them and serve with the baguette.
NB: you can serve this dish for lunch, with drinks or as a starter, but it’s just as easy to turn it into a fantastic main course. Cook 500 g spaghetti according to the package instructions in plenty of salted water. Drain and add it at the same time as the parsley, butter and 75 ml of the cooking water.
Wine pairing
With such a wonderfully fresh seafood dish, serve a wonderfully fresh wine. Verdejo from Spain is just such a wine. Vina Oropendola Verdejo Rueda Bodegas del Jaro is fresh (hello grapefruit!) and has a lovely bitter note. Spain and the Netherlands in a delicious one-two punch!
Also read:
- How to: pairing wine and food
- Your wine tastes a thousand times better in this
- Pronouncing food hyper-correctly
