from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Coques - Cockles
Photograph courtesy of Bernard
Spragg. NZ
www.flickr.com/photos/volvob12b/9339728823/
For those new to cockles, they are a member of the clam family and will be on the menu in nearly every seafood restaurant. On a fresh seafood platter, they may be served raw like clams or oysters and when cooked, they may be fried with garlic, served with pasta, cooked in white wine or grilled on skewers. Cooked cockles may also be cut up and served cold in salads, cooked with fish or other shellfish or served on their own with fresh mayonnaise.
One word of warning: in French, the word coque also means shell. So, on French menus, the word coque may also be used for œuf à la coque, boiled eggs or crabe préparé en coque, crab prepared in its shell, etc. With many references to shells on French menus read carefully.
Cockles and Mussels
The song about Molly Malone has become a sort of unofficial anthem of the Dublin
City, Ireland
This statue is a landmark at the corner of Grafton Street and Suffolk
Street, Dublin.
The color and shape
of the cockle’s shell.
Cockle Shells
www.flickr.com/photos/treegrow/38470250434/
Cockles on French Menus:
Fricassée Marinière de Coques Bretonnes aux Pâtes Fraiches- Cockles from Brittany stewed in white wine and served with fresh
pasta.
A nice plate of cockles
Photograph courtesy of stu_spivack
www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/4373648607/
Petite Salade d’Épinards aux Coques et Vinaigrette à
la Noix – A small spinach salad served with
cockles and flavored with a vinaigrette
sauce made with walnut oil.
Risotto de Coquillages
www.flickr.com/photos/marsupilami92/33584640984/
Filet de Saint Pierre à la Plancha et Crémeux de
Coques - Filet of John Dory; the fish. Cooked on a plancha, and
served with a creamy cockle sauce. A plancha or planxa is a very thick iron
plate much used in Basque and southwestern French cooking.
Cockle diggers
The cockles on your plate or plates are
not sea-farmed from birth like France’s oysters and mussels. Cockles are gathered when fully grown, or
gathered wild when young, and then re-sown in areas where there is plenty of
their favorite food, plankton.
Where do the cockles
on your plate come from?
France has its own cockles but not enough to meet even half the local demand. Nearly 50% of the local requirements are imported, a large part from the UK. The most famous cockle growing area in the UK is Penclawdd in Wales on the Burry Estuary. From there the young cockles that will be re-sown, may only be gathered by hand to insure a sustainable source. \
For over 100 years in the UK and Ireland, cockles were traditional pub fare as well as being a seaside favorite, The usual recipe only required boiling in water with salt and pepper. When ready the cockles were sprinkled with vinegar and then eaten hot or cold. With or without with bread and butter. Not any longer as cockles are returning to the British menu with celebrity chefs, Now, like in France, cockles will be boiled, but that will probably be in an herb-based bouillon and the recipes leave salt, pepper, and vinegar behind.
Cockles in the UK.
For over 100 years in the UK and Ireland, cockles were traditional pub fare as well as being a seaside favorite, The usual recipe only required boiling in water with salt and pepper. When ready the cockles were sprinkled with vinegar and then eaten hot or cold. With or without with bread and butter. Not any longer as cockles are returning to the British menu with celebrity chefs, Now, like in France, cockles will be boiled, but that will probably be in an herb-based bouillon and the recipes leave salt, pepper, and vinegar behind.
Cockles are still on English seaside menus.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/
www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/16712796531/sizes/
Cockles in the languages of France’s neighbors:
(Catalan – escopinya), (Dutch - hartschelpen), (German - herzmuschel), (Italian - cuore edule or vuori di mare), (Spanish - berberecho or croque).
Behind the French Menu
--------------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
--------------------------
Copyright 2010, 2017, 2019,2023
For information on the unpublished book behind this blog, write to
Bryan Newman
at
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
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