CLAM SOUP THAT’S NOT CHOWDER

 

Small clams plus garlic flavor a simple soup made creamy with olive oil and crushed pine nuts. 

I swore, no more cookbooks. But, when a book featuring recipes from every pueblo in the province of Málaga appeared, I could not resist. Entre Berza y Pringá, las Recetas de Málaga Pueblo a Pueblo, by Ana Abellán Ciudad (ColandCol Ediciones; 2023), has recipes for 103 dishes “that speak to us of a culture of sustenance” and tell the story of a region, both rich and poor, that extends from beaches to mountains.  (The author blogs about the food of Málaga province here .)

Of course, I turned immediately to the pages dedicated to my own village, Mijas, a whitewashed hillside pueblo overlooking the Mediterranean sea. The entry I found was for Sopa de Limón con Almejas—Lemon Soup with Clams. 

Here’s a rough translation of Ana Abellán’s recipe: Cook clams in water or fish stock with olive oil, garlic, parsley and saffron. Once the clams open, add the juice of a couple of lemons and salt to taste. Place strips of day-old bread in soup bowls and ladle the soup over them. Allow the bread to soak up some of the soup. Ya está—that’s it. 

The soup is a good example of the traditional kitchen—local ingredients such as clams that can be gathered for free or purchased for little money, combined with the basics of oil and garlic, given substance with bread. The soup varies with the region. Another version from my own village (from the book Gastronomía Tradicional Mijeña by Remedios Valenzuela) calls for potatoes instead of bread. In Galicia, famous for its shellfish, clam soup usually contains fideos, thin noodles. In Las Marismas, the marshlands at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, pine nuts gathered in the region as well as bread go into the soup. 

The following recipe is a slightly refined version of that soup, which might have been prepared by hunters camping out, who could gather pine nuts and clams, but who probably didn't have a lemon at hand. 

A good fish stock (there’s a recipe here ) enhances the soup, but is not essential as the clams make their own broth. The clams can be shelled or not before incorporating in the soup. Unshelled, they make a satisfying clacking noise when ladled into bowls. If serving them unshucked, provide bowls at the table for the shells. For a more substantial soup, instead of beating the eggs into the soup, poach one egg per person and place the poached egg on top of the toasted bread in the bowl before ladling the soup over it.

Toasted bread soaks up the flavorful clam broth.

Pine nuts both thicken the soup and, added as garnish, provide a texture contrast.

The soup is as creamy as chowder, but dairy-free.

Mediterranean pine nuts.

Where pine nuts come from: These are the nuts (actually, seeds) of the Mediterranean stone pine (Pinus pinea). I have a trio of pine trees growing alongside my patio. However, the nuts are fiendish to, first, prise out of the pine cones, then crack and extract the kernels, which must be skinned. It’s easier to buy them! However, the ones at the market are usually imported Chinese pine nuts. 

Clam Soup with Pine Nuts 

Sopa de Almejas con Piñones

Carril clams from Galicia.

Serves 4.

1 pound small clams

Salt

Water

¼ cup olive oil + additional for the toasts

½ cup pine nuts 

2 cloves garlic, peeled

Parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon flour

2 tablespoons dry Sherry (optional)

4 cups fish stock or water

2 eggs, beaten

Sliced bread, toasted

Lemon wedges, to serve

Fill a bowl with water and add a teaspoon of salt. Stir to dissolve. Rinse the clams and place them in the bowl for 1 hour to disgorge any sand in their shells. Drain and rinse the clams again. 

Place the clams in a pan with ½ cup of water. Place the pan on high heat, cover the pan and cook until clam shells open, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Shake or stir the clams if some haven’t opened. Remove clams with a slotted spoon and reserve them. If desired, some or all of the clams can be shelled. Strain the remaining clam broth through a fine sieve and reserve it.

Fried pine nuts and garlics.

Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Add the pine nuts and garlics. Fry them, stirring constantly, until they are golden. Remove the pan from the heat and tip it so that the oil flows to one side. Skim out the pine nuts and garlics. Save a few pine nuts to garnish the soup. Place the remainder with the garlics in a mortar or mini-food processor with 1 tablespoon of coarsely chopped parsley. Grind or process to make a paste. 

Stir the flour into the oil remaining in the pan. Stir in the pine nut and garlic mixture. Cook on medium heat while stirring. Add the reserved clam broth, the Sherry, if using, and the fish stock. Keep stirring as the soup thickens slightly. Cook 10 minutes.

Place the beaten eggs in a blender container. With the blender running, slowly add one or two cups of the hot soup to the eggs. Blend until smooth. Whisk the egg mixture back into the soup. Return the clams to the soup and heat gently. Do not boil the soup after adding the eggs, or it might “break.”

Drizzle the toasted bread with olive oil and place a slice in the bottom of each shallow soup bowl. Ladle the soup over the bread. Sprinkle with reserved fried pine nuts and finely chopped parsley. Accompany the soup with lemon wedges.

More recipes with clams:

Grilled Razor-Shell Clams.

Clams Marinera.

Asturian Clams with Beans.

Rice with Clams.

Clams with Butter Beans.

Fish with Shrimp and Clams.

Wedge-Shell Clams.

Artichokes with Shrimp and Clams.

TAPAS—THEY'RE NOT LIKE THE OLD DAYS

Where are the tapas of yesteryear? The meatballs, croquettes and boquerones al natural? Even that old favorite, ensaladilla rusa? Traditional tapas, the ones I learned to love when I first came to live in Mijas pueblo, were nowhere to be found on a recent tapas excursion in the same town. 

With a friend visiting from the U.S., I made the rounds on the Ruta de la Tapa, the “tapa route,” of 11 participating bars (and a couple of ice cream shops), each offering a tapa and a glass of wine for €2.50 (about $2.95). Each bar served a fixed tapa—no choices.  

We managed to try five bars, enjoying the stroll through village streets and meeting up with others out for the occasion (Tuesdays and Thursdays through August). Of the five tapas sampled, only two somewhat resembled traditional tapas. 

Potato tortilla filled with peppers and mackerel.

Our first stop was Bóveda del Flamenco and the tapa Tortillada de Caballa. It was a not-quite-traditional potato tortilla that was split in half and filled with a mixture of sautéed red peppers and mackerel. Pretty good and the Verdejo white wine, totally quaffable. Good value for €2.50.

Pastry with shrimp.

The bar Tapintxo is a bright, modern establishment, white and glass walls hardly separating the (air-conditioned) interior from the tables outside. The tapa: Pastela de Marisco con Fideos, a brik pastry, dusted with powdered sugar, filled with shrimp and rice noodles in a slightly spicy sauce with a sprinkling of dill. Once the sugar was brushed off, it was tasty, but nothing about it was Andalusian.

Brochette chicken curry.

We doubled back to the Bar Porras, on the Plaza de la Libertad in the center of Mijas pueblo. The Porras is one of only two bars on the plaza (there once were five) that existed when I first set foot in the village (1966). It’s where I cut my teeth on tapas, at the bar and in the kitchen, collecting recipes from the women who prepared the tapas. To its credit, the bar still serves traditional dishes such as pescaito frito, a platter of fried fish. 

The tapa on the ruta: Pincho de Pollo al Curry, a brochette of chicken bites with curry sauce. The chicken was grilled to order and was delicious. But, curry sauce? The white wine was not quaffable. The waiter said, in effect, what did we expect for €2.50? (To its credit, the Bar Porras has some excellent wines, including Viña Tamisa, made in Mijas.

Mijas burro-taxis, heading home.

Wrap with chili con carne.

At Chema’s Terrace we sat at a table outdoors and watched the train of Mijas Burro-Taxis head home for the night after a day of carrying tourists around the village. The tapa here was Wrap de Chili con Carne, a flour tortilla enclosing a mixture of red kidney beans and meat, not unlike canned chili. It was nicely presented, but had absolutely no connection to anything typical of Mijas. (Tortilla wraps and chile are not Spanish.) Switching to chilled rosado (rosé) was a good move. (Footnote: this bar-restaurant is located on the entrance plaza to Mijas in an old building that once was La Malagueña, a pensión where I stayed for a couple weeks when I first arrived in Mijas in 1966.)

Lars tries chicken "Popeye."

Our tapas route finished at Bar Fiesta where the tapa presented was Cilindro de Pollo Popeye, a roll with chicken “Popeye.” Sure enough, spinach was the main ingredient!

My friend, Lars Kronmark, who is a chef-instructor at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, CA., said it was the best tapa of the evening, multi-dimensional and the most integrated. I agreed. It was based on a very traditional dish, espinacas a la catalana, spinach with raisins and pine nuts. The spinach was mounded on a base of potato puree. Hidden beneath the spinach was a chicken cutlet. The spinach was topped with crisp bacon. José Moreno, owner of Bar Fiesta, said tapas have “evolucionado,” evolved, over the years. 

I suppose that, for the Ruta de la Tapa, each bar tries to be as original as possible to distinguish it from all the others. Same old, same old, meatballs just wouldn't cut it. (Participants who get their “tapaporte” stamped by all 11 establishments can vote for their favorite tapa.) Still, I was nostalgic for the tapas of yesteryear!

Spinach with Raisins and Pine Nuts, Potato Puree and Pork Cutlet

Espinacas con Pasas y Piñones, Puré de Patatas y Filete de Lomo

Potato puree on the bottom, a pork cutlet topped with spinach with raisins and pine nuts.

A garnish of crisp bacon and cooked quail's eggs.

This is my adaptation of the tapa served at Bar Fiesta. I used pork loin cutlets instead of chicken. A vegetarian version could be made using quail eggs. (To hard-boil quail eggs, cover them with water, bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes. Drain the eggs and cover them in cold water.)

The classic rendition of this dish is with Málaga muscatel raisins, which need to be seeded. You can use sultanas or any seedless raisin. 

Mediterranean pine nuts.

I’ve got a handful of pine nuts gathered from the tree beside my patio. They are difficult to crack and extract. And, apparently, this year they are scarce, because the ones in the market are a different variety, imported from China. 

Local pine nuts (left) and Chinese.

Makes 4 tapa servings.

For the potatoes:

1 pound potatoes

Salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup milk

Freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon smoked pimentón (paprika)

For the pork:

Olive oil

4 thick-cut slices of bacon

4 thinly sliced cutlets of pork loin

Salt and pepper

Pinch of oregano

Few drops of Vinegar

For the spinach:

14 ounces fresh spinach, stems trimmed

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons pine nuts

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons raisins

Salt and pepper

Garnishes

Hard-cooked quail eggs

Bread sticks or crisps

Peel the potatoes, cut them in chunks and cook in salted boiling water until they are very tender. Drain, saving about ½ cup of potato water (to use in thinning the puree).

Mash the potatoes with the oil. Stir in the milk, salt to taste, pepper and pimentón. Thin the mashed potatoes with enough potato water to make a smooth puree that can be easily spread. 

Put a few drops of oil in a small skillet and fry the bacon until browned on both sides. Remove. Season the pork cutlets with salt, pepper, oregano and vinegar. Brown them in the fat remaining in the skillet. They need only 1 minute per side. Remove

Sauté pine nuts, garlic and raisins.

Wash the spinach, if necessary, and chop it. In a large pan heat the oil and add the pine nuts on medium-high heat. When they begin to brown, add the garlic and raisins. Stir until garlic begins to turn golden. Add the spinach and, if spinach is very dry, 1 or 2 tablespoons of water. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring to mix in the pine nuts and garlic, until the spinach is wilted and tender. 

Potato puree, pork cutlet.

To assemble: Place a large spoonful of potato puree on each plate and spread it to make a base. Place a cooked pork cutlet on top of the potato. (If making a vegetarian plate, omit the pork and imbed a cooked and peeled quail’s egg in the center of the puree.) Mound the spinach on top of the pork and potatoes. Garnish the plate with halved quails’ eggs and bread sticks.

More about tapas:

Tapa-Hopping Round Town  (The Ruta de la Tapa 11 years ago!)

The Tapas Way of Life.

Sevilla Tapas--The Immersion Course

How to Plan a Holiday Party--With Tapas

Gran ambiente con la Ruta de la Tapa

More about Mijas: Mijas sea and mountain, unique destination

TAKING PINE NUTS BEYOND PESTO

If you never thought of pine nuts beyond the ubiquitous pesto sauce, it’s time to take a fresh look at this little nut. In Spanish cooking it appears everywhere that this variety of pine tree grows, from the Marismas of the Guadalquivir (Sevilla) to the upland regions of Murcia and Valencia.

White gazpacho with pine nuts. Serve it with melon balls and crisp croutons.

Several Mediterranean stone pines tower over my terrace. As the weather warms, the pine cones on the trees open and drop the pine nuts onto the terrace. I’ve been collecting them in a bowl, waiting to get a sufficient quantity  to crack them and extract the tiny kernels to use in cooking.

But then, in one fell swoop, all the pine nuts disappeared! No chipmunk or squirrel at work here; I think my grandson snacked on the cache of pine nuts one afternoon!

Pine nuts.

I didn’t really fancy cracking them, anyway. So tiny, they are tedious to open without breaking the delicate little nuts.

Instead I bought pine nuts from the “nut lady” at the market, choosing the expensive Mediterranean pine nuts over the smaller and cheaper imported Chinese ones.

In traditional cooking, a handful of pine nuts goes into the stuffing mixture for chicken or turkey, into meatballs, added to lamb or rabbit stew, with a sauté of chard or cauliflower. They are used in sweets too.

Mashed to a paste, pine nuts flavour sauces, soups and gazpachos.

Chicken Breasts with Pine Nut Sauce
Pechuga de Pollo con Salsa de Piñones

Garlicky pine nut sauce goes with sauteed chicken.

This no-cook sauce starts out like pesto, by grinding together pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. But without the basil and cheese, it winds up tasting more like tahina (sesame) sauce. It’s wonderful on poultry, fish, vegetables, even pasta. While parsely is the traditional herb, use basil if you like.

Toasted pine nuts.

The pine nuts can be used straight, but toasting them first gives an extra  dimension of flavour.

This is such a quick and easy dish. The chicken breasts are marinated and sautéed, then served with the rich pine nut sauce. The sauce doesn’t need cooking, so serve it at room temperature. The chicken can be cooked in advance and served hot or cold.

Serves 6.




For the pine nut sauce

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 
¾ cup pine nuts (about 5 ounces)
1 clove garlic 
½ cup water
 Juice of 1 lemon (3 tablespoons)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Place 1 teaspoon of the oil in a small skillet. Add the pine nuts and toast them, stirring frequently, until they are lightly browned. Remove and let them cool.

In blender or food processor purée the pine nuts and garlic, adding some of the water, as needed. Beat in the oil, lemon juice and remaining water. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the chopped parsley immediately before serving. Serve at room temperature.

For the chicken breasts

3 boneless half-chicken breasts (about 2 pounds)
Salt and pepper
1 clove garlic, chopped
Chopped parsley
Chopped thyme
½ cup white wine
3 tablespoons olive oil

Remove the tenders from the chicken breasts and save them for another use.  Place each of the breasts between plastic wrap and pound it to flatten slightly. Place the breasts in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the chopped parsley, thyme, wine and 1 tablespoons of the oil. Cover and marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes or, refrigerated, up to 12 hours.

Pat the chicken breasts dry. Reserve the marinade. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy skillet until very hot. Add the chicken breasts and cook, without turning, until  browned, 3 minutes. Turn them and brown the other side, 3 minutes. Pour over the reserved marinade. Cook, covered, on a medium heat, turning once until chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and pour over the cooking liquid.

Allow to set 5 minutes before slicing the breasts. Serve hot, room temperature or cold accompanied by the pine nut sauce.

Spoon pine nut sauce over chicken and vegetables.

White Gazpacho With Pine Nuts
Gazpacho Blanco con Piñones

A version of gazpacho, made with pine nuts.

Where pine trees grow, such as in the marismas, marshlands, of the Guadalquivir River basin, pine nuts might be used instead of almonds for white gazpacho. The eggs in this recipe give the gazpacho a silky texture.


Serves 4.

1 ½ cups packed bread crumbs (4 ounces)
¾ cup pine nuts
2 cloves garlic
2 eggs
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons Sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cold water
Melon balls or peeled and chopped pear or apple
Croutons of fried bread

Soak the bread crumbs in water to cover until softened. Grind the pine-nuts and garlic in a food processor. Squeeze out the bread and add to the pine-nuts with the eggs. Process until smooth.

With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil. Then add the vinegar, salt and 1 cup of cold water. Pour the mixture into a bowl or pitcher and add 1 cup more of cold water.

Chill the gazpacho. Add melon balls or chopped pear or apple to each serving. Garnish with croutons of bread fried in olive oil.


More recipes with pine nuts:
Chard with Pine Nuts 
Pasta Pesto
Morcilla with Raisins and Pine Nuts
 

Pine cones, pine nuts.

BEWARE: PINE NUT ZONE

Pine nuts at the source.

I was having a quiet breakfast on the terrace, eating fresh-picked strawberries with yogurt and savoring a cup of tea, when CRASH, a missile hit the deck right beside me, sending shrapnel in all directions. I looked skyward, into the tops of a towering pine tree on the other side of the patio wall, and, there they were, potential missiles just waiting for a strong wind to bring them down on my head.

The missiles were heavy pine cones and the “shrapnel” the scattered pieces of the pine cone and the small pine nuts that exploded from it. I moved my breakfast table from under the danger zone and proceeded to gather the tiny nuts.

If this looks like manna from heaven, let me hasten to tell you that pine nuts are devilishly difficult to extract. First you have to prise them out of the pine cones (yes, whacking them on the terrace floor helps), then crack each bitsy nut, hopefully without smashing the kernel in the act.

My grandson Leo is much more adept at cracking pine nuts than I. The problem, though, is that he eats them as he cracks them.

 These are the nuts (actually, seeds) of the Mediterranean stone pine (Pinus pinea). They are long and slender compared to the smaller imported Chinese pine nuts.

 

 

Mediterranean pine nuts on the left, Chinese on the right.

A recent posting by blogger Dianne Jacob (Will Write for Food, http://diannej.com/blog/2011/07/watch-out-for-ongoing-bitter-taste-from-pine-nuts/ ) warns pine nut fanciers of the taste-altering effects of some varieties of Chinese pine nuts.

In Spain, pine nuts go into a stuffing for turkey; along with raisins, they’re tossed with chard or spinach. They adorn tiny Christmas cookies or are coated in sugar syrup. Where pine trees grow, such as in the marismas, marshlands, of the Guadalquivir River basin, pine-nuts might be used instead of almonds for white gazpacho. Or combined with clams in a tasty hot soup. 

Because I also had a supply of fresh basil, I decided to use my pine nuts to make pesto, that Italian sauce for pasta.

Pine nuts, garlic, ham and basil for anti-pesto.

But, why mess up those delicate little pine nuts by crushing them? Instead I invented  ANTI-PESTO—a quick sauté, some grated cheese (Spanish Manchego, preferably aged, instead of Parmesan), lots of fresh basil. Really easy, so fresh.

ANTI-PESTO PASTA

Cook 1 pound of linguine or spaghetti until done to taste.

While pasta is cooking, heat ¼ cup olive oil in a small skillet. Add ½ cup (3 ounces) pine nuts, 3 cloves of garlic sliced crosswise, and ½ cup (2 ounces) chopped serrano ham. Fry until garlic and pine nuts are golden. Remove.

Drain the pasta, saving some of the cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the pan. Add the pine nuts, garlic, ham and all of the oil and toss. Stir in 1 ¼ cup (3 ounces) grated Manchego cheese. Add about ½ cup of the reserved pasta water. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in 1 cup shredded fresh basil leaves. Serve immediately. 

Pasta with pine nuts, basil, ham and garlic.