by Tom Stobart
Alternatively, round-shell clam, quahaug or quahog (from the Algonquin Indian name).This and a very similar species with a more southerly distribution (M. campechiensis) are both indigenous to the East Coast of North America and are found in shallow estuarine waters. These are delicious shellfish. When large (about 11 cm/4½ in) they are known as chowder clams, when smaller (about 7.5 cm/3 in) as cherrystones, and when smaller still (about 6 cm/2½ in) as littlenecks; the last two are generally eaten raw.
Soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria). Alternatively, long-shell clam, soft clam, oval clam or sand gaper. This is another East Coast clam, but occurs on both sides of the Atlantic and was introduced accidentally to the West Coast in the 19th century, probably with oysters. It lives in sandy mud and has a fragile shell, from which it gets its name. This is the best clam for steaming – it is sometimes called steamer clam. It cooks in about 15 minutes.
Pismo clam (Tivela stultorum).The Pismo clam is a very large (up to 450 g or 1 lb) species of hard-shell from the coasts of southern California, famous for making an excellent chowder, but now becoming rare.
Giant West Coast clams. Schizothaerus nuttalli, the great Washington clam, from the West Coast is very large and lives 60 cm (2 ft) deep in muddy sand; it makes an excellent chowder. It is commonly confused with the Giant saxidome (Saxidomus giganteus) which is found all the way from the Aleutians to San Diego. Another large West Coast clam with a strange Indian name, is the geoduck (Panope generosa), which may weigh over 2 kg (4½ lb).
Eastern surf clam (Spisula solidissima). A large clam 18 cm (7 in) with a smooth, tan coloured, oval shell. This clam is found from Maine to South Carolina and is the clam most common in the US. It is too big to eat raw and is best minced in clam chowder.
[Clam – French: palourde German: essbare Muschel Italian: vongola verace Spanish: almeja, telina]
CLARIFYING and CLEARING. Clarifying, as applied to fats rendered from meat or chicken, consists of washing out the impurities. This can be done by boiling the fat for a few minutes with a largish volume of water, pouring it off the top into a basin, letting it cool, refrigerating it until solid, then removing and cleaning the underside of the fat. If the fat is still not clear enough, repeat the operation. There are also gadgets which enable liquid fat or oil to be separated from water. Clarifying, as applied to butter or margarine, consists of heating the butter (preferably unsalted) or margarine until all the solids come down as a sediment which can be strained out with muslin. Indian clarified butter, ghee, is cooked over a low heat for longer until it gets a special nutty taste.
Clarifying is also used synonymously with clearing when applied to things like wine and aspic. Two techniques are used. In the first, a substance is added which dissolves or changes the substance causing the cloudiness. This is done with wine when an enzyme, a pectinase, is added to remove cloudiness caused by pectin. The second, and more usual, technique is to add something which will bring down the offending cloud to the bottom of the vessel. With wine, this is known as fining. In the kitchen, we are mostly concerned with clearing stocks and aspic. Details of the methods are given under these headings.
[Clarifying – French: clarifier German: abklaren Italian: chiarificare Spanish: clarificar]
CLARY. A labiate herb (Salvia sclarea), native to southern Europe and closely related to sage. As a culinary herb, it was more used in the past than today; it is bitter and aromatic, and can be used fresh or dried in omelettes, or for any other purpose if you like it.
[Clary – French: orvale, sauge sclarée, toute-bonne German: Schlarlachkraut, Muskateller-salbei Italian: erba moscatella Spanish: amaro, esclarea]
CLEARING. See clarifying.
CLEMENTINE. See orange.
CLOTTED CREAM, Devonshire cream or Cornish cream. This delicious thick cream, with its characteristic ‘boiled-milk’ taste, was made from the rich milk of Devon cows on lush pastures, and was at one time used on farms in south-west England as others use butter. Clotted cream is about 60% fat – the legal minimum is 55%. It was traditionally made in special, shallow, glazed earthenware pans holding about 9 It (16 pt) of milk. The milk was strained into these pans while still warm from the cow. Sometimes a little water was added to help separate the cream, and the pans were then put into a cool dairy, where the cream would rise. In summer, this would take 12 hours or less but in winter 24 hours, even more, would be needed. After this, the pans were moved very carefully (so as not to disturb the cream) on to the back of the stove, or put over hot water, to raise the temperature to 80-85°C (176-185°F) over a period of about half an hour, and certainly not less than 20 minutes. The cream is ready when a ring the size of the base of the bowl appears on the surface.(For amateurs it is best to heat the pan over hot water, if the heating is done too quickly, the cream goes greasy and lacks the special, delicious taste.) The pan was then cooled quickly and the cream removed. Naturally, the yield of clotted cream would depend on the richness of the milk. Jersey milk gave more than would the now common Friesian milk. Clotted cream made from machine-separated milk lacks some of the fine flavour, but is still good with home-made raspberry jam and Devon splits.
CLOVES. With black pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg, cloves rank as one of the world’s most important spices. Cloves are native to the ‘Spice Islands’ of South East Asia (and were traded into Europe even in Roman times), but in the 18th century, plantations were established in many other tropical countries, notably Zanzibar (now the most important producer), Madagascar and the West lndies. The tall evergreen clove trees (Eugema aromatica) flourish only near the sea. Cloves are the flower buds, picked when they are pink and spread out to dry on mats. They contain an essential oil (eugenol), which is powerfully antiseptic and has a preservative action. Cloves are well known in pickle spice, hot bottled sauces and chutneys, and are stuck into an onion for bread sauce. They go into apple pie, mixed spice and the caramelized brown-sugar glazing for boiled bacon and pork. A little less well known is the clove in beef stock, or in a stew, where it gives a richness without being identified. Used wrongly, clove flavour is crude – a reminder of the dentist (who uses clove oil as a penetrating antiseptic). It should be used with care (and that may mean using no more than a tiny crumble of the clove head) so that it becomes part of the background. As a flavouring, cloves are best when kept below the level of recognition.
[Clove – French: clou de girofle German: Nelke Italian: chiodo di garafono Spanish: clavo]
CLUSTER BEAN. See gaur.
COAL FISH. See cod.
COATING. Food to be fried is coated with egg and breadcrumbs, batter, flour, oatmeal, egg white and so on. There are two important considerations whatever coating is used: that it should stick to the food being coated, and that it should not be thick and stodgy. Reasons for stodginess include having too thick a batter, pressing the breadcrumbs on to the egg instead of shaking them off, or using fine toasted breadcrumbs instead of coarser untoasted ones. As to adhesion, if food is wet and the least bit slimy – whether it is fish or meat – then egg will not make a sufficiently intimate contact for it to stick. The surface must be lightly floured first. Egg should be beaten a little and may be thinned with a little milk or water so that it does not form too thick a layer. The very lightest batter coating is made on the food, not separately in a bowl. For instance, food may be simply dipped in flour or cornflour and then in egg diluted with milk, or in white of egg diluted with a very little water. After coating, the food should go quickly into hot fat and not be left to go soggy. If the coating is to keep fat from soaking into the preparation, then a quick dip into egg white is often sufficient. An interesting batter for coating is the Indian one made simply of water and *besan flour with salt and some spices. The Chinese usually make batter of egg and cornflour.
COB. See hazelnut.
COCA. The chewing of coca leaves, which contain the alkaloid cocaine, is traditional in the Andes and nearby parts of the Amazon basin, where the plant (Erythroxylon coca and other species) grows wild. Coca ch
ewing was common amongst the ancient Incas, and Pizarro found it in general use in 1553. The effect of cocaine is highly stimulating (as we know from Sherlock Holmes), and it enables its users to travel or to work for long periods without food. Coca chewers, who consume some 25-50 g (1-2 oz) per day, get hooked on the habit, become addicts and run the risk of sickness, even death, from anorexia, as the drug destroys the appetite for food. Coca leaves are not used outside the tropical areas where the plant can be grown – after picking, the drug is rapidly lost. As a masticatory, like *betel leaves, coca leaves are chewed with lime or wood ash. Coca is mentioned here in case it might be confused with the *cola nut, which is used in soft drinks.
COCHINEAL. A natural food colouring first brought to Europe in 1518, cochineal is made from the dried bodies of the female cochineal bug, as also are artists’ carmine lake. The insect (Coccus cacti) is a native of Central America. It is bred in specially grown plantations of cactus (e.g., on Tenerife). The cochineal bug is one of the scale insects, a close relative of the mealy bug that infuriates gardeners, of the kermes scale insect (Coccus ilicis), which also produces a colouring, and of the lac insect, which produces lac for lacquer. The extraordinary thing about these scale insects is that the female, who starts as a normal, active, girl insect, goes peculiar as soon as she is fertilized, attaches herself permanently to the food plant, loses her limbs, swells and changes shape until she looks just like a gall, a mere part of the plant itself. There is nothing in outward appearance to suggest that she is an insect, which is why both cochineal and kermes were originally thought to be of vegetable origin.
To make cochineal, the scale insects are brushed off and either heated for a moment on trays in an oven or dunked into boiling water before being thoroughly dried. The result is in the form of greyish grains which can later be pulverized and extracted to give the bottled cochineal essence that is familiar in the kitchen. It is said to be tasteless, but as a child I did not think so.
[Cochineal – French: cochenille German: Koschenille Italian: rosso di cocciniglia Spanish: cochinilla]
COCKLES. Heart-shaped bivalves with thickly ribbed shells. In some species, the ribs are ornamented with knobs or spines. Several species of cockle, including the Common cockle, Cerastoderma edule, and Acanthocardia aculeato (spiny), A. Echinata (prickly), and A. tuberculata (tuberculate), are found commonly round the coasts of Britain and Europe. Cockles were an important food in the past; witness the following written over I00 years ago. ‘A crowd of the more youthful description of peasantry are collected every spring tide to gather Cockles on the sands by daylight when the tide overruns. The quantities of these shellfish thus procured would almost exceed belief; and I have frequently seen more than would load a donkey collected in one tide by the children of a single cabin. They form a valuable and wholesome addition to the limited variety that the Irish peasant boasts at this humble board; and afford children, too young for other tasks, a safe and useful employment.’ One wishes that the beaches were as clean and wholesome these days.
All cockles live buried in sand, usually around low tide mark. They are therefore liable to be gritty unless allowed to clean themselves in clear seawater, or water with some salt added (100 g/4 oz per 4 lb/7 pt) for several hours, after first washing them well in several waters and scrubbing each one with a hard brush. Throw out any that are broken or do not close tightly when handled. Cockles are often eaten raw or roasted on a stove top until they open; they are popularly seasoned with pepper and vinegar, and accompanied by buttered brown bread. They may be opened like mussels, by putting them in a saucepan with a dash of water and, with the lid on tight, heating and shaking the pan. As soon as they open, they are done. Like other shellfish, overcooking will make them tough. Cockles are sometimes covered with sauce or cooked in more elaborate ways. They are also canned.
[Cockle – French: coque German: Herzmuschel Italian: cuore edule, cocciola Spanish: berberecho]
COCOA. The cocoa bean, from which *chocolate is made, contains an unpalatable amount of fat. In Holland, Conrad van Houten, following his early work in pressing out part of this fat to make an improved drinking chocolate (1828), went on to treat drinking chocolate with an alkali which darkened it and destroyed part of the flavour, but saponified the fats, leaving traces of soap. This is cocoa. It blends more easily with milk but has not the fine taste of a good drinking chocolate.
[Cocoa – French: cacao German: Kakao Italian: cacao Spanish: cacao]
COCONUT palms (Cocos nucifero) lean out over tropical beaches in both the Old and New Worlds, and nobody knows whether they got there through the nuts being carried on ocean currents or by the agency of man. Indeed, it is not absolutely sure that South East Asia was the coconut’s original home, though it probably was. Certainly it is in parts of southern Asia that it is most important in cooking. Coconuts do not only grow on the coast; in many places, there are plantations hundreds of miles inland, but the palms prefer sandy soil. There are many cultivated varieties.
Coconut juice. Unhusked green nuts are opened by cutting off the top with a sharp machete or panga, and the juice, which is always cool and pure, is drunk straight out of the nut. This is a welcome and life-saving drink for travellers in the tropics. It should not be confused with the heavy, sweet liquid (milk or cream) that is contained in ripe coconuts.
Unripe or green nuts. The flesh of unripe coconuts is gelatinous and may be scraped off the inside of the nut after you have drunk the juice. There are a few recipes for its use in puddings.
Toddy. The coconut palm, like several other species of palm, is often tapped for its juice. The flowering shoots are cut off and earthenware pots are hung to catch the sap, which flows copiously. In the hot tropical sun, sap caught during the day has usually fermented by the evening. That caught during the night may have only just started to turn. Unfermented juice is a pleasant drink, much liked by teetotal Hindus. During prohibition in India, it became common to put preservatives in the catching pots to prevent natural fermentation. Drinking toddy was illegal. In fact, toddy is usually a crude, sour drink and has a very unpleasant smell on the breath. It is used sometimes instead of brewer’s yeast in Indian cooking, and gives a distinctive and unusual taste to the South Indian rice preparations leavened with it.
Palm sugar is made by boiling down the juice (See sugar).
Choosing coconuts. A good coconut is heavy, and you should be able to hear the juice when the nut is shaken. If the nut has dried out or leaked, it may be bad. lt is also important that the eyes should be dry and not smell mouldy, as they are the weak point in an otherwise impervious shell and the point of entry for spoilage organisms. In particular, beware of nuts with fibre still covering the eyes. It may hide the mould.
Opening the nuts. Pierce two of the eyes with a skewer. Drain out the liquid into a glass. Now hold the nut horizontally in both hands and bang it down hard on one of its three ridges against a stone or a concrete floor. It should split into two halves. If you want to free the kernel, after draining and before splitting put the nut in a hot (200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6) oven for 20 minutes and bang it all over.
Shredding the nut. In countries where coconut is much used in the cooking, there are devices available for scraping shreds out of the shell. For occasional needs, it is enough to remove the flesh, pare off the thin brown skin, and grate or liquidize the flesh. A medium nut gives 3-4 cups of grated coconut.
Keeping nut pieces fresh. A trick from fairgrounds: put the nut pieces in the liquid you drained from the nut and keep in the refrigerator. After all, it is this liquid that keeps the nut fresh till you open it.
Desiccated coconut. Modern desiccated coconut is a high-quality product made by shredding the coconut and drying it in a vacuum at 70°C (158°F) for an hour. The result has none of the slight rancidity of the sun-dried nut. It is sold in flakes of varying fineness. It can be more finely ground by giving it a whirl in a coffee grinder. Although it lacks some of the delicate flavour of the fresh nut, desiccated cocon
ut commends itself for being cheap and easy to use (500 g or 18 oz roughly equals 3 nuts). Desiccated coconut will keep in a closed jar in the refrigerator for several weeks without drying out.
Coconut milk and coconut cream. Not to be confused with the juice of the nuts. It is necessary for many Indian and South East Asian dishes. Boiling water is poured over grated (or desiccated) coconut and left to cool somewhat before the milk is squeezed out with the hands or in a cloth. A thinner milk is made by pouring a second lot of boiling water over the partly-spent nut shreds. For thick milk, take 2 cups of boiling water to 1 cup shredded nut (gives 3 cups). Half that amount of water makes thick cream (but naturally it depends on the size and quality of the nut). It is best to err in making it thick and thinning it down later with water or second pressing thin milk. A somewhat improved yield can be obtained by using a liquidizer. ‘Cream of coconut’ and ‘coconut cream’ are names given to several products, sold in cakes or frozen, which may be used to make coconut milk. Both coconut milk and coconut cream are also canned. Such products should never be used if they taste rancid.
Fish Molee
Molees are essentially dishes from the coconut-growing areas of India but are enjoyed everywhere in that country. Heat a little cooking oil in a pan and add to it in turn 1 large chopped onion, 4 cloves chopped garlic, 3-4 chopped green chillies and a 2.5 cm (1 in) piece of fresh ginger, chopped. The mixture should not be allowed to brown but should cook gently until the onion is soft. Allow the pan to cool slightly to avoid burning the spices which are now added: 1 teaspoon ground turmeric, I pinch red chilli powder (to taste), 4 cloves, 4 cardamoms and a 2.5 cm (1 in) cinnamon stick. Fry for 30 seconds, mixing the turmeric into the oil, then add, little by little, 2-3 cups thick coconut milk (from I grated coconut), letting it amalgamate into a sauce. Cook this for a further 15 minutes uncovered, without letting it boil. Put in the fish fillets and shake the pan to cover them with the sauce. Continue to cook without boiling until the fish is ready. (Add some thin coconut milk if the sauce becomes too dry.) Adjust the salt and add a few drops of lemon juice if it is needed. Sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves, if you have them, and serve with rice.