Catching a Rainbow

Give me my scallop-shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope's true gage;
And thus I'll take my pilgrimage...
The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage

Sir Walter Raleigh

With that poem begins one of the most awaited seasons of the year, not climatic but gastronomic, the Scallops or perhaps the better known, Coquilles St Jacques!
It is not unusual in France for their arrival to attract banner like announcements in the papers such as,
“They have arrived!”
People stop in the street and discuss what the coming season is going to be like: will there be enough, are they going to be more expensive than last year, but most of all, ‘when will they arrive.’
In the region of Brittany in which I live, nothing is anticipated quite like the first Coquilles St Jacques of the year, fairs being organised to celebrate this wonderful harvest from the sea.
Coquille St Jacques, as with other shellfish are not generally popular in England, we seem to find mussels, oysters and other shellfish somewhat daunting and yet, they are what the British want to eat when they come to Brittany on holiday.
France not only produces, but also imported 7840 metric tons of scallops in 2007 alone, including 60% of the UK catch . In the UK during 2007 nearly 18,500 tons of scallops were landed grossing £32,000,000 for the fishing industry, but so few are eaten by the inhabitants.
It is a sad fact that very few children in Britain will taste the wonderful sweet flavour of fresh Coquilles St Jacques and although the sale of frozen scallops has increased two fold in the past ten years, the availability of good fresh scallops, away from the coasts is still abysmal for a country surrounded by the sea. As a nation, unlike the French, we have not grown up with shellfish as part of our diet and our lives are poorer for it.


HISTORY:

The name Coquilles St Jacques is so recognisable; it transcends language barriers, being known as Coquille St Jacque in other tongues apart from French. Even in Britain the name Coquille St Jacque is more recognisable to most than the mundane scallop. The shell is the archetypal shape for a seashell, and the one most easily recognisable by adults and children alike.
The scallop shell is the traditional emblem of Saint James the Great, better known as James an apostle of Jesus or St Jacques in French. The shell is worn by pilgrims following the route to the shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.
More commonly known as Santiago, which is Spanish for St James, was named after the apostle who some believe spent time in Galicia, spreading Christianity. His connection to scallop shells comes from myth and legend and is derived from two similar stories.
In 40AD, James returned to Judea to continue his ministry, which was not long lived; he was put to death by King Herod Agrippa four years later. Following James’s execution, the king refused to give permission for the body to be buried and during the night friends removed the corpse and sailed for Spain, his final resting place.
The first story tells of James wading out into the sea and rescuing a fallen knight who had become unseated from his horse. When the knight emerged from the water he was covered in scallop shells. The other story, along similar lines, attests that whilst St. James's remains were being transported to Spain for burial, the horse of a knight fell into the water, and emerged covered in the shells.
Centuries later a hermit called Pelayo was sitting in a wood, when he saw a strange light shining over the place where James was supposedly buried. Pelayo named the place, "Campus Stellae", or ‘the field of the star.’ That name later evolved into Compostela and hence to Santiago de Compostella or St James- field of the star.


BUYING:

Scallops should, whenever possible be bought in shell, making it easier to tell if they are really fresh. Scallops are heavy. They have a large shell, full of dense flesh and sea water and a Kg of fresh shells will only render five or six scallops. €2-3 (£1.50-2) a Kilo is a good price but in times of poor weather they can increase to €6 (£4.50) a Kg. (French prices)
Shells can be closed or open as most scallop shells will open when brought into the warm but is not a sign that the scallop is dead. They should however close when tapped.
Scallops should never be stored in water and avoid tubs of shelled scallops sitting in their own juice, they are probably defrosted frozen. Frozen scallops are a good second choice and are ideal used in recipes using longer more involved cooking methods, but they should not be stored in water.
Unlike other shellfish such as oysters, mussels and clams, not all the scallop is eaten. In the case of scallops only the adductor muscle or the large off-white meat and sometimes the red or orange roe are eaten. The roe is not always present dependant on the time of year. Although scallops are often sold removed or shucked from their shells, freshness can easily be verified. They should be firm, moist without cracks of fissures and have a sweet pleasant aroma. The meat should be slightly off white. Brilliant white scallops have probably been stored in water, to increase their weight and cost, and should be avoided.
Hand-dived scallops are larger, and more expensive, but taste the same as the smaller dredged variety.


STORING:


Scallops are highly perishable and should be used as soon as possible after purchase and certainly within two days. They can be stored in the bottom of the fridge but as they exude a certain amount of water they need to be kept in a suitable container.
They freeze well.


PREPARING:

How to open and clean a scallop
1. To open a scallop, Hold the curved side up and hinge away from you
2. Insert an oyster knife between the two shells and rock the knife from side to side to break the muscle that forms the hinge. You can tell the scallop is alive for as you cut the hinge the two half’s of the shell try to close and this is an indication of freshness. Scallops should always be bought live.
3. Insert the knife or a spoon between the top and bottom shells from the right side, just in front of the hinge, and cut the muscle away from the inside of the top shell (the curved one) this release the top shell.
4. Open the scallop and discard the top shell.
5. Then scrape off and discard all of the innards except the sweet, white muscle.
6. Do this by gently scraping off the dark innards, starting from the hinge side of the muscle and scraping over the muscle towards the front. You can always pull any bits free with your fingers
7. Properly done, this will peel the innards from the muscle, leaving it attached to the bottom shell.

Cleaning Scallops Part 1



Cleaning Scallops Part 2




COOKING:


Scallops have a delicate sweet flavour which can easily be overpowered by strong spices and seasoning. As with much seafood the simplest methods of cooking are often the best and scallops are no exception.
A favourite method of cooking and one, which only takes a few minutes, is to heat a dry pan until hot, then add some oil,
• Warm the serving plates.
• Open and clean the scallops.
• Carefully dry each with a cloth, so that when they go into the pan the oil will not cool resulting in the scallops boiling in their own juice rather than searing and sealing in their liquid
• Add the scallops and cook for about a minute on one side, without shaking the pan.
• Turn the scallops over and cook for a further ten seconds.
• When cooked place the scallops on the warmed serving plate.
• Add a good sized lump of butter to the pan and when melted and begun to foam and a splash of Noilly-PratTM, give the pan a quick shake and pour the butter over the scallops.
• Grind on some black pepper and a sprinkle of fine Guérande sea salt.
• Serve with a green salad, and fresh bread.
• Sublime with a fruity Muscadet, but not one that is too dry.


Searing scallop video.





OTHER


What are Coquilles St Jacques?



They are bi-valve molluscs, related to the oyster, although scallops have a larger adductor muscle, which is the edible part of the shellfish.
They have the distinction in being the only bi-valve molluscs, which are capable of self-propelled independent movement; which they achieve by rapidly opening and closing their shell thus expelling water at force, and enabling the scallop to move; a natural form of jet propulsion. Scallops use this method to migrate around the seabed their position depending on the season, the tides and the climatic conditions.
Scallops are hermaphroditic, which means they can change sex and it is their sex, which determines if the shell will contain the additional delicacy of the roe or not. A red roe indicates a female scallop; white for male, and it is usually only the bright red or orange roe of the female scallop, which is eaten.
The flesh of a scallop is firm with a delicate sweet flavour. The row has a much softer texture and is less popular owing to its softness.
The Swedish name for a scallop translates as The Pilgrim Mussel and in Dutch Jakobsschelp, which means ‘James shell.’ The French means Shell of St James.


Swimming scallop video.




Fishing for Scallops.


Scallops are traditionally caught by dragging the seabed with a specially designed metal drag net, or dredger. There is however, a market for dived scallops, which are hand selected and usually larger than the fished varieties.
There are two main areas of scallop fishing in Northern France, The bay of the Seine, in Normandy, and the Bay of St-Brieuc in Brittany. In Britain the Irish Sea and the west coast of Scotland are the main areas of scallop farming and more recently large reserves have been found around the Isle of Mann.
In France, which has a far larger scallop rearing industry the rights to the fishing grounds are fiercely protected and fishing for scallops is restricted by a great many statutes. The size and number of dredgers permitted per boat is also controlled. They must not be wider than two metres and have a metal net of interlocking rings fitted whose diameter must be greater than ten centimetres, thus allowing smaller specimens to fall through the net and be returned to the sea bed unharmed. Large boats can drag up to thirty dredgers at a time, but in the Bay of St Brieuc the maximum number permitted is two per boat.
The time permitted for fishing is also strictly controlled and any breach of the regulations results in the fisherman’s licence being revoked and hence his livelihood. The boats are limited to no more than 13metres in length with engines no bigger than 250 hp. They are only allowed to fish twice a week and for no more than 45 minutes at each session. They are only allowed to catch 250 Kg of scallops per fisherman on board regardless of how long it takes to catch them.
The opening of scallops on board is forbidden as is the taking of undersized specimens and the scallops must be no smaller than 102mm in diameter. The open season for scallops is between October and May; the exact date varies from year to year. Diving for scallops is permitted all year round in the waters surrounding Jersey.





References and Acknowledgements.
http://www.sud-goelo.info/
http://www.ouest-france.fr/dossiershtm/coquille/30.htm
http://www.ifremer.fr/envlit/pdf/actualitespdf/20041207Coquille_Saint_Jacques_Bretagne.pdf
http://www.eurofish.dk/indexSub.php?id=3255
http://www.red2000.com/spain/santiago/
http://www.noillyprat.com/default.aspx
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/SI/si2004/20040012.htm
Fete de coquilles st jaques 2006, Cotes de Goelo

Both the mandarin and the clementine have the same nutritional value, indeed they are as similar as two drops of water and have become a mainstay of winter citrus fruits. They are often confused as being the same and often one is sold as the other, which can be confusing, especially when other varieties such as the tangerine and the satsuma are also considered.




• The mandarin orange
The Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata) or simply mandarin, comes from a small citrus tree which has fruit resembling an orange.
Citrus fruits in general, as with so many other fruits, are native to China, spreading throughout Southeast Asia and ultimately the globe since they were first cultivated 4,000 years ago. The name mandarin refers to the bureaucrats and priests of imperial China who wore bright orange robes and who were often the only class of people permitted to eat the fruit.
Although cultivated for over 3,000 years in China, mandarin oranges did not reach Europe in large quantities until the late 18th century. Specimen trees were imported into England from China in 1805 and by the mid-1800s, the mandarin orange was found throughout the Mediterranean. Later the name tangerine was reserved for a specific reddish orange cultivar of the mandarin found in Algeria, but imported into Europe via Tangiers. (The tangerine is a cultivar of the mandarin and not a distinct subclass).
The tree is more drought tolerant than the fruit but both are easily damaged by the cold. There are many types of mandarin, many bred by cross pollination with another citrus fruit. Most citrus fruit trees are usually self-fertile which results in fruit with seeds although some are parthenocarpic which requires no cross pollination, the fruit developing without seeds as is the case with the increasingly popular clementine.





• Clementine
Said to have been found in Misserghin, Algeria by a Father Clement (Vincent Rodier, 1829-1904) over 100 years ago, the clementine arises from a natural crossing of the common mandarin and a sweet orange. Originally thought of as being a cross with the bitter Seville orange, this was proved not to be the case in 2002 by scientists at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research INRA.
Father Clement was working as the head gardener of an orphanage in Algeria when he found a different variety of fruit in a plantation of mandarins. The trees fruited much earlier than the original Chinese varieties and the fruit tasted much sweeter.
According to Louis Charles Trabut (1853-1929) a botanist working in Algeria, this highly important North African variety originated as an accidental hybrid of the Mediterranean mandarin and a willow-leafed ornamental variety. Following his recommendation the tree and the subsequent fruit were named by the Horticultural Society of Algiers as clementine.
Both Webber (1943, p. 558) and Tanaka (1954) two eminent botanists working in the field expressed doubt concerning the validity of this conclusion and more recently, a distinguished French authority in North Africa, has refuted it with convincing evidence. The current thought is that the clementine is of Oriental origin, probably Chinese, and that it is indistinguishable from and probably identical to the Canton mandarin described by Trabut in 1926, who also remarked on the similarities between the two.
The fruit are small, very sweet, and are usually seedless, unless they have been cross pollinated with another type of citrus fruit. The fact that clementine’s are seedless has led to their popularity in certain parts of the world, including the UK and the USA. However, the eating of seedless fruit in regions surrounding the Mediterranean has in the past been frowned upon as it was anecdotally believed to be a cause of impotence, and not in keeping with a Mediterranean lifestyle!




• Satsuma
The satsuma mandarin originated in Japan, more than 400 years ago, where it is known as mikan. The name satsuma is credited to the wife of a United States minister to Japan, General Van Valkenberg, who sent trees home in 1878 from Satsuma, the name of a former province.
There are some 100 different varieties of satsumas in Japan but only about a dozen varieties are exported. Once readily available in the UK, the satsuma has recently become hard to find and has in many areas been replaced by the clementine or the mandarin orange.
The satsuma has a particularly delicate flesh, which cannot withstand the effects of careless handling or vigorous transportation. The uniquely loose skin of the satsuma, which made it so popular with children, as it is so easy to peel, also meant that it was easily damaged and that any such bruising and damage would not be immediately apparent upon the typical cursory visual inspection associated with assessing the quality of other fruits. In this regard, the satsuma is often categorised by citrus growers as a hit-and-miss fruit and has accounted for its rapid decline in recent years.
One of the distinguishing features of the satsuma is the distinctive thin, leathery skin which is lightly attached around the fruit, enabling it to be peeled very easily in comparison to all other citrus fruits.


OTHER STUFF:
The colour of citrus fruits only develops in climates with a cool winter. In tropical regions with no winter, citrus fruits remain green until maturity.
The first common clementine introduced into Corsica was planted in 1925 by M. Don Philippe Semidei in Figaretto, on the eastern plain of the island.
Most mandarins end up as tinned fruit as they are able to stand the processing.


References
http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/clementine.html
http://www.international.inra.fr/press/a_new_clementine_for_corsica
http://asaweb.huh.harvard.edu:8080/databases/botanists?id=100126

Cabbage, one of the oldest of the brassica family is the ancestor of modern day broccoli and cauliflower.
Many varieties of cabbage are found today, but here I will concentrate on the green cabbage varieties such as Savoy, Kale, Curly kale and the Drumhead.

HISTORY:

Cabbage has eaten in Europe for more than 4,000 years even before it became a domestic vegetable. The original cabbage, related to the mustard family, was a large open leafed plant, which has been bread since the Middle Ages by northern European farmers to produce the large dense headed vegetable we know today. It soon became a major crop in Europe being perfectly adapted to a northern European climate, produces high yields per hectare and stores well throughout the winter.
The Latin word brassica is said to derive from the Celtic word for cabbage, bresic. The English name cabbage comes from the French slang caboche, meaning head, which refers to its round form.
Common green cabbages have thick leaves, which are tightly wrapped to form a large dense head. The leaves of the Savoy cabbage are crinkled and thinner than common cabbage, and the Savoy has a les pronounced flavour.
Cabbage, as with other brassicas, has a high sulphur content, which is released whilst cooking and is one possible reason for cabbage having such a bad name as a vegetable, we all remember the smell of over boiled cabbage from school.


BUYING:

As with all green vegetables, freshness is the key to success. Cabbage should always be eaten as fresh as possible, as it has the most to make up compared to others. Often wrapped in cellophane making it difficult to fully assess how fresh the vegetable really is. A cabbage should have large outer leaves left intact as it is these which wilt first thus showing the cabbage is not as fresh as it could be. These outer leaves, too bitter to be enjoyed, are removed and discarded, preferable composted. The inner cabbage head should be bright, firm and feel heavy in the hand. The leaves should squeak as they are removed-a sure sign of a fresh cabbage.

STORING:

Cabbages can be stored for a week or so in a cool well ventilated place, the bottom of the fridge is not ideal as the leaves soon become desiccated, losing nutrients and flavour.



PREPARING:

• Discard the large, dark outer leaves leaving just the tightly packed head.
• Carefully remove the leaves one at a time and remove the central vein running up the middle of each leaf.
• Place a manageable quantity of leaves stacked one on the other in a pile on a chopping board.
• Using a large cooks knife cut across the pile of leaves, shredding them as finely as is possible. The finer they can be shredded, the quicker they will cook and the better they will taste.
• If you wish the central stem can also be shredded, it can be bitter, and is not to everyone’s taste, so many prefer to discard it.



COOKING:

The trick to making cabbage not only edible but a joy is to cook it in plenty of lightly salted boiling water and to cook for only 3 or 4 minutes depending on taste. Once cooked, and it must have some bite left in it, drain swiftly and add to a pan containing melted butter, just foaming. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

OTHER INFORMATION:


Cabbage is one vegetable that does not benefit from long cooking or being ‘messed about with,’ quick simple cooking is preferred.
The flavour of cabbage, which is strong and peppery, is well complemented by any of the following spices: black pepper, caraway seed, celery seed, dill weed, garlic, mustard seed, nutmeg, savoury, tarragon and thyme.
Cabbage goes particularly well with other winter vegetables such as carrots, leeks, onions and potatoes.
Cabbage is an ingredient in certain varieties of borscht, when combined with beetroot. In Central Europe it is made into a soup and is also extremely popular in India. Stuffed cabbage is an East European delicacy. The leaves, which are often used in place of vine leaves, which are filled with chopped meat and rice.
Cabbage is the basis for the famous German sauerkraut and the lesser known Korean kimchi.



RECIPES.


Caldo verde (Portuguese green soup)

Wilted cabbage salad with bacon and cashel blue cheese

stir fried green cabbage

assorted cabbage recipes

spiced Indian cabbage

April’s showers have abated and the Ides of March are long since past, but the end of spring often arrives as a damp squib.
May, a month unable to decide if it belongs to spring or summer, varies from day to day. Driving rain, chill winds and yet on occasions such wonderfully clear blue skies that leave the sweltering days of full summer to shame.
Food is as problematic as the climate at this time of the year, and as one seasonal fare comes to an end so another falteringly begins.

The mainstays of winter fruit, apples and pears have had their day, stored since last autumn when they were plucked from orchards all over France. Their end is nie; even having been stored in a protective suffocating atmosphere cannot prevent their slow inevitable demise.


Oranges seem to have shrunk from within and the bittersweet juice of last summer is but a memory.
Strawberries arrive early in the month, far too early; and without enough sun are bland and tasteless as the monstrous greenhouses in which they are forced.
The first cherries appear in the second week of May, expensive 11€ a kilo ($3.80 - Lb, £3.40 - Lb), apparently cheaper than last year but in another two weeks the heat of flaming June will make them worth buying and the price will have fallen to something we can all afford.
Too early for peaches, nectarines and plums and the first melons come from Morocco.
We are graced with new potatoes with their thin skins and pale waxy flesh but broccoli and cauliflowers are coming to an end, and the ever-elusive asparagus never quite seems to appear.






A few stems of tasteless deathly white grass are on offer at the moment but the slender green variety which used to be grown all over France, including Brittany, are but dew on a summer morning, here one minute gone the next.

Rhubarb, a vegetable which the French are not really convinced about, can be found in a few markets and supermarkets but not the fine champagne variety so sought after by chefs all over the world.



Pré-salé lamb, fed exclusively on the salt marshes around Mont St Michel in Normandy is a meat not to be forgotten. The pastures covered by the sea twice a day leave a residue of salt in the grass on which the lambs feed. However, it is reluctant to make an appearance in Brittany and only a few butchers stock this wonderful product.



The Scallop season is over and the water is too cold for mussels worth eating.







The finest Breton Artichokes are still two or three weeks away from being available, leeks are turning woody, garlic is drying out and the onions seem to be sprouting into life forgetting they are on a market trolley and not in the soil.

One could be led to believe that May was a depressing time for the avid gastronome or gourmand…not so. This lack of availability is merely but a pause, a break in the natural cycle of the world, a lull between seasons. This respite has been lost in the UK and USA, with twenty-four hour a day three hundred and sixty five days a year commercialism, consumerism and the feeding of mammon.
Strawberries at Christmas, peaches in January and asparagus all year round, in fact every day of the year every single fruit and vegetable known to man can be bought in nearly all supermarkets throughout these two lands. No wonder people moan and complain that the fruit is not the same as the fruit of their youth; the fruit of their youth did not cross the globe, under ripe, overpriced and unready for anything apart from the bin. But these same people still buy food out of season, still complain and still finance the trade in tasteless food.
I would rather put up with the vagaries of May if it meant that I could taste those first strawberries, bite into the very first green asparagus stems or feast myself on a pot of plump fresh mussels when they are ready to be eaten.
May gives the body a little time to rest, a time to dwell on the wonderful fruits, vegetables and other foods from both the sea and the land, which will all be available in their time and season.
May gives us time to prepare, to dust of the cookery books and be ready for the onslaught of colours and taste, which will soon assail our senses
May is such a great month.
©Copywrite Malcolm Hamilton 2007©