April Recipe
Pickled Cockles & Mussels w/ horseradish butter
The original source of this recipe comes from Hannah Glasse's book "The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy" first published in 1747. This edition is from 1777 and printed in Dublin. Niall Sabongi and his masterchef Muireann Mc Colgan reimagined it without much alteration except adjusting the amount, leaving out the oysters and adding horseradish butter:
Ingredients
- 2 kg of cockles & mussels in the shell (or 1 kg each)
- 200 ml white wine
- 100 ml white wine vinegar
- 100 g sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon blak pepper corns
- 2 shallots - finely sliced
- 1 medium carrot - peeled & finely sliced
Method
- Heat a saucepan with a tight fitting lid
- When hot, add the cockles & mussels, white wine and close the lid
- Shake the pot a couple of times
- When the shells open strain off the shellfish reserving the cooking liquid.
- Measure 100 ml of the cooking liquid. Add the vinegar and sugar and bring it to the boil with the peppercorns
- Cool all to room temperature
- Remove the cockles and mussels from their shells and add to the cooked pickle along with the shallots and carrots
- Seal in a jar and keep for up to 2 weeks.
Ingredients for horseradish butter
- 750 ml cream
- 200 g butter at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons horseradish cream
- freshly milled black pepper
- sea salt
- zest of 3 unwaxed lemons
Method
- Beat the butter, cream and horseradish cream in a bowl with a whisk
- When the mix is white and fluffy add the zest of the 3 lemons
- Season with sea salt and freshly milled black pepper
To Serve
Place the horseradish butter into a ramekin and serve at room temperature with a (small) jar of the pickled cockles and mussles and some freshly baked soda bread.