Popcorn Cockles
For those of you who like gathering shellfish there’s nothing better than coming home with a big bag of fresh cockles. Fortunately most people who go after shellfish mostly stick to gathering mussels as there’s by far the most recipes for them, but if you know what your doing them cockles can easily match the quality of any other beach found shellfish.
Today I’m going to share my personal favourite cockle recipe, and not only does it taste amazing but its one of the easiest ways you can cook them, and one of the most adaptable.
The first thing you’ll need is some fresh cockles as the pickled ones from a jar wont work. If your not sure where to find them then check out this handy guide on gathering cockles to see if there’s anywhere near you worth a visit.
After you have a bowl of fresh cockles boiled out the shells and cleaned, its time to grab the following and start cooking:
Equipment:
A Frying pan
A sandwich bag or some kind of plastic tub to shake the flavouring in.
Ingredients:
Any amount of fresh cockles you like as the seasoning goes quite far and is easy to judge the amount you’ll need.
Salt and Pepper
Dried Garlic Powder
Plain flour
Your preferred choice of dried herbs or spices. I normally like to go for a hot spice blend with some kind of herb mix, but any kind of dried or powdered flavourings will work.
Step 1
Put as much salt, pepper and dried garlic powder in your mixing container as you like, then add your preferred choice of dried flavourings and a teaspoon of plain flour and give it a shake.
Step 2
Add about half a cup of cockles at a time and shake the container to make sure all the flavourings coat the outside of the cockles.
Step 3
Heat up some olive oil and drop the cockles through a sieve or colander to remove any extra powder, then add to the oil and fry for about 5 minutes.
You’ll know when they are done as they should be a nice golden brown colour. You’ll also start to get a few poppers towards the end of the cooking, which are ones that pop open when they’re done and jump across the pan.