Smoked Anchovies and roasted garlic on toast

There was a Mark Hix recipe in the Independent a couple of weeks ago. It's so simple the word "Recipe" is perhaps overstating the amount of preparation involved. Maybe "assembly" is a better term. I knew it was something I wanted to try. The original article is here:

http://tinyurl.com/fishinmymouth

(or Google "Mark Hix Smoked Anchovies" if you're reading this in the future and the link has expired)

Hix raved about Nardin smoked anchovies, which he said were more like fresh fish than tinned. And having eaten them I couldn't agree more. They're available from Brindisa at Borough, though I'm sure you can find them elsewhere, including on the internet.



They weren't cheap, mind you. £5.50 for 8 large anchovy fillets means this dish is probably best saved for when you feel like splashing out.



It's a really delicious combination. The anchovies had a very pleasing light smokey flavour. And their texture was reminiscent of pickled fresh fish, like a thin version of a rollmops; completely unlike any other tinned anchovies I've eaten.

Garlic Palourde Clams

Picked up some clams at Borough Market today. They were Carpetshells, otherwise known as Palourdes, Vongole or Almejas (depending whether you're eating them in France, Italy or Spain, respectively). I wanted to recreate a mouth-watering dish I has at Tierra Brindisa a few months ago. They called them Palourdes Clams a la Plancha - cooked on the grill, but basically clams in a garlic sauce.


I cooked some chopped garlic in olive oil, then added chilli and threw in the clams, along with a slug of white wine. That was it. Then served them up with some wilted greens I also picked up at Borough. No idea exactly what they were, as there was no label, but certainly some member of the brassica family. Finished off with some nice rye bread.



A closer look at the clams below. Unfortunately the batteries in my camera died, so all the images in this post are crappy mobile phone shots.