Going the distance in Alicante
THE way to a man's heart is through his stomach, as the old saying goes - and it doesn't just allude to the cooking skills within a marriage. No, countless generations before us already knew about the stimulating effect of some shellfish, the most famous of which is undoubtedly the oyster.
The oyster, tops the list of shellfish with aphrodisiac properties - although clams, mussels or cockles are amongst the many other more affordable varieties on the same list.
Scallops
Scallops once served pilgrims during the great pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela not only as a symbol but also as food. The shells were used as a natural scoop and drinking vessel, as a plate and occasionally for cutting.
In the north of Spain, on the Atlantic coast, they are called ‘vieiras’ and are confusingly similar to the lighter-coloured ‘conchas de peregrino’ from the Mediterranean.
Scallops are characterised by offering two flavours and textures in one shell: the meat, called ‘scallop’, which is firm and white, and the roe, called ‘coral’, which is soft and often brightly coloured reddish-orange.
Scallops are quite rare, because they can only survive in clean water and have a limited shelf life, hence they are not cheap. Hence, people often resort to frozen or canned scallops, but these are not in the same league as fresh ones.
The pretty shells of the scallops are white to brown and structured like a fan. You can use them to present other dishes or oven grill the scallop in its own shell.
■ Scallops with parsley, tomato and garlic:
Severs four: four scallops per person (vieiras) remove frozen scallops from the freezer four hours in advance, they are usually already clean and cut in half, a bunch of parsley (perejil), 2 tomatoes (tomates), 2 cloves of garlic (ajo), olive oil, butter, salt, pepper.
Season prepared scallops with salt and pepper, coat in flour, and then blot so that only a fine film remains. Fry in olive oil and butter until they change colour. Keep the scallops warm. If necessary, add some more butter to the frying pan, add finely chopped garlic cloves, skinned, seeded and diced tomatoes, as well as the chopped parsley. Simmer for ten to 15 minutes. Then pour over the mussels.
You can also leave out the tomatoes and serve the scallops with just a garlic and parsley sauce.
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Cream of pumpkin soup with scallops:
1 medium pumpkin (calabaza), 1 onion (cebolla), some crème fraîche (crema de leche), 4 scallops (vieiras, fresh or frozen), olive oil ‘virgen extra’, salt, white pepper, vegetable stock (caldo vegetal).
Scrub the scallops under water with a brush, place a sharp knife on the round side and push it between the shells.
Pry the shell open. Find where the scallop's muscle meets the top half of the shell and cut through it, disengaging the top half of the shell from the bottom half, allowing the shell to open. Throw the top half of the shell (the darker half) away once you have cut away the attachment. You now only need the bottom half, which will be holding the scallop.
Remove all of the dark parts of scallop, leaving the white muscle inside the shell. When doing this, you should scrape the innards off the muscle using your paring knife or spoon. Detach the muscle from the shell by inserting a paring knife or sharpened spoon underneath the scallop's muscle and dislodging the muscle from the shell
Rinsing the scallop under water will get rid of sand and other grit. Remove any remaining side muscle
Divide the pumpkin into eight to ten pieces. Pack with the skin in aluminium foil and cook in a 200 degree oven for about one and a half hours. Then take out, peel and remove the seeds.
Sauté the onion, cut into fine strips, with olive oil in a saucepan until translucent, then add the pumpkin flesh and simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes. Pour in some stock and season with salt and pepper. Now puree the whole thing in a blender and, if necessary, season again or add more stock. Pour through a sieve and finally add crème fraîche.
Fry the scallops, seasoned with salt, with a little olive oil in a pan on both sides and then add to the pumpkin cream.
Mussels
These are reasonably priced and very popular. Like all seafood, mussels must be very fresh, i.e. alive, when you buy them. They should exude a pleasant sea aroma and their shells must be tightly closed. If individual mussels are open, you should be careful and knock on them a knife. If the mussel does not close its shell on its own, it is dead and no longer edible. Mussels with damaged shells - and especially mussels that are still closed after cooking - are also discarded!
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The classic way of cooking mussels (mejillones)
Allow for one kilo (with shell) of large mussels per person as a main course; otherwise, about 500 grams will do. In a pot, sauté finely chopped vegetables (leek, carrot, celery, onion), add a little water or stock, simmer for a few minutes. Add wine, bring to the boil briefly, add mussels and cook until they have opened. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and pepper well. They are best eaten right out of the shell.
'Mejillones tigres'
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Mussels are particularly popular in Spain as tapas when they are called ‘tigres’.
To make them, the flesh of the cooked mussels is removed and mixed with other ingredients such as tomato, pepper, onion, pepper and garlic and shrimp. The mixture is put back into the mussel shells, covered with béchamel sauce and once covered with breadcrumbs and butter or olive oil, they are fried or baked.
Clams
■ The almeja or carpet shell clam is a oval with a yellow or grey colour and, five to eight centimetres in size, depending on the variety, the surface is transversely grooved. Fresh 'almejas' are sold wild or farmed, but they are also sold canned or frozen.
The largest specimens are best eaten raw, or steamed with a few drops of lemon. The broth of the ‘almejas’ can be used to make excellent rice dishes or soups.
■ The smaller ‘chirlas’ (Chamelea gallina), which are prepared like ‘almejas’, also belong to this family of clams.
■ Cockles, ‘berberechos’, are best eaten as an aperitif together with a vermouth or sherry. For this you use tinned ‘berberechos’. But you can also find them fresh on the market. They are tasty grilled, steamed, fried or in rice dishes. In Galicia, delicious empanadas are made with cockles.
■ The whitish or brownish Tellina, only two to three centimetres in size, with its uneven, brittle shells, is a shellfish of excellent quality and taste. They are common in the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas. Tellinas are steamed, grilled or cooked in a pan with onions and tomato.
■ In addition to these, there are many other shellfish on the market that are worth trying. For example, ‘coquinas’ (wedge clam), which resemble ‘tellinas’ and are common. The ‘carneiro’, similar to the ‘chirla’. Or the ‘Almeja blanca’. Then there is the ‘Almeja dorada’, which has a pale yellow smooth shell.
■ The razor clam, ‘navaja’, has a characteristic elongated shape, reminiscent of a knife. There are several species, but in Spain two have special importance. The first is the E. ensis (razor clam) with its fragile rectangular rounded shell with a furrow running through it, perhaps the best navaja in terms of taste.
And the other is the E. siliqua known as ‘longueirón’ (pod razer) with a straight, strong shell, which is the most common of the two. The razor clam lives in the Mediterranean, on the coasts of Galicia and Portugal. Most of the catch is processed into preserves. Fresh, the up to 20-centimetre-long navajas are best grilled or steamed. They can also be used in soups and rice dishes. They are sold while still alive.
■ Spaghetti with and clams
Serves six people:: 600 g spaghetti, 2 courgettes (calabacín), approx. 1 kg clams (chirlas), 4 shallots (escalonias), 40 g butter, 1 clove of garlic, 1.5 dl white wine, 1 tsp flour, parsley, 2 tomatoes, salt, pepper
Wash the courgettes, cut lengthwise into slices, then into strips. Blanch the tomatoes, peel off the skin, remove the seeds and cut into small cubes. Steam both briefly in butter.
Rinse the clams several times in plenty of water with salt. Place in a saucepan with a little water, add a dash of white wine, stir the clams and cook at a high temperature until they open. Remove the empty shell halves one by one (discard unopened ones). Carefully strain the liquid obtained through a cloth and set aside.
Peel and finely chop the garlic and shallots and sauté in butter. When they are translucent, add the flour and sauté, then add the remaining white wine, the chopped parsley and the clams as well as the clam stock and the liquid collected, bring to the boil briefly and season to taste.
Mix the spaghetti cooked al dente in plenty of salted water with the vegetables and mussels in their sauce. Serve immediately. vegetables
THE dispositions of the EU 650/2012 regulation on succession are applicable to inheritances with cross border repercussions of persons who passed away after August 17, 2017. Until this date, each country applied its own internal regulations which was normally the national law of the deceased at the time of his death but as this diversity of national criteria lead in many cases to different interpretations the said regulation was introduced to attempt to establish one sole general criteria.
As a general rule, the regulation establishes that the entire inheritance of the deceased is normally governed by the law of the country in which their habitual residence is situated at the time of their death. Exceptionally, a person’s national law can be applied if this choice is made in a legally recognized will or disposition of last wishes.
Regarding the territorial scope of the regulation, it is applicable to cases of succession that have cross-border repercussions or an international character within all of the EU, although there are countries within which it is not applicable such as Ireland and Denmark and the United Kingdom by virtue of the application of articles 82 and 83 of the regulation.
As such, does the regulation permit citizens of the said countries to make a will and chose to apply their national law to their eventual succession?
The answer is yes, the fact that the person is a national of a country that is not a party to the regulation does not signify that the regulation cannot be applied; as the regulation is applicable even when the national law chosen is not that of a member state.
Another doubt that arises is whether for example a British citizen can opt for their national law upon the granting of the will in Spain and limit said will to their assets in Spain.
The answer to this question can be found in articles 26 and 23 of the regulation and will depend on whether, in accordance with the national law chosen, the wills are compatible between themselves.
In the case of a married couple who live, for example, in Spain and who hold different nationalities; can both spouses opt for the same national law?
The answer to this would be no. As holders of different nationalities, each spouse would have to choose their own national law but it would not be possible for them to both chose the national law of one of them. The only option in this case would be for both of them to accept the application of the law of their place of habitual residence, i.e. Spain, so that both wills would be governed by the same law.
The regulation considers that the so-called “profesioiuris” or choice of law is a mechanism that a person can use to organise and plan their future succession by choosing the law that will govern their inheritance with the limits of either the law of the country within which one is resident or the law of the country whose nationality is held to ensure that there is a link between the deceased and the law chosen and to avoid any attempt to opt for the application of a law that could not protect the rights of any legal beneficiaries of the deceased.
The person who makes a will cannot chose any law, for example the law of the country where most of their assets are situated, the law of the country which governs the financial property regime of spouses, in the case of marriage, or the law of the nationality of one’s spouse or partner.
As such, a citizen resident in Spain for example, can only chose the law of their nationality as an alternative to the law of their place of habitual residence to govern their entire succession by means of a legally recognized testamentary disposition granted in Spain.