26 years ago and when I was very young, I was born in a town in Zaragoza. During my childhood I ate many very tasty things, but today one of the things that makes me homesick the most and reminds me of home is borage. This statement may make many people raise an eyebrow, because they will not be from Aragon -nor from La Rioja, nor from Navarra- and perhaps they have never tasted borage in their lives.
It is one of those great unknowns, and also a great misunderstood: covered in spikes and considered a weed, even many of my Aragonese compatriots despise it as a second-rate vegetable. Well, today at El Comidista we claim it and we bring you one of the recipes that most celebrate this ingredient: borage with clams, served in many of the best Aragonese restaurants.
For those of you who are not new to this ingredient, we could say that it is halfway between chard and thistle, with a fibrous texture and a rather herbaceous flavor, very characteristic. The truth is that it is difficult to criticize its detractors, because it does not do much of its part in marketing issues -its hairs and its weedy appearance-, but it must also be taken into account that, like many other vegetables, most of his hatred comes from bad experiences due to bad cooking.
They are normally boiled in water to the brim, resulting in a vegetable with little flavor and no texture. Be careful, all my life I have eaten borage with potatoes, boiled and soft, and my way of enjoying them was -and it is often- mash them with a fork until they form a homogeneous puree but with some lumps, season it with oil and vinegar , and eat it by the spoonful. For me, an authentic Aragonese delicatessen, but you can understand that those who find vegetables difficult do not share my enthusiasm. That is why in today’s recipe we avoid that long cooking that results in a soft vegetable, and we stay with blanching, a short cooking that results in a chard that retains its flavor, part of its texture, and that obtains a beautiful green color that somewhat compensates for its coarse appearance.
Pairing borage with clams is a very traditional way of cooking them in Aragon, perhaps the finest of its preparations. Before some of you get nervous, I am going to say the magic words: this is not a traditional recipe nor does it pretend to be, it is an interpretation (I proceed to explain the turns I have given it in my head). Starting with the most obvious, they do not have rice: I am not a pioneer in doing so, I have seen them in several restaurants like this, and it seems appropriate to me. I dare to affirm that the rice appeared in the recipe to make it more filling, but it seems to me that what it does is to diminish the role of the borage, which in the end is what matters to us. It is part of the charm of the recipe: elevate an ingredient that is a priori second-rate, and make it a fine and delicate dish.
Let’s continue with the sauce. There are two different approaches in the traditional recipes for borage with clams: the first is a more brothy version to which fish fumet is added, creating a spoonful dish with a sauce that is not too thick. The second has a base of olive oil and a little flour, which creates an emulsion with the white wine and the water from the clams, thick and creamy. I have opted more for the second option, but drinking a bit of Italian gastronomy, of the oil and oil and the pasta alle vongole.
We are also going to sauté the borage in the sauce already formed in the pan -to butter them, as we would do with the pasta-, so that all the ingredients become a single dish and each thing is not left on its own, which is what would happen if we put the borage on the plate and pour the sauce on top. I have not added flour because I think it is not necessary and all it does is make the dish heavier, you can add a little -or a pinch of cornstarch- and instead reduce the sauce less, if you want it to have more liquid.
Difficulty
Finding the patience to clean up the borage.
Ingredients
- 400 g of borage
- 15-20 clams
- 125ml white wine
- 2 garlic cloves
- Chili pepper, chili, peperoncino or chili pepper (optional)
- Fresh parsley
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
Preparation
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To clean the borage: make a cut with a nail at one end without slicing the stem completely and pull downwards, thus tearing off the edges; and then repeat from the other end. Also file with the edge of the knife the hairs that are thicker or sharper. Reserve the peeled borage submerged in water to prevent it from oxidizing.
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In a saucepan with abundantly salted boiling water, add the borage and boil them for five minutes. Then, transfer them to a bowl of ice cold water to stop the cooking.
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In a cold frying pan, add two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, the two finely chopped cloves of garlic, a little spice to taste and two parsley stems, without the leaves. Put the skillet over medium-high heat and heat it up. The aromatics will begin to slowly infuse the oil.
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Two minutes later, when they are very fragrant, add the clams and white wine, raise the heat to high, and cover the pan for two minutes. Meanwhile, drain the borage.
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Uncover the pan and remove all the clams. Let the sauce reduce over high heat until thick. Meanwhile, remove the meat from half of the clams and leave the rest with the shell to serve.
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Once the sauce is thick, add the borage and sauté for a minute over very high heat. Turn off the heat and finish with plenty of finely chopped fresh parsley and the clam meat. Mix and serve immediately, topping off with the shell-on clams.
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