Seafood chickpeas with clams and mushrooms

On these dates, one month after Christmas, my mother who is very far-sighted begins to buy the ingredients of the Christmas meals, freezing the lamb and the seafood. And it is that the savings buying ingredients before Christmas can be up to 50%, so I advise you to plan so that you do not have to pay astronomical amounts for products that have a decent price the rest of the year. If you stop by a market or supermarket right now, you will find Japanese-style clams at less than 10 euros per kilo, the ones in this recipe cost 8.1 euros / kilo. They are not indigenous to Galicia but they are quite rich in flavor. If you can afford it, of course I recommend Carril clams (fine or slug) although you will have to scratch your pocket more, Christmas has not yet arrived and they are already in Madrid at 18 euros per kilo, in mid-December they will be more than double.

It is curious, but in the 70s seafood in Galicia  was a food of a lesser order , more typical of humble families who, lacking land and livestock, freely collected it in coastal areas. It is recently when shellfish became a demanded product and even began to be cultivated, especially bivalves (Galicia originates almost half of the world production for consumption, of excellent quality).

It is in these autumn dates when gastronomy reaches its maximum splendor. After the very long summer, that season finally comes, when we look for stews and spoon dishes, with the seasonal pantry dominated by legumes, mushrooms, seafood in months with “R”, game and of course chestnuts, with ” their Magostos ”on November 11. The seafood stew that I present to you today is very common in the north of Spain, where vegetables are usually mixed with seafood, such as the   famous beans with  Asturian clams . This type of stew is usually prepared at my mother’s house, with a lot of chickpea and few clams, but they add a lot of flavor to the broth. Also, since I have been in Madrid and Encarna has given me part of his collection of Boletus Edulis  from the Madrid mountains, I add mushrooms to this family stew, raising it to the most divine heights. A dish with a powerful flavor to the sea with which you will freak out, I assure you.

Before cooking the clams

1. It is essential to remove the sand that clams usually bring so that the recipe does not spoil us. It is convenient to have them about three hours before cooking them in a saucepan or large plastic container with plenty of water, a good handful of coarse salt and change the water three or four times. The clams drink and usually drop a lot of sand, do not panic because it is a sign that the clam is of good quality.
2. Try to buy the live clams and cook them the same day that you are going to have the food, although you can also make the complete recipe and freeze.
3. So they come out of yummy I advise you to open them steamed. Those that do not open we will have to throw away, as well as those that are broken.
4. We wash the clams very well in cold water and remove all impurities. We heat a glass of white wine in the saucepan. When it starts to boil add two bay leaves and then the clams. We leave them cooking covered for 3 minutillos and as soon as they are all open we remove them with a slotted spoon. Let cool and reserve in a source. We are not going to throw the cooking water, strain it and leave it in a tupper, to then give the maritime touch to our stew.

Before cooking chick peas

You can find chickpeas as dried or cooked legumes, in cans or preserves and in addition to various sizes and qualities. In this case I decided on a good canned chickpea, I must admit that this type of chickpea already cooked and packaged in a glass jar saves a lot of time in the kitchen.

• The cooked chickpeas must be washed very well without leaving any of the gelatin that surrounds the chickpea and add them at the end of cooking the stew, just so that they are well impregnated with the flavor of the rest of the ingredients.

Preparation of chick peas with clams and mushrooms

1. Chop the onion, celery, bell pepper, leek and garlic. The best thing is that we cut them into small pieces so that they dissolve in the cooking. In the end we will hardly notice any texture of any of the ingredients but its flavor. As many people do not like to find garlic on the plate you can pour it whole and remove it halfway through cooking.
2. We will do the same with the mushrooms (in this case Boletus Edulis, but you can use the ones that you like the most) but in larger pieces, since as they have a lot of water they will stay in nothing and we want them to be seen on the plate.
3. We wash and chop the tomatoes in two parts, better if they are very ripe. We are going to use the grated pulp without skin, as you can see in the photos, so we will have a perfect sofrito.
4. In a saucepan we pour a good jet of extra virgin olive oil. When it is hot add the onion, the leek, the celery and the peppers. We fry everything for 10 minutes so that the flavors mix well. We toss the garlic filleted or if you want very finite and the spoon of paprika from the sweet Vera, we stir everything very well and also fry for 4-5 more minutes.
5. Add the tomato pulp that we have reserved and combine well with a wooden spoon, quickly and over high heat, it will start to evaporate immediately. Season and add the mushrooms, stir everything well so that the flavors come together for another 5 minutes.
6. Drain the chickpeas and add them to the casserole with a few turns with the spatula. We cover with the broth that the clams have released when joining with the white wine. When it begins to boil, lower the heat so that it slows down and does not break the vegetables. I have only used two glasses of liquid and a low cooking time (10 minutes) because the chickpeas were preserved and do not need much cooking. When you have cut the liquid in half, try salt and grind.
7. In the last 3-4 minutes of cooking we add the clams (even if you use a good casserole you can remove from the fire as it retains residual heat). We let the flavors come together and we would have our stew ready to serve on the table.

To serve the best is a deep dish with chickpeas topped with clams and boletus, that easy, with all the flavor of the sea. To lick your fingers!

Be sure to enjoy all the recipes for fish and seafood that we have on the blog, I assure you that you will find a lot of ideas to make yours much happier.