What we learned last week: Brace of Dab

Who knew that "brace of dab" means a pair of dab, dab being a small flat fish like plaice. You can eat a brace of dab at St. John's (www.stjohnrestaurant.co.uk), a couple of exotic London restaurants that specialize in meat and fish and aim to use all of the animal. So you can have brains, head, cheek, wild duck, dab and some really mean desserts. The pig's cheek was out of this world. Worth trying and it's not that expensive, but an extremely bad place for vegetarians. The wine list is unusual and mostly French. I'd call this restaurant "historically informed cuisine", aka HIC. Two locations, Smithfield and Spitalfields, both in the City.

A bad sign...

You know you've lived too long in Britain when you contemplate ketchup on toast and aren't totally horrified by the idea.

Italian supermarkets = heaven

A couple of us pigs went on a four-night jaunt to Venice and instead of staying in a hotel, rented a cute little apartment in the Castello area (authentically Venetian with only a few brave tourists, crumbling buildings and grafitti-smattered streets). The place was delightful and had a full kitchen. Armed with Italian language skills and culinary know-how, we decided to pig out at the grocery store and cook all our own meals. They usually added up to less than half the price of what if might have cost in a horribly over-priced Venetian restaurant.

One night we had a smattering of antipasti, such as bresaola, mortadella, prosciutto, olives, mozarella (latte di bufala), sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and fresh bread from the bakery down the street. A tip on mortadella - always try to get it as thinly sliced as possible, like tissue paper, so that it practically melts in your mouth.

On the same evening, we had a first course of a mix of ravioli, some filled with radicchio and prosciutto, others with pumpkin, both specialities of north-eastern Italy. With little morsels already that tasty, just a simple sauce of prosciutto barely fried in olive oil and single cream (plus a dash of pepper) is necessary. To round out the meal, we split a thin beef steak.

The following night was shellfish heaven. After we'd sampled leftover antipasti, we scarfed down big bowls of spaghetti alle vongole (clam sauce pasta) and shared a bowl of steamed muscles (just with a bit of lemon). We'd bought the clams and muscles at the local fishmonger. Spaghetti alle vongole is my favorite pasta ever. All you do is fry a bit of garlic in olive oil, add a cup or so of white wine, let it reduce, and then add the whole clams and cook until they all open up. Remove any that don't. Finally, add chopped parsley, a tiny bit of salt and generous pepper and serve with the spaghetti. Words do not describe the joy this dish brings me.

Monday night we wanted clams again, but because no one fishes on Sundays, there is no fishmonger on Mondays. Tragic. So we ate potato and pumpkin gnocchi with the prosciutto and cream sauce again with steamed romanesco broccoli as a side and another thin beef steak to split. Romanesco broccoli is pretty hard to find, by the way, outside of Italy. It's a cross in taste between cauliflower and broccoli and is chartreuse in color. But the best part about it is it's construction. A beautiful thing.

Verdict = When in Venice, cook your own.

A Carew Piggie Favorite: Fishy pasta

We piglets have some clear favorites when it comes to quick, easy, and absolutely delicious dinners. This pasta shouldn't take you more than a half hour to make from start to finish. We tend to have a freezer chock full of frozen seafood and just take out a selection an hour or two ahead to defrost, but you can also run them under cool water for 20 minutes. This is a variation of one of my favorite dishes of all time - spaghetti alle vongole - but with not just vongole (Italian for clams). In Sicily I noticed that they often make this with several different types of seafood and as a garnish sprinkle pistachio powder on top. We just finished our little bag of it which cost €4, but it was heavenly and deep green because it grows on the slopes of Etna.
Spaghetti al fishy
Serves 4.
Selection of seafood of choice: clams (in brine or raw in shells), shrimp (raw), calamari (raw), mussels (raw in shells)
1/2 cup clam juice if you don't use clams in brine
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil
approx. half cup white wine
parsley, finely chopped (as much as you like, but don't overdo it)
two tomatoes, or so, chopped pretty small (you could also not use tomato at all, your choice. If you go this route, just make sure you have a bit more juice and wine to have a sauce to cover the pasta.)
pepper
pistachio powder to garnish (you could just mash up some whole pistachios)
1 lb spaghetti

How it's done:
Fry the garlic in the olive oil a tiny bit (don't let it brown!) and then add the clam juice and the wine and reduce by half. (I really wouldn't follow this scientifically because we only work from recipes when we bake!) Add the tomatoes and cook on medium for a few minutes, stirring frequently to turn it into a nice sauce. Don't overcook - it ruins the flavor. Add the seafood in the order of time each needs to cook and again, don't overcook, especially the shrimp because they dry out. If the clams are in brine, they are already cooked and can go last just to warm them up. Finally add parsley and pepper. You probably won't need salt if you used clam juice/brine. Cook the pasta to al dente and mix it all together when done. And remember: DON'T PUT CHEESE ON IT. IT'S FISH. (I think only tuna or possibly salmon can go with a dairy product.)

Thank you. Si mangia!

Cuban love

I don't think this has much to do with Cuba, but we'll begin this blog with what we ate last night. Dinner was ARROZ A LA CUBANA which is a very simple combination of the following: mound of rice with tomato sauce on top, a couple of sausages, a fried egg and steamed veggies. It didn't look like this last night, but arroz a la cubana is for your inner child. And for dessert? CAROB BROWNIES WITH ICING! Carob is a wicked chocolate substitute {okay, you purists, nothing can substitute chocolate} and these brownies have raisins and walnuts instead of chips. However, I think hunting down carob chips (like chocolate chips) would be totally worth it. I bought a jar of carob powder (looks like cocoa powder) in Sicily last year and realized it was time to start using it. The trees grow all over in Sicily and you eat the dried pods. The icing is a mix of cream cheese, carob powder, powdered sugar and vanilla. If you want the recipe, it's from Moosewood. Delish.

What's eating us?

Well, here are the Carew Pigs in a new format. We didn't much like the old blog because it was annoying, so we've moved here to Pig me up. (old blog: www.xanga.com/fourlittlecarewpigs) And anyway, we're not four pigs anymore, just three, so we decided to stop living a lie. Welcome to our little temple to food and we hope it inspires you to cook more at home, eat more, and just generally fantasize about food like we do ALL THE TIME. Mmm... The Carew Piggies have culinary expertise in Spanish, Italian and Persian food. I know, you're drooling already. Enjoy!