cockles from new zealand

I was in Costco a few days ago to look at something and I came across these small cockles that I'd never seen before. I never buy any processed food there. I don't even buy most of the produces there. I would however check out the fresh meat and seafood even though most of the time, they don't have what I want to buy.


The cockles piqued my interest. When I was growing up in Hong Kong we occasionally eat blood cockles. Blood cockles are one of the most flavorful shellfish I ever experience. In my trips to Asia, I tried to find them. However reading the newspaper that a lot of countries had issued health warnings against eating blood cockles due to dangerous becteria and pollution give me pauses of eating them in these trips. Last year while in Bangkok I took a chance but left me worry. Blood clams is best if you don't over cook them so that further heighten the risk.

In Portland, I can sometimes find very big cockles. They are very tasty and I usually buy 3 and can made a meal out of each.

Seeing these small cockles are from New Zealand I decided to give it a try. While they don't look like blood cockles I was hoping they taste close. At $3.49 a pound does not look expensive. however cockles have very thick shells compared to common clams so the cost by weight is much higher.

not knowing what to expect from the taste I pour a small dash of Japanese yuzu based condiment

i boil them in small amount of water until the shells just begin to open - it is very easy to over cook these little guys and the juice escape and you left with a misery tiny piece of meat; of course you want to save every drop of the liquid

they have quite a bit of sand so you need to separate the sediments in the cooked liquid

after sampling a small batch I decided the best way to eat them is to made a creamy pasta to take advantage of delicious juice; most important is to add in the less than al dente pasta into the cockles juice and let simmer for a while so they soak up the flavors

i made 3 meals of this creamy and cheesy pasta - delicious

I made a point to collect all the spent shells and weight them. The shells weighted in at 3 lb and 6.5 oz. Out of the original uncooked weight of 4 lb and 8 oz, the meat and juice worked out to about 1 lb 1.5 oz. The shells is 75% of the weight while the meat and the juice/sea water account for only 25%.

Here in Portland, I come across large cockles at my fish monger. They have the appearance of a jumbo blood cockle, though they don't have the blood red juice. They are much bigger and 3 weight in about a pound. They are great for making a pasta dish like I did here.

Here is an interest post on New England chef serving big blood cockles leaves me full of envy.