Arroz de Berbigão

Cockles

• 1 kg cockles, purged in sea-strength salted water 1–2 h
• 100 ml white wine, to steam them open

Refogado and rice

• 1 onion, diced
• 3 garlic, chopped
• 60 ml olive oil
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 750 ml cockle liquor + water, strained liquor topped up with water
• 250 g rice (Carolino or Arborio), unrinsed
• 0 a generous handful coriander, chopped
• 0 to taste salt and piri-piri

Steam the cockles, keep the liquor

1. 1

   Purge 1 kg cockles in sea-strength salted water 1–2 h — cockles are sandy, so don't skip or shorten this. Steam them open in a covered pot with 100 ml white wine over high heat, about 4 min, pulling them the instant they gape.

   6m

   Pull the cockles the moment they open; past that they toughen.

   Purging & Steaming Bivalves (Clams, Cockles)
2. 2

   Strain the cooking liquor through a fine sieve and KEEP it — this concentrated clean brine is the best seasoning in the dish. Shell most of the cockles, keeping a handful in-shell for the top. Top the strained liquor up to ~750 ml with water.

   5m

   Tip: The cockle liquor is liquid gold — strain it well to catch the last grit.

Refogado and rice

1. 3

   Build a refogado: soften 1 diced onion and 3 chopped garlic cloves in 60 ml olive oil, add 2 chopped tomatoes and 1 bay leaf, and cook 8 min until jammy and the oil splits out. Pour in the 750 ml cockle liquor, bring to the boil, and taste before seasoning — the liquor is already salty, so go easy, adding piri-piri and only as much salt as it needs.

   10m

   Refogado — the Portuguese Aromatic Base
2. 4

   Stir in 250 g unrinsed rice and simmer ~14 min until tender but still distinctly soupy — work to that ~3:1 liquid-to-rice malandro ratio and let it look slightly too loose. Return the cockles just to warm through for a minute, and finish with a generous handful of chopped coriander. Serve immediately, before the rice drinks all the broth.

   15m

   Return the cockles only to warm through — any longer and they toughen.

   Arroz Malandro — Soupy Portuguese Rice