IAN & SPAIN

Valencia has restaurants that are quite an institution. These centuries-old spaces, which unfortunately are becoming fewer and fewer, are unofficial embassies of Valencian gastronomy and know-how. Casa Carmela, on Malvarrosa beach, is one of them for its history and quality.

Four family generations have kept the business going since 1922. This year this emblematic place celebrates its centenary without changing its recipe one iota. Here they follow the rhythms set by great-grandmother Carmen and that Toni Novo, at the helm since 2011, executes with excellence every day.

The history of Casa Carmela dates back to Valencia at the beginning of the 20th century when the beach was filled with booths for bathers. Casa Carmela began as a barrack that served as a changing room and later began to accompany the service with take-out meals.

The humble barrack later became a small bar restaurant facing the Mediterranean and successive reforms have made it what it is today, a modern corner, adapted to its time, but maintaining all the essence that Doña Carmen devised.

Always with orange tree firewood and only with ingredients from the land, paella is the star dish of Casa Carmela. The Senyoret rice, the lobster paella or the beach lobster paella are the most popular, and the Valencian paella is only made to order.

The rice dish can be accompanied by a large assortment of sea and mountain tapas such as oysters, prawns, esgarraet, puntilla, Iberian ham or a selection of Valencian cheeses, among others. They only work with fresh fish and shellfish brought directly from the fish market, such as Dénia shrimp, beach lobster, clams, Valencian clotxina or beach tellina.

During the last 100 years, its gastronomic offering has gone beyond the limits of everyday life, even appearing in novels such as Tranvía a la Malvarrosa by Manuel Vicent, or being one of the reference places of the most illustrious neighbour of the neighbourhood, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.

Casa Carmela receives 150 guests every day and cooks about 25 paellas per service. Why mention it? Because I highly recommend reserving a table so as not to miss such an enjoyable place facing the Mediterranean sea.

Tellinas or Coquinas, depending on where you live, are commonly known as beach wedge clams and very popular in Spain and they are now in season! They are a species of bivalve mollusc, similar to a clam only smaller, that can be found on the coasts of western Europe and north-western Africa. It usually inhabits the shallowest two meters of coastline and is commercially harvested for food. It is a suspension feeder, which means that it is a consumer feeding on suspended particles in seawater. The shell can be found in colours ranging from olive, through chestnut, to yellow-white and is normally up to an inch wide. In Spain, they are harvested especially in the area of Cadiz and Huelva, but also in some cities along the Mediterranean coast such as Valencia, where we call them 'tellinas'.

This shellfish is simple and quick to prepare and I am yet to find somebody that doesn’t like them, they are fun to eat and my wife refers to them as ‘pipas del mar’ (sunflower seeds from the sea) because they are so moreish like the ever-popular ‘pipas’ en Spain. Once you start eating, it’s difficult to stop.  Fortunately, they are very easy to prepare so they are ideal as a starter especially if you are going to have a heavy second course, such as paella. There are many ways to prepare ‘Tellinas’ but I prefer the simplest way with garlic and lemon.

You will need to calculate half a kilo for say 3-4 people. That should give you a decent starter. But if you do more I wouldn’t worry, they’ll be eaten!

Ingredients:

500 gr of fresh Tellinas - wedge clams - (frozen are terrible, so please don't use them)
5 cloves of garlic
1 sprig of fresh parsley
½ lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Plenty of water
Dash of vinegar

To make sure they are clean and rid of any grit or sand, leave the Tellinas in a bowl of water with a little salt and a dash of vinegar. You will need to keep them in the water for at least 2 hours, changing the water every 30 minutes or so, this will remove any impurities. If you jump this stage or cut it short, you will end up chewing on sand rather than a succulent tasty mollusc and I can assure you it's not very nice.

Peel and chop the garlic cloves and brown them in a pan with olive oil at medium heat. When the garlic begins to turn brown add the lemon, which should be chopped into small wedges, stir a few times and then add the tellinas and raise the heat to maximum and they will open as a result of heat. To help them open, stir them occasionally letting them knock against each other. This should take no more than two minutes, if they haven’t opened before that time, they won’t and should be discarded. Careful, they cook very quickly and hence dry out very quickly. The secret is in the timing. That is it. Sprinkle the chopped parsley into the pan, shake the pan a couple of times and serve immediately. One final piece of advice is to make sure that the tellinas have plenty of space in the pan to move around and open. Make sure your pan isn’t too small or do them in two batches. 

Enjoy!