Damjan and other Maltese artisans

Damjan is one of my surrogate vegetable suppliers. Whenever a specific item is nowhere to be found on the market, Damjan invariably has it. Because he is so passionately in love with vegetables, his produce is always of premium standard and the veggies are always as fresh as they can get. But because he sometimes misses the most basic items – like basil, I only get to visit Damjan’s shop fortnightly or so – which is often enough for him to recognise me but not quite enough for him to remember who I am. So he always gets to repeat the same questions, each and every time I visit.
He asks where my restaurant is and promises to come one day. He repeats the same story about his son – an aspiring chef placed on an internship at the Crowne Plaza in Brussels. Because of the recession, the hotel is down on occupancy so the brigade is not very busy at the moment. I say it gives him more time to learn and he agrees. He then asks whether I’d be interested in buying his olive oil, and I keep telling him that, at his prices, I’d rather buy the olive trees myself thank you very much. He makes his defence, I agree and walk out of his shop spending twice more than I would have planned before entering. It’s always worth every penny.
Last Thursday snails were absent from any of my main suppliers’ shelves. Even the hawker at the Naxxar pjazza took the day off. Damjan of course, had mounds.
We started with the obligatory five minutes of the same old drone, I bought my sack of snails and turned down his offer for olive oil before he even asked. His retort was new this time, and even more interesting than usual.
“We take Maltese produce for granted. See how cheap the snails are?”
You don’t get many snails in a kilo. At first sight, €3.00 is inexpensive but it’s not a give-away price (in recessionary times) either. But one must consider that snail-picking and penning is an artisan’s job - and far from an easy one too. After looking for the gastropods in every nook and cranny of our countryside, snail-pickers will follow a long process before putting their produce on Damjan’s shelves. Penning for instance, will require changing the snails’ diet to pasta and semolina before they are ready to be sold. Artisans abroad are paid big money, while here we get a sack of snails for relatively nothing. If I buy it for little, I can re-sell it for little so who’s grumbling?
Snail-pickers are even at risk of losing their jobs if a new law to exclusively market farmed snails comes into force.
Damjan has a point. Many junk food lovers will favour a €6.00 Mac Donald’s meal to pastizzi - costing €0.30 each. Without going into the merits of what goes into a Big Mac, or for all that matters, the ingredients of a pastizz – little do we know that our national junk food is not at all easy to prepare. Only an exceptionally trained hand can fold the filo-pastry in such a way to shape a pastizz.
We buy a large jar of Maltese capers at €6.00 and we’re right to think it’s not cheap. But each and every caper is picked by hand. How many jars can I fill in an hour? I wonder. I wouldn’t even do it if they offered me double of what I earn (which still wouldn’t be saying much, but anyway).
Each and every sea urchin is fished in apnea, taken to shore and broken in two to take out a minute amount of juice to eventually fill a 200ml plastic container – enough for three plates of pasta. It retails at €7.00 and the price - not the work it involves – is intimidating.
So in a celebratory mood for Santa Marija, I decided to give out three recipes today – in tribute to our very own snails, capers, sea urchins and of course – Santa Marija herself.

Bebbux Aljoli

What you need:

300g snails
100ml Kinnie
250ml Lacto
Salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
6-8 cloves garlic, chopped
Chilli
Mint

What to do:

Put the snails in a container and thoroughly wash them in salty or sea water. Keep refreshing the water until it runs clear. In a pot, lightly fry the garlic and chillies. Add the snails and stir until the shells warm up. Add the Lacto, Kinnie, salt and mint. Once the liquid starts foaming, lower the flame and cover the pot. Stir from time to time. Simmer until the snails inside the shells soften, but not too much.

Pixxispad biz-zalza tal-tadam u l-kappar
Swordish in a tomato and caper sauce

What you need:

500g swordfish (preferably from the neck side – the most tender part), cut in 3cm cubes
600g ripe tomatoes, diced
50g Maltese capers
Fresh marjoram
3-5 cloves garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Crushed black pepper
Salt

In a pan, lightly fry the swordfish cubes and put aside. In a separate saucepan, prepare a tomato sauce by first lightly frying the garlic, then adding the tomatoes, pepper and salt and covering the pan, stirring occasionally until the tomatoes melt. Lower the heat and add the capers. Simmer until the sauce starts thickening. Add the swordfish and keep simmering without allowing the fish to melt. Take off the heat, allow to rest and serve.

Spagetti bir-rizzi
Spaghetti with sea urchins

What you need:

500g Spaghetti
Salt
300ml sea urchin pulp
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Fresh parsley, chopped

What to do:

Soften the garlic in olive oil, in a pan on very low heat. In a pasta pot, bring water to the boil, add salt and chuck in the pasta. Once the pasta becomes al dente, drain through a sieve or colander. Do not rinse the pasta. Remove the pan from the flame, add the hot pasta first, then the raw rizzi and the parsley. Stir and serve.