Mussel Shoals

Went foraging at a local beach for some mussels  - this is the best time of year for them, perhaps because there's not a lot else around over winter! We did have a look for early crabs and lobster but only found juveniles.

The wild garlic has been out for a while now and seemed like it might go well with the mussels. We picked enough of both to test the theory out and it worked a treat. The wild garlic leaves were roughly chopped and wilted in butter. A glug of white wine was then added and the mussels were steamed until they opened. A splash of single cream was thrown in at the end. Served up with homemade bazlama bread (thanks for that recipe Burcu!).

Anyway, we made a short film of it for posterity. The beach isn't actually called Mussel Shoals, but it should be.....

Plancha Bass with Gremolata

You know that spring is really on the way out when the wild sea bass start showing up on the fishmongers ice. A trip to Coakley's at Swansea market revealed the good news – local wild bass, loads of ‘em. One of those for us thank you, tho’ the first of the year's lobster was tempting (or was that a Canadian import?)

The bass was gutted, scaled and scored. Stuffed with lemon slices and rubbed with salt and pepper.

Gremolata
Handful of parsley
2 cloves of garlic
Zest of one lemon
Zest of half a lime
Half tsp dried chilli flakes
Tbsp honey vinegar
1/3rd cup extra virgin olive oil

We chopped up everything that could be chopped. Chucked everything in a bowl except the olive oil. Then blended with a hand blender, slowly adding the olive oil.



We wiped down the plancha with some vegetable oil, heated it to nuclear, chucked on the bass and turned down to subatomic. Covered with foil and left for 15 mins. Flipped and did another 15 mins.

Drizzled on the gremolata and served with paprika roasted potatoes and a glass of frosty Languedoc. Awesome.