Oysters, clams, prawns, squid – the taste of the sea
Even though we’re an island nation surrounded by sea, we don’t seem to enjoy our seafood as much as say the French or the Spanish. That’s a shame. Nowadays, it’s easy to find fresh and frozen seafood in your supermarket or your fishmonger.
Clams
You can find these on sale at good fishmongers, such as my favourite James Knight of Notting Hill. As with mussels, look for tightly closed shells. The Italians are very fond of clams, which they call ‘vongole’ (pronounced von-go-lay). To cook them Italian-style, simply fry some garlic in olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan, add in a dash of white wine, reduce it slightly, then add your fresh clams, cover the pan and cook until the clams open. Serve the clams and their cooking juices with freshly cooked spaghetti.
Oysters
The Marmite of the seafood world, people either love them or hate them. Easy to recognise with their large, wrinkled shells, oysters are a luxury. It’s very important to eat them when they’re very fresh, so make sure you buy them from a reputable source such as a good fishmonger.
There is definitely a knack to opening oysters. Wrap one hand in a tea-towel and hold the oyster in that, flat part uppermost. Use a small, thick-bladed knife and push the tip of this knife into the narrowest part of the oyster cutting the oyster hinge, then lever upwards to separate the shells. Pass your knife along the underside of the flat shell to cut the muscle holding the shells together, then discard this flat shell. Carefully, run the knife under the oyster to cut it loose from the lower shell.
Serve the oyster cupped in its lower shell with fresh lemon, Tabasco sauce or finely chopped shallot with red wine vinegar for sprinkling over. The taste of the sea on a plate.
Prawns
You can find a huge variety of prawns:
Raw prawns
Available fresh or frozen, these are the most expensive prawns, but for a reason as, at their best, they are succulent and delicious. Try them in my Pasta with Prawns or my Simple Fish Pie with Peas and you’ll see what I mean.
Cooked prawns in their shells
Usually sold frozen or thawed, these are much cheaper than raw prawns but are still very tasty. Peel their shells off and mix with mayonnaise or salad cream with a touch of tomato paste for a great prawn cocktail.
Peeled prawns
Available fresh or frozen. Fantastically convenient, they lack the flavour of prawns in their shells. Add them to rice dishes or stir-fries, bearing in mind that the longer they cook the more they’ll shrink.
Mussels
Known as ‘moules’ to the French, these are one of the bargains of the shellfish world. Plump and succulent, they have a rich, distinctive flavour. When buying them raw, look for firmly closed ones – a sign of good fresh mussels.
Crab
I love the flavour of crab. We are lucky enough to have great crab here in Britain, so make the most of it. Crab is sold in a number of forms:
Boiled crab
If you buy one of these, be prepared for a lot of work getting to the crab meat inside! Along the way, you need to break off the tail flap from the body, remove the inedible ‘dead man’s fingers’ (feathery-looking gills) and crack open the legs and claws to remove the white meat.
Ready-picked crab meat
White and brown, can be found fresh or frozen, but it won’t be cheap.
‘Dressed crab’
Often sold in its shell, dressed-crab is a ready-to-eat mixture of brown and white crab meat, already removed from its shell for you and seasoned with salt and pepper. Use dressed crab for quick and simple crab cakes or pasta sauces.
Squid
Cheap and tasty, squid is great in paellas. The secret when it comes to cooking squid is to cook it either quickly or very slowly; cook it in between and you risk it becoming rubbery! Whole squid need cleaning, but nowadays it’s easy to find squid already cleaned and prepared. Look out for ready-prepared squid rings, which can simply be coated in seasoned flour, fried in a little olive oil and served hot from the pan with a squeeze of lemon juice as a starter or light lunch.
