Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [123]
Drain the potato slices when cold, mix them with the cold mussels, and pour on enough vinaigrette to moisten the salad. Arrange in a shallow dish, sprinkle chopped parsley on top, and serve well chilled. Put a covering of foil over the dish while it is in the refrigerator.
MUSSEL SALAD
This is a plain salad of mussels with curly endive and peppers. Mussels go well with salads: their small piquant richness enhances both the crispness of some vegetables such as endive or celery or the softness of potato.
Serves 4 as a first course
½–1 kg (1–2 lb) mussels, opened by method 2
250 ml (8 fl oz) white wine
1 handful of chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic, gently bruised
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
150 ml (5fl oz) olive oil
juice of ½ lemon
1 curly endive
2 red and 2 yellow peppers, sliced
4 fronds dill
8 stalks salad burnet
Place the mussels in a pan with the white wine, parsley, garlic and pepper. Cook over a fast heat as directed above until they open.
To make the dressing, strain the cooking liquor into a bowl, add the vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice, and mix well.
To serve, arrange the salad vegetables on a plate and add the cooked, warm mussels. Dress while still warm.
NEEDLENOSE see A FEW WORDS ABOUT… GARFISH
NORWAY LOBSTERS see LOBSTERS
OCTOPUS see A FEW WORDS ABOUT… OCTOPUS
OPAH see A FEW WORDS ABOUT… OPAH
ORMER see A FEW WORDS ABOUT… ABALONE
OYSTERS
Ostreidae spp.
The fashion today is to praise our traditional food and cookery, out of gastronomic patriotism, without much experience of its high spots. Asparagus does not, for instance, appear on every table two or three times a week in May or June as it does in Germany. Oysters are served even less, I would say, judging by our local fishmongers. A pity this, since once they were everyone’s delight from the poorest to the Prince of Wales. Today, however, we only seem to eat oysters in restaurants – foolish if you come to think of it, since their preparation is negligible and it would be far cheaper to eat them at home.
In the matter of oysters, there are two main choices. The ardent oyster-lover with a deep pocket goes for Ostrea edulis, native indigenous oysters which are round and flattish, their shells ridged. In Britain, the ideal might be Royal Whitstables or Pyefleets from Colchester. In France, Belons or Armoricaines or gravettes d’Arcachon. If you are new to oysters, go first for the very best. They are in season over the winter.
The second choice is the cheaper Portuguese or Pacific oyster Crassostrea angulata or C. gigas. Both are longer than the rounded Ostrea edulis and much more frilled and beautiful in their form. They are the oysters you see everywhere in French markets throughout the year, the people’s oysters and, although inferior to the fine-flavoured native, by careful cultivation some specimens reach almost as distinguished a glory.
Marennes and the Ile d’Oléron provide nearly two-thirds of France’s oysters. There had always been native oysters in those parts, but in 1860 a ship with a cargo of oysters from Portugal had to take refuge in the Gironde from storms in the Bay of Biscay. As time went by and the storms continued, everyone became nervous of the state of the cargo. Eventually it was thrown overboard. The oysters were not in as parlous a state as had been feared. They looked around, liked their new situation, and settled down to make a new home. All went well for a century, but latterly disease weakened the Portuguese oysters, so the Pacific oyster has been introduced with great success. As its scientific name suggests, it is a giant oyster, if left to reach full maturity. In fact it is harvested young, at Portuguese oyster size.
In Britain, where the water is too cold for them to breed, Portuguese and Pacific are started off in laboratories and sold