Beautiful bivalves make for summer feast

Isn’t this summer weather just glorious? I know we need some rain but so far 2018 has produced those beautiful summer days to enjoy outdoors while having a few days off.

Even if you are working, it still seems like holiday time.

I have been playing golf, swimming and have spent a few hours in the kitchen. Most of the time, I’ve cooked quick and simple meals to be enjoyed outdoors. On a couple of occasions, it struck me how easy it was to put together restaurant quality meals at home using fresh ingredients.

Simplicity is the key. The first of these dinners was a scotch fillet served with a salad. My sister-in-law bought some beautiful scotch steaks and we barbecued them medium rare with just salt, pepper and mustard on the side.

To accompany this, I tossed together a vegetable salad using all the leftover salad and vegetables I had in the fridge with some Meredith goat’s cheese, some oil from the jar and a splash of verjuice.

Married with some oven roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic, we dined like kings with such little effort.

The next meal we enjoyed is an annual ritual for us. The Portarlington Mussel Festival provides the inspiration and ingredients for our summer mussel-a-thon.

We buy a five-kilo box and prepare them in a different way each year. This time it was a cream-based sauce with saffron and leeks. Those who wish to eat must participate in the cleaning and debearding of the beautiful bivalves.

We had about 10 people who made short work of the mussel preparation and which ensured they each got a seat at the table.

You need a couple of serious saucepans to cook five kilos of mussels at once. Beg, borrow or steal these and the rest is easy. I always cook the sauce and mussels separately to avoid any grit finding its way onto the serving plates. To enhance the flavour of the sauce I add half a cup of the mussel liquor strained through a very fine sieve (preferably muslin cloth). Many recipes suggest using all the liquid and combine this directly with the sauce. My experience has been this makes for a thin, salty and often overpowering accompaniment.

The other myth about cooking mussels is to discard the shells which do not open. I think all they need is a little more heat and possibly a knife carefully slipped between the shell to reveal the treasure within.

Long may our summer feasts continue with hopefully a drop of rain to help our producers. Following is the recipe I used for our mussels this year. We served this with a green salad and lots of crusty bread.