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Text
by Mike Bunn
A
BUNN AT THE OVEN
Fish 'n' tips from a frustrated cook and fading photographer
Success in the cooking and presentation of shellfish to be eaten is a simple and modest formula. For shellfish coming in so many wonderful colour, shapes and sizes need very little disturbing to enhance their flavour or beauty, perhaps some seaweed, crushed ice, a lemon and very little cooking. Far more important is their freshness, the table location, and timing of the event. Being a lusty lot, they conjure up happy days and mucky fingers (finger bowls and napkins are a must). The bonus when selecting and buying shellfish, especially in Ireland, is that they can, and should, be alive at the fishmongers, unlike flat and white fish etc., which even if fresh, are usually sold dead and gutted.
To really enjoy that subtle taste of the sea, they must be alive or very, very fresh at teh time of purchase. Didn't Molly Malone cry "Cockles and mussles, Alive! Alive O!"? Proving her point.
Most of the shellfish illustrated in this article were very kindly selected for me by Michael Reynolds of Sawers in Chatham Street, Dublin. At the time of collecting them for photography they were very much alive, and of a first class size and quality, and they look it. My own favourite are prawns and oysters. I suppose that to eat fresh native oysters, the pilgrimage to Willy Moran's at the Weir, Clarenbridge, Co. Galway has to be "the" venue. Every season people drive countless miles and miles just to have a couple of dozen oysters and a pint or two there - but then they are so, so good.
Another favourite is a Normandy dish, La Mediatrice, which unfaithful husbands give their wives as a leveller. This is half a dozen or so quickly deep fried oysters placed into a very light crouton (usually a hollowed out brown bread roll, deeply fried) served on a bed of simple salad with guacamole (pureed avocado, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice)....
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