Does anyone like this saltwater reed/seaweed/grass stuff that grows I think in seaside salt marshes?
Someone used to feed it to us in Suffolk but they eat it old and coarse there. You have to strip the flesh off a sort of white, uneatable core with your teeth. That sort of thing always seems too much trouble to me (don't like artichoke leaves either).
But my middle daughter, a talented and dedicated foodie and cook, got some tender young stuff the other night which you could just eat. Naturally salty and you can feel it trying vainly to do you good. Yum yum, ideal as my one a week... .
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It's terribly fashionably, dahling, in gastro circles and I keep meaning to try it. Even found myself standing next to a great clump of the stuff in France last month, but baulked when I saw a dog wander over it and wondered how many had been there before. Will get brave one day and report back.
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Enjoyed it several times when cooked by my husband ... noticed it is for sale in our local Tesco .. and several times in restaurants.
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My auntie fed me some a couple of weeks ago. Very salty. It would have to do you a lot of good to be worth eating.
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>> Very salty. It would have to do you a lot of good to be worth eating.
Tsk. I would have thought it was a delicacy for manatees.
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Yup - had it fresh from the marshes in a Gastro pub near Burnham Market - less than three miles from where they grow it. Its goes well with a steak and ale pie. Less so with your fresh moules pulled from the same sea shore. (the moules need nothing more than good french fries and a garlic sauce)
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>> (the moules need nothing more than good french fries and a garlic sauce)
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Wouldn't that be aioli in a Gastro pub ?
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In that area every pub knows how to cook and sell moules.
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With lashings of mayonnaise for the chips. Yum, yum.
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It's only this year that I've been able to once again eat mussels. Ten years or so ago I ate a plate of moules marinières in an up market Normandy restaurant on the last day of our holiday.
At the time I thought it a fantastic meal and it was not until the early hours if the morning that I began to have my doubts. I don't think I have ever been so violently ill, so much so that my wife called out the doctor. He turned up at 4.00 a.m. (imagine that in England) and administered a shot of the drug they give women who suffer from bad morning sickness. I was right as rain after that and managed to drive the 100 miles to the ferry where I consumed a large meal.
Couldn't face mussels until this year though. Had a delicious plate of moules et frites in Bruges and have resumed my love of the things.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Thu 26 Jul 12 at 19:44
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Aye, dodgy moule, nothing worse, but like riding a horse you need to get back on the saddle ASAP.
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Had some a few times from Sainsburys (I think - the gaffer buys them) - usually just do mariniere with shallots/white wine.
Just remember to discard the open ones before you start and the closed ones after you cook and it's hard to go wrong (just dont overcook them unless you like eating tyres).
Also cook them the day you buy them!
As for samphire - it is very nice - like a flavoursome green bean - if you cook it yourself a quick steam is all it needs.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Thu 26 Jul 12 at 20:44
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One of Sainsbury's sources for mussels is Loch Roag on Lewis. Two bags of those cooked in white wine, garlic, parsley and a bit of celery removing the open/non open as above and served with slim French Fries.
A meal from heaven for four.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 26 Jul 12 at 20:57
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Aye forgot the garlic :-)
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They say a bad oyster is the worst thing of all.
Is the slight threat of danger part of the attraction with shellfish, like that Japanese blowfish delicacy that kills a few people a year when the knife slips?
Mussels aren't that difficult. If they don't close when you tap them, they're dead and must be chucked. If they then don't open when you cook them - steam them for a minute or two - they are bad and should be chucked. Never try to open those. If you had washed them properly you might have noticed a very heavy one. Dead, chuck it, full of putrid mud. You don't want that in your marinière sauce with egg yolk. Scrub, inspect carefully, cull ruthlessly, better safe than sorry.
I learned to open oysters for myself a year or two back - must have been at least two, putain merde - in Brittany. When you've opened them, run them under your nose. If they smell of crap however faintly, they are dead. Same ruthless culling policy should apply. But I only came across one in three or four dozen from the supermarket. Love them personally but alas herself won't touch them.
Don't mistake seawater for 'liquor'. It's seawater. Pour most of it away if there's much and add lemon juice, drop of tabasco if you fancy it. God I'm hungry.
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><>like that Japanese blowfish delicacy that kills a few people a year when the knife slips?
Tis Fugu! - chefs have to train three years before they are allowed to serve it, and it is the only food that is forbidden to be served to, or eaten by a Japanese Emperor, because of its toxicity!
As regards Marsh Samphire, I usually gather a "feed" or two Evey year, we have some great unexploited bed around here! - although very salty, you have to boil it in salt water, then strain it in a sieve and pour a kettle of boiling water over it. If you need to "peel" it, it is too old and coarse, new younger stuff is tender and yummy!
Last edited by: devonite on Fri 27 Jul 12 at 02:02
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I had samphire with Sunday Lunch two weeks ago ... lovingly hand picked by SWMBO from the shelf at Sainsburys.....
....it was not a patch on the lightly steamed and buttered samphire we had when staying at a friends in Exmouth where the lady of the house got up early that same day to pick fresh from the jealously guarded spot she knows where it grows wild on the Exe estuary....
Yummy....
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Best eaten: raw, when on the beach.
Lots of tasty things to eat on the beach, actually. Bladderwrack is a bit tough, and perhaps slightly slimy, but still good to nibble as you wander along the beach. Mussels opened and eaten raw.
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Small limpets too. Very crunchy.
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Also found in the Fylde coast - Southport etc
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There are two varieties found in the UK, rock and marsh. Rock grows between high and low water marks and, since I believe there are no coastal rocks in Norfolk, it must be the marsh variety that growns there. One is coarse and the other fine and is of a more vibrant green but I can't recall which is which, just that neither is really worth the trouble of picking over.
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There's a plant I like that grows on shingly estuary shores just aroung the Spring HW line.
Our family have always called it "edible cushion". It grows in springy continuous clumps, and has small fleshy jade-coloured leaves.
It's very comfortable for reclining on at a beach party or picnic, like a bean bag, and is tasty to nibble raw, a bit like having a packet of salted crisps to hand. Easy to prop the wine bottle upright in too.
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That sounds like the one we used to call "The Salt Plant" - good in soups and stews! Our olde Lass used to send us to collect it as kids! Think it`s real name is Sea-Blite?
thesaurus.babylon.com/sea%20blite
Last edited by: devonite on Tue 31 Jul 12 at 11:50
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Samphire - WillDeBeest
