Smoked mussels with king cabbage, purple potatoes, sea rosemary and blood orange

One the most important lessons that I have learned in food is to cook seasonally. It is so effortlessly easy to plan new dishes by simply picking and choosing ingredients that grow together and are harvested at the same time. I used to be a slave to supermarket convenience, where shelves are packed with seemingly evergreen produce, and believed that seasonality was a pompous and irrelevant trend. But it’s all in the taste; a locally-grown asparagus spear in May is massively superior to a bendy Peruvian counterpart in the autumn. Squashy summer tomatoes are packed with sweetness, having not travelled under the duress of taste-zapping refrigeration. Shellfish are much fitter and healthier when the seas are cold. Even better is that most seasonal ingredients combine beautifully, with dishes becoming mere simple assemblies on a plate, each ingredient singing in harmony. It’s dead easy to work out what’s in season right now, ask your local greengrocer, fishmonger or butcher, or there’s a ton of information online. 

 
This dish is wintry produce at its best. January king cabbages always bring a smile to my face with their sprawling, messy leaves; like a teenager’s fringe splattered with greens, purples and blues. This year’s blood oranges have just arrived too, along with beautiful sweet Sicilian lemons. A plate of shredded cabbage dressed with these, a pinch of salt and some good oil would be enough, but I decided to go a step further with the inclusion of mussels.
 
Mussels are still cheap as chips, and one of the best ways of feeding a crowd on a budget. Cooked simply and classically with white wine and garlic and served with chunks of French stick, I’d defy anyone not to be happy. A touch of smoke lends itself well to their strong molluscy flavour, so I decided that a bit of DIY smoking was in order. I can definitely recommend having a go yourself, it’s easy to set up and great fun experimenting with different ingredients. So far I’ve used it with meat, fish and cheeses, but I’d like to expand to vegetables too. I reckon broccoli, cauliflower and tomatoes would all work well.
 
Sea rosemary was a bit of an impulse purchase after I spied a punnet sitting tucked away on a greengrocer’s shelf. Having never cooked with it before I was keen to have a try and give it a go. Tasting a little like samphire, its acts as a seasoning for the potatoes, giving the dish much more of a seaside feel. Never fear if you can’t find it, parsley, tarragon, chervil or samphire will all work a treat.
 
Serves 2
 
Ingredients:
 
For the smoked mussels:
 
3 handfuls of large, live mussels, debearded 
1 large handful of hay or straw 
The peeled zest of 1 blood orange
 
For the cabbage:
 
1 large wedge of January King or Savoy cabbage, cut into rough ribbons
 
For the purple potatoes:
 
1 large handful of small purple or violette potatoes 
1 handful of sea rosemary, leaves picked
 
For the dressing:
 
2 blood oranges 
1 large unwaxed lemon 
4-5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
 
To finish:
 
1 small bulb of fennel, finely sliced with a vegetable peeler 
The fronds from the fennel

 
Wash the potatoes and pop them into a saucepan with a good pinch of salt. Cover with water and bring to the boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. Allow to cool slightly, then peel away the skins with the help of a sharp knife. Transfer the peeled potatoes to a bowl and add the sea rosemary leaves.

 
Make the blood orange dressing by squeezing the citrus juice into a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt, then whisk in the olive oil. Pour 3-4 tablespoons of the dressing over the warm, peeled potatoes and stir to coat. Put the rest aside for use later.
 
Bring a large saucepan up to a high heat. Tip in the mussels and a splash of water and cover with a lid. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until all of the mussels have opened. Transfer to a bowl and pick the meat out of the majority, leaving a few in their shells. Pour the liquor from the mussels back into a saucepan.
 
Top up the mussel cooking liquor with about a cup of water and bring back to the boil. Blanch the king cabbage for 1-2 minutes, until al dente. Drain and transfer to a bowl, then toss with a tablespoon of the blood orange dressing. 

 
Line a large saucepan with foil, and arrange the hay and peel to one side. Tear off a smaller piece of foil, and use this to hold the mussel meat so that it forms one layer. Place this sheet to the vacant side of the pan (it’s ok if it overlaps the hay a little). Using a match or blowtorch in a well-ventilated area, set fire to the straw and immediately cover with a lid. Allow to smoke for 5 minutes. Very carefully remove the smoked mussels, making sure that the hay is properly extinguished.
 
To plate up, arrange the mussels, potatoes and cabbage leaves onto a plate, making sure to include the sea rosemary. Top with the fennel shavings and fronds. Finish with an extra splash of the dressing and serve.  

Brill roe with January King cabbage, anchovy mayonnaise, chantarelles, sage and butter

This is a slightly random, ‘bonus’ recipe that came about from the brill used in the last recipe on this blog. Whilst lifting the fillets from the massive fish, I noticed that some fairly impressive roes were concealed beneath the flesh. Usually fresh roes are not something that massively stirs my appetite, and certainly at work only a tiny minority of customers request them. But because of how special and expensive the fish that I was working with was, I was determined to use as much of it as possible. Having never cooked with fresh roes before, I wasn’t quite sure quite how to tackle them. Traditionally you are told to blanch them in water, but this normally applied to huge, bulging cod roes and the idea of anaemic, grey, veiny tubes didn’t really appeal. Instead I decided to cure them for a couple of hours in an attempt to firm them up slightly and reinforce the flavour. Having had no previous experience of handing these roes in the kitchen, I have no idea as to whether this made much different. But I was really satisfied with what turned into a really delicious plate of food. 

 
Making it was a bit of a nightmare though. The cooking process was really quick and simple, but I was fast running out of light. And as a food blogger there is nothing more frustrating that cooking up something only for it to get dark and the photos to look rubbish. I had already made the dish that I had intended for the day, last week’s recipe, and it was touch and go whether the light would hold out for much longer. The kitchen was a mess, heaped with leftover plates and extra ingredients. But I was spurred to seize the moment; I wouldn’t get another chance to cook with the roes so decided to risk it. It was certainly not the most therapeutic bit of cooking I’ve ever done, mostly involving crashing around the kitchen like a bull in a china shop, but in the end I just managed to scrape it.
 
Deciding what to accompany the roes with was also a bit of guesswork. I hadn’t planned to cook another recipe for this blog, so none of the usual thought had gone into it. All I had was what was laying around in the kitchen. I had bought a beautiful purple and green January King cabbage from the Quality Chop Shop that morning along with some chantarelle mushrooms. These were impulse buys that I thought I would use in my everyday cooking, but they were needed far sooner than anticipated. I always find sauces like mayonnaise or emulsions great in tying everything all together; the anchovies in this batch proved great companions with the mushrooms, rosemary and cabbage.
 
Serves 2
 
Ingredients:
 
For the brill roe cure:
 
2 large brill roes 
200g sugar 
200g salt 
1 lemon, zest only 
3 sprigs of rosemary
 
To cook the brill roes:
 
2 good knobs of butter 
12 sage leaves 
3 sprigs of rosemary 
1 clove of garlic, lightly crushed 
A handful of chantarelle mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed
 
For the anchovy mayonnaise:
 
1 egg yolk 
4 anchovy fillets 
½ a lemon, juice only 
½ tsp Dijon mustard 
A splash of white wine vinegar 
200ml vegetable oil
 
For the King cabbage:
 
4 large leaves from a January King cabbage, torn 
A squeeze of lemon juice
 
To finish:
 
2 thin slices of sourdough

 
Lightly cure the brill roes to start off with. Pour the sugar, salt, rosemary and lemon zest into a food processor and finely chop to combine. Tip half into a shallow dish, then place the fresh brill roes on top. Cover with the second half of the cure, then cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Once cured, gently remove the roes from the dish and rinse before patting dry. 

 
Pre-heat the oven to 200⁰C.
 
For the anchovy mayonnaise, put the egg yolk, mustard, vinegar, black pepper and anchovies into a small food processor and combine well. With the engine still running, slowly pour the oil in until fully emulsified. Stir in the lemon juice and taste for seasoning. Spoon into a plastic bottle.
 
Scatter the pieces of January King onto a baking tray and toss in olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 6-8 minutes, or until starting to char and crisp at the edges. squeeze over the lemon juice and set aside.

 
Set a large frying pan on a medium-high heat. Add the butter and a tablespoon of olive oil along with the garlic, rosemary and sage. When hot, fry the roes for about 2 minutes on each side, basting continuously. Add the chantarelles for the last couple of minutes. Allow the butter to go a rich ‘nut brown’ colour.
 
While the roes are cooking, grill the thin sourdough slices with a little oil and salt until toasted.
 
To serve, put one slice of the sourdough on each plate and dot on 5 or 6 blobs of the mayonnaise. Add the roes and a few of the cabbage leaves, then arrange some of the mushrooms and sage leaves around the plate. Finish with a generous amount of the brown butter and a crack of pepper.