Sim B

My dad went and got himself a mussel-picking license the other day. When the tide is low he heads down to the beach with his bag of tools and scraps away until he’s got his quota.

On Sunday my parents prepared the mussels as a starter – a delicious prelude to a tasty lunch! The thing about freshly picked mussels (or any fresh seafood for that matter) – is that you can practically tasty the sea. It reminds me of when we were children and my parents would take us down to the beach to pick mussels. We would walk along the beach from Umhlanga to Umdloti gathering mussels and seashells as we went. The Kirk’s (our oldest family friends) would pick us up in Umdloti and we would head back to their house, my dad would prepare a big pot of mussels while we would spend the day racing around the garden and swimming in the pool. Those were the days …!!

But back to Sunday’s lunch! The mussels …

Grilled Durban Mussels

Note:  This isn’t a recipe,  but rather an overview of how my mom served them. I think that you could use whatever ingredients you like with the crumbs  – a bit of chilli, ginger, corriander and coconut shavings with a wedge of lime of the side for thai-inspired flavours;  any cheese or herbs you have on hand … the options are endless.

Mom steamed the mussels in some water (discarding those shells that didn’t open fully) and removed the mussels from their shells. After removing the beards (the grissly bits that are attached to the mussel) she gave them a thorough rinsing. She then cleaned the shells and placed them onto a baking tray with the cleaned, steamed mussels back in them.

In a bowl, she mixed together some bread crumbs, grated pecorino cheese, crushed garlic, chopped sage and a grinding of salt and pepper.

She sprinkled this mixture over the mussels and grilled them in a hot oven until the crumbs turned golden.

We polished them off!

We were drinking a very cold bottle of Alan Scott Riesling from Marlborough. Perfect.

x sim x