What I Ate Today

The nature of the coastline in the Gower, with very gentle beaches and tides that go out a long way, means fishing boats don’t launch from most of the sea-side towns, only the Marina at Swansea.  The Mumble Pier looks a little odd at low tide.

If you do fancy a spot of sea fishing, the best place to get information and book a trip is the Swansea Angling Centre, at Swansea Marina.  In there, you can get cards/leaflets for all the local fishing boat/charter trips.  Sightseeing & mackerel trips for about £25, 8hr Sea Bass fishing on a charter boat for £35 or mackerel trips for £15. 

Weather and other commitments meant that rather than go sea fishing, we opted to search for shell fish close to the cottage where we were staying.  The beach we were staying near was littered with razor clam shells.  We had read in the River Cottage Fish book that razor clams were tasty and delicious (and of course, free).   To “hunt” a razor clam, you search out their little burrow hole and sprinkle salt down it at low tide.  The clam tastes the salt, thinks the tide is coming in and pops their siphon up out of the sand, where upon you grab hold.  Pull too hard and it breaks off (but the clam grows a new one).  Then as the clam tries to dig, it will release its grip in the sand and you can slowly draw it out of the sand.  You can’t out dig razor clams as you can with other shell fish, because they dig downwards faster than you can.  That’s the theory, but lets just say I didn’t master the art of razor clamming.  

Having miserably failed at razor clammng, we switched our attention to a somewhat less mobile shellfish, Mussels.  At the Worms Head, at the south end of Rhosilli Bay, there were several million mussels to choose from.  The Worms Head is cut off from the mainland at high tide, so you must be careful to time your visit and not get cut off.  We okay-ed it with the coastguard station on the headland and ventured down onto the rocks.

The River Cottage Fish book is a tremendously useful book.  It has become my fish bible, with information about preparing, filleting, and cooking the fish, together with descriptions of the fish’s lifestyle and habitat.  My favourite part is that it discusses sustainable sources for the fish and indicates how sustainable different varieties are.  The book said Mussels spend their whole life living where they first land as tiny baby mussels.  That’s why some live on rocks which get exposed by the tide while others remain permanently submerged.  They spawn between May and August, so collecting is discouraged during this period.  That said, they are quite sustainable by comparison to other fish such as Haddock and Cod.  Make sure to collect more mature mussels, greater than 50mm in length.

As the photo shows, the ground was covered entirely with the shells of shellfish which had been eaten by birds.We filled a pot with enough mussels for a starter and headed back to the cottage. 

When driving around the Gower, we were taken aback by an intense smell of garlic in the air.  It came from wild garlic leaves growing by the side of the road.  Too good an opportunity to miss.  We stopped and collected some to go with our Mussels.

Mussels with Wild Garlic Leaves and Home Brewed Bitter

Soak the mussels overnight in sea water to allow them to purge out any sand or grit.  I didn’t have sea water, so just added a kilo of salt to the basin.  A tip is to add porridge oats as they irritate the mussels and make them filter out grit/sand faster.  You then wash the mussels, gently scraping off any barnacles or material stuck to the outside.  You slide a knife along the joint to remove the “beard” – fine silk like hairs with which the mussel anchored to the rock.

In butter, I softened some sliced onion and wild garlic leaves, collected from a hedgerow nearby.  Keep the heat low to avoid colouring the onion. 

Then I added a good slug of Matt’s Home Brew London Beer and a splash of vinegar (we only had rice vinegar, which we used).  When the mix started to steam, threw in the mussels.

You need to steam for 6-8 minutes, before serving up the mussels, shaking occasionally.  Because the mussels release any grit remaining inside them, you need to strain the liquor before serving it. 

I served up the mussels, discarding any which hadn’t opened, and garnished with the white wild garlic flowers.

I’ve never tasted such tender, sweet mussels.  The beer liquor was light and intense.  The wild garlic surprisingly pungent.  All in all it was a great success.  It was very satisfying to collect wild food.  You can’t get more fresh Mussels any other way.  There was almost no sand/grit in the Mussels, I think down to the lack of sediment at the Worm’s Head.

 Delicious.