Mussels, plums and cider: a late-summer bounty in Dorset

A couple of days before leaving Rome to spend August in the UK, I stood at Marco’s fruit and vegetable stall at Testaccio market and thought what a shame it was I couldn’t bring some of his tomatoes and figs with me. I was anticipating an event introducing Italian cheese to the UK, and knew some sun-filled produce would be ideal for that. I didn’t, of course, attempt to carry four kilos of extremely ripe produce 2,000km across Europe, which would have been messy and completely unnecessary. Because, when I arrived in my mum’s garden in Dorset, I was met by parched grass, fat bees and two dozen tomato plants heavy with many kilos of bright red fruit, while the fig tree in a friend’s garden a few miles away was holding several hundred figs.

So last week, along with my oldest friend, Romla, and Ilaria Padovani from Mercato Italiano in Bridport, we presented an evening of fine Italian produce – asiago cheese, parmigiano reggiano, pecorino romano, pecorino siciliano, prosciutto, coppa and guanciale – alongside fine Dorset produce: local bread, tomatoes every bit as fluted, sweet and salty as Marco’s, and purple-black figs so ripe they were almost jam.

It isn’t just tomatoes and figs: I am told it is a wildly good year for fruit and vegetables all over the south of England, and in particular apples. In fact, the manager of Washingpool farm shop near Bridport told my mum and I (while encouraging us to taste a local greengage) that cider presses that usually put out a call for apples are this year turning them away, while producers who have their own orchards, such as Isaac Cider, a family-run company just outside Beaminster, are having a bumper year. Isaac’s premium cider is divine, made from the best cider apple in their orchard, the dabinett, a small, yellow-green fruit flecked red and green, and with incredibly aromatic flesh. As well as drinking their cider, I have cooked with it, making Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s lamb stew, which was a reminder of what a deliciously versatile ingredient good cider is, with sweetness and acidity, as well as a spectrum of flavours ranging from the tannic to the perfumed. Next week, I am going to try his cider apple cake.

We had another spectacular dinner at Rubicon Kitchen, a pop-up kitchen in a wooden fisher’s hut in West Bay. Chef Olly trialled at the legendary and missed Riverside restaurant, which in part explains his skill, precision and beautiful cooking, and the things coming out of his tiny kitchen are quite extraordinary – while I enjoyed moules marinière, others had battered fish and chips, white beans, chorizo and cod loin, and fish tacos.

It is a good year for mussels, an affordable and sustainable seafood farmed under conditions that have few environmental drawbacks, and probably benefit local ecosystems. We really should be eating a lot more of them. Before I leave Dorset, I want to follow Felicity Cloake’s step-by-step guide to the perfect moules marinière, as well as Alice Waters’ mussels with fennel, creme fraiche and saffron, a simple, sublime dish that Skye Gyngell says sums up Waters’ influence on her. More mussel inspiration comes from Nik Sharma, and his warmly spiced turmeric and lime mussel broth, Rosie Sykes’ mussel, fregola and tomato, which is not only delicious but an efficient one-tin dish, and Yotam Ottolenghi’s battered, deep-fried mussels with a sauce made from garlic, walnuts and breadcrumbs.

We have enjoyed fish and chips three times so far, most notably at Lyme’s Fish Bar in Lyme Regis, eaten on the beach among its low-flying seagulls. As lovely as it is to have a shop do all the work, it is entirely possible, and rewarding, to make brilliant battered fish at home. Felicity, of course, has excellent advice, as does Nigel Slater.

When it comes to batter for fish, and also vegetables – strips of courgette or aubergine, slices of mushroom, say – there are several ways to ensure it is light and crisp. The first is making sure a proportion of the flour is very fine, so add 30% rice flour, for example, to plain or chickpea flour. The second is to incorporate air into the batter. There are several ways to do this: adding a raising agent, such as yeast or baking powder, folding through fully mounted egg whites, or using a carbonated liquid, such as fizzy water, sparkling wine, cider or beer as the liquid element. The third thing is to make sure the batter is very cold when you dip, because it is the contrast between cold batter and hot oil that ensures the initial seal. The last thing is the oil itself, that it is a suitable frying oil (olive, sunflower, peanut, rapeseed) and at the right, steady frying temperature of 190C (375F).

Returning to fruit, and plums in particular, I came across this wonderful list of best plum recipes, including English plum salad, plum souffle, brioche plum ginger bake, plum tarts, and roast plum and liquorice chutney, confirming their versatility. Enjoy these last days of August.

The big apple | What am I drinking this week? Cider, cider and cider, from Isaac, Dorset Nectar, Cider by Rosie and Purbeck, to name just a few.

More Dorset delights | The Ilchester Arms, a beautiful 16th-century, thatched pub in Symondsbury village on the outskirts of Bridport. Chef Paul Brinicombe cites Fergus Henderson and Jeremy Lee as influences, and it shows in his simple, careful ingredient-led cooking: baked john dory with green sauce and blasted tomatoes, perfectly cooked pork chop with new potatoes, poached chicken, sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice-cream, posset with cherries.

We are what we eat | Why we eat in the way we do is the question Ruby Tandoh sets out to answer in her new book, All Consuming. True to herself and her way of seeing the world, Ruby’s focus – sharp, humorous and deeply researched – is on cookbooks, bubble tea, influencers, Wimpy and Viennetta. I am so delighted by this refreshing look at food culture that lifts the lid on how the internet has shaped our appetites, the way we cook and eat.

Bellota, Bury St Edmunds | ​“This small, almost perfect joint will most likely win a Michelin star very soon,” says Grace Dent about Bellota, a new arrival in “Suffolk’s food capital”. Hake with squid ink, salsa verde and padrón pepper; Creedy Carver duck with heritage carrot puree; Thai green curry ice-cream … there’s little here that Grace doesn’t fall in love with, including the “gloriously well honed” service. “Each dish, as we finish it with a sigh, is swept away and replaced like clockwork with something else sticky, rich or magnificent,” she notes. “Just fabulous food. How very modern indeed.” Read Grace’s full review here.