Lobster tales

Food: The final part of our series on fish and the fruits of the sea; Even though I have cooked many a live lobster, I still commit them to the pan with my eyes closed Photograph by Patrice de Villiers

This is it, the week you've been waiting for. Everything you want is yours for the asking - beluga for breakfast, Belon fines de claires oysters for lunch, and a brute of a lobster for dinner.

I'll come off the fence here: if it was me, I'd have beluga for breakfast. And for elevenses, lunch, tea and dinner, I'd have big, fat milky scallops.

These I could never grow tired of: brushed with olive oil and seared whole so the outside is caramelised and the inside still raw, I'd have them slightly poached and sitting in a bourride; finely sliced in a wild mushroom soup; with a risotto of squid ink; and hot in a buttered roll as a midnight panacea.

Only fresh would do: there are few sights more forlorn than defrosted scallops sitting in a pool of scallopy water. Water is their enemy. If necessary, dig out a paring knife to scrape them gently clean. It goes without saying that they must have been dived for rather than dredged and muddy.

And if I was forced to go for something else, I'd settle for lobster awash with garlic butter. This is a fantastic match, with the sweetness of the lobster and the bitterness of garlic - a sort of posh prawns in garlic butter - with French bread alongside.

Lobsters are nothing like as hard to prepare as they first appear, although there's no denying it's a lot of work for a small amount of meat. Perhaps it is culinary trophyism, but if I have lobster at home I make a point of serving them in their shells.

And even though I have cooked many a live lobster, I still commit them to the pan with my eyes closed. The problem with buying your lobster cooked is that firstly, the water may have been over-salted, and secondly, 20 minutes' boiling is not unusual - and you won't be able to tell this solely on inspection. For a 114lb/550g lobster it should be more like 10 minutes, or five minutes if you are going to halve and then regrill them with garlic butter.

I shall ignore Rs in the month and continue to eat oysters throughout the summer. Having cut my teeth on Pacific (rock) oysters, available all year, I only came to natives several years later. It could be a case of old habits dying hard, but I actually prefer Pacific oysters. They're better for cooking (the answer for anyone on the squeamish side): natives will be lost in a quiche or a soup.

But just as there are underrated fish, so, too, are there overrated fish, though this is largely a matter of personal taste. I balk at the price of John Dory, turbot, brill and halibut. I enjoy eating them in restaurants, but I rarely go out and buy them.

Dover sole and sea bass, on the other hand, are worth every penny they command - the single most memorable fish dish I ate last year was a whole grilled Dover sole, no veg, no potatoes, just as it was with lots of butter and lemon juice, and it was fabulous. In fact eating such fish on their own, with as little done to them as possible, is the greatest luxury of all.

Squid Ink Risotto with Scallops, serves 4

A dramatic and stunning combination

12 scallops

134-2 pints 1-1.1 litres strong fish stock

2 12oz/65g unsalted butter

1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped

1012oz/290g risotto rice, Vialone Nano or arborio

5 fl oz/150mls white wine

6 sachets of squid ink (3 level tsp)

sea salt, black pepper

2 heaped tbsp freshly grated Parmesan

squeeze of lemon juice

5 fl oz/150ml whipping cream, whipped

extra virgin olive oil for frying

finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Prepare the scallops by removing the gristle at the side and the tough skirt that runs around the edge. This will come away with the coral: discard the corals or keep them for soup; you could also freeze them.

Heat the stock in a small saucepan and keep it just below a simmer while cooking the risotto. Heat 2oz/50g of the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan and sweat the onion over a low heat until it is translucent and soft. It must not colour.

Add the rice and cook for one minute. Pour in the wine and continue to cook until it has been absorbed. Add the squid ink and start to pour in ladles of simmering stock. At no stage should the rice be flooded. It will take about 25 minutes to cook.

Season halfway through. Stop cooking the risotto once the rice is tender, leaving it on the moist side; it will continue to absorb moisture while you finish it off and serve it.

To finish the risotto, stir in the Parmesan, remaining butter, the squeeze of lemon juice and lastly the whipped cream. Adjust seasoning.

As the risotto is finishing cooking, heat two cast-iron frying pans over a high heat, brush the scallops with olive oil and season them: sear on each side for 112 minutes, turning them with a palette knife; they remain underdone in the centre. Serve the risotto with the scallops in the middle, with a little chopped parsley.

Seabass roasted with lime and thyme, serves 4

This can be eaten hot or cold. If you want it cold, then fillet the fish once it has cooled, pour over the sauce and leave it to steep. Lemon thyme ranks as my favourite herb, and if you happen to grow it then this is perfect - if not, then the main thing is to avoid woody thyme.

1 x 2lb 10oz/1175g seabass, gutted and scaled, head on

10 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

sea salt, black pepper

1 lime, sliced

1 beefsteak tomato, sliced across

1 onion, peeled and sliced across

2 red chillies

10 sprigs of thyme, plus 1 heaped tsp thyme leaves

3 fl oz/75ml sweet white wine

a squeeze of lime juice

Preheat the oven to 200C (fan oven)/210C (electric oven)/410F/gas mark 6.5 and heat the grill. Score the seabass at 1"/2.5cm intervals, brush with oil and season on both sides as well as inside the gut cavity. Grill the bass for 4-6 minutes each side until it blisters and colours.

In a clean baking dish that is as long as the fish, lay out half the lime, tomato and onion slices so they overlap in a row, and season them. Lay the fish on top, place the chillies and the thyme sprigs inside the gut cavity. Arrange the remaining lime, tomato and onion on top, and season. Pour 6 tbsp of the olive oil and the wine over the fish and roast for 15 minutes.

Place the vegetables in a sieve. Strain the juices into a bowl, pressing out any additional vegetable juices. Stir in the remaining thyme and olive oil, adjust seasoning and add a little lime juice. Gently reheat the sauce in a small saucepan - it must not boil. Fillet the fish and serve with the sauce poured over