Grilled vegetables with seafood

Serves 4-6

Mix all of the fish together with the remaining oil and scatter over the herbs (Jason Lowe)

Grilling vegetables can bring out great unexpected flavours that you wouldn't normally get from, say, boiling or roasting. A lot of vegetables can be grilled from raw; the firmer vegetables will need a little boiling first or they will dry up before being cooked. Cook your carrots and fennel before you set off on your barbecue.

1 large bulb of fennel
3 medium-sized carrots
2-3 courgettes, cut lengthways into cm slices
2 red peppers, quartered and seeded
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable or corn oil for brushing
500g mussels, cleaned and de-bearded
500g large cockles, washed and scrubbed
2 squid weighing about 150g, cleaned
6 large scallops, shucked and cleaned
6 large prawns, in the shell
5-6tbsp olive oil
A handful of green herbs such as fennel, chervil and flat-leaf parsley, washed

Cook the fennel in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes and the carrots a little less, depending on their size. Halve the fennel and cut into -1cm slices and the same for the carrots.

Preheat your barbecue and grill all of the vegetables for about 2-4 minutes on each side or until cooked. You will need to move the vegetables around the barbecue if they are beginning to burn – and depending on the heat of the barbecue. Once cooked, transfer to a serving dish, spoon over some of the oil and season.

You can either cook the mussels and cockles directly on the barbecue until they open, or take a pan with you and cook them in the pan with a lid on the barbecue until they open; then add to the vegetables. Cook the prawns for about 3-4 minutes on each side and add to the vegetables. Halve the squid tubes down the middle, then season with the scallops and tentacles, and cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Mix all of the fish together with the remaining oil and scatter over the herbs.