Beyond the sea: Gill Meller’s spring seafood recipes

Pickled mussels, grilled oysters, clams with sausage: the recipes that remind River Cottage chef Gill Meller of home

March seems to mark heartwarming changes in my seaside town of Lyme Regis. The cold wet days are carried away by a milder, kinder type of breeze, and on it there’s a feeling of spring. The smaller fishing boats put back into the water, and the putt-putt-putt of their engines adds a new layer to the morning chorus. The smells of this wakening up of the season intensify my love of this place, and the sea and the food that belong to it; the smells of chips cooking and low tides, of vinegar and stone, of beach fires and fresh fish. These recipes connect me to this place and this time of year. There are plump pickled mussels in apple-cider vinegar to be piled on buttered brown bread. I’ve included an oyster dish that is as delicious as it is easy, and I think I’ve pieced together Mum’s fish pie – at least, it tastes pretty similar.