Dazz Switalla Flavour Secrets No.1 The Strand Chef www.no1thestrand.co.nz

The sun is out and has made life outside pleasurable; perfect for entertaining al fresco. When entertaining guests from out of town, sometimes it's nice to give them some local flavours and sights.

With the new-look waterfront, you can promenade down the walkway and dine on fish and chips at Tauranga's favourite fresh fish market. If you don't feel like fish and chips there is other seafood available, such as mussels.

While at that end of town you could visit the Good for You art exhibition, featuring amazing 3D horse-mussel mosaics by Carol Lee and my brightly coloured abstracts that feature my interpretation of the effects of fluorescent jellyfish dye on the brain. It's on at 1 The Strand until November 16.

Enough shameless promotion. I had a surprise the other day when the boss gave me four punnets of freshly shucked mussels and told me to make something with them.

How can we use them? The best flavour partner with mussels, for me, is eggplant, so I opt to brine and smoke the mussels and wrap them in it, ready for the barbecue.

Smoked mussel and eggplant skewers (serves four)

Ingredients

1-2 punnets fresh shucked mussels

½ cup malt vinegar

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 teaspoon fine chopped parsley

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon lime infused avocado oil

1 tablespoon fennel seed freshly crushed

cracked black pepper

¼ cup brown sugar

Well-drained slices of marinated chargrilled eggplant fillets, or a large eggplant cut into thin slices then baked on a sheet of baking paper with a little oil for 10 minutes on 200°C; you'll need 12- 16 slices.

Method

Shock the mussels by placing straight into the vinegar in a

shallow dish. Sprinkle over the parsley, garlic, black

pepper and crushed fennel seed. Leave for 10 minutes then drain well. Add the lemon juice, avocado oil and brown sugar and leave covered in the fridge for three hours.

Place on foil-covered racks and poke holes through the foil. Allow the mussels to drain more before placing them over the smoking sawdust. You will only need to smoke them for 4-5 minutes, depending on the heat. Do not overcook.

Wrap the mussels up with the eggplant then skewer them up ready for the barbecue. Very filling and very yummy.