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. 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 4A dramatic and stunning combination12 scallops134-2 pints 1-1.1 litres strong fish stock2 12oz/65g unsalted butter1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped1012oz/290g risotto rice, Vialone Nano or arborio5 fl oz/150mls white wine6 sachets of squid ink (3 level tsp)sea salt, black pepper2 heaped tbsp freshly grated Parmesansqueeze of lemon juice5 fl oz/150ml whipping cream, whippedextra virgin olive oil for fryingfinely chopped flat-leaf parsleyPrepare the scallops by removing the gristle at the side and the tough skirt that runs around the edge. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.