How to prepare seafood at home

If, like me, the closest you've ever come to preparing seafood is opening a can of tuna, then you might rightly be wary of shellfish. If they're not slimey, they've got claws. If they're not alive when you cook them, they'll make you ill. I've been fond of the few oysters I've eaten in my life, but I'd never thought to source them myself. Lobsters and langoustines are restaurant food, surely?

A couple of hours in the company of a top seafood chef changed my mind. Lobsters and langoustines might be too expensive to eat regularly, but cooking them for a special occasion is a doddle. And moules marinieres' French moniker may make the dish sound costly and complex. In fact, it's almost as cheap as the chips served alongside it – and ready in under five minutes.

Lee Bennett was just 28 when he took charge of the kitchen at one of London's best known restaurants last year (although he had already worked with Alain Ducasse, Pierre Gagnaire and Gordon Ramsay) . Le Pont de la Tour gained fame when Tony Blair took Bill Clinton there for a first date in 1997. "If anyone ever mentions that Bill Clinton story to me again, I'm gonna..." Bennett trails off, before driving a kitchen knife through a lobster's head. In the years after Clinton's visit, he says, the restaurant rested on its laurels. Now, under his leadership, it's reinvigorated.

Le Pont de la Tour was the first London restaurant to have its own crustacea bar. Though he has peppered his menu with cutting edge cuisine – a modern take on fruits de mer includes a jellied oyster and a distinctly Heston-esque prawn cocktail – Bennett's kitchen still cooks traditional shellfish dishes by the dozen. And the recipes he's keen for people to try at home are simple, unfussy and fast.

If you're still squeamish about the idea of cooking your own, there are a couple of simple rules to follow to help you steer clear of trouble. "Don't take any risks. Shellfish can be dangerous," explains the chef. "They have to be alive to be fresh – that's the first, fundamental rule. As soon as you buy it, it has to be prepared and cooked straight away. You can cook it and preserve it for the next day, but don't leave it raw in your fridge overnight. A lot of people associate shellfish with food poisoning, but sometimes it's simply that their stomachs aren't adapted to the raw food."

"You can get mussels and oysters in any supermarket these days," says Bennett. "Lobsters you can get in the bigger supermarkets. Langoustines are more difficult, but if you've got a good fishmongers or food market nearby, you'll be able to get them. They're not cheap, but they're worth it."

Lobster Cocktail

Serves two as a starter

"Our diners have to pre-order lobster," says Bennett. "Half a lobster is an opulent starter, but you should always buy a big one to cook, otherwise you won't get enough meat. The more expensive they are, the better value they are."

You will need:

For the Marie Rose sauce:

"A 750g lobster will take about eight or nine minutes to cook. The timing is crucial. It'll go dry if you leave it in for too long. A lot of people prefer to kill the lobster before cooking it; I don't think it makes much difference. Sticking a knife through the skull is still pretty painful, and you might injure yourself!

Cut the lemon into quarters and throw it into a large pan of boiling water with the peppercorns and vinegar to perfume the water. Then drop the lobster in. I like the lobster curled up, but if you want the tail to cook straight, lash a knife to the tail like a splint.

Don't unstrap the claws before it's cooked. A lobster got hold of my finger once at Gordon [Ramsay]'s and it wasn't pretty. At Gordon's they don't let you go to hospital; you just stick some cling film around it and get on with the job.

While the lobster cooks, make the Marie Rose sauce. Just mix all the ingredients together until it's smooth. It doesn't need any salt; you've already got the strong flavours of the ketchup and HP, and shellfish is already naturally salty.

After nine minutes, the lobster goes straight from the pan into iced water, which stops the cooking so it won't overcook. The best thing to use for lifting the lobster out of the pan at home is a pair of tongs. Use a couple of forks but the lobster is heavy; if it drops, it will splash boiling water all over you. Leave it in the iced water for about 10 to 12 minutes, until room temperature.

The undershell is softer, so turn it over, cut down the middle and break it in half. Rinse away all the membrane and goo under the tap. Scoop the meat from the body. You don't get as much as you might think from a big lobster – a good 50 per cent is shell. Dice the meat into big pieces and mix it with some Marie Rose sauce.

Crack the claws off, and use a cloth to handle them as they're quite spiny. Crack the base open, pull out the claw meat intact. I serve the cocktail in the cleaned shell. Shred some iceberg lettuce, put that in as a base, then spoon the meat over it, finishing with the claw."

Langoustines

Serves one, or two as a starter

"If you buy langoustines from Harrods," says Bennett, "you'll probably pay about £30 per kilo. It's a luxury item, so don't mess about with it – just serve it unseasoned and enjoy the flavour of the meat."

You will need:

"Wild Scottish langoustines are renowned as the best in the world, and 90 per cent of them are exported because no one eats them there. They're vicious little buggers. Once they get those pincers round a finger, they won't let go – and they hurt. I'd recommend using rubber gloves to handle them if you're an amateur. Put the garlic, lemon (in quarters) and peppercorns in a large pan of water. Bring it to the boil and drop in the Langoustines for about three minutes.

Pull them out with tongs and put them into iced water for 10 minutes, then dry them off and serve them immediately. In the restaurant we also serve some mayonnaise and a bit of lemon for juicing, and that's it.

The main thing you're meant to eat is the tail. There's not really any meat in the claw. Some old-school people like to suck out the insides of the head, but I'll pass on that. My old man's a Rick Stein sort, so he loves it."

Oysters with shallot vinegar

Serves one as a starter

"Oysters are like Marmite," says Bennett. "You either love them or hate them. I love them."

You will need:

"Dice the shallot very small; the oyster goes down in one, so if you bite into a big chunk of shallot it's going to overpower the flavour. A classic shallot vinegar is just red wine vinegar and shallots, but I like to add port to give it a bit of sweetness. Leave the shallots to marinade in the vinegar and port for about 10 minutes.

Our rock oysters come from Colchester and they're available all year round.

You need an oyster knife, which you can get from a fishmonger or from somewhere like John Lewis; don't pay any more than about £3 for it.

Open the oyster from the base end where the shell is soft. Pierce the end of the oyster with the point of the knife and push it in a little further until you can twist it and crack the shell open. Then run the knife around the inside of the shell where it's attached to the muscle. Once you detach the muscle from the shell, the two halves should separate.

If you open it to find that the air has got in and dried the oyster, it goes straight in the bin. You want a beautiful wet oyster. Separate its underside from the shell with the knife. Drop a little of the shallot vinegar onto it and let it sit there for 10 seconds to work its magic, then it's down the hatch."

Moules Marinieres

Serves one, or two as a starter

"Mussels are simple to cook," says Bennett. "We get so many diners at the restaurant who eat the moules marinieres and ask, 'How do you do it?' With this recipe, anybody can do it at home. Anybody."

You will need:

"French mussels are in season at the moment. Our native mussels, from Shetland, are in season all year round. The French are slightly smaller and a little juicier.

Check the mussels are closed. If they're open, give them a squeeze, and if they close themselves and stay closed, they're still alive. If they stay open, they're dead, so throw them away.

Get your pan on the heat. This recipe causes a lot of steam, so take the battery out of your smoke detector and open a window. Dice half a banana shallot into reasonably large chunks. Wash and chop the parsley coarsely. Add both to the wine and butter, then sprinkle a little salt over the mussels before putting all the ingredients together in one bowl.

When the pan is super hot, pour everything in and put the lid on immediately. Give it a quick shake, then leave it on the heat. The liquid steams the mussels open, then their natural juices mix with the white wine and seasoning. The butter just gives the liquid a little richness and thickness. After two minutes, they'll be ready. Serve them in a bowl with some chips and a bottle of white wine. Job done."

www.lepontdelatour.co.uk; 020 7403 8403