Dimensions
135 x 203 x 27mm
Given the fantastic diversity of our native seafood, it seems ludicrous that so much of our produce is transported abroad. Our wonderful cockles, easily a match for the clams we import from Italy, are almost all exported to Spain. Scotland's famous langoustines head for Paris, Madrid and Barcelona. Over 80 per cent of the eels of Lough Neagh in County Armagh, the greatest single source in Europe, go straight to Amsterdam. All the velvet crabs, one of our most prolific crustacea, go to France to be made into soup. The magnificent spider crab, common around our coasts, is never found on British plates. For an island nation, we are bizarrely indifferent to the maritime riches that surround us on every side.
On his mission to reclaim British seafood, Hirst investigates some of the greatest shellfish dishes, from crabcakes to lobster Thermidor, and including recipes for under-utilised shellfish like cockles, spider crab and velvet crab. The reader is taken on a tour of the major fisheries around the coast of Britain, along with fish markets and restaurants, to demonstrate the wealth of produce available all over the country, and to show how and where to buy the best seafood. 'But mainly,' in Chris Hirst's own words, 'we'll be doing plenty of eating. We'll slurp oysters, nibble Morecambe Bay shrimps, snap lobsters, chew cephalopods, ravage razor clams, delve into crabs, sizzle scallops, suck on langoustines and winkle out winkles. We'll even steel ourselves to tackle one or two whelks.'
