As summer rolls in there is a bounty of choice from Scotland’s vast seafood offering; squid, shellfish, oil rich fish or flatfish…learn more about the seafood you could offer your diners in this month’s seasonal update.
Species In Season
Squid, herring and plaice are coming into their own in June, tasty seasonal additions to early summer menus.
Brown crab, too, is certainly worth considering. Its brown meat, from the back shell, is stronger flavoured and great for soups, stocks and sauces, while sweeter white meat lends itself well to ravioli and tortellini. Even if you can’t afford the time or staff to prepare it yourself – picking crab meat is fiddly – both the fresh meat and crab claws are readily available pre-prepared for food service.
Stewart Crichton, managing director of Orkney Fishermen’s Society, one of Scotland’s largest crab businesses handle around 80,000 brown crabs each week. Crab in the UK is a success story, “unlike much of Scotland’s other seafood that is exported across the world, crab is enjoying unprecedented popularity with British diners: consumption has increased seven-fold in recent times,” he said.
Orkney crab has a story to tell, which consumers like- provenance sells! Hand-prepared in the traditional manner since 1953, is it a true artisan product. It dates back thousands of years with evidence that the inhabitants of Orkneys Neolithic settlement Skara Brae had been eating local crab and lobster. On top of that, it’s low in fat, contains Omega 3, selenium, zinc and of course is super tasty. What’s not to like?
For centuries, herring was one of Scotland’s most iconic fish; an entire culture grew up around the “Silver Darlings” of the Outer Hebrides and the North-east Atlantic off Wick. Overfishing in the mid 1900’s meant they became scarce and off the menu, but in the 1970s and 1980s they began to re-appear on the most progressive restaurant menus mostly dressed in oatmeal, pan-fried and served with mustard sauce. Stocks are now in tip top shape, and many chefs are using them once again. Tom Kitchin, for example, serves roll-mops with fresh potato salad at his Edinburgh restaurants.
Derek Marshall, chef-patron of Glasgow’s Gamba – a recent Seafood Restaurant of the Year – says, “like mackerel, it is oily and strong-tasting. Herring is popular and delicious as a ceviche, marinated in lime juice and zest with chilli and sea-salt,” he says.
When was the last time you tried herring on your menu? Time for a try? Let us know your suggestions of herring for this summer menu.
We often picture the romantic notion of our spirited pelagic fishermen bravely battling the seas in all weathers to bring back the clean, fresh sustainably managed fish we rely on daily. But what happens after the catch is landed? Something we perhaps think a little less about.
In fact, it’s then that the real work begins for those on the processing side.
Robert Duthie, primary pelagic processor at Denholm Seafood in Peterhead, is currently busy processing tonnes of North Sea fish destined for markets as diverse as the UK, Europe and Eastern Europe, including new markets in Bulgaria and Romania. His state of the art filleting site is as sophisticated as Scotland’s fleet of 23 huge 70m long, highly specialised trawlers that fish for all of the “pelagic” catch (that’s mackerel and herring to most of us). Based in three of Scotland’s largest fishing ports - Fraserburgh, Lerwick and Peterhead, processors like Denholm’s work in tandem with the fishing boats as efficiently as possible in order to ensure the end product is as fresh as can be.
Primary processors are the ones who cut, fillet, head, gut and chill fresh fish for sending onwards into the supply chain for restaurants and retail to use.
When the fish are in season, it’s literally a case of all hands on deck.
“It’s a case of ‘they catch it, we take it’, and it can be pretty frantic stuff,” says Robert, a fourth generation fisherman, who handles around 5000 tonnes of mackerel and herring a year. “We are in constant communication with the boats, prepared for every eventuality, 24/7, 50 weeks of the year. We have to be available whenever the fish are, no matter the time of day, so we can grade them into different sizes, remove the heads, fillet them and send them on as quickly as possible to different parts of the world.”
Scotland produces some of the world’s finest seafood from the cool clean waters of its deep lochs and surrounding seas.
CLICK HERE If you would like a copy of the Seafood Seasonal Guide for your kitchen or help on fishing methods, sustainability or advice on sourcing Scottish seafood for your restaurant, get in touch: [email protected], 0131 557 9344.
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