Cornwall - The final clamdown (AKA Cornwall Take 3)

It's our last day in Cornwall today before we head back up to the smoke. Last night was my final cooking experiment of the holiday - we had fish and chips today from Morrish fish and chip shop in Redruth. They serve absolutely the best fish and chips I've ever had from a takeaway. That and a bottle of Cornish Rattler cider, and I'm a happy girl. For an hour or so anyway.

Anyway - where was I? It's razor clam and swordfish night, and what I most wanted to do was light up the barbecue and throw on the swordfish. Unfortunately it was cold and windy, and as we'd just got back from a (rather brave) long walk along the coast, we'd had enough of the cold and wind for one day.

1. Razor clams

I had never seen razor clams in real life before. When I bought them, they were still squirming and frightened me a little (although that may have been the weird moment the fish man had with one of the clams when he tenderly squished one and watched it wriggle about). So, I bought the clams on Wednesday - they were still alive yesterday (Thursday) evening and were squirming slowly away when I rinsed them out for cooking.

What you need for this recipe is:

1 red chilli, chopped finely

4 garlic cloves, chopped finely

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

A couple of glugs of olive oil

A glug of white wine

The juice of one lemon

First, drop the clams in boiling water for 5-10 seconds and then drain immediately. When I did this, one of the clams snapped open and it wriggled around as if trying to escape the boiling water. This was very disturbing is still haunting me. I'm basically a murderess.

Once I'd cold-heartedly boiled the clams to death, I left them to cool in a colander and then gently removed them from their shell with a sharp knife. I placed the shells into a baking dish and then removed grainy sac in the middle, cut off the dark, toothy end and pulled out the long, feathery gills. I then rinsed them, chopped the clam meat diagonally and placed the pieces into one half of the clam shells.

I then heated the oil on a low heat, added the garlic and chilli and sauteed for a couple of minutes. I then also added the lemon juice and a glug of white wine, a little salt and pepper, and simmered for another few minutes until piping hot. Then,I poured the mixture over the clams and placed them under a preheated grill for about 2-3 minutes (the clams should be heated through).

When served, they looked pretty and tasted great, even if I say so myself. Almost good enough to remove the guilt of watching the clams squirm to their death....

2. Griddled swordfish with tomato salsa and corn on the cob

This bit was easy in comparison - I adapted a Rick Stein recipe from his Taste of the Sea series. For the salsa, I  mixed:

- 1 avocado, chopped into about 5mm pieces

- 4 tomatoes, chopped into about 1cm pieces

- 2-3 tablespoons of chopped coriander

- 3 garlic cloves, chopped finely

- 1 shallot, chopped finely

I then set it aside and boiled the corn on the cob (do it by packet instructions, but mine needed about 8 minutes) as well as brushing the swordfish with olive oil and seasoning it with salt and pepper.

I placed the swordfish on a hot griddle pan - it depends how you cook it and on the size of your swordfish steaks, but mine took just under 5 minutes on each side to be cooked properly. Try not to overcook as it can become dry.

All this served together worked really well and would make a great bbq dish. One to try again on a Summer's day! Eat with a fruity white wine and a good movie.

Cornwall - Take 2

On our next visit to Seabourne Fish, I went alone. This turned out to be an error, as I got a bit excited with the cash I had got out of the cashpoint the day before. Anyway, we ended up with more fish than you can shake a stick at. Yum.


Seabourne fish, by the way, is a lovely little place that's pretty much as good as buying fish fresh of a boat - you can either pre-order or pop by and see what they have (which I prefer, as you end up with random things you'd probably never have tried otherwise). So anyway, I got scallops, razor clams, swordfish and bream. The scallops were so fresh that they had only just been removed from their shells after being brought in from the boat, so I couldn't resist!


Anyway, Wednesday night was sophisticated fish night (or sofishtecated night) - so we had scallops first, and bream, with slow cooked fennel and sauteed potatoes for mains.


1. Scallops with a honey and balsamic reduction


First up, a nice picture of scallops

This one's so easy it's barely even worth putting on this blog - but I love it, so it's going on. Firstly, make a bed of rocket for the scallops to go on when they're ready. Next, put two tablespoons of honey and a large glug of balsamic vinegar into a saucepan and heat up on medium heat. In parallel, heat a non stick frying pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil and some lemon juice, as it should be piping hot when the scallops go in.


When the balsamic/honey mixture has reached a syrupy consistency, it's ready - taste it to make sure it's right, it should be a sweet, sharp sort of flavour - and add more vinegar/honey to taste if necessary.
At this point, add the scallops to the hot frying pan with the oil. Cook them for a minute (maximum) on both sides, then plate them up and spoon the balsamic reduction over the top. Eat immediately. It looks, predictably, something like this:

2. Bream with slow cooked fennel and sauteed potatoes


Next up, the bream. Cunningly I'd asked the fish shop man to gut and scale the fish -  I hate scaling fish. 


Anyway, first things first - the fennel. I got this really simple recipe from the River Cafe Italian Kitchen cookbook, which as it happens has several great, simple vegetable recipes. 


Anyway - I cut three fennel bulbs (this is enough for at least three people, we had leftovers) into eighths, seasoned and browned them in a pan with oil on a medium heat for about 20 minutes. Once browned, I added 4 cloves of chopped garlic, browned this as well and then added a ladleful of boiling water. I lowered the heat and left this to simmer for about 20 minutes. 

This makes a beautiful, rich, al-dente fennel dish - really tasty despite the lack of "interesting" ingredients.


Right - next. The bream. This recipe is SUPER easy - you'll need two lemons, a bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, some white wine and a little olive oil. And, of course, two bream. And an oven preheated to 200C.


I stuffed the bream with two lemon slices and a handful of parsley and laid them out on a baking tray. I poured over about 100ml of white wine, sprinkled the fish with olive oil and seasoned the fish with salt and pepper. Then, as a finishing touch, added a slice of lemon to pretty them up.

Then, in the oven for about 20 minutes - you know it's ready when you test the fish at its thickest part and it's firm and white. Serve on a hot plate, and pour its juices over the top. It's a lovely, tasty fish and goes really well with the fennel and sauteed potatoes (which I have excluded, as I'm sure everyone knows how to make sauteed potatoes...).


Next time: Razor clams and swordfish. Much more rock and roll.

Cornwall - Take I

So, I've missed a few weeks and have A LOT to catch up on - So I'm going to start at the end and and with the beginning, as clearly that's the way that makes sense...


So starting with this week, Mark and I have been in Cornwall at my parents' house for the last week. So, I've taken advantage of the superior cooking facilities and better food sources down here and have cooked pretty much every night (mainly to get off washing up duties, clearly). Taking a break from some of the Bruce experiments, I've been trying out some new bits and pieces. I have, however, been a bit poor at taking photos as you'll notice. Try not to get bored.


So, up first - Hake with wild mushrooms and red cabbage.


Point to note - Hake does NOT go with red cabbage. The red cabbage was merely an addition that Mark specifically requested and had to be served in a separate bowl to stop it screwing up the other flavours. Point over.


First up - the hake. The lady serving us at Seabourne Fish recommended this, and what a great recommendation it was. Hake is a white fish, a bit like cod but less meaty. 

The below is adapted from an Epicurious.com recipe:



Extra-virgin olive oil
Grated lemon zest of two lemons
3 hake fillets (1 1/2 to 2 inches thick)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
450g mixed fresh wild mushrooms (I used shiitake and chestnut), trimmed and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
75ml stock (I used beef as that was all I had. It was fine)
A couple of tablespoons of flat-leaf parsley
Juice of 1 lemon 


Preheat the grill to a medium heat. Firstly, I mixed together half the lemon zest, a glug of oil, salt and pepper and roll the hake fillets in the mixture before placing them on the grill.


Next, I heated the oil and sauteed the garlic before adding mushrooms, a bit of salt and some pepper. After a couple of minutes, I added the stock, parsley and the remaining lemon zest, then the lemon juice until the mixture was piping hot.


By this time the hake was ready - you can tell as the flesh is firm and white coloured - and I spooned the mixture over the top. Simple but lovely.