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LIVING LARDER POTTY ABOUT Children and adults alike go wild for this traditional British delicacy, so venture to the seaside armed with your net and get potting at once, says Hattie Ellis

IG is not necessarily best when No 5: The Edible Seashore recommends, it comes to . The shrimp in general, an hour either side of the Bis a byword for the tiny. Yet, spring low tides as the best time to these morsels of rich flesh have an venture forth with your net. April intense flavour that is vastly superior to the end of June is ideal, with a to large, warm-water tiger . second season in the autumn. All around the British coast, little Commercially, shrimp are most brown shrimp lurk in the sand, their famously fished in Morecambe Bay. eyes poking up on stalks. Fishermen Cedric Robinson, now in his 49th year and seasiders disturb their hiding as The Queen’s Guide to the Sands, place with nets. They leap for safety has been shrimping all his life and and end up on our plates. Lucky us, for knows his way around the notoriously there are many ways to eat shrimp. treacherous bay, where the tides can The French include whole shrimp sweep in from nowhere. in fruits de mer. Valentine Warner’s The Robinson started out selling Good Table has an excellent Spanish shrimp on the train to Carnforth by recipe for shrimp and chick-pea flour the gill, pint or quart, and fishing them fritters. In his new exploration of by horse and cart. “You needed a good seafood, In At the Deep End, Jake Tilson horse because your life depended on cooks them like the Italians, with garlic, it,” he says. “There’d be 15 horses side olive oil and parsley. His paper bag by side dragging nets through the from Rialto Market in Venice hopped water. Many times, the horse would with the live creatures, and his recipe fall into a hole and lose its footing. begins with an instruction to beware You’d have to release it quickly so it they don’t jump behind the cooker. could swim away and get up.” In Britain, our classic dish is potted Shrimp are still caught by . Potting is a traditional way fishermen around the bay, now using of preserving food. It was common in Potted brown pungent, cheap, fish-paste ? tractors or improvised machines, 18th-century households – be it for shrimp (above) But potted shrimps are still classy. The or by boat. The are briefly is best served gamebirds or seafood. The cooked with toast, fresh shellfish, blanketed with butter, are boiled, then shelled, some by machine flesh was taken off the bones or out of green salad and a flavoured with savoury Old English and others still laboriously by hand. the shell and pounded to make a paste, squeeze of lemon spicing, such as mace, cayenne pepper, Andrew Lanigan is a third- and then sealed with melted butter. bay and even a spot of anchovy essence. generation fishmonger in Lytham, Industrialisation dragged this fine Shrimp can be caught all around . He sells four types of craft downhill. Remember those the coast. The Handbook potted shrimp, all slightly ALAMY

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different and each with its own fan base. “I couldn’t imagine the job without shrimps,” he says simply. One of the best-known brands is Baxters of Morecambe, which has used the same method for potting LET’S PARTY… since it started in 1799. The company …like it’s 2012. June and the Jubilee are bustin’ out all over. sells by mail order around the country, Mike Robinson creates a special dish fit for a populace and at farmers’ markets and food events in the north-west. Children as well as adults love the creature, after all, much beloved by flavour, according to Baxters manager royalty and, I would imagine, Mark Smith. “Perhaps its because consumed by them on a regular basis. their mothers say, ‘You won’t like Also, this noble bird lives for much of them’,” he speculates. “They’re a lot the year in our freezers and thus is more meaty than people expect and pretty much available year round. If our pots are 85% shrimp.” you have none in the freezer, then You can, of course, make your own. substitute a couple of plump rabbits. Cedric Robinson does 1lb at a time in a Prior to our main course, though, pudding basin but most people use we need to have something to titillate ramekins and serve one per person. the appetite. Salmon has always been a Another version of this traditional right royal favourite, and though we recipe starts with whole shrimps. You cannot obtain wild Dee salmon we can make a quick, tasty stock with the get very good, organic, sea-farmed shells and cook a soft fish, such as fish. We do them hot-smoked with a whiting in it. This is made into a paste maple glaze in Canadian style. This is flavoured with spices. The shrimp are very easy to do at home and quite folded through, then the mixture is delicious served hot as a starter. potted and sealed with melted butter. Chef Rowley Leigh gives a recipe HAT a special year this is! Commonwealth MAPLE-GLAZED for this method in his outstanding Droughts and financial connection: use HOT-SMOKED SALMON only top-class cookbook No Place Like Home. Leigh woes notwithstanding, Serves 10 W Canadian maple was inspired by ’s I believe that 2012 will be one of the syrup when ■ 100g (31⁄2oz) sea salt book on English food, in which she most memorable years of recent times. hot-smoking the ■ 50g (2oz) dark brown sugar beautifully describes her source, a lady We will host a stunning and very salmon (above) ■ 1 side organic salmon, about 2kg called Betsy Tatterstall, who served British Olympics, without all the (4lb 6oz) pin-boned and trimmed the dish at a northern Shrimp Tea. press-ganged flashiness of Beijing (we ■ 100ml (31⁄2fl oz) maple syrup (the For most recipes, however, you can’t afford it) and, even better, we will good stuff, not fake) can simply buy ready-peeled shrimp have an unforgettable time celebrating at the seaside (they may well have Her Majesty’s Jubilee. To cap it all, Start by rubbing the salt and sugar come from Holland) and pot them in there is even a chance the world will together until well mixed, then pour butter that has been melted and end (if you are Mayan). the mix all over the fillet. Leave it seasoned with your chosen spices. But what has this got to do with covered in the fridge for eight hours or It is best to take potted shrimp out food? To celebrate the original great overnight. Wash the fillet under the of the fridge a little ahead of eating event, a lady named Rosemary Hume cold tap , then pat dry with kitchen them in order to make them spread came up with great coronation paper. Leave for an hour to dry well more easily on toast. They are also chicken. Frugal and delicious, it then cut the fillet into 10 good squares. delicious mixed with hot pasta and celebrated the multicultural aspect of Place the fish pieces on a trivet and a squeeze of lemon. Empire. For those who have never had paint them with maple syrup. Either The northern supermarket chain it, the recipe is available on Google. smoke in a hot box-smoker for 20 Booths has recently promoted potted So, what dish can we create to minutes or improvise: sprinkle oak shrimps as part of a “Forgotten Foods” celebrate the Diamond Jubilee? No chippings in a big oven dish and lay promotion alongside Slow Food UK. small order this – coronation chicken the trivet and fish inside. Cover tightly Sales have doubled. Once prompted, is a hard act to follow. First of all, I am with two layers of foil and place on a people clearly remember their not going to use chicken. It is a lovely medium hob or the barbecue on a fondness for this British delicacy. meat and, as my culinary chum lowish heat. The chippings will Alastair would say, a vehicle for other smoulder, the heat in the box will cook SHRIMP SOURCES flavours, but it is a little ho hum, when the fish and in 20 minutes or so it will www.baxterspottedshrimps.co.uk you consider the alternatives. be done. Remove, allow to cool to just www.booths.co.uk I thought instead we would use either warm, and serve with watercress and www.slowfood.org.uk/forgotten-foods rabbit or pheasant. The pheasant is a cream. ALAN ROBINSON ALAN

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