Smoked salmon and lemon risotto

Smoked salmon and lemon risotto seasoned with sea lettuce

This is one of my favourite risottos. The flavour and zing of lemon juice and zest cuts through the salmon and the creamy, cheesy risotto. A pinch of dried sea lettuce seasons the dish perfectly. I would love to try this dish with lobster instead of the salmon. I think it might work.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
300g risotto rice, such as Arborio
150ml dry white wine
1 l hot vegetable stock
80g soft goat’s cheese
20g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 lemon, grated rind and juice
150g smoked salmon, roughly chopped
1 tsp dried sea lettuce (optional)
ground black pepper

Method

Sweat the onion and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes. Add the rice and continue to cook for 5 minutes until it just begins to brown. Add the glass of white wine and allow this to evaporate before gradually adding the stock a ladleful at a time. Stir the risotto continuously with a wooden spoon until the rice is soft but still has a slight bite. Add the goat’s and Parmesan cheese followed by the grated lemon rind and juice to taste. Stir in the smoked salmon and allow to heat through. Just before serving season to taste with the dried sea lettuce if using (otherwise use salt) and a little ground black pepper.

Scallop, lobster and crab sketches inspired by my visit to Staithes

The wind is blowing from the north and it is icy cold as I stand on the harbour at Staithes, a nook of a village perched under high, craggy cliffs on Yorkshire's east coast, just north of Whitby. I am waiting for Sean Baxter, who runs an enterprise called 'Real Staithes' and courses on the natural history of the area. Sean and his two teenage sons, Luke and Thomas are taking me on a walk eastwards along the foreshore towards a prominent cliff named Old Nab as soon as the tide goes out.

I am hoping to catch something for my supper along the way. Perhaps a lobster, if I am lucky; some winkles, for sure, and I might gather a selection of edible seaweed which I love.

"There is so much history in this area" Sean tells me as we scramble over rocks and splash though pools of seawater left by the ebbing tide. He points to sleepers on the beach where a railway once carried ironstone away from the village. "Alum was mined here in the 19th century for the leather and textile industries and jet was used extensively for jewellery" he adds.

Impression of Staithes walking down from the car park

Thomas points to dinosaur ribs lodged in the cliff and picks out a round rock, a geode, and smashes it with a hammer he has brought along for the job. The rock splits and a fossil is revealed. This small stretch of the coastline was formed in the Jurassic period about 150 million years ago.

After this foray into the past we look back down at our feet and Sean points out some bright green film, stranded on the rock by the ebbing tide. "This is sea lettuce. It has quite a strong flavour" Sean tells me as he takes his penknife to cut some off the rock. I taste it and, yes it is strong, but it has a salty iodine like flavour that I think would complement a cooked seafood dish. It is not long before Sean identifies two more familiar sounding seaweeds. Carrageenan and laver. I have used the former as a setting agent for vegetarian fruit and vegetable jellies. My favourite is

beetroot jelly served with a creamed horse radish sauce made up from a recipe

from Simon Hopkinson's 'The Vegetarian Option'. Carrageenan has reddy brown branched fronds.

The dark brown straplike laver is made into a Welsh delicacy known as laverbread and served with bacon or scrambled eggs. I am yet to try this.

I am also introduced to a seaweed I really, really like the taste of called pepper dulse. This seaweed also has branched fronds and a bushy habit. It has a succulent, firm texture and tastes salty. Pepper dulse has a distinctive flavour and a mild kick, like chilli. It would work well in Asian style soups like pho.

The final notable seaweed for foragers is kelp. Kelp flourishes a little further out to sea than we were able to venture today. It makes really tasty crisps. You can either go the low fat route and desiccate them like the ones on sale in Waitrose or you can deep fry them. Either tastes great with a cool, sharp glass of wine.

Before long I feel duty bound to raise the issue of when and how am I going to catch my lobster supper. Sean delivers the bad news. "The sea is too rough to cast the pots along the foreshore today".

Sean rescues me from my disappointment by telling me I can have one from his freezer on our return. Lobster catching is a licensed activity and Sean is only allowed to catch 2 or 3 a day.

He also explained why the lobsters come into shallow water. They grow by shedding their shells but before they do they secrete enzymes that make the shell and the connective tissue soft. They then struggle out of the old shell and at the same time take on-board water which make them expand before recasting a new shell. Often during this process of shell shedding and growth lobsters hide under rocks in the shallow water. It takes about six weeks for the new shell to harden and be strong enough to protect the lobster from predators.

Before returning to Sean's warm, cosy cottage we also picked up a few winkles to take home to try. I was not so impressed with winkles - rather gristly and not particularly tasty. Although I did think their shells were extremely pretty. To learn more about the naturally history of the foreshore contact Sean Baxter at

Real Staithes