A couple of months ago I was in Mells, Somerset on a garden and plant photography course with Jason Ingrams and Paul Debois. Both brilliant and encouraging tutors. Jason was not surprised when I said I liked photographing food and was a freelancer for the Yorkshire Post. 'Photographing food and plants is similar. David Loftus started out with gardens before he moved on to food' Jason told me.
Well he is right. The skills are similar except plants tend to wave around a bit in the wind. Like Jason I like photographing both and when I have finished with this post I am off to catch the evening sun and take photographs at the allotments just up the road from where I live. I walked past today and several things caught my eye.
I stayed the night at Mells and ate in the Talbot Inn. I ate a dish of crisp lightly battered squid strewn with with young, tender samphire together with some toasted hazelnuts. There was also lemon zest and juice, parsley and lightly browned garlic thrown in the mix. It was delicious and I have been meaning to recreate it for ages.
But squid is a fickle creature. It hides when it is cold in deep water far out at sea. Fishermen only catch it when the weather warms the sea and fleets of squid move into warm shallow water to breed (I think).
At last I have managed to source both fresh squid and samphire at the same time. It is a lovely starter and I even braved giving it to my friend, ace cook and stylist Jane Suthering who I think really liked it.
A fresh squid tube only costs about £2.00 and feeds two as a starter so it is a bargain too.
Crispy squid with samphire, toasted hazelnuts and lemon
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 30g hazelnuts
- 1 squid tube, cleaned and dried
- 2 tbsp seasoned plain flour
- 75g samphire, rinsed
- rapeseed oil for shallow frying
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- zest and juice from 1/2 lemon
- 1 pinch Maldon salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 6. Place hazelnuts on a roasting tin and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool and remove skins. Cut squid into rings and dip in seasoned flour. If the fishmonger has given you tentacles cut these into strips and coat lightly with seasoned flour.
Lay floured squid on a plate ready to cook. Steam samphire for 5 minutes, rinse in cold water and place next to squid ready to cook.
Heat 1 cm of oil in a large frying pan and when it is hot enough to fry a cube of bread in 30 seconds place the squid in the pan. Cook until golden brown and crisp on one side and then turn with tongs. As the other side of the squid begins to brown, throw in the garlic and toasted hazelnuts and agitate the contents of the pan to ensure even cooking. When the garlic begins to brown scatter squid with samphire, chopped parsley and lemon zest. Add a squeeze of lemon and season before serving. Just note that samphire is quite salty so go easy on the salt.
Samphire
There are two types of samphire - marsh and rock but only marsh tends to be eaten. Marsh samphire has vibrant green stalks as shown in the photograph above. The stalks are have a distinctive crisp and salty taste. Samphire is usually boiled or steamed for a few minutes and sometime a little white wine vinegar or lemon juice is added to offset the salty taste. It is in season in the UK during July and August and grows around estuaries and the marshy shoreline.