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The most recent episode of the Food Program is well worth a listen. It was all about the fishing industry in the UK.

Five seafood species make up 80% of what is consumed in the UK – while at the same time the vast majority of what is caught in UK waters gets exported. But is that trend beginning to shift?

In this episode, Sheila Dillon hears how initiatives like the "Plymouth Fishfinger" are hoping to make more use of fish that has often been seen as ‘by-catch’, and how seafood festivals are working to connect the public with local seafood, and can even help regenerate coastal communities.

She also hears how the Fish in Schools Hero programme is working to get young people to try more seafood, and shows how simple it can be to prepare.

Also featured are Ashley Mullenger (@thefemalefisherman) and tv chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/m0024p2q

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I'm grateful for your pointer. I missed that episode and will seek it out. I've heard of the Plymouth fish finger and that schools initiative but not the Female Fisherman. I've never understood why the Brits are so conservative in their fish preferences while the Spanish, say, do imaginative things with pretty much everything that swims or lives in a shell.

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I love monkfish! I order it any time we’re in Europe and I see it on the menu because I never see it at home. Why is it so rare in the United States? (By the way, do take you smashed potatoes up a couple,notches with chicken or duck fat)

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I don't know where you're based, but monkfish is fished commercially slong the Eastern Seaboard from Maine down to North Carolina, though, I hate to say, mostly with trawl gear. I agree, though, I seldom found it there outside Korean fishmongers. On duck/goose/chicken fat - doesn't it take just about everything up a notch and more?

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It always makes me laugh that the French have such a high opinion of their food culture when they're McDonald's second largest global market. And now they're making a mint importing Instagrammable American and Italian food (see Big Mamma Co) into London, but the most successful french restaurants in the city are all British run with Anglo chefs. Food is a funny world.

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You mention their fondness for 'McDo' at your peril! The British take on French food is an improvement, I whisper to suggest.

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Nov 13Liked by Julia Watson

Didn’t think we’d end up with monkfish starting with smashburgers, but here we are! I didn’t piece together the economic argument for smashburgers, but makes total sense. Personally, I’d rather just use those scraps for sausage (as you suggested last week) — but I suppose not everyone has the patience for it. Next time I get monkfish from our fish share I’ll have to try this recipe — normally it gets breaded and fried (how can you go wrong?). That potato preparation, though, is a staple for us!

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Monkfish used to masquerade, breaded and fried, as scampi in the UK, until the Trades Description Act set in. I'm new to crushed potatoes but have just become the lucky recipient of a litre of this season's olive oil from a friend's trees so those are what it will go on.

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