Fish and Food Fables at River Cottage

 How perfect that Tuesday was Fish day at River Cottage .

The Sea is the theme for the Tuesday exchange with Marji, do check out her great aquatic photographic inspiration.
I just hope you are ready for some gruesome goings on here ...
                                               excluding the first photograph of course!

Beautiful fresh crabs you think, yes ... but how would you feel knowing your first task of the day was to kill, cook and dress a crab?

I was not first in line with the instruments of death ( rolling pin and large nail), but let's face it if you are wanting to cook the crab and you can assure it will dispatched quickly and 'painlessly', then this is better than the crab being boiled alive. I do understand if you decide that you would never eat crab again if it meant you had to kill it yourself - but I honoured the crab by making the best dish I could from him. (I can assure you I do not plan to go higher up the food chain in killing what I eat, but it was a rite of passage for me as a cook.)

How about our mid morning snack of scallops, lightly seared with chorizo (homemade, of course) and wild garlic? I can honestly say that there is a lot of eating involved in this course - but all in the line of work, and very delicious work it is!

 I have to confess that I took the photo and thereby avoided having to remove the innards from the cuttlefish. Thanks Sue, you have been an amazing partner on this cooking odyssey.
But I did scrape the tentacles. Cuttlefish, brushed with olive oil and then sprinkled with chopped fresh chilli before being  grilled very quickly over the barbecue are so delicious.
If you then add a dipping sauce consisting of fresh red chills, olive oil, fresh crushed garlic and lemon juice, you have a sauce fit for the gods - I just hope you will give them a try. (Try asking the fishmonger to do the inky disembowelling  work for you)

Finally you catch Sue and I savouring our scallops and enjoying a few minutes relaxation before returning to gut a gurnard or two.

I promise more recipes from this incredible four day cooking extravaganza, but I need to get to bed now to gather strength for another day at the kitchens of River Cottage.