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| Crab, samphire and other ingredients |
At the weekend I went down to my local fishmongers, Brighton and Newhaven Fish Sales, and was excited to see the first of the new season’s
samphire. I couldn’t resist. I also bought a crab, and decided to make crab and
samphire linguine. It seemed the perfect supper on a sunny spring day.
Samphire is a sort of succulent, which grows in salt
marshes. It is in season from about mid spring to August, and has a
pleasant slightly salty flavour. It is delicious lightly steamed with a little
good quality olive oil, and a twist of pepper, and works well with fish. In the
spring it is great raw, but tends to get a bit woody as the season goes by. It can be foraged, although most of the places
I know where it grows tend to be on the side of rivers with heavy marine
traffic or in nature reserves. I avoid picking the former because of the risk
of pollutants and the latter because, well, foraging from nature reserves seems
to be frowned upon, for good reason.
