2 hours ago
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As a kid growing up in West Bay, Dorset, I used to sit on the harbour wall and watch the small trawlers coming in with their catch. My friend Mark’s dad’s boat, along with all the others, would be stacked high with sacks of queenies that they’d dredged up only hours before, and Mark’s mum would pack us off to school with a tub each of queen scallop meat doused in Sarson’s vinegar and white pepper, to eat later as a playground snack. At the time, I thought nothing of it, but, looking back now, I realise quite what a luxurious schoolday treat this was.
These days, however, our local scallop fishermen don’t fish for queenies much any more, because the time it takes to shuck and clean them is more or less the same as that for larger king scallops, so they’re no longer financially viable; also, instead of all those trawlers that Lyme Bay had in the past, it’s now mostly divers who fish more sustainably for king scallops, without demolishing the sea bed in the process. There are two main dive boats that fish out of Lyme Regis nowadays, operated by Jon Shuker and Ali Day, and they’ve pretty much cornered the local market. They recently started experimenting with so-called “disco scallops”, which are caught in pots fitted with flashing lights that lure them in, which is much more efficient, crew-wise, than diving, because a boat with one diver is legally required to have a crew of four, comprising the working diver, a standby diver, a supervisor and a driver. Crazy, eh?
That’s why scallops come with a pretty hefty price tag. And while those pot-caught disco scallops are more economical for staffing costs, they’re less so catch-wise, because the yield is nowhere near as good. Let’s wait and see how the experiment goes, but in principle I wholeheartedly support this kind of new commercial fishing idea; the disco scallop fishing method also won the innovation award at the BBC Food & Farming awards a few months ago, as a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to harvest scallops.
You may well have watched the David Attenborough documentary Ocean, which featured some shocking footage of the damage that dredging does to the seabed. My 13-year-old daughter, Isla, and I both ended up in tears, and it left so powerful an impression on me that I think the series should be compulsory viewing in schools. If this kind of thing were on the curriculum, our kids wouldn’t grow up thinking that food comes only from the supermarket.
Scallops were never off the menu at my former Lyme Regis restaurant Hix Oyster & Fish House – or at least not unless the weather was so bad that the divers were unable to get out to sea – and I’ve served them in just about every which way possible – with black pudding or chorizo; cooked, chopped and added to a big mix of roast local shellfish; and raw in the form of ceviche and the like. In the West Country, we don’t get those huge scallops that Scottish divers catch, but the flipside of that is ours cost about a fifth of the price. In a restaurant, you can pay upwards of 25 quid for just one fat Scottish scallop, while for the same price you could probably get a plate of five Lyme Bay ones.
This week’s recipe is perhaps my favourite way to cook scallops at home. It’s very easy, too – though if you wanted to titivate it a little, you could maybe crumble some black pudding into the crust, or some chopped and fried chorizo, or a little grated lemon zest, or sprinkle on a splash of white vermouth or pastis (Tarquin’s make a great local one down in Cornwall) at the end.
Baked scallops with herb crust
Serves 4
12 scallops, cleaned and on the half-shell
Flaky sea salt and black pepper
80g butter
2 medium shallots, peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
100g fresh white breadcrumbs
3 tbsp chopped soft herbs – parsley, chives, tarragon or chervil, or a mixture
Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7. Put the scallops on a baking tray and season. Melt the butter in a frying pan on a medium heat, then sweat the chopped shallots and grated garlic for a couple of minutes, until soft but not coloured. Take off the heat, stir in the white breadcrumbs and chopped soft herbs, and season. Spoon the herby breadcrumbs evenly over the top of the scallops, pop the tray in the oven and bake for six to eight minutes, until golden. Serve immediately, ideally with a glass of something crisp and white.
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Mark Hix is a restaurateur and writer based in Dorset. His latest limited-edition book, Fishy Tales, with illustrations by Nettie Wakefield, is published at £90. Rachel Roddy is away.
