So…it’s been a little while since my last post and I'm going to take a new approach; more often and quicker!
Firstly then, I’ve moved to London which from a food point of view is fantastic. Living near the Billingsgate Fish Market, on my first weekend off I couldn’t resist getting up early (buying begins at 5am) and going. If you live in London and haven’t been, you really must go. The traders are far friendlier than I imagined (although some don’t take too well to haggling) and the whole market is filled with more public than the wholesaler only impression I had, which makes it much easier to shop.
The range of fish is incredible and to be honest overwhelming. The wholesale nature of it means prices are extremely low (I paid £12 for 3 whole wild sea bass) but to get the best value you need to buy a ‘box’ of fish so be prepared to stock up the freezer.
I also fell for the lure of a trader and bought 1.5kg of razor clams. Having never bought or eaten the before I couldn’t resist and took the squirming clams home in my rucksack! After some quick googling I cooked them simply in some white wine and then fried them, quickly in some butter for colour. They were delicious and the fun of an early Saturday at the market was well worth sleep deprivation.
On the clams themselves, there isn’t much guidance online on what bits to eat. They come out in a y-shape muscle. One side is clearly the main eating muscle and was bout 1 ½ inches long, but the other had the appearance of the internal organs. I didn’t fancy risking that side but it did seem that I threw away over half of each clam? If anyone knows what I should have done is that would be greatly appreciated!
In future I will definitely be buying a fish guide so I have a better idea of what I want, and to avoid the situation of not really knowing how to cook what I’ve bought.
So a quick ramble on the fish market…if you can you must go: it’s like nothing else. Get an idea of what fish you’d like and know what It weighs as everything is sold “per kg” and I did find myself unsure of what that meant in terms of fish!
Also if anyone has any recipes for Razor Clams please share them as i have some frozen to deal with!
