Fish of the Day - week 7 - Cuttlefish

It's not that many years ago that boxes of cuttlefish landed could be counted on one hand, a few kilos here and there... 

then, around ten years ago word went round that the Brixham beam trawlers were landing not boxes but 400kg tubs of cuttlefish or 'black gold', it's the one single species of fish that has seen Brixham and its big beam trawl fleet gross more than Newlyn overall in recent years...

the his seemingly uninviting fish has some huge fans when it comes to cooking and eating, read on!..

When the creator of BBC1's Saturday Kitchen presented the concept to host chef James Martin five years ago there's no doubt that when Martin compiled his wish list of chefs to have on the show, top of that list would have been Pierre Koffman - five years later and a dream comes true - here's a chef with no pretentions - at the Berkley Hotel's restaurant, La Tante Claire his signature dish was pig's trotter - and on Saturday's show the three-starred Michelin chef (one of only a handful in the UK) set about demonstrating a simple dish using the humble cuttlefish......... 

 the thickest part of three cuttles were separated, cleaned, squeezed together and frozen.......

 the rest, including tentacles were finely chopped........

 and sautéed in shallots and butter before adding the Bolognese sauce .......

meanwhile, the frozen cuttlefish were sliced on a meat slicer - there's a good chance that you could replicate this at home with a peeler.......

the sliced cuttlefish was then plunged in boiling water for 20 seconds and served as the 'pasta'

with the sauce on top plus garnish - for full details of the recipe and a chance to watch it for the next few days, head on over to the Saturday Kitchen web site........

The fish also has a siginificant connection with this part of Cornwall. Delegates at a conference held at the Villa St Andrea in Taormina in Sicily in 1979 were presented with this unusual cook book. Printed on recycled paper - well before recycling became fashionable - the book contains recipes, many fish based, unique to Sicily......each one written first in Sicilian......then Italian....

followed by an English translation - however, those of you with a limited knowledge of Italian (rather than Sicilian) may just spot a significant error in this recipe for squid and cuttlefish twixt the original and the English version!

Either way, the recipe is a delicious way of preparing the these delicate creatures at this time of year when they are in abundance (when the boats can get to sea).

Apart from the fact that cuttles are also fished by boats from the tiny port of Taormina the links don't stop there. Amongst many notable Englishmen living was Lord Bridport, the Duke of Bronte who entertained others like DH Lawrence. The Villa St Andrea was once owned by a Cornishman whose family came from Zennor then Ludgvan near Penzance. The Trewhella family, later railway engineer and mine owner Robert Trewhella lived in the villa, which was much later (in the 1950s) converted to the luxury hotel it is today. Another English connection with the port was the Nelson family - use Google translation for this page.

The story of the villa hotel has an incredibly tragic element. As with many parts of Sicily the coastline consists of sheer cliffs with tiny ports at the foot of these cliffs. The grounds of the villa above Taormina end at a steep cliff edge - access to the port itself is by funicular railway built by Robert Trewhella. On the 5th of April 1959 the wife of Alfred Percy Trewhella (search on the page), Gertrude Deidamia Sarauw stepped out of the way of a car in the villa grounds and fell, as she did so, her husband Alfred tried to catch hold of her and, tragically, the two of them fell to their deaths.

Maybe someone can help with the Trewhella family history being researched here by Harry Manley.

The UK's only 2 star Michelin fish chef is also a fan of the cuttle;

St Enodoc Hotel in Roc and recently awarded two Mchelin Stars to boot.

For the Cuttlefish
1kg cuttlefish cleaned, prepared and left whole, saving the ink
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
6 ripe tomatoes cut into quarters
600ml fish stock
100ml dry white wine


Sweat off the vegetables for 5 minutes in a pan. Add the wine and reduce to nothing and then add the fish stock. Bring the stock to the simmer and add the cuttlefish. Simmer for 1 ½ hours or until tender. When the cuttlefish is ready remove from the stock and allow cooling. Strain off the stock for the vinaigrette and cool. When the cuttlefish is cold slice into 2cm strips and reserve until serving


For the purple sprouting
28 nice pieces of purple sprouting


Bring a large pan of salted water to the simmer and blanch the sprouting for 2 minutes. Refresh in ice water and drain off. If you’re doing in advance place in the fridge. If you’re serving straight away don’t refresh just serve immediately.


Ink vinaigrette
2 finely chopped shallots
75ml red wine vinegar
75ml cuttlefish stock
150ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp cuttlefish ink


Add the shallots, vinegar and stock together and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Then add the ink and whisk in the oil. Season with salt and serve immediately.


Garnish
20g fine capers
4 sprigs of tarragon, picked
Squeeze of lemon


To serve
Warm the cuttlefish up in a bit of the vinaigrette, not to hot. Place the sprouting, capers and tarragon into a large bowl and then gently mix with the warm cuttlefish. Add a squeeze of lemon and season with sea salt and black pepper. Serve in bowl plate with a jug of vinaigrette on the side.

Put together the simple set of ingredients (plumped for tinned rather than fresh toms)........

one cuttle simmering slowly in the sauce........

sliced and ready to serve turned gently in with the purple sprouting (plus a few heads of broccoli)........

PS The starter was a failure - don't be tempted to pick mussels from Porthmeor Beach in St Ives, they are full of grit - the beach is way too sandy methinks!