The grey gurnard, distinctly lacking in the colour of their near relative...
and consistently smaller, only the biggest are served up as filets of whole fish. More often than not, a few of these less trendy members of the gurnard family end up in fish stews.
Traditionally, the trawl fleet in Newlyn kept these aboard the boat until the end of a trip when they would be sold for stocker to the local crab boats in the port for bait - and fine bait they make too! In the days when a handful of inshore trawlers worked the grounds NW of the Wolf or the Sevenstones, many tons of small gurnard were landed - all destined to end up between two sticks inside a crab pot!
These days they are far more saleable as their sweet and full flavour has become more widely known in the UK - before that any gurnards sold to be eaten went straight across the channel to all-knowing French consumer!
If you have never tried before, have a go at a fish stew and make sure there are gurnards in there - not forgetting some suitable bread to go mopping up the dish as you go. Who better to help you deliver the finest of fish dishes, none other than Mr Gastronomy, that piquant piscatorial, Mr Keith Floyd! If you decide to watch the programme from his much acclaimed first TV series, Floyd on Fish - the series that sparked an entirley new genre of TV chefs you can sit back and enjoy his time spent at the fish auction in Newlyn, 1980s style!