Preserve And Serve

Today was a good day, I was making my way to the beach. The sun had managed to burn away the morning's drizzle and now  the day had become bright with blue patches of sky emerging before me as the unmistakable call of the herring gulls became a pronounced soundtrack on my journey. I arrived at low tide making for easy picking.

I am here to collect rock samphire which, as you can imagine from its given name, grows on rocks close to the sea's edge. A truly fantastic wild edible, nothing really tastes quite like it. The best description I can give is a salty, sweet, anise parsnip if you can imagine such a thing. Anyways, it is a plant that is a cinch to identify in the wild.

Check on the rocks, cliffs and sea walls at your local beach. Look for fleshy, succulent textured leaves that resemble antlers. They tend to grow in large clusters and at this time of year have small, greeny/yellow flowers at the heart of the clusters. And if you're not 100% sure on your ID, simply pick a small part of the plant and crush or roll it between your palms and you should be smelling a strong fennel/aniseed scent.

I will be pickling the rock samphire using Emma Basics incredible sushi vinegar. Sweeter and milder than its counterparts, it lends itself to the pickling world fantastically. The rock samphire would add a sharp bite to a herby salmon pate. With the salmon coming from and being wood smoked in Scotland, it certainly deserves a wild accompaniment. And what better choice is there than a pickled sea herb. If they grow together they go together as they say. And boy do they. The result is a rich, fresh, tangy, unctuous mouthful of wilderness.

     Bon Appetit !

Smoked Salmon Pate with Pickled Rock Samphire

Ingredients for Smoked Salmon Pate

Emma Basic Smoked Salmon 150g

Cream Cheese 200g

Lemon Half

Dill (a handful)

Crostinis (to serve)

Ingredients for Pickled Rock Samphire

    300ml Water

    200ml Emma Basic Sushi Vinegar

    100g Sugar

    100g Rock Samphire

Method

For the pickled rock samphire 

To pickle the rock samphire simply break up the plant into smaller pieces after washing in clean water. Add 300 ml of water, 200 ml of Emma Basic vinegar and 100g of sugar to a pan and heat on a low to medium setting. Constantly stirring the sugar until it disappears to form part of the pickle liquor, remove from the heat once the sugar is dissolved completely. Add the rock samphire pieces to an airtight container and pour over the pickle liquor.

Leave to cool and then close the lid.

For the Smoked Salmon Pate simply add all the ingredients apart from the pickled rock samphire into a blender and blitz until desired consistency is achieved.

Serve with pickled rock samphire and crostini.