This column was originally published in Radio Times magazine.
We live on an island surrounded by fish and yet we don’t eat much of it. That, to me, seems simply insane.
I run restaurants so I know that the produce from British waters is brilliant. The rest of the world knows it as well. When I have been on holiday in Spain I’ve invariably found that the delicious spider crabs and cuttlefish on my plate have been exported from Britain, where apparently no one wants to eat them.
All the British want, it seems, is cod. As well as exporting 75 per cent of the fish we catch in our own waters, we import, shockingly, more than 80 per cent of our cod from abroad. That just doesn’t make any sense, especially for the British fishing industry that, post-Brexit, finds itself in a very difficult place and needs us to eat the fish it catches.
Of course, you might not be sympathetic to fishermen who voted for Brexit. For my new Radio 4 documentary I have spoken to them and they feel they were promised things that have not been delivered. They were told about a bonanza to come and I, for one, can’t blame them because they believed what they were being told.
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So, we are where we are and if we are going to help those fishermen and the coastal communities their work supports, then we should eat the fish they catch.
In fact, economically and in terms of sustainability and the environment, the arguments for eating our own fish and not imported cod are pretty much unanswerable. I’ve nothing against cod. After all, I began my career in the family fish and chip shop, but we have to get over our insistence on this one white fish and replace it with the fish we have.
Why not start utilising certain fish that are not necessarily fashionable, species like hake, line-caught mackerel and pilchard (marketed now as Cornish sardines)? These are all fish that, in the right season, abound in our waters.
We also have to get over the British unease around fish and seafood. People give many reasons why they are wary of fish. Some are worried about freshness and these days, with money so tight, no one can afford to let food go off. New technology has a fix for this.
Today, you can go online and get fresh fish from the ocean to your plate within 24 hours and it will come with sauce to cook it. But on this island, we also have very old technology that does the job just as well. Smoked herring kippers are cheap, will keep for days in the fridge and deliver a big dose of the omega-3 fatty acids that the NHS recommends we should have in our diet.
Almost anyone can grill a kipper, but as a nation we are convinced that fish is difficult to cook. If anything, it’s too easy – which is why so many people seem determined to overcook it. This is a perennial problem in British domestic kitchens: fish is in the pan so long it comes out dry and tough. No wonder some don’t want to eat it again!
I think some professionals can sound patronising, but the solution really is simple – don’t cook fish for too long. Often you don’t even have to put it in a pan, just stick it on a tray and put it in the oven.
What about people who just don’t like the look of fish? Well, trick them! Serve up a cheap kedgeree or a great traditional soup like cullen skink. There really is a British fish or seafood dish for everyone.
The thing is, we can do it. We can start making things better, changing people’s minds about British fish meal by meal. But for now, please do eat your kippers.
The next episode of Angela Hartnett’s A Fishy Phobia is on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 15th November at 11am.
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