Coasts and Waters: The British Seafood Cookbook launched as part of Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight

Christopher Trotter, co-author of the classic cookbooks The Whole Cow and The Whole Hog provided a focus for this year’s Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight with his new book, Coasts and Waters: The British Seafood Cookbook, which was launched at Welch’s Fishmongers in Newhaven today as part of Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight.

The book contains over 50 recipes using Christopher’s beloved native Scottish and British seafood as well as guides on choosing and preparing fish, and how to buy the freshest produce.

Coasts and Waters: The British Seafood Cookbook – Christopher’s tenth book – cleverly combines recipes for fish by their season with local ingredients which are also at their seasonal best. There are recipes for the more familiar cod, sole and haddock, but Christopher is an ardent supporter of less well-used varieties such as megrim, hake and sea cat.

In addition to the recipes, Christopher encourages readers to incorporate more native British seafood into their diet as a delicious, healthy and sustainable source of protein and to support the nation’s fishing industry whose markets have been significantly disrupted by Brexit.

Coasts and Waters: The British Seafood Cookbook was produced with support from Native Hebridean Salmon.

Ahead of the publication of Coasts and Waters: The British Seafood Cookbook and Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight 2021, Christopher Trotter said:

“This book was motivated by three converging factors: our local fishermen need a market now that it is more difficult to export to Europe.“We should be eating more fish landed from our own waters – the top five fish consumed in the UK are tuna (which isn’t even from British waters!), Pacific prawns, haddock, sole and salmon, whereas the top five landed by weight are mackerel, herring, langoustine, haddock and cod.”“2020/21 is also Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters, a celebration of Scotland’s famous coastline and inland salt and fresh water bodies.”

Su Cox, Communications and Business Development Director at The Scottish Salmon Company, said:

“We’re delighted to support Christopher Trotter’s ‘Coasts and Waters: The British Seafood Cookbook’, which inspires readers to consider using more native British seafood, such as our Native Hebridean Salmon.  “The creativity and simplicity of the recipes show there are easy ways to cook outstanding meals quickly and from fresh fish sourced from within a few 100 miles.”