A guide to great British seafood

Whilst we sell over 400 types of seafood from around the world we do have a special place in our hearts for British seafood. This isn’t on the grounds of national pride and allegiance to the flag, the British offering is varied and superb. We are graced with the likes of Dover sole, Cromer crab and the beautiful sea bass.

This is part 1 of our guide to some of our favourite British seafood.

Brill – Scophthalmus rhombus

Brill fillet steak cooked in butter and dill

Brill looks very similar to turbot, and is held in almost equal esteem. In fact, as Buttercup tells Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore, the turbot is no more than an ambitious brill. And here’s Gordon Ramsay: “Brill is more delicate than turbot, but quite delectable.”

Dover Sole – Solea solea

Three lovely Dover soles

Delicate white Dover sole fillets

The Dover sole hardly needs an introduction. Dover sole is Britain’s most loved luxury flatfish. You may recognise the dish ‘Sole meuniere’, a famous French method of dusting the sole in flour and frying in a burnt butter sauce. Dover sole is also very enjoyable when plain grilled. Try and avoid heavy sauces and dominant tastes when cooking this delicate beauty. We tend to source most of our Dover sole from Cornwall.

Hake – Merluccius merluccius

OK….so we’re not about to try and convince you that hake is one of the prettiest fish out of the water! But look at that beautiful crispy skin on that thick fillet steak. The flesh is white, delicate and flakey. We have brought hake up to 7KG in size. Larger hakes give you the flexibility to yield a range of high end cuts such as the one in the image above. Our hake comes from MSC certified fisheries and is a great choice from a sustainability stand point. If you tend to favour cod and haddock we would recommend this fish to you.

Parlourdes – Tapes decussatus

The palourde is one of the most sought after & rare clams available on the UK market. There is a clam that looks almost identical to it called a ‘Manila clam’ or ‘Japanese clam and often they are falsely sold under the name palourde.

Native lobsters – Homarus gammarus

Native lobsters

British lobsters are in season throughout the summer months and are landed nationwide. We buy most of our native lobsters from Cornish or Scottish seafood merchants between June – September. You can buy native lobster outside of the summer months, but be prepared huge prices for the luxury. Our natives range in colour from black to bright electric blue!