Seared seafood salad
A fresh seafood salad made with just-cooked shellfish and crustaceans (except crab, which is not firm enough) is briefly marked on the grill and served warm. Ready-cooked seafood won’t cut the mustard.
Serves 2 as a starter
2 tablespoons olive oil
100 g raw prawns or shrimp, heads on
100 g shucked queen scallops, sliced if large
100 g small squid or cuttlefish, cleaned but left whole
100 g firm-fleshed fish fillets
juice of ½ lemon, plus ½ lemon to serve
pinch of chilli flakes
12 mussels or large clams, in their shells, soaked to de-sand
2 generous handfuls of rocket or other mustardy leaves
sea salt
Preheat a heavy iron griddle pan. Toss the prawns, scallops, squid or cuttlefish and fish fillets in a little olive oil – just enough to give them a shine. Cook them quickly in batches in the hot pan, allowing only 30 seconds on each side. Transfer to a bowl and dress with a little more olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, a pinch of sea salt and a scattering of chilli flakes. Meanwhile, cook the shellfish – mussels or clams – either on the griddle pan or in a splash of water over a high heat in a closed pan. Toss the seafood, including the mussels or clams in the shell, with the rocket, dress with a little more olive oil, heap on 2 plates and serve each portion with a quartered lemon.
From Squirrel Pie (and other stories) by Elisabeth Luard (Bloomsbury £16.99), bloomsbury.com
