Shellfish Rockpool Recipe from Chef Tom Kitchins

This dish is a real showstopper, sure to impress friends and family. I love talking to my guests at The Kitchin about where the produce I use comes from and in Scotland, we’re so lucky to have access to some amazing seafood from lobsters to scallops, mussels to oysters. I always add the shellfish consommé at the end, after the dish has been presented to guests – it’s like the tide coming in!

And now, we have the recipe for you!

Serves 4

For the shellfish stock:

Ingredients:
6 carrots – thinly sliced
½ onion – diced
1 fennel – diced
½ leek – diced
1 celery – diced
½ bulb of garlic
1kg langoustine bodies
1kg lobster heads
500g crab shells
Peel and juice of 1 orange
5 cardamom pods
20g fennel seeds
100g ginger
3 star anise
100ml brandy
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:
•    Pre-heat oven to 180°C
•    Roast the langoustine, lobster and crab shells in a roasting tray for 15 minutes
•    In the meantime, heat a large heavy bottom pan and add the vegetable oil
•    Sweat the carrots slowly until the oil becomes orange in colour and add the orange juice, cardamom pods, fennel seeds, ginger and star anise
•    Add the onion, fennel, leek, celery and garlic along with the shells
•    Then add the tomato purée and brandy before reducing until dry
•    Once dry, cover with water and bring to the boil
•    Reduce and leave to simmer for 1 hour, skimming  when required 
•    Remove from the heat and leave to cool
•    Once cooled, pass through a wet muslin cloth to remove all traces of shells
•    Season to taste 

Rockpool
You can use any combination of fish, shellfish and seaweed for this recipe and I tend to use what comes in fresh that day, or what my suppliers recommend, but here are some suggestions for you to try.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 shallot
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
50ml white wine
8 squat lobster tails  
2 razor clams 
8 mussels
8 surf clams 
50g squid
40g brown shrimp
20g keta salmon eggs
50g fresh cooked crab
4 oysters
1 fillet mackerel
1 scallop 
60g samphire
200g seaweed – ideally channel wrack seaweed

Method:
•    Heat a heavy bottom pan and add some olive oil
•    Add the shellfish – the mussels, razor clams and surf clams
•    Add the shallots, parsley and white wine and place a lid on the pan
•    The razor clams should be the first to open, so as they do, take them out of the pan
•    Then add in the squid, the squat lobster tails and brown shrimp and cook in the pan
•    Once the mussels and surf clams have opened, take them out of the pan and away from heat and remove from the shells
•    Prepare the razor clams by removing the tender flash from the intestine
•    Start to build the dish by dividing the shellfish between the four bowls
•    Then add the cooked crab to the bowls evenly
•    Add a quarter slice of raw scallop, oysters, mackerel and the salmon caviar
•    Garnish with all your blanched seaweed and samphire

To serve:
Pour the shellfish consommé into a jug, and pour over the dish at the table.