Fishy dinner, with gunard, scallops and samphire

I am back in Eastbourne for the weekend - I forgot all my camera bit and pieces, that's why I haven't written for a week. Since I am by the sea, I decided to cook a fishy dinner. And if you're going to do that properly, you need a good fish shop. That down there is the best fish shop in Eastbourne in my book - it's on the beach, off the Royal Parade. Here, you buy lovely, fresh fish straight from the lovely, friendly fishermen

I never know exactly what I am going to buy when I come here. I wanted to make dinner with a Polish feel to it, therefore I asked for a tasty, local fish which fries well, for three people, and under £13. I got an ugly gurnard, which tasted divine. I had £3 left, and the fisherman suggested some samphire and plump scallops. It should have cost more, but he gave me everything for £3, and with lots of good advice on how to cook it best. Here he is, with the gunard

So, I did a starter of scallop on a bed of samphire (which was not only delicious, but took less that 5 minutes to make!) and a Polish-style main course of gunard in breadcrumbs, with surowka (a salad of shredded leek, carrot and apple) and new potatoes

The scallop on a bed of samphire was a rare treat! But the first thing you need to do, if you would like to reproduce this meal, is start on the surowka . So shred the leek as finely as possible and squeeze half a lemon on top. Leave this for a little while. Then add the shredded carrot and apple, salt, pepper, sugar and mayonaise, and leave to stand for as long as you like, ideally half an hour or more. With the samphire, all you need to do is blanche it for about 5 minutes in boiling water. While it is blanching, crush the garlic, heat some oil on a frying pan, add it to the pan and and fry the scallops for 1 minute each side, on a medium heat, adding some salt near the end. Drain the samphire and add a knob of butter. And serve, that's all there is to it. You don't need a list of ingredients for this, it's just scallops, samphire, garlic, basically. Now to the main

Ingredients

Gunard fillets (or any other white fish)

1 egg (will do for 3-4)

Breadcrumbs (enough to coat the fillets, about a handful)

New potatoes

3 leeks

1 carrot

1 apple

3-4 tablespoons mayonaise

Salt, pepper, sugar

Oil for frying

Butter (for the potatoes)

Once you have made the surowka, as described before, put the potatoes on and prepare one plate of whisked egg (with salt and pepper added), and one of breadcrumbs. Go and have a glass of wine and come back in 10 minutes. Then, we dip the fish first in egg and then in breadcrumbs, and fry for about 5 minutes each side. And that's it. I love fish, as long as it's local and fresh, it will taste good cooked in the simplest way! 

This meal is very typical of how you would have fish in Poland, and reminds me of summer camps, pine forests and wooden huts with plastic chairs, sun setting over a lake, and cold beers