Tom Kitchin’s Shellfish Rockpool

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Tom Kitchin is Chef Proprietor of one of the UK’s leading restaurants, The Kitchin in Edinburgh, holder of 1-star Michelin

Shellfish Rockpool – Serves 4 people

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.

When you’re serving the dish to your guests it’s great to explain all the different ingredients you’ve used, and then pour the shellfish consommé over each dish at the table – I always like to tell my guests that it’s like the tide coming in! A genuine recreation of a rockpool!