A Kitchen That Smells of the Sea

There is a particular hunger that only a day on the coast can produce. Hours of salt air, a long walk along the shingle, the cry of gulls overhead — by the time you get back to the kitchen, you want something that tastes of where you have just been. The good news is that the finest seafood on a British shoreline asks for almost nothing: butter, lemon, herbs, and a hot pan. These are the recipes I return to after a day of rockpooling, beachcombing or simply staring at the horizon until the light goes pink.

Start with the Fishmonger, Then Keep It Simple

Buying well is most of the cooking done. Look for fish with bright eyes, red gills and a smell of the sea rather than the fridge. Mackerel should be stiff and gleaming, mussels tightly closed, crab heavy for its size. If you are lucky enough to be near a harbour, ask what came in that morning. If not, a good counter will tell you what is at its best. Once you have your haul, resist the urge to do too much. The recipes below are deliberately short because the ingredients deserve the spotlight, and because after a day outdoors nobody wants to be chained to the stove.

Grilled Mackerel with Lemon and Herb Butter

Mackerel is the great reward of the British seaside, rich and oily in the best way, and it takes to high heat like nothing else. Ask your fishmonger to gut and clean two whole fish, or do it yourself with a sharp knife and a firm hand.

• 2 whole mackerel, gutted and cleaned
• 75g softened butter
• Zest of 1 lemon, plus wedges to serve
• Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp capers, roughly chopped (optional)
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mash the butter with the lemon zest, parsley, capers, a pinch of salt and plenty of pepper. Score the mackerel three or four times on each side, right down to the bone, then rub the flavoured butter into the cuts and over the skin. Heat a grill or a heavy griddle pan until it is properly hot. Cook the fish for four to five minutes on each side, until the skin blisters and the flesh flakes away from the bone. Serve straight away with lemon wedges and good bread to mop up the buttery juices. If you are cooking outdoors, the same fish works beautifully over a barbecue.

Mussels Steamed in Cider and Cream

Mussels are the most generous seafood in Britain: cheap, plentiful and ready in minutes. A kilo feeds two people comfortably as a main course with bread and chips. Rinse them under cold running water and pull away any beards, discarding any that stay open when tapped sharply on the side of the sink.

• 1kg live mussels, cleaned
• 30g butter
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 250ml dry cider or white wine
• 100ml double cream
• Small bunch of parsley, chopped

Melt the butter in a large pan with a tight-fitting lid and soften the shallots and garlic for a few minutes without colouring. Pour in the cider and let it bubble for a minute, then tip in the mussels and clamp on the lid. Steam for four to five minutes, shaking the pan once or twice, until the shells have opened. Stir through the cream and parsley, taste for seasoning, and serve in deep bowls with the cooking liquor. Any mussels that remain shut should be thrown away.

Dressed Crab on Toast

A freshly cooked crab is one of the great luxuries of a coastal kitchen, and a simple dressing lets the sweet white meat and the rich brown meat speak for themselves. If you are buying ready-picked crab, look for meat that smells clean and sweet, never ammoniacal.

• 200g mixed white and brown crab meat
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 4 slices of sourdough or good brown bread
• Butter, for spreading

Keep the white and brown meat separate if you can. Fold the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice and cayenne through the brown meat, then season carefully. Toast the bread, butter it generously, and pile on the white meat first, then spoon the dressed brown meat alongside or over the top. A scattering of chopped chives and a final squeeze of lemon is all it needs. Serve with a sharp lettuce salad and a glass of something cold and dry.

Storecupboard and Equipment Notes

None of these dishes requires special kit, but a few things make coastal cooking easier. A heavy frying pan or griddle that holds its heat, a large lidded pot for mussels, a fish slice thin enough to slide under delicate skin, and a really good pepper mill. Keep butter in the fridge, lemons in the bowl, and flat-leaf parsley on the windowsill if you can. Cider, white wine, cream and capers earn their place in the cupboard because they turn a bag of shellfish into supper. A seaside kitchen, whether it is a rented cottage with one ring or a proper range, works best when it is stocked for simple pleasures rather than complicated ones.

The best coastal meals are uncomplicated by design. Whether you are cooking in a borrowed kitchen with the window open to the sound of waves, in a campervan at the edge of a cliff, or back home with sand still in your shoes, mackerel, mussels and crab will reward you for very little effort. That, in the end, is the point of a kitchen by the sea: the coast does the hard work, and you just add butter.