Eating Samphire as a Side Dish

Cooking Two Seashore Plant Recipes from Chefs in Cornwall England

Jun 16, 2008 Susan Morris

Samphire is not seaweed, it's a seashore plant. Two chefs' recipes from Cornwall show the ease and versatility of making samphire side dishes to fish and seafood.

Samphire has a short season of June to August. When available, try out these two recipes from accomplished seafood chefs associated with Padstow in Cornwall England.

About Samphire

Salicornia spp or samphire is a stocky seashore bush with succulent stems. Once used in glassware manufacture, its nickname glasswort and marsh samphire can be searched for when buying samphire. Rock samphire is a different plant to samphire.

Delis may stock pickled samphire. Samphire will travel better into salads and antipasti platters as a pickled sea vegetable.

Raw samphire, when in season, is versatile and easy to prepare as a side dish. With its marine flavor, a samphire side is perfect for seafood and fish.

Cooking Samphire

Samphire should be well rinsed before cooking. With its natural tendency to be salty, try to reduce or avoid adding salt to boiling water when cooking samphire.

Samphire can be steamed or boiled. Youth, tenderness and freshness of the seashore plant will reduce cooking time. Keep testing the ingredient’s quality while cooking, 5-8 minutes for steaming and 2-3 minutes in boiling water.

Simply Marsh Samphire

Cooks are encouraged to give marsh samphire a try with grilled sea bass with beurre blanc in the Winner of the Andre Simon Memorial Fund Food Book Award 1995 Rick Stein’s Taste of the Sea (BBC Books 1995).

Rick Stein writes “Having unusual fleshy, light green joined branches rather than leaves and growing little more than 23 cm (9 in) high, it is easy to identify so, if you have the opportunity, try to find some”. After a thorough washing, Seafood Chef Rick Stein advises to “pull off the fleshy leaves and discard the thicker stalks with their woody centres” before boiling to cook, draining and serving warm.

Paul Sellars’ Samphire Side Dish

Lesley Ellis, for “Samphire with Nut-Brown Butter Sauce” in her Simply Seaweed: Tempting recipes for Samphire, Seaweed and Sea Vegetables (Grub Street Books, 1998) credits Paul Sellars, closely associated with Rick Stein’s cookery school and The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, as suggesting serving samphire with a simple butter noisette made with sherry vinegar.

Ingredients:

(serves four as a side dish)

1 shallot
125g (4 oz) unsalted butter
4 tsp sherry vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Heat the butter in a pan and cook until a golden color.
Chop shallot very finely, add to the pan and stir in.
Into a jug, measure sherry vinegar and add shallots and butter from pan
Whisk in jug, season with salt and pepper and keep warm
Add to boiled samphire and serve.

Be inspired by a plant found on the shoreline of the Cornish Peninsular (Newlyn, Newquay, St. Ives) and recipes of two seafood chefs of Padstow, Cornwall, Rick Stein and Paul Sellars, to try out samphire as a side dish.

With such a short seasonal availability, if the chance comes along then buy samphire immediately and cook for a fish dinner recipe. Sea vegetables and seaweed, including dulse, have longer harvesting seasons to inspire cooks.

The copyright of the article Eating Samphire as a Side Dish in Culinary Travel is owned by Susan Morris. Permission to republish Eating Samphire as a Side Dish in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Samphire is found on Beach shoreline	Cornwall Boats	Quiet rocky cove in Cornwall
The Eden Project near Newquay Cornwall England	St Ives Cornwall, blue skies, white houses