Exploring Orkney's larder - Orkney seafood at Christmas

We are spoiled, here in Orkney, for wonderful ingredients for a celebratory meal. We shall be just two for Christmas - thankfully, it has been a very busy year - and so I shall not be doing a full roast. Instead, I shall be shopping here for local food, and making some of our favourite seafood dishes.

There will doubtless be plenty of coleslaw and red cabbage salads too as the local red cabbages and carrots are delicious and keep very well out of the fridge, somewhere cold. At this time of year, even if you are not having a big joint, there is never enough room in the fridge.

You can make a regular coleslaw a bit more special by adding some chopped mango or orange and red chilli, and red cabbage works just as well as white for a bit more colour. I’ve always loved a salad of shredded red cabbage, chopped red and spring onions, some canned or cooked green lentils and a little chopped celery.

Add in a few sultanas, dress with vinaigrette and you have an easy salad to go with cold meats and leftovers, although I love it with smoked salmon, from Pierowall Fish, Jollys, Donaldsons, Humes or Orkney Fishermen’s Society. We have a lot of salmon here and a lot of excellent smokers.

We’ll probably have a kind of kedgeree on Christmas Eve. Orkney smoked haddock is just the best. Instead of the more traditional curry paste or powder version I am favouring a simple, lighter flavouring of cumin, fennel, fenugreek, black mustard and nigella seeds, known as Bengali Five Spice or Panch Poron. Just use a pinch of each if making it up yourself and add it to the sautéing onions. Orkney has a long history of trading goods for spices dating back to Charles II and the Restoration of the Monarchy.

Add in some green veg other than frozen peas if you wish and, half way through cooking the rice, add the smoked haddock to the pan. I add the whole fillet and gently break it up as it cooks. Again, add some sultanas if you wish.

We eat a lot of crab - we live in Orkney so why wouldn’t we?! One of my favourite ways of serving it is in this devilled cocktail. I don’t make it very often as there are many other, less fiddly ways of serving Orkney Crab. Christmas is a good excuse to spend a little extra time on the presentation of this dish. OK, it’s just the crab that will be from Orkney at this time of year but then our wonderful grocery shops like William Shearers and The Brig Larder can supply the other ingredients, as can our incredible local shops in villages all around the islands.

Serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a main course

This was a favourite recipe to demonstrate as it turns out well and causes a little gasp of pleasure at its neat layers of colourful ingredients. And it tastes as good as it looks.

Ingredients

• 2 dressed Orkney crabs
• Small handful parsley
• 1 lemon
• 2 tomatoes, or 4-6 baby plum tomatoes
• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 tbsp mango chutney
• Good pinch cayenne pepper
• Worcestershire sauce
• Dry white breadcrumbs (optional)

Method

1. Scoop the white and brown crab meat into separate bowls. Finely chop the parsley and mix with the white meat, finely grating the zest from the lemon into the bowl and seasoning to taste.
2. Chop the tomatoes, seeding them if large. Chop the avocado flesh and toss it in the juice from the lemon. Keep the avocado in a separate bowl too.
3. Mix the brown meat with the chutney, cayenne, seasonings and Worcestershire sauce to taste. Add breadcrumbs if the mixture is too moist - I use dried breadcrumbs which I always have to hand.
4. Serve layered on shredded lettuce in wine glasses. Or press into well-oiled rings to shape, or into individual lightly oiled pudding moulds in layers and invert immediately onto plates. Serve with bannocks, oatcakes, toast or bread and Orkney butter.

Rosemary Moon ‘retired’ to Orkney after a long association with the salmon industry in the islands. The author of 19 cookery books and countless more recipes, including writing for Waitrose and Lakeland, she has brought journalists and food writers to Orkney in the past to show off our diverse and delicious food and drink. After several holidays here Rosemary and her husband Nick have settled in South Ronaldsay but, once a cookery writer always a cookery writer, Rosemary is finding it impossible to stop jotting down the new recipes that she is creating with the island produce.

Rosemary also writes and vlogs about whisky and is particularly interested in whisky and food matching. You can follow her on Twitter, Instagram and on her rosemarymoon.com.