Mouthwatering raw recipes, from carpaccio to cured mackerel
Raw food is not only extremely good for you, it can be equally pleasing to the eye. While we might not be fully tuned into eating lots of raw food (notably meat and fish) in Britain, with culinary influences from around the world creeping in, chefs and home cooks are becoming ever more open-minded.
Seafood is naturally one of my favourite ingredients to serve in this way; often when I fish on my boat I keep the larger pouting, which commercial fishermen would throw back in, and transform them there and then into sashimi or ceviche, using my little box of pre-prepared ingredients such as chilli, coriander, spring onion, yuzu and lime (sometimes even segmented grapefruit) that I bring out with me.
I fillet, skin and bone the fish and wash them in sea water for a couple of minutes before chopping. Even the humblest of fish whose fate is normally to be used as lobster-pot bait tastes delicious with some crackers when I’m out on the water, and it’s delicious inspiration when I’m back on land, where meat and vegetables come into their own with the raw approach.
