Fish and Seafood

Appears in

The Independent Cook: Strategies for Seasonal Cooking

Published 1988

About

Ken Condon keeps a little fishmonger’s shop with a blue and white awning on the Wandsworth Road. In the back yard behind the shop, is a blackened, wooden smoke-house, used by his father and grandfather before him. Here, everyday, he smokes fresh salmon over wood chippings supplied by a local furniture maker. The result is moist, delicate in flavour and gets my vote for the best smoked salmon in the city, particularly good in sandwiches for lazy luxury picnics.

Mr Condon is just as skilled and knowledgeable in his handling of fresh wet fish. For July he recommends grilse, the juvenile salmon, as a good buy – weighing around 6 lb for a whole fish and cheaper per pound than larger adult fish. He says mackerel and the white fish are now thickening up and that plaice is just starting its best period. Squid, some of it from Scotland, is now in prime condition. Crab, lobster, prawns and shrimps continue to surpass themselves in quality.

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