Love local: lick-smacking recipes

Lockdowns made it impossible for them to trade for most of the year. Rather than lying down, many restaurant and café owners got creative and started to

do takeaway or cook at home meals.

This allowed staff to be taken off furlough and the businesses to contribute to the wider economy.

Turnover across this industry is approximately ten percent of the total economic output of the country.

We also tend to forget the supply chain. When an outlet stops working there’s a chain of suppliers and producers that do the same. For many operatives like fishmongers and cheese makers the restaurant trade makes up a large percentage of their business.

We’re now in another lockdown until at least February so our New Year’s resolution should be to support local businesses as much as we can. January can be bleak enough and what better way to liven it up than ordering takeaway from your local restaurant. Apart from saving on cooking and the dishes, you’ll be helping a business stay afloat.

There are many fishmongers dotted across the country, who in turn support our fishermen. Sustainable fish is one of the healthiest things you can eat and when you buy from a good fishmonger you can guarantee quality and freshness. Delis and local farm shops are still open and will provide you with local cheeses, charcuterie, seasonal vegetables and dairy. The harsh reality is that if we don’t support these businesses, they will never reopen. Imagine a future where our only food shopping outlets are the big conglomerates and your favourite restaurant is a dim and distant memory?

One restaurant that opened at the beginning of the pandemic was Native Seafood and Scran in Coleraine.

They adapted during the first lockdown to being a takeaway café and fishmonger. Stevie McCarry who runs the place alongside wife Rebekah, was determined from the start to only supply sustainable and local fish. Locals and visitors embraced the range of fish from local lobsters in the summer to crab, hake, ling, sole, mackerel and monkfish. We’ve become conditioned in this country to buying fish from supermarkets, where the majority of it is frozen and not as pristine as it could be.

Stevie travels to Greencastle to pick fish directly from the boats. It’s as fresh as it can be. They prepare the fish for you and wrap it in paper and tie it with string, in keeping with their sustainable ethos. When you get fish this fresh a dollop of butter or a lick of oil and lemon is all it needs (apart from some good local potatoes and greens). Native Seafood won best restaurant in Northern Ireland in the recent Slow Food awards – a brilliant achievement for a business not even open for a full year.

At this time of year you’ll get great crab meat from your fishmonger. Bake a potato (rooster would be my choice), combine the crab meat with finely diced celery, scallion and bind with sour cream and mayonnaise with a toot of mustard. Split the spud, douse with butter and add the crab mixture.

Other winners were Indie Fude in Comber for best deli and best cheesemonger, Hannan Meats in Moira for best butcher, Ewings in Belfast for best fishmonger, Slemish Market Garden in Ballymena for best Greengrocer and Young Buck blue cheese, made in Newtownards, for best product. All these businesses are open for business during this lockdown.

Mike Thompson who makes Young Buck, also has a cheese shop in Little Donegall Street in Belfast that stocks his own cheese plus a great array from around Ireland and the UK.

This week’s recipe is for a brunch treat using local cheese and bacon. You could top them with an egg too. Next week is time enough to start on the healthy stuff.