Chef David Barnett brings in the new year foraging on the east coast of Scotland for sea buckthorn, a Scottish superfood you can’t ignore.
For those who have made a New Year’s resolution to forage your own food, consider sea buckthorn as your first hand-picked ingredient of the year.
Even better, if another resolution is to eat well in 2022, this little berry hides a bunch of health benefits. It’s great for your digestive system, has been shown to be effective in treating burns and can reputedly slow down the ageing process by helping maintain a healthy heart and liver.
Noted for its bright orange berries, it’s a deciduous shrub found mostly on the coastline. The best place to find it is Gullane Bay, although it does grow from Islay to Orkney.
One of the great things about foraging is it also helps you work up an appetite. While the fruit can be eaten raw, its aromatic and acidic qualities favour cooking.
And don’t despair if you can’t make it to the coast, sea buckthorn juice is also available from Scottish supplier Coeur Sauvage or from Amazon. No need to tell anyone you didn’t brave the coastal squalls.
Here are two recipe you can make using sea buckthorn to help stay on track this New Year.
Gigha halibut and sea buckthorn ceviche
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 300g jar of semi-dried tomatoes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallot finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped
- 350g of Gigha halibut fillet
- diced to 1cm dice
- Blackthorn sea salt
- 30g tomato paste
- Dash of St Andrews gin
- 2 tomatoes, deskinned, deseeded and diced
- Bronze fennel fronds
For the dressing:
- 50ml of sea buckthorn juice
- 20g caster sugar
- 5g salt
Method
- Drain the oil from the semi-dried tomatoes.
- Use the oil to gently cook the shallots and garlic, ensure there is no colour. Add the tomatoes and cook for five minutes.
- Blend until smooth and push through a fine sieve.
- For the dressing, mix the sea buckthorn juice, caster sugar and salt together to dissolve.
- Season the diced halibut with the Blackthorn sea salt and leave aside. Mix the dressing with the tomato paste. Add the diced halibut and gin. Mix in the diced tomato and fennel fronds. Arrange the mixture neatly in your chosen plate.
- I have garnished mine with some seaweed meringues from a standard meringue recipe seasoned with powdered dried seaweed which has been spread thinly on parchment paper and dried in a dehydrator, or you could dry in a warm switched-off oven overnight.
Sea buckthorn and pine sour
Serves 1
Ingredients
- 50ml Scotch whisky (Such as Kilchoman Machir Bay)
- 50ml sea buckthorn juice
- ½ lemon squeezed
- 1 egg white
- 35ml pine syrup (made with
equal quantities of sugar, water and pine needles) - A sprig of pine blow-torched for garnish
Method
- To make the pine syrup just bring to the boil 100g sugar, 100ml water, 100g pine needles.
- Once boiled, remove from the heat
and leave to cool. - Half-fill a cocktail shaker with ice, add all the other ingredients and shake vigorously for 20 seconds and pour into a whisky tumbler filled with ice and enjoy.