Seafood celebration and yacht race bring buzz to Lerwick town centre
LERWICK town centre was a hub activity earlier today as Taste of Shetland hosted a Midsummer Celebration showcasing seafood, and yachts participating in the Shetland Race departed for the second leg back to Bergen.
A range of demonstrations took place at Fort Charlotte for the Taste of Shetland event, with chair of Taste of Shetland, Marian Armitage kicking the day off with a session that highlighted the versatility of Shetland salmon.
She made a salmon en croute and oven baked salmon in front of a packed audience.
“This is the first time we’ve done a seafood event in the summer, which I think is long overdue,” she said.
“It ties in with what used to be the Johnsmas foy. I would love to do this again and have it as a feature in the calendar.”
She added: “The point is to celebrate the whole range of seafood, with salmon, mussels, and the whitefish which is so important to peerier family businesses.
“And it’s been so lovely to get CJ Jackson from Billingsgate Cookery School, and I’m thrilled she’s been able to come up.”
Stalls were set up from a range of sponsors, including Scottish Sea Farms, and Cooke Scotland giving people the chance to take home some seafood to recreate the recipes shown.
CJ Jackson, author of The Great British Seafood Revival, and master fishmonger, showcased a range of whitefish recipes during her two sessions, including ling, hake, catfish, megrim, and plaice.
Jackson said she was “absolutely delighted” to be invited up to Shetland.
“I wanted to do whitefish, as I spend a lot of time telling people that cod and haddock are fantastic, but there are so many other lovely fish out there,” she said.
“So many people today have said they’ve never seen that fish, but it’s landed on their doorstep and sold in the fishmongers here. I’m trying to get the Great British public to look at other fish we’ve slightly fallen out of love with.”
With all the fish was bought at the local market, she created an ‘everything’ fish soup, coconut and tamarind curry, and pepper-coated and panko crumbed fish.
Other sessions involved a seafood paella, mussels’ preparation and recipes, and the day finished with Charlie Simpson and Alex Dodge showcasing Dodge’s East o’ Mousa soup, with a fusion of local fish and Asian flavours.
Meanwhile, down by Victoria Pier, the 16 remaining yachts competing in the second leg of the Shetland Race departed at 5pm.
German registered yacht Haspa Hamburg was first in Lerwick on Thursday taking only 22 hours and 25 minutes on the route across the North Sea from Bergen to Lerwick.
Shetland boat Swiftwing, captained by James Anderson, took 28 hours and 55 minutes in the first leg and was not going back to Bergen for the second part of the race.
“It was a fast race, with good wind,” he said. “Pretty easy compared to the year before, we didn’t have to go off the direct line much at all.
“We got the most out of the boat we could and competed not too bad at all.”
The crossing of approximately 190 nautical miles is expected to take anything between 23 to 30 hours, with boats due to be arriving late on Sunday.
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