Marinaded Cornish anchovies

Serves 4-6

Fishermen in Cornwall and Devon have been landing tons of anchovies over the past few months. It's unusual to see anchovies over here, but with the seas around the British Isles slowly warming up, I'm sure we will see more and more unusual species landed on our coasts. Several large tuna have also been landed in the past few years which makes fishing a very exciting prospect. I've explained how to fillet the anchovies below, using your fingers it's an easy process. You can flour and deep-fry the bones as they do in Italy; they make a delicious snack sprinkled with sea salt and served with lemon. If you don't want to use the bones immediately, you can freeze them.

20-30 anchovies
3tbsp Cornish sea salt
The juice of 1 lemon
1tsp coarsely ground black pepper
5-6tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Remove the heads from the anchovies and run your thumb down the belly to expose the bones. The bone can now easily be pulled out and if you wish you can leave the tail on. If the anchovies are large you can separate the fillets or leave them joined to create a kipper effect.

Rinse the anchovies briefly and dry them on some kitchen paper. Lay them on a non- reactive tray and sprinkle evenly with the sea salt and leave for 30 minutes. Sprinkle on the pepper, then the lemon juice and leave for another 30 minutes. If you are going to eat them on the day, then just spoon over the oil and leave for 2-3 hours. If you want to keep them for a few weeks you can pack the anchovies into sterilised jars and cover with the marinating juices and olive oil, and tightly seal the jars up.