Today, both primary 5 classes were very lucky to have a visit from Marian Armitage today. She cooked mussels, megrim, crab, octopus, scallops and made mackerel pate.

We learned lots about the seafood, which was all caught locally!

The megrim was caught near Skerries. We got to see a whole one and could see that it is a flat fish with two eyes on the same side. It gets exported to Spain and Portugal. She cooked it with butter and grapes. It was very yummy!

The octopus was also caught in Shetland. It had been poached and then was made into a Mediterranean salad with tatties, tomatoes and peppers.

The crab was caught in Sumburgh by Marian’s neighbour. It had two types of meat – brown and white. She removed the ‘dead men’s fingers’ (the gills) and stomach bag. She used a hammer to break up the crab before removing the meat. It was really tasty with lemon juice and a little bit of real Shetland mayonnaise.

The mussels came from Christopher Thomason in Cullivoe. They were boiled and tasted really good! The mussels grow on ropes hanging in the sea. They need a good wash and the beard needs removed. If it doesn’t close or is cracked, they need put in the bin.

The scallops were caught by the Radiance off of Skerries. They are dredged from the sea bed. She cooked them in butter and wrapped them in bacon. It was really interesting to see the shells which they came from. They are usually processed at a factory in Scalloway.

Finally, we got to make mackerel pate on oatcakes. The pate tasted lovely. It had smoked mackerel, cream cheese, pepper and lemon, and was topped with dill and capers.

We’ve had such a super day and learned a lot. We got to try lots of seafood which we hadn’t tried before. Thank you very much to Ruth Henderson at So Much to Sea for organising it and to Marian for taking the time to come in to teach us!