Tom Parker-Bowles & Olly Smith: the best seafood meal boxes and alternative English wines - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Food Tom Parker-Bowles & Olly Smith the best seafood meal boxes and alternative English wines By You Magazine - April 18, 2021 Tom enjoys a taste of the ocean this week with wonderfully fresh seafood offerings. The Dover Sole and Crab Thermidor Box from Rockfish There are few things finer than a spanking fresh Dover sole, skinned, gutted and ready to grill. And that’s exactly what you get from the Rockfish Dover Sole and Crab Thermidor Box (£87 for two including delivery, therockfish.co.uk). Start with some gently smoked salmon from Brown and Forrest – one of my favourite producers – cut across the fillet in thickish slices. Anoint with a soy, mirin and yuzu dressing that flatters rather than overwhelms the fish, and you have a wonderful Japanese/British fusion. There’s also a fresh baked sourdough loaf, and a jar of anchoïade sauce (mayonnaise with anchovies, garlic and capers). Cut off a couple of slices, brush with oil and toast in the pan before slathering with a mix of fresh picked crab (sensationally sweet) mixed with luscious thermidor sauce. Place under the grill until it bubbles and browns. The sauce may be gloriously rich, but you can still taste the quality of the crab. There’s a tin of locally caught sardines, which never actually make it to the plate. Gone within seconds of that lid being peeled back. Finally, those Dover sole, grilled for a few minutes, then lavished with homemade seaweed butter. Simple, and simply magnificent. Chef-proprietor Mitch Tonks may be a friend, but I still think this is some of the best seafood in Britain. A cinch to prepare, too. The Harbour Café’s ‘fattest, most succulent’ langoustines Equally great, from the other end of the country, is The Harbour Café Box for Two (£80 plus £10 delivery, theharbourcafe.co.uk). Again, the quality is peerless, the presentation exquisite. And you have to do precious little, save move the food from packet to plate. Half a loaf of chewy sourdough and good, lactic butter. Along with six of the fattest, most succulent langoustines I’ve eaten for years. Two dressed half lobsters are pert, fresh and beautifully cooked. At their side, a punchy aïoli, and papas aliñas, a vinegary Andalusian potato salad. For pudding, tarta de Santiago, with its gentle almond allure. They even provide big pebbles from the local beach with which to crack the lobster claws. Pure Caledonian class, and a truly splendid blast of Scottish sea air. Drinks Olly s alternative English wines I’ll be raising my glass to the scaly one this St George’s Day in honour of its rather thankless annual cameo. For English wine, quality is finer, styles more varied and value is there if you know where to look. Established fizz producers, such as Nyetimber, are showing promise and packaging shows innovation with good wine in cans. Homegrown can mean sustainable, so perhaps the dragon’s cycle of destiny isn’t in vain. WINE OF THE WEEK Busi-Jacobsohn Cuvée Brut 2018 (12%), £38, busijacobsohn.com. Splendid new Sussex fizz: it made me feel ludicrously happy for days! Gerald 2019 Bubbly (11.5%), £5 for a 250ml can, wearetheuncommon.co.uk. Portable canned fragrant froth with enough refreshment to last all summer. New Hall Bacchus 2019 (11%), £11.50, newhallwines.com. Zingy, scented and lighter than wings of elderflower, this sharp white is ace. Vagabond Pet Not 2019 (13%), £15.95, shop.vagabondwines.co.uk. Nectarines and mangoes erupting in rose-petal fizz – a lively, fruity gem! Balfour The Red Miller 2018 (12%), £35, laithwaites.co.uk. Soft, bright and silky, this elegant English red is beyond brilliant. 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