• If you use wooden kebab skewers soak them in water for half an hour before using them – this’ll stop them from burning on the barbecue.

    Shellfish kebabs

    Serves: 4

    Ingredients

    • 6 sardines, filleted
    • 5ml fennel seeds, ground in a pestle and mortar
    • a pinch of chilli powder
    • a few sprigs of fennel tops, leaves picked and chopped
    • zest of 1 lemon
    • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
    • 6 small new potatoes
    • 6 scallops, shelled and trimmed (frozen will do)
    • olive oil
    • a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
    • 2 small lobster tails
    • 8 bay leaves
    • 4 cherry tomatoes, halved
    • 300g monkfish fillets, trimmed and cut into chunks
    • 5ml dried origanum
    • 50g thinly sliced pancetta

    Instructions

    1

    Light your barbie and get yourself a nice bed of glowing hot coals. Lay the sardines out skin-side down on a chopping board. Sprinkle with the ground fennel and chilli, the herb fennel and lemon zest, and season with a little salt and pepper. Roll the sardines up and thread onto 2 skewers.

    2

    Place the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with salted water and bring to the boil. Sea water is ideal for this if you’re cooking on the beach! Simmer very gently until the potatoes are just cooked, then drain them and leave to cool. Halve the potatoes if you need to, so they’re roughly the same size as the scallops. Toss the potatoes and scallops in a little olive oil and the rosemary, and season with salt and pepper. Thread onto 2 skewers, first a scallop, then a potato, repeating this process until everything is used up.

    3

    Using a sharp knife, chop the lobster tails across into five pieces each. Or, if you’re not too confident with a big knife, ask your fishmonger to do it for you. Thread a piece of tail onto a skewer, then a bay leaf, then a cherry tomato half. Keep going until you have 2 full skewers.

    4

    Toss the monkfish pieces in a little olive oil and the origanum, and season with salt and pepper. Thread them onto 2 skewers and then wind the strips of bacon round the skewer, between the pieces of fish, securing them at the end. Lay the skewers on the hot bit of the barbie, a few at a time if there’s not enough room for all to go on at once. Please make sure they’re not touching each other as they cook. Grill for about 5 minutes in total, turning every minute or so until hot through. Serve with wedges of lemon and lots of chilled white wine!

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