Miles Collins

An educational supplement for the BBC

Rick Stein has a new series televised on BBC 2, based on his travels around the Mediterranean he is once again championing simple, well cooked food. Bravo!

I managed to catch one of his programmes the other week and enjoyed the insight into working kitchens throughout the Med, I was, however suprised to see that the illustrious chef did not know what his bream (or bass-I forget which) was cooked in.

Any self-respecting chef who has time to walk for hours along rugged coastlines and marsh land would know that it was sea purslane. Common as muck in England, especially on salt marshes it can be left ‘as is’ to bake/steam fish or picked (a pain but invaluable experience for a trainee) to use in salads or vinaigrettes.

I use them as a substitute for capers, they are mildly salty and are best used when the leaves are small and young.

Hope this helps Mr.Stein!