It's Not a Tuna Trivia Quiz

Answer: Haddock

There are folk tales about how the Arbroath smokie was first developed. Stories include the notion that a shop burnt down and the haddock they had in storage were smoked by the fire into a delicious smoked fish. The real story is most likely that the people living in the village of Auchmithie near Arbroath descended from Vikings and smoked the fish as their ancestors did. The techniques they use are similar to Scandinavian techniques for fish smoking.

You take your haddocks and salt them overnight. Join two haddocks by the tail leaving a length of string in between them. Hang them on a wooden rod so a fish hangs on each side of the rod. Now it's time to leave them overnight to dry out a little. The next day you take a wooden barrel and place some hardwood chips at the bottom, setting them alight. Place the sticks holding the fish on the top of the barrel where the lid would go, and cover it all with wet sacks. The water in the sacks does two jobs. Firstly, it prevents the sack catching alight. Secondly, it adds to the humidity of the smoking process. Leave your fish for about an hour and you should have some smoked fish du jour with a rich, strong, smoky taste.

Answer: Seaweed

Laver is a seaweed found off the coast of many countries, albeit with different regional names. The Welsh have taken it to their hearts creating something called laverbread. It's not really a bread at all despite its name. Laverbread is made from seaweed. You collect your seaweed and boil it until it's very soft and mushy, resembling pureed spinach.

It can then be used in numerous ways. You can coat a patty of laverbread in oats and fry it. You can spread it on a piece of fish before cooking it in the same fashion as you'd coat fish with a herb crust. You can eat it with some toast.

A Welsh tradition is having laverbread with some cockles and bacon for breakfast. Actor Richard Burton once described laver as "Welshman's caviar".

Answer: Sweet soy sauce

Kabayaki is usually made with eel, but like many recipes, there are variations. Occasionally it's made with fish. As a general rule, there are two styles of cooking kabayaki. In the eastern regions of Japan, the eel is filleted and then cut into squares. These squares are grilled (broiled), then steamed, followed by being dipped in the sweet soy sauce, and finally grilled again. This method of preparation results in a flakier and more tender piece of fish.

In western Japan, the eel is often left in long strips after the filleting rather than being cut into squares. It is grilled without the benefit of steaming, producing a more chewy piece of kabayaki.

Answer: Yes

The term 'sushi' refers only to the rice component of sushi. It doesn't matter what you add to the rice when making sushi, as long as there is vinegared rice (properly called 'sushi-meshi'), you have sushi.

We often think of sushi being either a vegetarian dish, or being made with seafood such as salmon, tuna, or crab in the centre. Sushi can be made with anything you fancy. Want to put a thin slice of lightly grilled steak in the centre? Go ahead. Got some venison, lamb, or chicken in the fridge? Make some sushi! You'll find sushi in Japan made with raw beef, marinated and roasted eel, eggs, and other ingredients not normally thought of in the West as a sushi ingredient. While we're on the subject, sashimi refers to raw meat. Often regarded as raw seafood of some sort, sashimi also refers to sliced, raw beef or other meats including offal.

Answer: Herring

Rollmops are a northern European speciality having been a part of the diet since the Middle Ages. Your basic rollmop is a fillet of herring pickled in a solution of water, vinegar and salt. Varieties of pickling liquor can have sugar, mustard, herbs or other flavourings added to them.

They can also be stuffed with something like onion slices, a gherkin, or an olive. One of the reasons rollmops became popular is their longevity once pickled. This meant that the rollmops could be transported to areas away from the sea and be available for Lent when other meats weren't to be eaten.

Answer: Angels on horseback

This appetiser seems to be an English dish but strangely, the name apparently comes from the French name for the dish, 'anges à cheval'. Likewise, there is no particular reason the oyster is called an angel and the bacon is called a horse. It's one of life's little mysteries we may never find the answer to.

If you'd like to make some angels on horseback, take some shucked oysters and wrap them in bacon. They usually require a dry heat source such as an oven or griller. Heat them for three minutes on each side, long enough to heat the bacon through and gently warm the oyster. They can also be fried in a little butter but that might be gilding the lily. You can serve them as is, or if preferred, the usual approach is to serve them on a small piece of toast. Other variations on a theme include a light sprinkle with hot chilli sauce, lemon and parsley, or similar condiments. The recipe isn't that old. The earliest sighting of recipe in print only dates back to 1882 in a New Zealand publication.

Answer: Toast and rouille

Bouillabaisse comes from the maritime city of Marseilles. Legend has it that the people of Marseilles were making a form of bouillabaisse since the time they settled the area over 2,500 years ago. Proximity to the sea gave Marseilles the chance to develop bouillabaisse into an artform using several varieties of seafood including different fish species, octopus, sea urchins, mussels, crabs etc.

Coming with your bouillabaisse is some toasted, crusty bread slathered with rouille. Rouille is similar to a mayonnaise. You take some olive oil and mix it with breadcrumbs for texture, garlic, saffron, and cayenne pepper for piquancy, mixing it until it has a spreadable texture.

There are different ways of serving bouillabaisse. In Marseilles, it's common to be served a bowl with the bread and rouille floating in the bouillabaisse's broth. The seafood is served in another bowl or on a platter.

Answer: Cured in salt, sugar, and dill

Want to make gravlax? You take your beautiful salmon and place it in a mixture of sugar, salt and dill for several days. This draws the moisture out of the fish, preserving it. The moisture which has been removed can be used, along with the initial curing ingredients, to make a sauce. You can then serve your sliced gravlax with bread, a sauce, or with boiled new potatoes. Delicious!

Hundreds of years ago, Scandinavian fishermen preserved their catch by salting it, and then burying it in the sand on a beach. Gravlax in the original Scandinavian means 'buried salmon'.

This method of fish preservation can be used with any oily fish including a sumptuous tuna.

Answer: Sea cucumber

Sea cucumbers are marine animals you can find living on the sandy floor of an ocean. There are about 650 species of sea cucumbers but fewer than twenty are harvested on a commercial scale. Looked upon as a prized delicacy in many Asian cultures, sea cucumbers can be eaten as sashimi (sliced and served raw), cooked in soups or stews with other seafood and/or vegetables, dried to ensure availability, or vinegared in a sunomono style salad.

Answer: Bacon

There are several styles of clam chowder. The clam chowder in New York has tomato added for colour and flavour. Hatteras and Rhode Island clam chowders have a clear broth. The chowder you may be most familiar with is the style springing from New England and often known as Boston clam chowder to distinguish it from other varieties.

It's thick and creamy, uses milk and/or cream, and then potatoes for thickening. Another essential ingredient in a Boston or New England chowder, used for flavour and texture, is bacon or salted pork. Back in the 1930s, it was suggested the government of Maine should ban tomatoes from any chowder in the state.