Lemon Sole in Beer with Samphire

This afternoon I had the dubious honour of attending a networking event for work.  I say dubious because I often find these events to be full of the kind of business people that I would normally avoid and certainly not do business with. The professional "networker" is a self assure business card pushing be-suited egotist that wouldn't look out of place on The Apprentice*.  Today's event wasn't like that at all.

Firstly, the event was aimed at community organisations.  I was probably the only person in the room wearing a tie but that's just how I roll.  Secondly, this wasn't the kind of networking where you press business cards into as many hands as possible.  This was an exchange of information about groups doing good and interesting things around Leeds.  The final positive from the meeting was its venue, the new meeting room in Leeds Kirkgate Market.

I deliberately set off from work a little early so that I could get some shopping in before the meeting started.  I was in a fishy mood so I wandered up and down fish row looking for inspiration.  I almost bought some razor clams but then I saw a huge pile of samphire and I changed tack.

I'd never eaten samphire before so I wanted it to be the star of the show.  My original thought for the razor clams was to fry them with chorizo but I thought this would be a bit overpowering for the samphire.  I decided on lemon sole as is has a lovely delicate flavour.  I poached the fish in beer** and made a light butter sauce with the reduced liquid.  I was stunned by just how salty the samphire was.  I cooked it in boiling water for just 3 minutes and I'll be doing so again.

*I do not watch The Apprentice but as we are force-fed the "news" from the show, as if it was important to my day to day life, I have managed to form a very strong opinion on both the show and the people on it.
**I used Budvar, but any pilsner or light trappist beer would make a great sauce.