Can a product go from being a convenience-store staple to an item that’s regarded as posh-nosh? We know the opposite can happen because clever manufacturers have managed to turn all manner of exotic recipes into cheap sauces and ready-meals - but could you really take something as basic as a can of sardines and make it into an item that even the most discerning of foodies would desire?

The answer is an emphatic: yes! As long as everything - from the catching of the fish to the act of canning in the factory - is done just right.  And one of the West Country’s best-known chefs has just taken a major step towards proving that point. 

This month, after years of research, Mitch Tonks has launched the Rockfish Tinned Seafood brand – a uniquely British product made using fresh seafood direct from the South Coast of England. 

Mitch, founder of Seahorse Restaurant in Dartmouth and the pioneering fish restaurants Rockfish, is well-known for being passionate about getting Brits to cook and eat the wonderful array of sustainable fish swimming around our shores. Now he’s put his money where his mouth is, so to speak, by producing a range of exceptional high-quality canned products which will help ensure a better less-wasteful end for West Country fish. As we all know, seafood doesn’t last long once it’s out of the water - but canning fresh fish can preserve it both effectively, and deliciously, for years.   

The Rockfish range includes Brixham cuttlefish in ink sauce, West Country mackerel in olive oil, Lyme Bay mussels escabeche and several luxury versions of Mount’s Bay sardines. And having sampled the range I can vouch that each and every one of the products is very good indeed and worth the price-tag, if you can afford it. Yes, £5 for a tin of sardines does sound a lot but - as any foodie who has spent time in Spain will know - you get what you pay for in this world.

I mention that country because the Spanish are in the premier league when it comes to the art of canning seafood. Years ago, when I first spotted a large can of fish being served as the centre-piece of a rather up-market Spanish family’s main meal of the day, I was astonished in a snooty kind of way. But that was my old-fashioned British inverted snobbery getting the better of me. In this country we have tended to look down our noses at tinned food - which (as is so often the case when it comes to just about anything edible) has been a big mistake on our part. 

There are canning companies in Spain which go about the challenge of hermitically sealing seafood with all the care and attention that an artisan baker will invest in the making of a sourdough loaf. An analogy which actually extends our “from convenience-store staple to posh-nosh” theme, because it is also happening in the world of baking… 

Just look at how Matthews Cotswold Flour has elevated a bag of the white stuff. Its bags of high-grade flour are selling like proverbial hot-cakes nowadays, partly because of the lockdown-induced baking-boom. Today’s more thoughtful home-cooks are discovering that store-cupboard staples should be about quality and not just quantity and convenience.

Anyway, it was in Spain that Mitch began to think about the idea of using a top-quality canning facility to lock in the delights of top-quality English seafood. 

He told us: “Tinning fish is such a wonderful way to not only preserve the best of the British and help reduce waste from surplus catches, but to add and infuse extra flavour through oils and sauces. It seemed such a shame that it’s a method we Brits haven’t pursued before. 

“With this venture, I wanted to find a way for us to preserve our own fish and carefully manage the process from start to finish - thereby ensuring quality and celebrating the magic of tinned seafood.” 

Much of the seafood involved is caught by the restaurant chain’s own The Rockfisher boat, but Mitch also uses catches of other West Country fishermen. Landed at its prime, the seafood is frozen at the Rockfish facilities just 17 metres from Brixham’s quayside to preserve the quality and well-known benefits of fresh fish. It is then transported to a canning facility in Spain where it’s preserved and packaged, before arriving back in Brixham. Sadly, no company in this country seemed to have the necessary expertise when it came to canning in the exacting, artisanal way Mitch required…  

“After extensive research we found that we didn’t have the expertise to create a premium, hand-made and artisanal product in the UK,” he explained. “So instead we found a fantastic partner in Spain, with generations of heritage and experience, who can create an authentic product, still showcasing how special and delicious our South West coast fish is. From well-loved sardines to cuttlefish… The latter being hugely popular in Spain and Portugal - but many people don’t realise it can be found off our own coastline. 

“With this new British tinned fish range, we’re showing that what we have is worth celebrating and getting people eating more of our seafood. Preserving fish in this way is part of the Rockfish team’s dedication to create a more sustainable way to enjoy seafood, with fishermen often finding themselves with gluts thanks to the seasonal nature fish,” added Mitch. 

“Through the tinning process Rockfish can preserve seafood at its peak, reduce food waste, and create something truly delicious which can be enjoyed at any time, in a manner of different ways.”

Different ways indeed… Like many readers, I grew up thinking sardines were only ever available in tins that their one and only eventual resting place was on a bed of toast. Indeed, the open sandwich in the photos consists of my own homemade rye sourdough bread made using Matthews Cotswold Flour with a French mustard and creme-creche sauce, cornichons and fresh pickled red onion with Mitch’s amazing Cornish sardines. It was the best sardine sandwich I have ever eaten.  But if you take a look at our panel you will see that Mitch has come up with quite a few other ways of enjoying canned seafood other than eating with a slice of sourdough…

Eat straight from the tin, serve with sourdough or crusty bread or try some of these ideas from Mitch Tonks. 

Spaghetti with cuttlefish, garlic and sage 

Fry a little garlic and a few sage leaves in olive oil, add the tin of cuttlefish including all the juices, and warm through. Add cooked spaghetti and toss through. Finish with a sprinkling of parsley 

Cuttlefish on polenta

Typically Venetian, make some creamy polenta, spoon onto a plate, warm the cuttlefish and all the juices in a pan, and serve on top. If you don’t have polenta, creamy mash works well too.

Tinned mackerel shawarma

Shred cabbage, red onion and some green chilli and mix together. Grate garlic into some yoghurt and toss with the vegetables. Lay out a flour tortilla or flat bread, and spread with some hummus, place the cabbage on top, then top with mackerel, a sprinkling of za’atar or cumin, a squeeze of lemon and some pomegranate seeds. Wrap the whole thing up like a shawarma.

Mackerel Niçoise

One for the summer - take blanched green beans, the first new waxy potatoes, tomatoes, red onion and lettuce tossed in a lemony dressing made with the oil from the tin. Flake the mackerel over the top with some black olives - you could even stick it all in a wrap.

Sardine Caesar salad

Take some of our anchoïade and massage a tablespoon or two into some chopped romaine lettuce, fold through some tinned sardines then grate Parmesan over the top and sprinkle with croutons.

The sardine “Reuben”

Take two slices of rye bread, and butter one side of both slices. Mix together some creme fraiche and English mustard with a dash of Worcestershire sauce and spread on the non-buttered side of both slices. On one slice, onto the crème fraiche mixture add the sardines with a good grind of black pepper then layer with red onion, sliced dill pickles, a few capers and a tablespoon or two of sauerkraut. Lay a slice of Swiss cheese on top, then sandwich together with both crème fraiche slides in the middle. Lightly press it all together, warm a frying pan and cook the sandwich on the buttered sides until golden brown. 

Sardine Puttanesca

Warm some olive oil in a pan from the sardine tin, add garlic, chopped tomatoes, capers, chilli and black olives, and cook until the sauce is thick. Add the sardines, cook for a further minute then add cooked spaghetti and toss together.

Sardine Som Tam (you could make this with mussels too)

Shred carrots & courgette (or green papaya) into thin juliennes. Thinly slice a red onion and halve a handful of cherry toms and place together in a bowl who a few slices of hot chilli.  Make a dressing from palm sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and a bashed garlic clove or two. Mix the dressing with the salad and add fresh coriander and mint. Either fry the sardines in hot oil until crisp or use straight form the tin but simply fold them through the salad and serve.  

Bruschetta with mussel and celery escabeche 

In a pan warm 50ml of olive oil with 50ml Moscatel (or white wine) vinegar and a few tablespoons of the marinade from the mussel tin. When hot, add a handful of finely sliced onion, some finely sliced celery, and a pinch of dried chilli and remove from the heat. Once cooled, cooled remove the vegetable from the marinade and toss with the mussels, add parsley and served on toasted sourdough with aioli.

Tinned mussels, nduja & crispy potatoes 

Dice some potatoes about 15mm square. Fry some nduja to release the oils then add the potatoes, add more olive oil if needed, cook unit the potatoes crisp then add the mussels to warm through, add plenty of parsley to finish.