The magic of samphire season: Jimi Famurewa’s recipe for mackerel, chorizo, new potato and samphire

When the samphire is growing on the coasts of north Norfolk, our writer returns almost every year to cook this buttery, smoky marine dishNorth Norfolk captured our hearts by stealth. For most of my life, this arcing coastal stretch of East Anglia was somewhere I had never visited, nor ever spent tha

When the samphire is growing on the coasts of north Norfolk, our writer returns almost every year to cook this buttery, smoky marine dish

North Norfolk captured our hearts by stealth. For most of my life, this arcing coastal stretch of East Anglia was somewhere I had never visited, nor ever spent that much time thinking about; a span of English countryside that I mostly associated with Alan Partridge, Colman’s mustard and, in the context of my south London home, an awkward schlep. But then, almost exactly a decade ago, I stumbled through an internet rabbit hole on to an entry for a clutch of self-catering cottages in a seaside village near the gently bougie, wax-jacketed market town of Holt. Decision made.

Soon we were rumbling out across an impossibly wide and flat expanse, bound for the ripe, blustering winds and billowing steam trains of a varied network of time-warp beaches and little towns. Not expecting much, and yet falling a little more in love with each passing moment and meal, with each glistening fistful of perfect chips from No1 Cromer or a tea room crab roll after watching seals nose out of the water at Blakeney Point.

Picky by Jimi Famurewa, is published by Hodder & Stoughton at £20. To order a copy for £18, visit guardianbookshop.com