SEAFOOD dishes are ideal for summer, so we thought a variety of sea and shellfish recipes would whet – or should that be wet – your appetites.

Let’s start with Fried Soft Shell crabs. You may think of these as American, but they’re common in Italy, which means they can be bought frozen in the UK. They’re amazing and well worth asking your fishmonger to get some. They are best just fried and simply served with a salad.

Our recipe serves four and you’ll need 100ml of olive oil, three finely sliced garlic cloves, four sprigs of fresh thyme, 8-10 soft shell crabs and a tablespoon of chopped fresh flatleaf parsley.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add the garlic and thyme and fry for 30 seconds or until light golden. Add the crabs and cook until they turn bright red, normally about four minutes. Turn them halfway through. Serve immediately with the parsley and sprinkle with salt.

Crispy fried seafood is a dish with a real taste of summer. Invariably, cooks will use squid or octopus, but you can include anchovies, prawns or small red mullet. You need a good squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sea salt. We like to serve this dish with caper and parsley mayo.

Four servings will need 20 large raw tiger prawns, head and shell on, 12 baby squid, cleaned, and eight unsalted anchovies, eight very small red mullets, perhaps asking your fishmonger to remove the fillets. If they are very small, just leave them whole. You’ll need 150g of flour, 250ml of ice-cold sparkling water, vegetable oil for frying, sea salt and fresh black pepper.

Remove the heads and shells from the prawns, make a shallow incision along the back of each prawn and use the top of the knife to remove the black intestinal tract and discard this. Wash the squid under cold running water, pat dry with kitchen paper and cut into rings. Pre-heat a deep fat fryer to 180C. Put the flour into a bowl and here’s a good tip for a great batter – put the bowl with the flour in another bowl filled with ice. This helps to keep the batter mix cold and therefore as light as possible. Slowly pour the sparkling water into the bowl and whisk together. Don’t worry about lumps. Season the fish well and dust with a little flour before dipping each piece individually into the batter. Lower straight into the hot oil. Fry in batches for five minutes or until crisp, but not too dark.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the fish and drain on kitchen paper. Keep warm and repeat with the remaining fish.

Here’s a really quick King Prawn dish - four servings of Gremolata Prawns.

You’ll need a large lemon, two tablespoons of olive oil, 20 unpeeled large raw king prawns, cayenne pepper, three gloves of finely chopped garlic, four tablespoons of flat leaf parsley, sea salt and fresh black pepper.

Peel the zest off the lemon with a potato peeler and shred into thin strips. Heat oil in a large frying pan, add the prawns and toss them over a high heat for 4-5 minutes, seasoning with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper.

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the prawns. Cook until the juice has almost evaporated, the prawns should be quite dry.

Take pan off heat and cool for one minute, then sprinkle over the lemon zest, chopped garlic, parsley and a little more sea salt. Toss together and serve.

* Sheila Benson and Sean Millar are at The Side Door, 29a Hope Street, Liverpool. Tel: 0151 707 7888.