"When I was a boy, Hastings was the place to go. It had amusements, so I spent a lot of time there. One of my abiding seaside memories is eating whelks and cockles in Folkestone – from where a large proportion of all the cockles and whelks eaten in Europe are supplied. To me, they're the best in the world. The key with the cockles was to put so much white pepper on them that it made you sneeze. I still do that. I also loved, and still love, a simple brown crab sandwich with lots of brown meat. This mackerel pasty is a special on our menu; it's bloody tasty and people love it. It's sort of an amalgam of Stargazy pie, a Cornish pasty, and the beef wellington we were famous for at Claridge's. I was originally going to have the mackerel's head and tail poking out and call it Stargazy pasty, but thought I might be over-egging it."

Mackerel pasty

SERVES 4
mackerel 4 medium, butterflied, pin bones removed
salt and freshly ground black pepper

good-quality pork sausages 4, filling squeezed out, skins discarded
fresh tarragon 1 bunch, chopped
fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 bunch, chopped
all-butter puff pastry 500g
free-range egg yolks 2, beaten

For the cucumber salad:
cucumber ½ peeled, halved lengthways, seeds scooped out, sliced
sugar a pinch
cider vinegar 2 tbsp
salt ½ tsp

To serve:
watercress 2 bunches
olive oil 1 tbsp
lemon juice a squeeze

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6.

Season the mackerel with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Mix the sausagemeat, tarragon and half of the parsley together in a bowl. Spread mixture over the cut-side of the mackerel, then fold each mackerel in half along the spine. Chill in the fridge.

Meanwhile, cut the puff pastry into four pieces and roll each piece out to a 5mm thickness. Wrap each fish in a piece of pastry, leaving the mackerel tail poking out, trim any excess pastry and crimp the edge like a pasty.

Brush the top of the pasties with the beaten egg and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked through and golden brown.

Mix the cucumber, sugar, vinegar and salt together in a bowl and set aside for 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining parsley.

To serve, toss the watercress with the olive oil and squeeze of lemon juice. Serve the pasties with the watercress and cucumber salad alongside.

Elderflower jelly and creme fraiche ice cream

MAKES 4 JELLIES
For the elderflower jelly:
gelatine 2½ leaves
water 350ml
elderflower cordial 150ml
strawberries 4

You will also need:

4 individual jelly moulds

For the creme fraiche ice cream:
creme fraiche 800g
lemon juice 100ml
stock syrup 600ml (2:1 caster sugar to water. Make 500g sugar, 250ml water, boil for 5 minutes; the rest can be saved)

To make elderflower jelly, soak gelatine in cold water to soften it, then squeeze to get out any extra water and use for recipe. Place elderflower cordial in a pan with 350ml water and bring to the boil. Once boiled, stir in the soaked gelatine leaves, stir and leave to cool down but not set. Place half the mixture into each jelly mould and insert a strawberry in the centre, place in fridge to set. Once set, top up with the rest of the jelly mixture.

To make the creme fraiche ice cream, mix all the ingredients together and churn in an ice-cream maker, following the manufacturer's instructions. Churn slightly under what you usually would due to the fat content in the creme fraiche.

Mark Sargeant is head chef of Rocksalt, Folkestone, and the Smokehouse, Folkestone