I am most definitely the untidy one in our home. My boyfriend jokes that he’d rather I go on holiday with him so he doesn’t have to come back to a messy flat. I am a hurricane of partially read magazines (mostly fashion and lifestyle mags, but I think the ones that annoy him most are the foodie mags), unopened post, makeup, laundry and clothes.
I also buy too much food. I get a little starry-eyed when I go to the farmers market every weekend and I bring home random veg and at least a couple joints of meat I have every intention of roasting in some wacky and inventive way for our Sunday dinner. Only I keep forgetting there are only two of us, and the cat and the dog are really just not heavy-eating enough to help polish off the rest of a leg of lamb. The cat’s watching her waistline and the dog has worrying vegetarian leanings. The bunny just looks exasperated all the time, which I put down to her advanced age and the fact she lives on the balcony.
Last Saturday I tried to rein myself in a bit. I’d not been in a few weeks due to various foreseen circumstances – a celebration of the life of Maidie Dickson Murray a couple Saturdays ago, and an incredibly short trip to Canada last weekend. Which I am still recovering from (jet lag, the fifth horseman of the apocalypse?).
I managed to make it by around noon, which is a bit late in the day in my opinion. The market shuts at 2pm, so by noon a lot of the choice is taken out of the equation. I was quite chuffed to see this was one of the weeks Phantassie Organic veg was at the market, as they have a bigger range and more interesting veg than most of the other organic veg stalls. They’re also only at the market once every fortnight, as far as I am aware.
When I first started going to the farmers market a few months ago, it was still bitterly cold outside and the stallholders had a distinctly windswept and interesting look about them. I’d go to every stall and as I’m easily tempted by handsome-looking cuts of meat and appealingly organic bunches of carrots, I’d pretty much buy something from every stall. This is how we ended up with freezer bursting at the seams and a second freezer groaning under the weight. Now I’m a veteran market-goer and I’ll have my favourites (they’re my boyfriend’s favourites as well, though he’s never been to market with me and is forced to eat only what I bring home)., so every week I start at one end of Castle Terrace with a purpose and a bright red granny trolley.
On the far side of Castle Terrace (I usually like to start on the side furthest from Lothian Road as I take Lothian Road to get home) I’ll usually hit Creelers and Phantassie. Creelers does seafood, and it’s partially thanks to their langoustines that my boyfriend will now eat (some) shellfish. He’s never been a big fan of seafood since he choked on a fish bone when he was wee, and he’s said he’ll only eat fish prepared by me or his gran as we are sympathetic to his fear. I usually get langoustines and their cullen skink (it’s better than mine *sob*), but they were out of both by the time I got there this week so I got some hot smoked salmon, fresh salmon and some smoked peppered mackerel.. I spoke to the lovely lady manning the stall and asked if it would be ok for me to bring in my own plastic tub for the fish rather than plastic bags, and she was very enthusiastic about the idea as their policy is NO excess packaging (and it would save on plastic bags). In fact their peppered mackerel is packaged 2 fillets per bag as the vacuum sealed bags only come in a certain size, so it’s more economical with the plastic to stick them in two-by-two (mackerel, saints, ants…).
I’ve plans to poach or roast the fresh salmon – no idea yet what to serve alongside, but I think new potatoes may be involved, along with my boyfriend’s own-grown fresh herbs (parsley, mint, chives, rosemary?). I bought extra so I could flake the leftovers for a pasta salad with crème fraiche, dill, cucumber and mustard. Maybe chuck in a few cherry toms as well. I may mix some of the smoked salmon into the pasta salad as well, but this will just be for my lunch that I take to work, as the boyfriend may be willing to eat the odd bit of fish, but he’s not quite ready for the smoked stuff just yet. I haven’t decided what to do with the smoked mackerel yet, but it looked so nice I figured inspiration would strike later on in the week. I will most definitely be back next weekend and earlier for the cullen skink.
Next I went over to the Phantassie stall, where I got my grubby little mitts on 2 bags of chard – one with yellow stalks and one with bright red stalks. I have vague plans to make some sort of soup, but will have to look for a recipe to adapt I think. I’m not even sure I’ve ever tasted chard, but it was on offer at £1 a bag. I also bought 3 bags of chestnut mushrooms (their mushrooms are amazing, they keep their texture and don’t lose much water at all during cooking), a bunch of the last of this year’s carrots, and quite a few onions. I restrained myself from buying any more, and as they were out of wild garlic I moved on to my next target.
For pork I usually go to one of three producers – Piperfield Pork, Puddledub Pork and Ballencrieff Rare Pedigree Pigs. Piperfield specialise in “Middle White pork” do some very tasty chorizo that come with a handy string to hang them from (they’re not meant to be refrigerated), and a very good glazed ham. I usually get a few slices of the ham just to pick at whilst I’m walking through the market. This week I bought a couple chorizo to take to a friend’s, an unrolled loin of pork to possibly take to my boyfriend’s mum’s for Sunday dinner, and a smaller joint of rolled pork shoulder to have for our own weekly roast. I’ve become increasingly fond of the shoulder cut recently, as it seems to stay tender no matter how much I forget about it or overcook it (case in point on Sunday, when I forgot to uncover the pesky thing and had to cook the joint an extra 20 mins at max heat to get at least some form of crackling on top, so it was on max heat for over half an hour), and it has a stronger flavour. On a slight tangent, I didn’t realise until about 5 minutes ago that the “Middle White” refers to a breed of pig, rather than the area on the pig the meat comes from.
I’ll usually get a few loin steaks from Puddledub and their reduced-salt bacon, which my boyfriend adores because he’s very anti-salt. He won’t add salt to any of his cooking except roast pork, and even then it’s only for the crackling. I get the feeling he could take or leave crackling if it weren’t for me hovering over his shoulder asking for crackling updates. Mmm…pork fat….drool. Sadly they weren’t there this time as I checked the calendar and they only make an appearance 4 out of 5 weeks a month (missing out on the second Saturday of each month).
Then it was on to Ballencrieff Pedigree Pigs, where I got a couple packets of casserole pork for dinners this week. Again I wasn’t sure what we’d be having, but with pork stews I usually let the boyfriend deal with it as he’s got the knack. I’m better with red meats and game when it comes to casseroling. I’ll sometimes get the premium dog food from Ballencrieff, which is pretty much the sausage meat that doesn’t quite make the cut for their sausages, but is probably better quality than the sausage meat that goes into most supermarket sausages.
Every week I’ll get a tub of the crowdie from Arran’s Cheese Shop. Crowdie is a lower fat alternative to cream cheese as it is made from skimmed milk, and theirs is rennet free. I also bought a smoked cheese with chilli, and a couple of smoked cheeses with garlic – one to give a friend. We’d bought both before and loved them – the chilli cheese has a bite to it that is really rather pleasant, and the garlic is more subtle but absolutely gorgeous. The lady who runs the stall is lovely as well, and I do like to think she remembers me from week to week. She’ll usually throw in some oatcakes for free as well, and they’re much better than even the deluxe versions you can buy in the supermarket.
This week I got half a dozen “dirty” eggs from Brewster’s – they were slightly grubby (but I’m not fussy like that about a little bit of dirt) and they only cost £1 because they were “unwashed”. Bargain. They sometimes have rarer varieties of eggs as well, and they will let you bring in an empty box to refill, which is always something I like to see. I mean, what use are empty egg cartons if you don’t have kids to use them for various Blue Peter projects?
To finish off my egg and dairy run, I bought some soft cheese from Stichill Jerseys. I bought 2 pots of creamy horseradish dip (I’d have roast beef every day of the week if it meant I could have Stichill’s horseradish dip as a condiment every time), a soft cheese with lovage, a baton of fresh butter, a pot of jersey double cream and some lemon and garlic butter. The boyfriend and I had a surprise visitor on Sunday afternoon whose eyes lit up when he saw the cream – proper jersey cream is pretty rare where he lives as there is only one shop in the neighbouring village. I used half the garlic butter for the potatoes we had with our Sunday lunch yesterday – 2 bags of Jersey Royal potatoes simmered whole then crushed with the garlic butter. My guilty confession? The tatties were from Waitrose, but they were tasty and I only ever get the jersey Royals from their plastic bagged selection, though I’ll buy their locally sourced potatoes and carrots.
I managed to restrain myself from buying huge amounts of red meat this week, so kept it to 2 packets (so 4 in total) of buffalo rump steaks from Puddledub Buffalo – one of which I gave to a friend as I know he appreciates a good bit of buffalo meat. I also bought a packet of steak and marmalade sausages, as every time I buy them my boyfriend eats them all before I get a look in (surely a good sign as he doesn’t even like marmalade). I briefly eyed up a leg of lamb but managed to drag myself away in time, muttering “2 roasts are enough” under my breath. I think next week will be a lamb-laced week.
This was the first week I’d seen Belhaven Fruit Farm at the market, so a sure sign it’s nearly summer even if the slightly chillier weather and rain might indicate otherwise. Unfortunately they were out of the larger tubs of ice cream, but I got a small tub of the gooseberry dairy free ice cream, which was lovely. I know purists may argue the strawberry was the original, but I think I actually prefer the gooseberry. SO refreshing, and just tart enough. They only do ice creams every other week, so next weekend it will be cider.
The past few weeks I’ve stocked up on strawberries from The Strawberry Shop (wonder how they thought up the name?) as they keep fresh the whole week and I take them into work to nibble on. I went away with the mother load this week – 8 punnets! The lady who runs the stall (possibly the farmer’s wife – the farmer being David Leslie of Perth) makes the best redcurrant jelly I have ever tasted, and I consider myself a redcurrant jelly connoisseur. No seriously, I put it in everything. Her jelly isn’t too sweet and has just enough tartness – you can totally taste the redcurrants in it, and it is a softer jelly (less of the texture of Jell-o than some).
Now being the lazy bastard that I am, I bought our bread this week from Falko Konditoreimeister at the market instead of from their bakery 100 metres from my flat. I will sometimes get the spelt and honey variety, or my boyfriend’s preferred bread which is the pumpkin seed – they were out of both (being quite popular) so I went for the light rye. I’m partial to a stronger tasting bread with a firmer texture, which they are great at. Reminiscent of my schooldays in Switzerland I think. I hated boarding school but the food was great.
Then it was on to Findlaters pates and pies. I’d noticed there was a glass top to the counter and commented on it – I’ve been known to drop my money into it by accident before, and apparently I wasn’t the only one as it had become enough of an issue for them to replace it. The stallholder said he’d dropped his coffee into it once, which may have been the straw that made the camel buy a glass shelf. Or something like that. I’ve been trying to restrict myself to 2 pates a week since I started buying their pies as well, so this week it was duck and apricot and my old favourite, Dunsyre and pressed pear. It’s always one vegetarian one and one meat every week. That way I can “pretend” I’m being healthy. I also got a carrot and Dunsyre pie, and a few Mexican chicken pies for my boyfriend, who has actually requested that particular pie before.
Finally I was down to my last two stops – North Country Lass for an apple pie and a veg pie with Stilton, and J&M Craig for tomatoes. North Country Lass’s pies and cakes are some of the only ones my boyfriend will eat as they are not overly sweet (and unkind to his teeth) – he was quite pleased with this week’s apple pie, but usually his favourite is the carrot cake. In fact the only comparable carrot cake I’ve ever tasted has been the Olifeira recipe cake, and even then I can’t quite seem to make it right. He looooves that carrot cake.
My last stop was J&M Craig, which was quite handy as it is the closest to Lothian Road. I usually buy the “Something different” toms, so I can never tell which ones have come home with me each week. I tried one and all I can say is they’re richer in taste than the sweetest ones (the Soopersweet) but still quite sweet. I plan to stick them in the salmon pasta salad later this week, unless I eat them all before I get the chance.
So last night was Roast Pork night. Our friend Chris turned up on Sunday just in time for breakfast (scrambled eggs from Brewster’s, a couple slices of Falko bread spread with fresh Stichill butter, and some Ayrshire back bacon I’d run to Peckhams to buy earlier on in the morning), so we decided to stick one of the joints of pork on for dinner. I braised the shoulder joint with the fat rubbed generously with salt and fennel seeds for an hour and a half at 160°, covered, on a bed of shallots and onions (with a little tiny bit of water). Then I cranked the heat up for the last bit of cooking. I also roasted 5 bulbs of fennel sliced from north to south in some butter and rapeseed oil, sprinkled with an organic vegetable stock cube. The stock cube may have been overkill, but it still tasted ok. When the meat was about 30 mins from done I boiled up 2 bags of Jersey Royals in the largest pot we have. Unfortunately I forgot to uncover the pork, so instead of 15 mins at max heat, the pork was blasted for 35 mins at max. We also boiled up some corn on the cob to have as an additional veg. When the meat was taken out to rest (my boyfriend has a trick to it – he cuts the crackling and the fat off before it is covered to rest, so the crackling is still nice and crisp when it comes time to eat), I stirred in a veg stock cube and a bit of water to the shallots and onions, and my usual tablespoon of redcurrant jelly. Can I just say, redcurrant jelly makes ALL gravies better, a tip I learned from Mrs Emily MacGregor, who used to run MacGregor’s Provisions on Strathearn Road with her husband.
The pork was tasty and still tender, and there was a lovely pink bit in the middle for me (the boys each took an end). The tatties were lovely and sweet, not at all like bog standard supermarket potatoes. The fennel was sticky, sweet and carmellised, and I added a splash of Stichill’s jersey double cream at the end and just heated through.
That’s all for me today – phew!
No comments:
Post a Comment