Market day

The fridge is full again, and all is well.

I finished work earlier on Friday as we had friends visiting. They turned up just after lunchtime so my boyfriend entertained and fed them full of cheese (and chutney) until I got home. Neither of us fancied cooking so I dragged one of the boys out to Peckhams to stock up on snacks for a munch. We came back with far too much cake and some random savoury tarts – and one of those kitsch “lucky” Maneki Neko cats from the oriental supermarket near my house for my friend. Oh my it is so camp, but that’s the look he’s going for in his bedroom, so it should be perfect.

I also found a lovely 3-panelled Buddha’s head wood relief on sale, much like the one I’d seen in Linda’s Restaurant in Toronto only on a smaller scale. I’ve no idea where to put it but I’m sure we can make a space. I’ve gotten right into my Asian art recently, especially the Tibetan and Himalayan. The house at the moment is a mix of Tibetan singing bowls, third-eyes and turn-of-the-century gas chandeliers. I’m not sure we have anything “new”, but I’ve always appreciated a good antique. We even have an impressive sword collection of Ghurkha knives and samurai swords from as far back as the 1500s.

Friday was pretty chilled out, we sat in and some of the boys had a drink. I made it to midnight then passed out in the granddaddy armchair – so good for slumping. The boys had rearranged the furniture and dragged the orange sofa out from hiding so we didn’t have to sit in a half-moon around the telly.

The boys left quite early on Saturday morning so I went to the farmers market by myself. I had to do the bank mission as well so I stopped by Clarks Deli on the way home and picked up a random selection of cheeses, some pears and a head of pink garlic. I also got a few strawberry tarts from A la Carte and a brownie for our electrician Paul, who has put in some serious effort t for us since he started at the beginning of the year. I ended up giving Paul a couple tarts and the brownie to take home to his family, and my boyfriend made a crack about Paul telling his wife he was bringing home an Edinburgh tart.

The farmers market was pretty crowded by the time I got there as it was a lovely day, and there’s nothing like a bit of sunshine to get people out in hordes for some alfresco shopping. I started at the far end so hit Creelers first, as I do most weekends. I am so predictable. Sadly no Cullen skink until winter, but I bought some cooked langoustines and some fish soup. Last week when I was at their stall, a couple people ordered the oysters and made a point of saying how great they were, so I ordered three and wolfed them down with a squeeze of lemon. Yum! I couldn’t do that with the boys with me as I think the idea of raw shellfish freaks some of my friend out.

Next it was Arran’s Cheese shop. I went for the cheddar with peppercorns and another with caramellised red onion as I fancied trying something new. I also bought a pot of crowdie like I do every weekend, and the lovely lady threw in some free oatcakes.

This week the Cairn o Mohr stall was at the market, so I got a bottle of elderberry (the sweeter of the two reds), a bottle of cider and some of the sparkling elderflower – which is non-alcoholic. I’m not really a big drinker usually and I love their sparkling elderflower. It’s tangy and not overly sweet like most elderflower drinks, and it’s so refreshing in the summer. I appear to be stockpiling the cider.

I went a little overboard with the meat and dairy this week, which does go to show that shopping whilst hungry is a bad fucking idea! Luckily I have a very skinny boyfriend with a very big appetite, so no doubt he’ll polish off a couple packets of sausages to himself one morning. Unfortunately the guy from Puddledub Pork was out of the reduced salt bacon by the time I got there, and he did mention he had brought less than usual this week by accident. I got a couple packs of middle bacon instead, some pork chops which my boyfriend is working his magic on tonight to make into a Thai green curry, and some lemon and fennel sausages. Let me just say I’ve bought these sausages several times, but I’ve never tasted one as he usually polishes off a packet before I get around to it. They sound tasty though, and lighter than your average Joe sausage. To add to the sausage-fest I also bought a packet of curried sausages from Ballencrieff Pedigree Pigs. These I’d tried before and liked, but my boyfriend loves all things curried so here I am, indulging him.

The bloke from Hugh Grierson recommended the mutton this week, and suggested a long slow roast in a very low oven. 120ºC for 5 hours he said, with a cup of water chucked in to keep the whole thing moist. I also got a packet of chicken wings for snackage. I’d planned to do it on the Saturday night but we got sidetracked and ended up at our neighbour’s flat for the evening. The boyfriend was doing some gardening for her with her boyfriend, and me and my neighbour “supervised”. It was a quality evening, as we’d not really spent much time with them since Dee’s gran died, and they’re lovely folk. My dad and Dee’s dad Mr M would love to pal around with each other, and Mr M has made jokes about taking my dad for a spin in his flash new car. We should set a date.

I should mention my flat used to belong to Dee’s family, back in the day. She’s not much older than me but she’s lived on the street for most of her life – her gran Maidie used to own the entire building as a hotel in the 70s, and my bit used to be the hotel bar and lounge. We’re in the process of restoring it to its former glory, which is taking some amount of blood, sweat and tears. Luckily, not mine – we’re getting builders in to do the work, the same company that ripped down and rebuilt the big front bedroom after a flood last year. We’ve got the best group of guys doing the work, totally honest, efficient and hardworking. Not typical at all in Edinburgh! Paul hails from out of town and is a good mate of my boyfriend’s brother-in-law. He puts in some amount of exceptional effort pretty much every weekend, rewiring the house and making sure we don’t burst into flames! The wiring is so dodgy in these houses as a total nut job cowboy did the conversion into flats about 10 years ago. We’re still all paying for it! Paul and my boyfriend just ripped a 21-foot long tube of metal ducting from an extractor fan out of the false ceiling, which could easily have come crashing down on our heads!

So back to the food…always back to the food. I bought a couple packs of buffalo steak from Puddledub Buffalo as both me and my boyfriend prefer the taste to regular beef steak. It was a packet of ribeye and a packet of popseye this week. We had the ribeye I’d bought last week for dinner on Sunday night, with chips (from frozen, I’m ashamed to say) and some cabbage sautéed in butter. That head of cabbage has been lingering for ages now and we’d just been pulling leaves off the outside to feed the rabbit so it was getting down to a fairly manageable size by Sunday night. We fried the steak in a pan with some balsamic, then heated up some ready-made green peppercorn sauce from TrueFoods. I quite like their sauces as they come in handy pouches instead of a plastic tub, so slightly less waste. The George was far too grotty to even attempt an emergency clean! We had it with some of the horseradish cream I’d bought from Stichill last week, which is by the way so far superior to supermarket creamed horseradish I don’t even think they should share a name. It would be an insult to Stichill’s horseradish to even compare the two.

Then it was on to SS Dei Naufragati for some mozzarella-based fun. I bought a tub of straciatella, which is mozzarella strands in cream, and some ricotta. I love “tasting” at this stall as I firmly believe that food sampled is totally fat free. I must have consumed half a tub of straciatella on the spot.

From Stichill I bought four large pots of jersey double cream and some roasted red pepper dip. I plan to make ice cream at some point this week with the double cream and some of the whopping 6 punnets of strawberries I bought from The Strawberry Shop this week. I also bought four punnets of cherries, but as I’m already halfway through them I doubt there will be cherry goodness left for frozen treat fun.

This week was Belhaven Fruit Farm’s cider week, so I tried and bought a couple bottles each of the “red” strawberry cider and the ginger cider. The ginger is quite different, lovely and warming but refreshing at the same time – sort of like “hard” ginger beer. The strawberry cider I think may become addictive. It’s definitely not as tangy as regular cider, not “dry” at all, and not overly sweet like some fruity ciders. I’m a big believer in only drinking alcohol that tastes nice rather than to get pisht, but I could drink quite a lot of this stuff! Luckily the cider stall is only ever in town once a fortnight, so next week it’s back to the ice cream. Mmm…gooseberry, here I come!

From the middle-stretch of the market I got a loaf of spelt and honey bread from Falko Konditoreimeister, a tub of broccoli soup from The Good Soup Company, and a “posh” chicken and mushroom pie and a loaf of carrot cake from North Country Lass (half of which we gave to Paul for his hard work). The guys from Falko are the same as the guys who work in the shop during the week, so I’m sure they think I’m stalking them – especially as they know I live round the corner from the shop.

To finish off I bought some onions from East Coast Organics and a half dozen eggs, some “Something Different” toms from JM Craig, and then it was back home with my super-heavy trolley to try to fit everything in our newly cleaned fridge!