Do you ever get the feeling you’re missing out on something? When you’re so busy with a million different pies in the air (ah…the mixed metaphor) that Real Life seems to be passing you by?
That’s the feeling I have right now.
We’ve had a class test and two essays in the past 3 weeks – one in genetics, which is a foreign language to me; plus it’s been frantically busy at work as things round up to the last corner before this beast of a project comes to a close. Because I’m only part time now, I’ve been known to stay until past 7:00 some nights. Tomorrow I have another essay to churn out, then it’s a day of rest then another test and another report for the end of the week.
I feel like I should be getting more done, but I’ve also been sacrificing any semblance of a social and personal life.
I took a break from studying at the weekend to spend some time with my oft-neglected boyfriend. We went to the Farmers Market on Saturday to stock up the fridge, then hit the charity shops in the afternoon and finished off at Courtyard Antiques in Causewayside – this time it was old maps we came home with, and a full set of beautiful copper frying pans of varying sizes, which we got for a song.
We cancelled on one of our friends coming round as we were knackered from too much wandering and far too much spending; ended up with folk round anyway, but it was a pretty chilled out evening…with hats.
I bought a velvet sombrero from a charity shop. It’s very…ornate. I also bought an 80s style round wicker coffee table with just enough room in the base to fit a cushion and perhaps the cat, if it pleases her.
Charity shops are amazing, I love them. You can get anything, you just never know when it will appear in your life. Some of my proudest finds have been from charity shops.
Yesterday I locked myself into the bedroom with my laptop and did a good few hours of solid essay writing before we went into town to buy some jammies (for both of us – flannel reindeer for me and a reasonably sedate red plaid for him). Boyfriend was oh-so patient with my shopping compulsion, bless him. When we came home he didn’t nag me to come out with the puppy (I took Baby Boy out on my own in the morning for the first time ever), and I got in a few more hours of productive time.
After class this morning, I had to wolf down my packed lunch and rush off to catch my bus to work.
I would have liked to spend a few minutes chatting with my friends from my course. There are a few people I get along with really well who I don’t see much of outside of class – there was a really sweet girl I got along with who I found out today has dropped out.
Today’s jumper colour: orange
Showing posts with label farmers market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farmers market. Show all posts
Monday, 15 November 2010
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Steamed honey soy salmon parcels with rice noodle stir fry
We had salmon for dinner last night, which is a pretty big deal in my house as my boyfriend is not a fan of fish – childhood trauma, fish bone, choking etc. The topic has come up before how we should try to eat more fish, but we’re the kind of household that resorts to meat in a pinch, and to be honest I’m a lazy cook on days I work. So Monday to Friday we slap a slab of meat onto a plate with potatoes or rice, or pasta if I win that night. We don’t do much to the meat except grill it on the George with some balsamic.
Except last night, I had a big tail piece of salmon from Creelers calling my name in the fridge. Too often I buy fish and have to freeze it at the last minute because we’d totally forgotten about it, but I was determined that food I’d bought fresh would be eaten fresh from now on (dagnabbit!)), so into the oven it went. We even went all-out with the healthy eating and had loads of veg with it.
The fish and the onion came from the farmers market, the fennel from RealFoods (my regular stop off point in town on days I go to Pilates class), and the rest of the veg I picked up in Marks and Sparks yesterday on my way home – I don’t usually get veg from the supermarket, but their food hall is ok (I was there to return some clothes I’d bought in a moment of madness) and I only picked up produce sourced from the UK.
Oh, and I don’t always do measurements. I am a firm believer in seasoning to taste, so there will be no “tbsps” and “grammes” here. Where possible I’ve included the source of the produce)
Steamed honey soy salmon parcels with rice noodle stir fry
Honey
Soy sauce (I use Kikkoman or ClearSpring)
Chilli oil
Salmon tail end, cut into fillets
1 bulb fennel, julienned (RealFoods)
1 onion, thinly sliced (Phantassie – farmers market)
Rapeseed oil (Summer Harvest oils – farmers market)
Bok choy, shredded (M&S – UK)
English chestnut mushrooms, sliced (Phantassie)
Broccoli, in florets (M&S – UK)
Spinach (M&S – UK)
3 cloves garlic, chopped (W Christie’s butchers)
2 packets Ready-cooked rice noodles (M&S)
Preheat oven to 180º C.
On the non-shiny side of a rectangle of foil drizzle some rapeseed oil. I folded a long sheet in half shiny side to prevent leakage. Make a bed of sliced onion and fennel. Place the salmon fillets on top, skin side down. Season
Mix up the honey, soy and chilli oil. At this point you could also add grated ginger or garlic but I just left it smooth. Brush or drizzle on the salmon fillets.
Wrap the parcels up – I found doing it in a triangle made it easier to open up and plate. Place on a tray and stick in oven – they should bake for about 30-35 mins.
About 10 mins before the salmon needs to come out, heat some rapeseed oil in a wok. Add the diced bok choy and stir fry. Add a splash of soy sauce and a little honey. Then add the rest of the ingredients in this order: mushrooms, broccoli, garlic, rice noodles, and finally spinach. By this time the salmon should be ready and the spinach should be wilted.
Plate the noodles and remove the salmon from its parcel. Serves 2 with leftover noodles for the next day
Except last night, I had a big tail piece of salmon from Creelers calling my name in the fridge. Too often I buy fish and have to freeze it at the last minute because we’d totally forgotten about it, but I was determined that food I’d bought fresh would be eaten fresh from now on (dagnabbit!)), so into the oven it went. We even went all-out with the healthy eating and had loads of veg with it.
The fish and the onion came from the farmers market, the fennel from RealFoods (my regular stop off point in town on days I go to Pilates class), and the rest of the veg I picked up in Marks and Sparks yesterday on my way home – I don’t usually get veg from the supermarket, but their food hall is ok (I was there to return some clothes I’d bought in a moment of madness) and I only picked up produce sourced from the UK.
Oh, and I don’t always do measurements. I am a firm believer in seasoning to taste, so there will be no “tbsps” and “grammes” here. Where possible I’ve included the source of the produce)
Steamed honey soy salmon parcels with rice noodle stir fry
Honey
Soy sauce (I use Kikkoman or ClearSpring)
Chilli oil
Salmon tail end, cut into fillets
1 bulb fennel, julienned (RealFoods)
1 onion, thinly sliced (Phantassie – farmers market)
Rapeseed oil (Summer Harvest oils – farmers market)
Bok choy, shredded (M&S – UK)
English chestnut mushrooms, sliced (Phantassie)
Broccoli, in florets (M&S – UK)
Spinach (M&S – UK)
3 cloves garlic, chopped (W Christie’s butchers)
2 packets Ready-cooked rice noodles (M&S)
Preheat oven to 180º C.
On the non-shiny side of a rectangle of foil drizzle some rapeseed oil. I folded a long sheet in half shiny side to prevent leakage. Make a bed of sliced onion and fennel. Place the salmon fillets on top, skin side down. Season
Mix up the honey, soy and chilli oil. At this point you could also add grated ginger or garlic but I just left it smooth. Brush or drizzle on the salmon fillets.
Wrap the parcels up – I found doing it in a triangle made it easier to open up and plate. Place on a tray and stick in oven – they should bake for about 30-35 mins.
About 10 mins before the salmon needs to come out, heat some rapeseed oil in a wok. Add the diced bok choy and stir fry. Add a splash of soy sauce and a little honey. Then add the rest of the ingredients in this order: mushrooms, broccoli, garlic, rice noodles, and finally spinach. By this time the salmon should be ready and the spinach should be wilted.
Plate the noodles and remove the salmon from its parcel. Serves 2 with leftover noodles for the next day
Monday, 14 June 2010
Goodies from the farmers Market
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)