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  June 2008
   

June is a very fine month gastronmoically, asparagus and rhubarb are still around (at least in Aberdeenshire,  the crabs and lobsters are very fine, strawberries are in and with any luck a sea trout or wild salmon will make its way to me. Oh, and it's my birthday too........
   
  After nights, we headed to a wonderful campsite at Badrallach, Wester Ross. Rory threw a ferocious fever but we only really noticed at Inverness, a 3hr drive so far. The weather was amazing so we carried on. However, the wind blew up and we had to reposition the camping trailer three times to escape a collapse. The temperature dropped to around 10C and did I mention the rain? Despite this, it was a superb trip, at least it kept the midges away.

I tried to find out ahead of time if there was any local seafood supplies, but no luck, despairing when looking out to a huge loch- I really must learn to fish. A brief snorkel failed to yield any scallops, though it did yield a dodgy sinus. However, plenty of mussel shells on the stony shore led us to some superb specimens at low tide further up Little Loch Broom. The first dish I made was a kind of chowder, a sweated onion, chopped potato, choppped cabbage, the juice form the  now cooked mussels and some milk, though this separated bizarrely, I should have put the milk in at the end. When the potatoes where done, in went the shelled mussels and the meat from a smokie. Plenty of black pepper and buttered sourdough. A great cockle warmer.

The next mussel outing was a soupy affair once more. Half a sweated onion this time, mussels cooked in the same pan, a pinch of saffron, some cream (acquired that day), and then a chopped tomato. Fantastic. Since this was my birthday, one of George's sirloin steaks on the barbie, some boiled pink fir potatoes and some young kale quickly steamed from our garden.
   
  Having failed to obtain crustacea of repute on our travels Shona made an expedition to Murray McBain. Since cripples are now at £11 a kilo they may be featuring more often on the menu. In the absence of shallots I just sprinkled the split poor critters with buttery breadcrumbs, the butter having infused with chili and star anise. Lots of chopped fennel, parsley and chive then put under the grill to brown, though a hot oven would have been easier. Very fine with more sourdough and the current cheapie Montlouis sparkler- well, my sinuses were blocked.
   
  A month or so ago I made some salt cod croquettes according to a recipe in my Cooking of Spain book, but they were a little too much, being entirely made from cooked and mulched salt cod, then rolled in crumbs and deep fried. This time I went for a potato filling. Simon has a recipe that uses equal potato and salt cod, with some boiled egg in the mixture too. I used maybe 2-3:1 potato:cod ratio. I cooked the cod with the potaoes and a few cloves of garlic too which I deskinned afterwards and through in the mixture. The salt cod I deboned and cut up, but kept as much of the skin as possible. A few turns of black pepper and a handful of choppped parley. This mixture I made into thumb sized cylinders, rolled in egg then crumbs and deep fried. Superb, though from an ecological point of view I should try and use salt Ling.
   
  That was meant to be Rory's tea, but Shona and I had a few, ahem. Our main meal was to be some rib eye steaks from Inverbervie estate, just down the road. These really needed proper char grilling so I set up the mini bbq underneath a rain and north gale proof 'lean to'. They were very good and strangely reminiscient of some Aussie cuts in terms of flavour. Some lobster butter on top as they cooked, plain bolied Jersey Royals, and salad from the garden.