October 2009

Back Up
	October 2009

Marques De Carano, Gran reserva 2001- was on 1/2 price from 10 to 5 quid. Very good at 10, superb for 5 (Tesco). I often find the Gran reservas a bit thin, not this fella.	We have some absolutely gorgeous looking lettuce in the garden that is inedible due to it's stunning bitterness. Even the caterpillars left it. Umm? Despite this high level of alkaloid I thought it might be usable in a recipe where this was attenuated by the cooking process, like endive and radicchio. Some chicken stock from the chicken and fennel/ garlic and olives made a wonderful base to this risotto, surprisingly not overwhelming. I cooked the lettuce in the stock before adding chopped to the risotto, but maybe should have blanched it first; it was too bitter for the boys. Lots of butter, lots of parmesan.

	There is some chestnut flour that has been lurking in the cupboard since May, I don't think it keeps too well. The Italian section in 'Chestnuts online' has loads of recipes. That for migliaccio is very frequently cited and is also on the back of the packet, in Italian though. It's a strange recipe, chestnut flour with water and sultanas, sprinkled with pine nuts and rosemary, i.e. no raising agent or sugar or eggs. I put a bit of marmalade in too since one recipe mentioned orange peel. As a cake you will not recognise or predict the flavour, but it is utterly beguiling. Rather good with an expresso. Elizabeth David mentions it in passing being eaten with roasted small game birds; not sure about that myself.

	I cooked some potatoes under the open fire in the ash, alas, they were somewhat delayed for having with the fireplace pork chops, so I kept them for the next day. Just some wee chops from Wark with a smudge of our own fresh fennel seed and some rather good properly sour sourdough bread- AT LAST!!!! So, potato pizzas? I can't remember if I mentioned the utterly insane salted herring from my lovely Blue Toon émigré, Sarah. These fellas were salted and barrelled, not sure for how long, but some kind of maturation/ fermentation has taken place. Essentially they're rather like huge anchovies. Anyway, Sarah gave me a dozen or so, enough to last some time. Her cooking advice? "Bayled. Twice". They are insanely salty, and would need a good soak if eaten whole. I've mashed them up with butter to have on toast, smothered a joint of beef in some, and in this case put wee flecks underneath a layer of potatoes on a pizza base, then drenched with olive oil. I've tried finding some historical recipes for them but so far, no success. Another pizza with thin finger slices of uber fatty pancetta and a sprinkle of rosemary. The last pizza consisted of beet greens mixed with feta and egg. Two things led to leakage- not enough squeezing and tearing pizza dough with holes. Very annoying to have watery, eggy mixture leaking over the oven.

	Roast chump pork with apple and japonica sauce, blackberry apple and japonica crumble

Craigie Knowe Cab Sauv 2004	The last of this years winter hare (pictured in feb I think?) consisted of the legs and rib cage, a liver and some blood in the bag. Simon H gives a recipe for Hare Royale which involves putting the cooking vegetable through a mouli to thicken the sauce which is further enhanced by blood. On this rare occasion I did marinate in some slightly reduced red wine, rare in marinating at all, but particularly red wine, which is used in in all manner of stews to the point of boredom. Some of the hare recipes in my Time-life book suggest roasting, quite incrediblely, in 45minutes or so. This not overly large hare took about 5 hours to get tender, cooked with some celery, carrot and onion. Maybe the mountain Hares are older and smaller than their mediterranean cousins? Anyway, the forcemeat balls are always fun- liver, heart, kidneys, some fatty bacon and breadcrumbs put through a mincer and shallow fried in some wonderful lard. Sauce thickened as above, and served with Russian kale and mash. With some horror we discovered that the idyllic vineyard Craigie Knowe, in Tasmania, was for sale as we finished the bottle. Incidentally, the only bottle of wine we brought back from Oz. Horror in that we were missing an opportunity, moving to the opposite end of the country, a mere 2000 miles or so?

	dunecht pancetta

	hare with chestnut pasta and mushrooms

*Moroccan Cooking, Latifa Bennani Smires, 1975.	Yet another road kill effort, in fact, the last of the four beasts from the tarmac. I took the pheasant out of the freezer thinking I might use it with some Lincoln salt belly pork, but yet again I kept it too long (the pork) and it mostly spoiled around the edge, the fat going rancid. An aggressive debridement left enough for a soup but I wasn't going to risk spoiling the pheasant. A Moroccan dish for hare (in the Time-life game book) gave me thought for something Moroccan. No 'ras el hanout' spice led me away from that recipe and to one for chicken with carrots and preserved lemons from a fantastic Moroccan cookbook*, the latter two ingredients being to hand and needing used. You just can't beat a cookbook that gives advice on choosing a sheep's head that states, 'make sure that any maggots that might be tucked away inside the ears and mouth fall out'. On choosing chickens, 'Young, cereal-fed birds should only be used if nothing else is available', i.e. you want scrawny boilers with some flavour. Pheasant jointed, 1/2 tsp ginger powder, 1/4 tsp saffron and fried with a big clove of garlic in lots of butter and olive oil. Some water, then simmered until almost done, left to rest for the day. About 500g carrots cubed (the recipe states 3kg for 2 chickens...), and half a preserved lemon, also cubed. Further simmered. A piece of foil helped keep the steam in, placed under my not so well fitting lid. Some chopped black olives to finish. Boiled potatoes, not couscous on this occasion. Frying the potatoes covered with almond slivers might have been rather good. Next time.
	cod Cheek and squid paella
	Quince g/syrup Lamb, beetroot and creme fraiche, cauli and herring,