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Wednesday, April 19, 2006
what I ate last: Mussels and clams and winkles, alive alive-o Ah. Five days on the West Coast of Scotland. No mobile phone reception. No internet. Not a single light to be seen from the windows at night. And a hundred yards below us on the beach, mussels and winkels in abundance to be picked, and clams to be ferreted out, and even one glorious, huge oyster. We shopped in Fort William after getting off the sleeper and bought an enormous leg of lamb, some steaks, oxtail and a ritual haggis alongside plenty of veg and booze. We were amazed to find that, at the end of the trip totting up our spending, over five days we had only spent £50 each on food and enough alcohol to make us all into shrieking banshees by 1am every night. So a pretty cheap trip, and we ate very well - even if I do say so myself, having ensconced myself firmly in the kitchen and beating away intruders with a wooden spoon. And we had virtually nothing left to throw away at the end. Its amazing how economically you can eat if you actually cook every day and so use up all your leftovers. Day 1: Pasta with proper tomato sauce for lunch, with salad Roast lamb with roast potatoes, spring greens and salad for supper Day 2: Bacon, eggs, tomato and beans on toast for breakfast Winkles, then cold roast lamb for lunch with salad, braised leeks with tomato, cheese and a baked potato Steaks with saute potatoes, stir-fried carrots and savoy cabbage, and salad for supper Day 3: Mushrooms on toast with cheese for breakfast Spaghetti vongole followed by a veritable vat of moules marinieres for lunch Shepherd's pie, spring greens and salad for supper Day 4: Toast and peanut butter and various bits and pieces for breakfast Smoked salmon sandwiches, hot cross buns and oranges for lunch (half-way up a mini mountain) Fried haggis followed by slow-cooked oxtail casserole (containing carrots and potatoes) with stir-fried savoy cabbage and leeks Day 5: Smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato for breakfast Spaghetti with mussels in tomato sauce and salad with cheese for lunch ....and back home on the sleeper.... Don't you wish you were with us! Precious fat juicy clams picked off the beach, shining glossy winkles and so many mussels we cooked enough for about ten people. Oh so good. We even tried to fish for brown trout and I'm sure would have had success if we'd stuck at it longer, and there are nets to be cast over the mouth of little burns, crabs, lobsters, all sorts of hidden joys. I want to move there and live off foraged food forever. 3 comments permalink  
Tuesday, April 04, 2006 what I ate last: Roast pork and turnips We've just enjoyed the leftovers of a rather successful Sunday lunch straight out of the legendary St John cookbook. Roast pork with turnips, anchovies and garlic. Off to the market on Sunday morning, before the rush, to pick up a generous (and not entirely cheap) joint of organic pork, and some turnips with their greens still intact from the Taj Stores on Brick Lane. The idea of dressing turnips with anchovies, lots of mashed roast garlic, parsley, oil and red wine vinegar sounds like it will end up very strong, but in fact the end result was delightfully subtle - a kind of mellow yet vaguely piquant warm salad almost, to go with a simply roasted piece of good meat. A few new potatoes tucked in around the pork at half-time and the whole thing was perfect for a Sunday lunch with beautiful April sunshine and showers playing outside. The dressing is really utterly simple. For a generous three-person portion (around four medium to large turnips and their greens) I used half a tin of anchovies, a dozen roasted garlic cloves squished out of their skins, a decent glug of red wine vinegar and olive oil, and a fair handful of rough-chopped parsley. When the turnips are nearly done, add the greens (chopped into reasonable lengths), give them a couple of minutes and then drain thorougly before adding to the dressing in a nice serving bowl and letting it all mingle together. Tonight, with the left over (delicious) cold pork, some salad and toast, I used up the last two turnips in the same way but cheated by not roasting the garlic and only adding one crushed clove to the dressing. I know Fergus Henderson would disapprove of the short-cut (as the only cookery writer who includes recipes taht take weeks to complete) but it worked pretty well to my simple tastes. 0 comments permalink
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