Adam Balic

When in the same position I once made it into a Thai-style salad (see larb thread) and this worked very well.

So, a week after Christmas an we have well and truely had the turkey. It arrived on time, it look great, there were extensive details for cooking it provided and after cooking it was moist and flavourful. So I was very happy with the purchase. However, I was still pretty bored by the overall flavour, which I think comfirms for me that I just don't really turkey, especially as while I was eating it I was thinking "I really wish we had got some goose/beef/pork in".

Sorry to hear about the salt cod Kevin, what a bugger. I had a similar thing happen on the Christmas meal on a dish I practiced all year, so if you are like me you have similar mixed feelings of loathing, but wanting to make it 'right' some time soon.

Just received this book. Wow. What a great book, I got so excited reading it that I bought a siphon and gas bottles on line within half an hour. Not quite sure how I am going to incorporate this into the normal ethnic/histrorical cooking I like to do, but it should be interesting.

Nice Cod, how was the final dish? I often buy monster cod heads, as a large head contains a hugh amount of very good quality meat. A Cod head and shoulders was once a popular roast in the UK, and this works well, but mostly I cook Singapore Fish-head Curry, as it is a great dish that I ate often in Melbourne and miss here in the UK.

Jerusalem artichokes are members of the sunflower family and in fact the "Jerusalem" bit is a corruption of "girosole" which is Italian for "Turns to the sun", which is "Sunflower". I wonder if there was some confusion.

This is most likely the archetypal recipe for these style of soups.

Yes, I think that they are the same species. Infomation

The Christmas markets in Edinburgh are German

Nice pig's (Boar?) head! It seems very international, was there a particular theme that you could see.

After johnnyd's blog I went and ordered a cataplana on-line I was so impressed.

Chemist on the high street in West Drayton - I bought a kilo for not much money - they ordered it for me ← Also from most Chinese grocers. There are (I think) some restrictions on the sale of saltpetre (Potassium Nitrate) in the UK due its use in bomb making (one kilo would make a good bang, not sure what your chemist was thinking), so other "saltpetres" are sometimes offered. Make sure of what you have Saltpetre (Potassium Nitrate), rather then Chile Saltpetre (Sodium Nitrate) or Lime Saltpetre (Calcium Nitrate).

That's why when it comes to fish that Scientific or official market names are the way to go, especially when fish are now traded globally.

The Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus harengus) is a different species to the true/European Sardine (Sardina pilchardus), but both names are used for lots of other different types of fish and Herring is a description of a group of closely related fish as well, so a Tarpon is often group with Herring. Pilchards and sardines are the same species of fish, but as "Sardine" is more sexy, Pilchards caught in Cornwall are now marketed as "Cornish Sardines". To complicate things more, in fishing jargon a young herring under 17.5cm (7") can be refered to as a "sardine".

There is truth in that, but the think that the ultimate purpose of the exercise was to eat the Turkeys and this is going to happen with or without the GR PR machine at this time of the year in the hundreds of thousands of UK households in the next few week. These animals went through a lot less trauma then is going to true for birds and I have to say that I am in favour of increased quality of life and less transport trauma and this out weighs any anthropomorphic sense of dignity. Whatever the issues of the GR PR for this show, the truth is that these animals experienced a much better life then the vast majority. I think that it is unexceptable that people are squeamish about this program because the are confronted with a few bold facts, but side step the issue of what the meat on there plate actually is and what quality if life it had. It is simply not good enough to say "I am aware of the reality of the slaughter house etc, but don't want to see it on TV", then buy a generic chicken at the supermarket. It is self-interested and a bit pathetic.

GR has a great PR machine and that is a fact. I didn't find it shocking at all, but that has to do with my background. There was no real gore and the visuals were basically of a turkey flexing it's wings. The show had numerous weeks of build up to this moment and and during the show there were very many warnings of what was to happen. If you were going to be upset by this and still watched it you were either a fool or a masochist. I don't see what was to complain about. What I think is disgusting is the amount of negative comments these trivial and one off events generate, while the revolting conditions that the majority of animals destined consumption live in raises hardly an eyebrow. So rather then 'I'm all for knowing about my food comes from but that is just yucky', think about that next time you buy a cheap supermarket chicken or buy your generic turkey for christmas. According to DEFRA 23 million turkeys per year are raised in the UK, I am guessing that very few of these were raised and slaughtered in the humane conditions that The Ramsay Turkeys were exposed to, so some perspective might me in order.

Zimtsterne are cinnamon flavoured almond/hazelnut biscuits with a rum glaze. These were drank with schnapps and Port.

This was dessert.

The mains were Fiaker-Goulash with Knodel. Various grilled sausage (eh, we had eaten most of them befoer I remembered to take a photograph) Cheese in a sausage - genius For drinks we had gluhwein (red wine, oranges, sugar, long pepper, tailed pepper, mace, cinnamon, ginger and rum) and a very unusual Austrian wine called "Uhudler" from Burgenland. This is made from grapes of the North American grape vine Vitus Labrusca, rather then the European Vitus Vinifera, so therefore it as the distinctive aroma and taste of the former wine, which is refered to as 'foxy', 'wild strawberries' or 'bubblegum' depending on who is doing the tasting.

A special mention of the pumpkin seeds and their oil. This is a product traditionally associated with the Styria region (although production is now more widespread). The kernals are very dark green, more so then the pumpkin seeds I am use to. The way I have seen them presented is tossed in a salad, so this is what I did to night. The raw kernals are at 6 o'clock, the toasted at 9 o'clock. The oil is an amzing product, a version of this is availble from supermarkets in the UK. While this product is OK, it doesn't really compare to the fresh oil I brought back. The oil is a bright green colour (photograph colours are not bright enough) and seems to get brighter with exposure to the air (could be my imagination). It is a nutty oil, with a touch of grass flavour. It has a very unusual viscosity, being very very fine, to the point that it almost doesn't seem like an oil at all. I combined this oil with a little saba, which is reduced grape must and used it to dress some crunchy lettuce hearts and sprinkled the kernals over this.

These are the items that I bought back from Vienna and Graz. Sausages- - Bauerbwurstel - Wienerwald Blutwurst - Grill Bratwurstel - Kasekrainer - Gailtaler Trokenwurstel Ham/Speck- - Sudtiroler Markenspeck - Tiroler Schinkenspeck - Tiroler Schopspeck Cheese- - Ostiepok Misc- - Fruit bread from Graz (Fruchtebrot Ganz) - Pumpkin seeds (Kurbisknabberkerne) - Various wines and schnapps - Bread dice for knodel

Sorry - I imagine that there is regional variation in "Canada".

mple. I think Adam has used a commercial tomato paste concentrate, strattu-conserva is something else. Adam, please correct me if I have missed the part where you explained which tomatopaste you had used. Ciao ← See my original post "At this stage the tomato is added. I used a preserved tomato paste I bought in Syracuse (looks like dark red/brown putty)". I think this must me the 'stattu' you are talking about, I bought it in the Syracuse market a couple of years ago, where is wa sold in the open, it is not commercial tomato paste. Not sure how much of this I used, it was the last of what I had, so maybe 100-150 gms? I asked about 'triple concentrate' (or should that be double concentrate?) in a later post as this is the most concentrated tomato paste I am likely to get access to in the future. So somewhere between the colour of my ragu and yours is the correct colour. I think that the Napes Women's Guild should prepare a colour chart of the correct colour for a ragu, as it would save much discussion.

mple. I think Adam has used a commercial tomato paste concentrate, strattu-conserva is something else. Adam, please correct me if I have missed the part where you explained which tomatopaste you had used. Ciao ← See my original post "At this stage the tomato is added. I used a preserved tomato paste I bought in Syracuse (looks like dark red/brown putty)". I think this must me the 'stattu' you are talking about, I bought it in the Syracuse market a couple of years ago, where is wa sold in the open, it is not commercial tomato paste. Not sure how much of this I used, it was the last of what I had, so maybe 100-150 gms? I asked about 'triple concentrate' (or should that be double concentrate?) in a later post as this is the most concentrated tomato paste I am likely to get access to in the future.

Hey Adam, are you still going to compare the Austrian and Scottish traditional cake for us? It would be interesting to hear about them if you're still game! I'm also curious on the final list of foodstuff you were able to bring back to Scotland. Is is possible to bring wurst or other cured meats back within the EU? ← I am going to cook a small 'Austrian' meal tonight, so I will post a few images and comments then, including the cakes. There is not problem with transporting cured meat within the EU, the customs information on meat etc concerns transportation from outwith the EU.