Adam Balic

Lovely photographs Alberto, with all those frsh peppers, it is definately not Tuscany. I noticed Dolphinfish for sale in Greece, but was too stupid to eat them at the time, next time I will not be. Do you think the porcini are local or imported from the Balkans etc?

Ah yes, the aroma of fer sanglant is very distictive and evocative of slowly rusting 19th century farm machinery and baked red earth after a summer shower. Especially common in old vine cinsault wines. "Metallic" isn't the right word (which is more like the sensation of putting a nickle spoon in your mouth), "ferric" might be better, but I bet a sub-editor would change it to "bloody iron".

Excellent photgraphs. I think that the crabs are the species Scylla serrata, known in Australia as "Mud Crabs". They have a fairly wide range in the Indo-pacific region and are highly prized.

Adam, Was there any uses for sea urchin that you noticed on Hydra? Sauces in restaurants? Bait, perhaps? ← I saw it on a few menus, but they never actually had in on offer on the day. I suspect that, raw with a lemon is it. Here is the local species, they are very flat in profile rather then rounded.

Yes, that's probably the closest discription. I just tried Googling it but got nothing (the pronounciation of it could be native to the Gulf). Generally, the rice there is flavoured with cardamon and cinnamon, and served with strands of caramelised onions on top. Matchboos made with lamb is also very popular. It is so, so good! ← This sounds good, I think that I am going to try to make a version on this.

I have been lucky. And I will be in Lithuania in a few weeks too. The hugh advantage of living in the UK is how close it is to everywhere else.

edit: stupid egullet no do Greek letters.

Greek sense of humour I imagine. Or maybe a sailor that had not seen a women for a very long time..

What does "Zarganes" translate to if anything?

I don't think so. Lizardfish belong to the genus Synodus, the most common European water one is the Atlantic Lizardfish (Synodus saurus or "Poisson-Lézard de l'Atlantique" in French . Atlantic Lizardfish There a numerous Scorpionfish species in USA waters, these belong to the genus Scorpaen (mostly) and are pretty much ignored by the local population. One USA Scorpionfish

I went snorkeling while I was there. To attract fish I cracked open a few sea urchins and turned over rocks (to stir up te sediment). While turning over the rocks I found a few very pissed off looking Scorpion fish. Quite fun to see them out of a stew. These are possibly my favourite Mediterranean fish. A good fresh specimen is hard to beat. When I was in Sicily I had one baked with wine, tomato, apple and mint - excellent.

Also from Greece, locally caught rockfish: Star-Gazer Uranoscopus scaber (far back, pale brown) and Scorpian fish Scorpaena porcus (occasionally I saw some Scorpaena scrofa). These fish (especially the scorpian fish) are found in fish stews/soups all over the med. In France these are known as Rascasse and are the vital ingredient in bouillabaisse. These are slightly lesser fish, the colourful ones are male Rainbow wrasse Coris julis, but there are a few other odds and sods, including red mullet.

Garfish Belone vulgaris. These are from Greece, but they are quite common throughout the Mediterranean and even wind up in the UK once in a while. Related fish are found in Australasian and American waters. Not a hughly prized fish, which is a shame as their flesh is very white, sweet and tasty, not an oily fish at all. Potentially, this is due to the colour of their bones, a vivid green-blue when fresh which fades when they are cooked a little. A Spanish fish seller told me that they are great for young children, as the bones are east to spot.

re: Venison. It is quite dry, so it will need something to counter this. Maybe 1/3 ground pork belly I would think.

Moby - with this sauce it is really really important to have good fresh nuts. Normally, this means moving to Savoie, but at the moment Sainsburys have these "Taste the difference" Chillian walnuts that are really good, nice and buttery without being bitter. Blanch nuts and peel of skins (or not), grind finely with a touch of marjoram. Add prescinseua (Ligurian soured curds) or equivalent too loosen the mixture. Adjust with salt and pepper. Colman Andrews' recipe uses 1/4 toasted pinenuts which is a nice.

A very large percentage of Turbot in the UK are farmed and it is done in other countries too. Everything you wanted to know about Turbot farming, but were too afraid to ask.

Yep.

There is a texture differrence tp be sure. In some quark tends to break down more during cooking the ricotta, so it all depends on the effect you want.

"Quark" is German for "Curd", but in this instance it refers to the fresh cheese that is sold under that name. It is very smooth (like cream cheese), but has a sort of lemony sourness which is nice. Sort of like a cross between yogurt and fromage frais or almost like texture and flavour of drained yogurt "cheese".

Yes we get lots of Turbot here in Scotland (mostly farmed, which I don't buy). If you can get a large, wild caught fish it is excellent eating (I believe I am not the first one to work this out..,).

Mark - are they fennel stalks with the turbot? More Greek fish. From a recent trip to Hydra, some very large baked grouper (will work out species later), these fish had meat of the same texture and a similar flavor to milk fed veal. Still feel bad about eating these large fish though.

Last night I made Ligurian Pansotti "Stuffed bellies". These are a large ravioli type, with a large filling to pasta ratio (hence the name). The traditional filling is lots of local greens (including beet greens, borage, chicory) and a special type of sour curd used in much of the local cooking (or was). These are not delicate tid-bits, they are great big butch man pasta. In Edinburgh, we lack exotic greens, so I use a mixture of swiss chard, spinach, rocket and fenugreek. The latter is not traditional, but adds a nice flavour. When this lot is blanched and drained, it makes a small handfull of greens. Enough for two. Lacking special Ligurian soured curds I used a mixture of quark and ricotta, this gives the right sort of sourness, but is obviously not traditional. Large blobs are layed out and then covered into another sheet of pasta. The Screwpull gives you an idea of there size. The cooked pasta a tradionally served with a creamy walnut sauce, the richness of the sauce is cut by the bitter greens. It is a great combination.

Yep proper factual wrongness, but I will have to read the book to remember specifics. It doesn't detract from the pleasure of reading the book in any case.

You can also use epson salts (Magnesium Sulfate) or calcium chloride, the former works well for dairy and soy milk curds. It is very quick too.

The Food of Italy. After twice recommending it here based on its reputation, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and order it myself. I've been a giddy little kid waiting for it this past week and it finally arrived last night. Sat down and read the Umbria and Le Marche chapters right off. This is a whopper of a book: 700 pages, no pics, no recpies (I think), all text. Got flashbacks from college just hefting it out of the box. A little dated: he refers to ricotta as "cottage cheese" but still, how have I missed this book for so long? Endlessly informative. ← Kevin - I have his 'The Food of France' not this book. While I really enjoy reading this book and is is full of lots of good information, there are a fair few errors as well. Have you found this in the Italian book? On topic: "The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna" by Lynne Rossetto Kasper is a great regional Italian cookbook. If it wasn't for the annoying American measurements ( ), I would say it was perfect.