Adam Balic

I needed more fish for tonight, this time I went to Eddie's which is closer to work. Today there were a lot of local fish, like this Cod, and also whelks, halibut, turbot, wolfish, lemon sole and dover sole. Also avalaible were these metre long wild Atlantic salmon. These are fantastic fish, nothing like the farmed flabby crap that is normally seen. But I went for airmail guilt and bought these North African snapper. A baked stuffed cod just doens't present well.

Yes, there is a specific process, but I will have to get that book out later. Melbourne is one of the most food centric places I have ever been in. And I was naive enough to think that it was "normal". ← OK, the distinctive thing about the Ayrshire cure (apart from the rolled cutlet/back and streaky) is that the side of pork is skinned and boned before curing. This means it isn't heat treated to scrape the bristles off like other cures, and this is thought to give a firmer texture and better colour. This cure can be smoked, unsmoked or spiced (rarely), but if it doesn't have the skin removed before curing it isn't an Ayrshire cure, no matter what the claim is.

One forgets spouse dislike of monkfish when spouse claims on Spanish holiday that "I like this Rape fish". "Rape" = sherry and sunshine, "Monkfish" = funny texture and full of parasites (to be fair I only had to remove two worms tonight).

Well here is dinner. I forgot that my wife hates monkfish, so plently of leftovers.

Sure. It is one of the good things about living in Scotland if you like cooking. Big shooting parties often give away the woodcock and keep the pheasants ( ), so in an odd sort of reverso-world way, in season pheasant is cheaper then crappy industrial chicken and woodcock is cheaper then pheasant. I really must cook more game, apart from a 'pheasant satay' phase, I still mentally have this image as "special occasion only". Except that my wife would leave me I am tempted to do a "How I only ate game for a year and made friends" blog.

All of these I think. There is a processing and hanging service at this butcher, so in season the place is full of braces of pheasant/partridge hanging from hooks on the wall.

Adam- beautiful pictures!! what is the square of green in this? Is it sea beans?? ← that is one awsome picture and I believe these are a sea weed called Salicornia. I could be wrong though... Elie ← Thanks. Yep Sea beans/salicornia/samphire are the same thing. Very nice it is and considered a bit posh in the UK at the present time.

Thank you I will tell the camera, which deserves the credit. I think that these are what are called sea beans in the USA. It is called samphire in the UK. It like it. I was once served with roast mutton in the UK. Will have to do that one day.

I have used it to get salt beef and gammon cuts. This is from a boiled meat dinner I did a while ago. The two chunks at the back are brined at the butcher Dinner later. Reasons for kitchen. Complete destruction of kitchen by plumber and lack of free funds. Smeg was an silly choice at the time, but I am glad we did it.

For tonights dinner I promised my wife a green curry. So I rushed down to Hing Sing the "Chinese" grocer. While this is the smaller of the two in shops in this area, it has the better range of greens n.b. Notice the chap dressed for an Edinburgh summer. Greens. This is one of the mysteries of Edinburgh. Excellent ethnic produce, but I have no idea who uses it. There is one Thai store that flys in fresh, obscure, produce from Thailand every week, yet I don't see it at the Thai restuarants, nor do I see a large SE-Asian presence on the street. Still, I can't complain as I get to take advantage of it all. This is tonights ingredients. Not show is the sh.rimp paste, spice and galangal. The blurry orange blob is fresh tumeric, which is fantastic. Nothing like the dried powder, it as a wonderful flora aroma and it freezes. Very useful in a green curry as it brightens the green colours and adds aroma. If you can get it, do.

Now the bounty from the butcher. A shoulder of lamb (including sweetbread for me) and two 6 point racks. I rushed the butcher, so I actually got a forequater this means I have more prep work then normal. Will have to debone the shoulder, but I also get the neck to use. So I win really.

And so to lunch. Which was this sammosa, which was very nice. No real comments as I was running about like a blue-arsed fly at the time. I also ate one Bailey's chocolate thing. But there comes a time in the day when a gentleman desires a short one. I have recently discovered that love rum. I know very little about it, but have been working my way through what is availble locally. This is 4 year old Barbancourt Rhum from Haiti, with lime and apple mint. It certainly does the job, but I think I prefer the Mt Gay, although it is cheaper. Must do more research.

Yes, there is a specific process, but I will have to get that book out later. Melbourne is one of the most food centric places I have ever been in. And I was naive enough to think that it was "normal".

A friend recently visiting Edinborough had a really nice dish at a restaurant featuring "red deer". From what I understand this is a species very similar to N.American elk. ← Yes, they are now considered the same species (Cervus elaphus), although there is still some discussion on this. In Europe an "Elk" (or "Els") is what would be called a Moose in North America.

Eh, how does one put this without looking like a plonker? My banana and coffe are carefully composed on "THE MANUSCRIPT OF MONTE CASINO" by Eduardo Paolozzi, which is a sculpture at the top of Leith walk in Edinburgh.

Depends on the game and what you mean by farmed. The "wild" boar is conventionally farmed (in the open), pheasants and partridge are raised as chicks by game keepers then released in to the wild (but there are a lot of wild breeding birds as well, especially the Grey Partridge), the red grouse, ptarmigan, snipe, woodcock and ducks are wild birds, although in the case of grouse their habitat is managed to some extent. The Roe deer in this butcher is wild, but there is farmed deer in Scotland as well.

That would depend entirely on what you are into. But in general I see the position of bacon in a meal as more of a 'fluffer' role.

Tah Jack. Haggis is checked off the list. Already have posted image of haggis hanging in the shop window and 'slicing haggis' in the bacon shot. If England win this match I might just drink enough to have a deep fried haggis supper. If they really really thrash us, I might even go as far as the deadly 'deep fried white pudding' supper. I refuse the 'King Rib' supper under any circumstances. I leave dangerous food items like that to Bourdain.

Yes, exactly that. They freeze hundreds of birds (as far as I understand). With it being this close to the new season, I most likely will not cook any game on the blog. But you never know. I should say at this point that there will be a break in transmission on this blog for most of the weekend, as I am flying down to watch The Ashes in Birmingham. If you are darn lucky I might take some photographs of Birmingham.

This is a real problem in Edinburgh. After the first few weeks in Edinburgh, one of the greatest culture shocks was getting use to the idea that this city is not devoted to food in the same way that Melbourne is. Direct comparisons are not fair, but I was use to having easy access to acres of food markets (in fact the supermarket was just somewhere to buy shampoo and toilet rolls). Things are have got much better in Edinburgh there is excellent produce available, but getting it has to be planned very well and sometimes the two shops you want are on other sides of the town. My only advise is if you can spare the time, then take advantage of the fact that the buchers and fishmongers open pretty early. I was in the butcher at 8:15, enough time to get the meat and get to work on time. But this is not always possible.

As I said the kitchen is narrow, so I have spill over of cooking books and pots etc into the lounge room. My wife is very good about this. I pretty much life all types of cooking, but most of all I like information. A well written cookbook is a good way of gaining an insight into a particular culture. I have also found that the more I these I read the more that the whole mishmash makes sense. Regions of the world I have thought as of quite seperate entities, sometimes have interesting links via food.

Right as I am going to be mostly posting about what I am cooking, I though I should set the scene a little. This is my kitchen. We live in a Victorian (~c.1886) tenement flat. Some where on egullet therre is a thread devoted to the Hell of renovating the place. That was three years ago now and in general I am very happy with our kitchen. One thing though, it is a long an narrow kitchen, so not as much room as I would like. For anybody thinking of renovating their kitchen, a tip: There is never enough storage.

They are very good, although the boss can be cheeky.

I actually found some roasted green wheat from Saudi Arabia, couldn't work out if it was the same.

Is it the opening of grouse shooting season? I seem to recall that some shooting seasons start over there about now. ← Correct! It is know as "The Glorious 12th" and marks the opening of the game season, or specifically Grouse season. So the feathered game at the butcher is last years stocks at the moment. Nothing wrong with that, but I prefer to wait for the new season stuff. Grouse 12th Aug to 10th Dec Pheasant 1st Sept to 31st Jan Woodcock 1st Sept to 31st Jan Partridges 1st Sept to 31st Jan Snipe 12th Aug to 10th Dec Ducks 1st Sept to 31st Jan