liuzhou

8:30 pm Christmas Eve, this arrives at my door clearly addressed to me. Now I'm trying to work out who sent it!

The market people will send it for you here, but they give you funny looks. Few people want fish already deadified, Freshness is paramount.

One of the few things I haven't done to my fingers.

Pork, flower shiitake, Zhangshugang Chilli (樟树港辣椒 - zhāng shù gǎng là jiāo), red chilli, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, Chinese chives, coriander leaf.

I was just about to ask what that is, but found it's what I know as cavolo nero and which I have used many times in minestrone soups. Good choice. I'll try that.

.,,, and another. This one is fun. For tough jobs. One edge of the blade is serrated and tears through most things! Takes no prisoners!

The centrepiece of my Christmas dinner is here. Got it a day early to give me time to send it to fishy heaven, scale and de-gut it in advance. Still have to decide how to cook it. Steam or Roast? I'll think about that later; the basic prep is the same.

I have both. I don't see them as competing. For me, they have different uses. The Y shape is good for large, smooth skinned vegetables such as daikon radish or large spuds; the stick version better for smaller knobbly-surfaced veg such as ginger and some potatoes.

Unless you forget to set the timer.

1) The Guardian exposé on Champagne grape malpractice. 2) The Great Guinness shortage.

All drinks are flavoured water.

Chinese cooking often involves marinating, either for half an hour or overnight. Where I live is very green and in summer we get a lot of insects (few flies, though I don't know what species they are) which like to investigate. Many marinades go in the fridge and don't get visited there, but some sit on the counter. View from my window Also, in the fridge, aromas can transfer to other items which I don't want them to. I found a solution! These are shower caps. But not in my shower. They live in the kitchen and nicely cover bowls containing stuff I don't want the nasties to intrude upon. The elastic collar fits tightly around my bowls, preventing ingress. The plastic doesn't touch the contents but I don't know if it would hurt if it did.

I worked that out! 🍾🍷

The restaurant used white (green) grapes but I suppose any type would work. I have green grapes in the freezer now in readiness for making it later in the week.

A mixture of malted barley, yeast and hops works well for me. 🍻

牙签牛肉 (yá qiān niú ròu), Toothpick Beef. 24 hour marinated beef slices in soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wing with garlic, cumin and chilli flakes, then threaded onto toothpicks. Quick fried and finished with white sesame seeds. Usually eaten as a snack or as a 'tapa' in bars, they are available cooked from some supermarkets but I make my own to get control of the chilli level and the cook on the meat. I find the supermarket ones under-spiced and over-cooked. I go for a medium rare, which only takes seconds. Threading the toothpicks takes makes longer.

Ha! I learned it from an uncle almost 70 years ago. He was Irish! Where he got it, I don't know.

Boiled sausages Are the worst. In your stomach They do burst. Fried sausages Are the best. In your stomach They do rest. Everybody knows dat!

Thanks for this. It triggered many memories and good to see familiar sights after far too long.

It's a desert I encountered in the 1980s in a French restaurant in London very near my home. Simple frozen, peeled grapes in a one part Pernod to four parts water pond. I was always glad my house was just round the corner. Now I can only have it at home, which is probably for the good!

Some last minute supplies for Wednesday. There is a local brand of digestive biscuits, but seriously only McVitie's make the grade. Great with cheddar. (Don't grate with cheddar!) and For with my manchego. These are BIG. Here they are with a regular black olive for scale Then this To be used as a desert with frozen grapes. All I need to do now is decide what to eat. Probably fish, but what type? Decisions! Decisions! Possibly not with this gravy! The back story. The lyrics.

I'm confused by this and @donk79's comment. On the link I posted, at least for me, there is a download button which should show you the complete 30-page PDF of the paper. If you can't download it and are still interested. please let me know. I can post it here or send by PM.

Yes. My grandmother in France had something very similar, too. The article has an American viewpoint but they were all over Europe, too.

What do you mean? Why do you want a university account?

Those who know me know that I have more than a soft spot for the food of Hunan, where I lived from 1997-1999. I have a hard spot! It has been reported that the average Hunan person consumes around 50 kilograms of chilli peppers a year. That’s an average of around 140 grams a day, every day. Before I lived there, I would have thought that highly unlikely and started looking for the flaw in the mathematics. I soon learned that, if anything, it’s an underestimation. Hunan grows many different types of chilli but one is considered the Rolls Royce of chillies. Or as the Chinese put it, 辣椒中的爱马仕 (là jiāo zhòng dì ài mǎ shì), the “Hermès of Chillies”. Note this is not a direct reference to the Greek god or to Percy Weasley’s owl in the Harry Potter franchise. It is to the French luxury goods company and reflects the high price these varietals fetch – up to 600 times the price of regular chillies. It is considered to be highly fragrant (I agree) but it has a low yield with only 14,200 tons being grown in 2023. Its ‘real’ name is 樟树港辣椒 (zhāng shù gǎng là jiāo) meaning Zhangshugang Chilli, Zhangshugang being a town in Hunan and which holds the sole right to grow the type. It is said the unique weather and soil conditions make the peppers crispy, tender and strong. The name has been trademarked and has been approved by the Hunan Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs as an agro-product with geographical indication. Not only that; they may be the only chillies to have travelled to space! I don’t know. However, two years ago, 163 grams of Zhangshugang chilli seeds were carried into space by the Shenzhou XIV spaceship to see whether that improved their germination, flavour, spiciness or anything else. Early analysis is reported to be positive. So, at great personal expense, travail, inconvenience and hardship, I bring you these wonders of the capsicum family which I purchased today. They are at their best in late spring and early summer, so a bit cheaper in December. Zhangshugang Chillies Having bought them purely for educational purposes, I will now discard them and certainly not be using them in my dinner tonight. Perish the thought.