Peter the eater

This one didn't go so well. Yes, there's big flavor and unctuous potential . . . I used the fish knife to excise the the meat and bone from under the pork skin. I braised the meat and cooked some splitpeas, then re-stuffed the above ankle volcano. The pork rind remained quite crappy.

Chris, your shanks look divine. Veal is very hard to come by in my area, maybe the odd cutlet, there's just no market. Oxtail or lamb shanks are popular enough for the grocery stores to carry, but for bona fide ossobuco one needs to know the butcher.

In my neighborhood, eggs are between $4.50 and $5.75 a dozen Add another $1 for organic. ← What? No way -- downtown Vancouver?

Richard, a friend with ducks is a friend indeed. What species and how big?

We grow leeks -- they do well in a cool marine climate. The green part has good flavor but it's pretty tough to chew. If it's cock-a-leekie soup, the greens go into the stock but are later removed. I suppose you could make a wrap if the leaf isn't too narrow. Corn husks are good for that kind of thing.

I'm a bit baking-impaired but I wouldn't let that stop me. It's oat cake weather outside . . .

. . . starring Gabe Capelin.

Nobody has mentioned eggs. Twelve for $2.50. What could possibly be more versatile and affordable than a chicken's egg?

Marmite paste is soluble and flavorful, and it delivers the glutamate. Dashi pellets are also a powerful ingredient.

The cured salmon was consumed last night as an appetizer. I rinsed the pieces in cold water, chopped them into small bits, and served on toothpicks in a shot glass with maple syrup.

paulraphael's explanation above makes sense to me. Food processors are easy to use and can handle big amounts of herbs, but I'd rather make pesto with a M&P for the same reason burr grinders are better for coffee beans than blade grinders: consistent particle size. It appears I don't have a real mezzaluna. I can get my curvy native knives almost as sharpe as my fancy chef's knife and therefore do a comparable job on herbs. For a delicate chiffonade I like the straight French knife, but something like rosemary for the roast lamb gets a flurry of rocking action.

Is it possible to buy hogget or mutton in the U.S.? I've never seen it, but I'm thinking that there must be some markets that cater to ethnic populations that would carry it. Given the general dislike of lamb that tastes like lamb, hogget or mutton would be a stretch for most people here. Still, I'd think that someone somewhere must be selling it... ← I'm in Atlantic Canada where the lamb market is extremely underdeveloped. Fortunately, there are some progressive purveyors and restaurateurs, and some enlightened ethnic groups that (thankfully) create some demand. Lamb legs, racks and chops can be found at the grocery store, but mutton and hogget can only be had from the farms out of town. In my experience, lean mutton is one of the greatest red meat deals around. Farmers can hardly give it away, but if you trim the white stuff and treat it with some care -- very hard to beat.

Steven, this is one of the most interesting and bizarre accounts I've read in quite some time. I think the world of Martin Yan, we Canadians see him as a gracious and gifted ambassador. I met him superficially in Toronto when he was guest on an episode of Christine Cushing Live and thanked him for his decades of inspiration. A few comments: I'll assume these statements are equally truthful. He's not aged well at all since the Six Million Dollar Man days. I'm not so sure.

I took my three bucks to the fish markets, but I was underwhelmed. The mood was dour since lobster prices have gone back to normal. For $3 you can get a 1.5 lb whole haddock (smaller than the one in my current avatar) or a half dozen red hakes or a ton of smelt. I passed and went to the grocery store for salmon trimmings. These are the odd-shaped bits that come about when the whole fish is converted to filets. Half the salmon trimmings went into a dry cure with salt, brown sugar, maple and a bit of KNO3. The rest was cooked untreated in a non-stick skillet, served with basmati and broccoli, and seasoned with salt, pepper and toasted pistachio:

Am I wrong to ignore those big old eggplants? I regard them like I do zucchinis -- if the girth is bigger than a hockey puck then it's going to be all seeds, voids and bland bitterness. I like the little globes or the slender "Chinese" varieties because they never let me down -- no scoring and salting required. And that cool purple skin is never to far away.

That's the theory behind "breaking the bones" the old country way, as I understand it. The lore says there's an audible "crack" when the ice goes in, of course I also hear a crack when the cubes enter my gin & tonic. Personally, I can only reflect on veal stock for so long. Hot water + bones = good.

This is my kinda topic, thanks for the initiative Nakji. Hmmm . . . I bought a sack of 8 brilliant red bell peppers for 75 cents on Saturday. One went raw into a spinach salad, two were stuffed with goat cheese and the rest were roasted black, cooled in a paper bag outside (didn't take long) then peeled and pureed. This stuff is red gold -- we're into the sour cream dips and pasta sauces now. On Wednesdays, I pass by the best fish markets around. Tomorrow, I'm taking a loonie and a twoonie and we'll see how far I get.

Chappie, any whelk photos to share? I haven't seen one prepped for human consumption since I was a kid visiting Gaspe, PQ in the 1970's. Since you've started this topic, I've learned that they're quite popular in Prince Edward Island and parts of Cape Breton. In fact, I'm discovering an underground whelk fanaticism at the grassroots level. Pickled whelks from Maine for 50 cents? I nominate johnnyd for a field report. Do your whole cooked whelks look at all like these winkles?: Typically, you steam them and pick the whole mollusk out with a pin while discarding the protective disk (operculum, or trap door). Eat like escargot -- the curly tip is the testis.

Wouldn't plunging frozen bones into hot water have an effect similar to adding ice to a simmering veal stock "to break the bones" the old country way?

I've no personal experience with whelks but I can tell you that they've been caught in pots along the St. Lawrence River for centuries, probably millennia. I've heard they're a lot like periwinkles, which I enjoy from time to time. Here's a whelk recipe from Quebec. The author says: The Whelk's foot is creamy-white, dotted with black specks and many consider it to be a meal of choice.

I've got two curvy knives, both from Northern Canada. The smaller one is a "Komatik" from Nunavut and it looks just like an Alaskan ulu -- a quarter circle of metal with a wood knob that fits the palm. The bigger one is a 10" curved blade with an antler handle connecting the two ends, so you can hold it with a horizontal fist or with a hand on each end. I don't know what its correct name is, but I know it's Dene from Yellowknife.

Samuel, yes he does -- and he's proud to be a minority. My crescent knife is large, as in two hands are required. It's a Dene tool from Sombe K'e, the Dogrib word for Yellowknife - the main city of the Northwest Territories. When it comes to slicing a crispy flat bread . . . it's the cat's ass.

I've got an ulu and I love it -- same thing, crescent knife. It's different enough from the others that it gets used every week. You don't need a dimpled cutting board. Cut pizza, chop herbs, scrape pelt, whatever. It's an important tool in the kitchen.