sheepish

Although I thought we invented BSE hysteria over here :-) Still can't get cow heads, and spine (although no loss on the spine), but everything else is fair game as far as I know. A good long soak in wark water did reveal a flexi skin that looks very caul like, but attached to flair like fat. But I've also been rushing round turning 3 pigs into bacon, chorizo and cotechino this week so the caul plans have stalled. 2/3rds has gone into the freezer and I'll try getting some of the caul like stuff I've refridgerated cut off and used next week, I think a warmer soak may be necessary.

I've been given a hunk of caul fat. From a cow. Everything I read mentions pig's and sheep's caul. This looks a bit like particularly heavy flair fat (from a pig). I've soaked it in warm water and it does look a bit more caul like, but there's still a lot of heavy fat stuck to it. Not really the lacy sheets of loveliness I've seen pictures of. Is there a trick to getting it into thin sheets? Or is cow caul no good?

I made duck heart tartare a couple of weeks ago and it was very good, although very rich. I couldn't eat as much as I could of steak tartare. Just finely chopped with shallots, cornichon, capers, etc. Nice little dish to surprise people.

Went for the first time today for lunch. Amazing value. Real shame the place was more than half empty. Got the kids with a grandparent for a few days. Went to Jamie's in Cardiff last night because, well I'd never been before and Cardiff isn't awash with good places to eat. It was heaving. Meal cost about the same there, and while it was perfectly "nice" it wasn't LCS class. Cod cheeks. Pigeon with Indian spices. And a liquorice parfait. I'm not a desserts man, but that was fabulous. It's getting on for 2 hours drive away but I will be maneuvering for another visit asap.

Not sure if this background is relevant, but I'll throw it out there. I was vegan between the age of 19 and 33. I now farm sheep and pigs. I can slaughter an animal although I'm not thrilled about it. I take great pride and satisfaction is butchery. Foie gras, I like, but it's 40 quid a liver in the UK, and outside London very, very hard to find. As opposed to just very hard in London. To me it's an easy target. I don't know many people who have eaten it. The majority of people won't miss it. There's enough apathy for an argument to be won. If we really cared about animal welfare we'd stop raising pigs in intensive units. I keep a few pigs, they are the lovliest, friendliest, intelligent creatures. To think about them stood on a slatted floor in a crate really does turn my stomach. We'd also stop rearing chickens in cages. I never eat pork or chicken I'm not certain of the provenance of. Battery eggs stop in the EU in the next couple of years. I don't think there is legislation yet to suggest battery hens for meat are to go. Too many people eat cheap chicken. Much harder to win hearts and minds on that one. The what will they ban next argument was used in the UK when fox hunting with packs of dogs was legislated against. I was told by several neighbours, they'll ban fishing next. Or at least game shooting. Well, no one has. In fact hunting with dogs turns out to be tricky to legislate against and goes on still anyway. We just pretend it doesn't.

I like to know I can butcher a pig or lamb, and can fillet a fish. I just don't always want to. I always used to take my fish straight from the slab. I now nearly always let the fishmonger at least gut and scale. Better to clog up their sink and stink out their bins than mine. I usually have to take a few scales off at home, they do a quick job. Because this year I have 3 pigs getting fat, and would never leave one on it's own, I'll have 3 carcasses back from the abattoir. I can break them down from a whole carcass, but a pig fattened for bacon and salami is a hefty unit, and my cold room is a chest freezer turned on in bursts, so getting back the primals makes life easier. And having the butcher bone the loin is a neater job than I can do. I've practiced a bit, but there's only so much loin I want left stuck to the ribs. But after that I like to get my own saw, cleaver and knives out. I can change my mind about exactly what I'm going to make rather than having to plan it in advance without seeing exactly what back fat and marbling I have.

For chicken of the woods, I cut into chunks, poach in stock, dust with seasoned flour and deep fry. Sadly not found any for the past 2 autumns.

Staying in Reading next week for 3 nights on business. My employer is tight and my manager will break out in a cold sweat if I turn up with a receipt for more than 15 quid for a meal. So where to go? Good curry would go down well with my colleague. Should have a car, don't mind popping into the 'burbs. Ta

My standards for when I butcher a lamb. Devilled kidneys. One of my very favourite things to eat. Liver, as above is very good with bacon and onions. I also like it flash fried, still slightly pink, slosh in a glass of port afterwards and reduce hard for a sauce. Heart is good stuffed. My favourite and easiest option is in a paprikash with lots of onion, tomato and paprika. Served with boiled potatoes and soured cream. If you're getting the stomach it would be a shame not to make haggis. I've made the filling and stuffed into ox-bung. Never had a go with stomach. Be interested to see pics of someone doing it. An offal kebab, liver, kidney, heart and lung is good. You getting the brain? Brains on toast with maybe salsa verde. Very nice. Sweetbreads? Thymus and Pancreas. Lovely dusted in seasoned flour. Fried in butter. On toast. Nose to Tail Eating - Fergus Henderson The Fifth Quarter - Anissa Helou Both full of ideas for lamb offal.

Salmon with orange. http://carolcookskeller.blogspot.com/2008/05/citrus-marinated-salmon-with-confit-of.html Cerviche?

Everytime I get a sheep or pig back from the abattoir I get the lungs. The bulk of these get thrown behind the house. The dogs eat a bit. Other stuff eats them. They don't last long. Thus far I have enjoyed a few cubes of lung with kidney and heart in a barbequed kebab. I've also made haggis a few times. Other than that nothing much has inspired me. Except I noticed recently "Husband and Wife Lung Slices" on the menu at RednHot in Manchester - sadly online, I haven't been. Anyone got an idea how to prepare this? Or any other recommended lung preperations? I have recipes in "Silver Spoon" and "The Fifth Quarter", but would be interested in recommendations based on experience. Ta

I'm fond of the musings of Brillat-Savarin. In particular, "Dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with one eye"

Yes, that good. I'd guess I have 100+ cookery books (I know not a big library compared to a lot of contributors here), and her Sichuan book is by far the most used I have. Never eaten in China but I would say that she specifies in detail in a few places where she isn't being 100% authentic. Stuff like not using quite some many kilos of chillies :-) or making a stew with just chicken livers rather than the blood and intestines too, although she goes on to describe how to prepare those items if you want them. Hunanese book is great too. I recommend them both to anyone I can bore with about how good they are.

Stage 10. Aurillac to Carmaux. Through the department of Aveyron where we're lucky to have a nearly habitable house, and some very, very hospitable neighbours. I think a lot of France is like this, but I really like everyone's sense of pride in anything Aveyronnaise. Based on several wonderful meals we've enjoyed prepared in neighbour's homes I'd suggest.. To start, it would have to be foie gras. Or failing that a pork pate. Some onion marmalade. And good bread. Main would have to include aligot. A sort of mashed potato and cheese dish which is probably as Aveyronnaise as you can get. It would be an accompaniment perhaps to veal, also a regional speciality. Then a green salad, dressed at the table. Followed by cheese. Would have to be Roquefort. The style seems to be to serve a big block of one very good cheese. At a push, two very good cheeses. Something soft, mild and goaty perhaps. Not a selection board as we might do in the UK. Desert a few weeks ago were sweet strawberries steeped in a light syrup with white cheese - I think it was a very fresh cheese made in the home. My French still isn't up to all the subtleties :-) Drinks. Always start with a sweet white Marcillac wine, or perhaps pastis. Local red, or perhaps something from the Rhone during the meal. If you're celebrating, Champagne to finish. Seems all the wrong way round to me, but when in Aveyron. Oh, and you'll want to eat with Laguiole cutlery, which you won't change between courses.

Steak. Just fantastic steak. Mixed grill. Bourdin noir. Chitterlings. Spent 3 weeks there, hard to think past these :-)

Had a nice lunch at The Clive on the outskirts of Ludlow last year. Just up the road from the Ludlow Food Centre which is well worth a look for local produce. Very nice butcher in there.

Lecithin works. I have a pot of Soy Lecithin from a healthfood shop. Comes as granules. Just dissolve in the liquid. Don't need much. Half a tea spoon in a half a milk pan of whatever I want to froth seems to do the trick.

Watercress puree. Sauvignon Blanc. Beetroot.

Blackface.co.uk will send it. About the same price as I can find it local to me. It's not seasonal.

If you still have it remember to add the gizzard to your confit. And the heart too if you've not snaffled it, fried in a bit of butter, as a mini duck offal degustation with the liver mashed on fried bread and maybe a sage leaf or two.

I'll start by saying my exposure to Indian food doesn't go far past Madhur Jaffery. What I have read is that she often substitutes boned meat because that's what she thinks her audience will prefer, but my personal preference is to cook on the bone. I typically cook with loin or neck chops which I cut into 1-2" cubes with a cleaver. And I use my lamb which I typically don't have slaughtered until it's more than a year old for added flavour. I never use leg, I don't think it has the flavour. I save that for a much more British style roast lamb. I also tend to cook her recipes that involve relatively long cooking which are well worth trying. The preparation tends to be along the lines of cooking whole spices in hot oil before removing a ginding them. Browning meat in the same oil. Removing he meat. Browning garlic and ginger puree and then adding the ingredients back, often with yoghurt to form the base of the sauce. A very good example would be badami roghan josh from "The Essential Madhur Jaffrey". The other method that is surprisingly good given it runs contrary to everything I've ever learned about cooking meat is what I believe to be a more Pakistani style where the meat is boiled. There's a lovely recipe in "The Ultimate Curry Bible" for Aloo Gosht. This recipe first introduced me to boiled meat curries and is very good too : http://www.stonefisk.com/doc-arc/ricksteinlambcurry.html It's well worth buying whole spices and grinding them when needed, unless you use a lot of ground spices and know they were fairly fresh when you buy them, they don't seem to match the flavour of freshly ground. I use an old hand operated coffee grinder to grind spices.

Thanks. That looks well worth a look. Unusally for Amazon the reviewers haven't given it one star on the basis the recipes can't be made when you get in from the pub and before you fall asleep.

I'm getting rather taken with growing my own veg. Upped growing space this year. I eat out in maybe one 2 or 3 star place a year, and I'm always loathed to forgo my meat and fish to try the increasing number of vegetarian tasting menus. But I do like to try my hand at cooking that kind of thing. I have Essential Cuisine by Michel Bras. I've just ordered a second hand copy of Charlie Trotter's Vegetables book. Any other good sources of the kind of vegetable focused dish one might find in these kind of establishments? Thanks

Bought a couple of these last year at £5 each. They were fine in a curry or laksa. Not a lot of flavour, but the only lobster I'm going to buy. Not paying the £20+/kg from the fishmonger. For £3 they're an alternative to frozen prawns.

I've used dried rosebuds from thespicery.com in Ras al Hanout, and they definitely have sufficient scent to impart flavour.