Teal

Finding an interesting meal often depends on an instant decision: you see something on a stall, or growing somewhere, and you have almost no time at all to decide whether to embrace the opportunity or to say no and walk away. In this case, Andrew saw some teal for sale at a Christmas (!) fair, and bought them for £4.50. They are wildfowl, seasonal, small (about six inches long). They were cleaned and packed, ready to go, and he said 'Yes!

They don't take long to cook - in fact, better eaten in an undercooked state, but that may not please beginners. We roasted them in butter, with some sliced shallots, and served them for lunch, one each, with a very creamy mash made of home-grown potatoes and parsnip. The only way to eat this kind of bird is using your fingers... messy, primal, delicious, stone age, memorable, local, and quite cheap.

Oysters

I had become so used to affordable 'rock' oysters that I was astonished to find real wild native oysters on sale at our local fisherman's shop. These were £1 each. Huge. Delicious too.

One had mud in it, so we discarded it.

But this is luxury, fresh, local, stone age, something to tell your grandchildren about if you can get it.

While we're about it, I must mention that we are still picking figs from the garden (24 November!). They are a bit small and a bit dry, but still very edible and sweet. The birds are going for the ones at the top of the tree every morning.

Lunch and shopping for food in Calais

Of course there are hundreds of reasons to explain it but it's still experientally baffling that things can be so different just across the Channel in France where we went for lunch yesterday. For instance, at the Early Arrivals depot near Hythe there is a depressing row of burger-bars and no-one there, and in the Folkestone terminal we wasted money and hope on disgusting, burnt, expensive 'coffee' out of plastic 'cups'.
But once through the tunnel we were in a different universe. Looking back at England, the light clear and bright. Dover's cliffs were sparkling at us, as if we could reach out a hand to link up. So near, so far.
We had lunch - the three course menu for €28 - at Au Cote d'Argent, right by the sea. Service was impeccable. The table immaculate. I ordered fruits de mer and this was the equipment they brought me. Serious stuff and I used all of it.

It was a very pretty starter too...

I went on to have a roasted saddle of cod, which was cooked in salt and came with a marvellous delicate hollandaise sauce.

I had cheese rather than pudding though they had a choice of about ten freshly made local and pretty dishes. My companions had chosen Preserved Duck, and Waterzoi of Salmon and Cod, all with lovely sauces. All perfectly cooked. Incidentally, we had two little 'bon bouches' courses added to our meal, bringing a sense of luxury and occasion. Around us we could hear English people on every side, including families, business groups, young and old. Fantastic value and the Menetou wine was worth every cent of the extra €34...
We went to do some ffoodie shopping at Carrefour in Cité Europe - it's got even bigger and was practically empty.

We came home with a fresh crab, lots of organic farm butter, cheeses, a preserved duck breast sous vide (vacuum packed to last for several weeks), a string of fat garlic, a net of shallots, a bag of huge red peppers to roast, and some tinned lentils with sausage for an instant meal in the store-cupboard.

Shaggy Ink Cap Mushrooms

These delicious mushrooms grow on waste ground, road verges etc.
We were lucky enough to find two batches a week or so ago. We checked VERY carefully in the mushroom books to see they were safe... In fact they are described as 'delicate and delicious'.

As you can see, these are pretty distinctive, starting off rather egg-like and pushing up to this pointy dome with a slightly flakey, soft appearance. Once these mushrooms get too old, which happens quite fast, they disintegrate into a blackish inky mess, quite uncookable. But if you get them in the morning, while they are still firm and fresh, they make a wonderful dish.

In this case we chopped them up, melted butter in a shallow pan, flavoured it with some finely chopped garlic cloves from the allotment, and some black pepper, then fried the ink-caps till they were soft. They were absolutely delicious. And free.

Roman Army Bread made with Rye Flour

We're going off wheat bigtime. Spelt is a useful alternative, being an ancient and unmodified form of the same grain, with much lower gluten. You can get white or wholemeal versions. I've been using the so-called Roman Army bread recipe with spelt for years, but I started mixing half-and-half spelt and rye flours, which produced a tasty, slightly solid loaf.
This time I did it using all rye flour. This has no gluten, so you are relying on the yeast to do all the work, but it still just about doubles in size, and is very quick and easy.

1 lb rye or spelt flour
1 packet dried yeast
1 large teaspoon honey
14 fluid oz warm water
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons nice oil
1 tablespoon dried caraway seeds, optional.
Melt the honey in the warm water and add the yeast.
When it's frothing (after a few moments), add to the flour and stir in all the other ingredients. Mix thoroughly for a few moments. It's a very sticky mix.
Butter the inside of a large bread tin, make sure you have greased all the surfaces very well.
Put the mix into the tin, then put it into a warm place to rise. I usually put it inside a plastic bag, puffed up well away from the surface of the dough, pegged to keep it nice and draught-free.
When it's up to about the top of the tin, put it in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 10 mins, then turn down to 180 for a further 25-30 mins.
It should come out of the baking tin very easily. Dry on a rack, and cut when cold.
This bread is nutty to taste, dense in texture and can be cut in very thin slices. It keeps well, can be toasted (often needs a bit longer than usual in the toaster). You can taste the honey, almost all the ingredients are local or produced with integrity and passion.
I will get a sourdough starter going, and try this again without the pump-up effects of that industrial yeast. Incidentally, I am amazed that no-one produces a dried yeast based on sour-dough. If you know of one, please let me know the details.
PS My h brought home a sourdough rye loaf from the deli in Rye, baked by the fantastic Judges Bakery in Hastings. Here's a comparison.... I love their bread. You can see in this picture how their loaf (on the left)

has taken longer to rise and the texture is more evenly aerated and lighter. This is definitely inspiring me to work with sourdough rather than yeast.

Local smelt

It seems the seas have cooled down at last, so winter fish are in. We usually buy ours from Blue at Oare. Smelt are delicate little fish, once used just for garnishing grander species on the plate, or indeed just as bait. But they are so delicious, so pretty, and so fragrant when fresh it's a shame not to snap them up.

They have a slightly greenish tinge, and quite remarkably smell of cucumbers. A common way of cooking them is to dip in milk, dredge in flour and then gently fry them.

You can go on to marinade them in the oil with added fried carrot, garlic and celery, with a light vinegar - that is called an escabeche.
You may want to clean their tummies out before you cook them, but it can be done on the plate and it is a bit fiddly but worth it. The flesh is sweet and with an elusive flavour.