Sea Trout for Dinner

Before industrialisation you couldn't walk through a puddle without standing on a salmon. Service staff had it written into contracts that they wouldn't get fed it more than twice a week. Pollution put an end to that when scarcity made it expensive. Then came salmon farming. In some of the country's most beautiful locations they mastered the intensive rearing of fatty fish whose flesh was only pink because of the dye in the food. The price plummeted and at one point the cheapest fish you could buy in Billingsgate Market was farmed salmon.

The wild fish is a different beast and a hell of a lot more expensive.

Wild Scottish salmon fillet was going for £34 a kilo in MacCallums yesterday. Luckily for me, wild Scottish sea trout fillet, which this is, was just £24 a kilo. I much prefer it's subtler flavour.

Impulse led me to pick up a few embellishments... samphire grass and squat lobsters.

Poached the squat lobsters in salty water, shelled them and used some of the cooking liquor in the samphire grass 'coulis'... how very retro.

The sea trout got pan fried, skin side down for a fair bit to get it nice and crispy. Oh and I scaled it first. The squat lobsters were warmed through in butter.

Went for a bottle of Gewurztraminer because I've become obsessed with trying to find unexpected things it goes with. I even put a few slices of ginger in the coulis to help marry food and wine. This Gewurz cost about £8 in Costco and was lovely.

But it didn't go with the dish. It was just too sweet and exotic, all loukoumi and lychee. Oh well, maybe I'll try powdered ginger next time.

Lobster Spaghetti

Costco is a vast Aladdin's Cave of things you don't really need but struggle to resist. 3 metre high TV sets, rolls of cellophane big enough to wrap Wales, BBQ sauce bottles so vast the label's got a life size picture of Ainsley Harriot's mug. Actually, even with the offer of a free tasting, everyone was managing to resist that. Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted something new. According to the lady manning the icy stall it was their 'seafood event'. Isn't it marvellous when retail managers come back from courses on how to enthuse shoppers? It only happens once a month, so I'd lucked out. Then she told me the lobsters had just been halved in price. Major result.

Lobsters have become more affordable in recent years. Thanks mainly to the greed of fishermen. Although Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall may disagree, hunting Canada's cod to extinction wasn't entirely bad. They fed on baby lobsters and crabs, so once gone, the sea starting hoaching with these much tastier crustacea.

The advantage of getting something luxurious cheap, is that I'm willing to experiment in a way I'd never do with say a fresh, live Scottish lobster. That just gets grilled with a little butter. With these, the shells got turned into Lobster Bisque, but that's for another time, for now, here's my Lobster Spaghetti recipe. It was rather good.

While the spaghetti's cooking, saute a garlic clove in a little olive oil. Add a couple of finely chopped tomatoes and cooked till they're a bit soft, then add some decent quality tomato puree. Fry for a few minutes then put in a good splash of wine and reduce by about a half. If you have any brandy in a tablespoon added with the wine would work wonders. Next in with some double cream, bubbled to reduce a little too, suppose it was about four tablespoons, then the lobster meat just to warm through. Finally added some fresh basil leaves and then mixed the whole lot through with the spaghetti. Parmesan's optional.

The reason I joined Costco was the wine. They stock some really good bottles often at a fraction of the price you'd pay elsewhere. So using the fine monetary logic that's served me so well over the years, I reasoned that having "saved" £13 on the lobsters I should trade up for a decent wine to accompany them. I went for this.

It was just shy of £17 a bottle and is without doubt the best return I've had on a wine in years. It was immense. Fabulous texture with a multi layered taste that included tropical fruits, smokey bacon and ginger. It's quite sweet and far too much for the lobster, probably for any food, it screams for your undivided attention. According to Costco, Robert Parker scored this wine 95 points. For once, I'm not surprised.

CLICK HERE to read more on the 2004 Clos Jebsal Pinot Gris.

Recreationism

So my plan was to recreate a Ligurian meal, or rather my interpretation of one, and drink wine I'd brought back, served alongside other nice wines to compare. Was it really as good as it seemed on holiday? Then, after a few cancellations, I realised four of us would never make it through all the wines, and since I was determined everyone try this one, my Vermentino lives to be blogged another day..

This isn't of course Ligurian, but it's the best white I've drunk this year. An absolute belter and it's worth joining Costco just to buy it- a perfect dry Riesling. One word of warning though, it absolutely reeks of petrol. The old fashioned stuff that me and my brother would wind down the window to inhale at garages. Mature riesling is supposed to smell of petrol. Mary didn't like it, but she loved the taste. For me it was like a complex lime sorbet with hints of mint and ginger. Perfectly balanced, it danced down my throat.

What makes this wine even more stunning is the price... £8.95 for the 2005. Incredible. We drank it with a herb tart.

Herbs are big in Liguria. This was spinach, sorrel and fennel. An adaptation of a recipe in 'Leaves from the Walnut Tree'. Ann and Franco's time capsule. Franco's actually from the Marche but by some way it's the best Italian cookbook I've got so it's a good source.... probably long out of print but worth tracking down.

Despite having a big coastline, fish is a relatively recent addition to Ligurain cuisine. One article suggests this dates back to when Genoa was the biggest port in the Med. Away at sea sailors ate dried food and fish. When they came home they craved to taste the land- rabbit, herbs, baking- they gave the world pesto. Rather weirdly, now thinking about it, I didn't make any.

Main course, again inspired by both Liguria and 'The Walnut Tree', was quail stuffed with sage and wrapped in bacon, served with lentils on roasted polenta... I even made a focaccia.. supposedly a Ligurian invention too. Sage has an incredible affinity with quail. Try sniffing a raw quail, you'll see what I mean.

With it drank one of the three Rosseses reds I brought back with me.

This is a really good wine. Like mixing Burgundy with Barolo and adding a hefty splash of Bandol. Now there's an idea!!! Wrong in so many 'wine' ways, but I'm going to try it soon.

Back to Rossese, Ka Mancine, Galeae, 2008. To me the bouquet is a mix of raspberry and sherbet. Like the moment you hit the middle of a sherbet centered sweet. The palate is full, floral and oh so moorish... that's not a typo. Think rose water, hookah and hooker. It's all in there. One big souk of a glass. Gorgeous. It was in some pretty good company too.

Ross and Mary's Chianti and the second wine of St.Emilion's Chateau Grand Mayne. Both top bottles. I thought the Rossese was best. Top marks.

Finished off the meal with a chestnut and chocolate pudding which should have been decorated with strawberries and cream... but by now I couldn't be bothered.

Chestnuts are big in Liguria and Marron Glacé was apprently invented here back in the 1790s... though I'm pretty sure the French will dispute that.

Now, for anyone reading this in Glasgow, who shares my craving for seafood after drinking slightly more than necessary on a Saturday night, some really good news.

Crab Shakk in Finnieston is now open on Sunday from 12-5. Nine oysters for £11.95 washed down with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Job done.

For Mary Harper paintings click here

For Ross Harper photography click here

And click here for a very interesting (honestly) article on Ligurian cuisine.

Crab Shakk,

1114 Argyle Street,

Finnieston

Glasgow

G3 8DT

0141 334 6127

Perth... the original one.

Our friends Alan and Issi invited us to Perth. Their son Hamish is just 4 moths old, so it's a much safer invite than it perhaps once was. We leapt at the chance. 

Perth sits on the River Tay, one of the world's most famous and expensive salmon rivers. In recent years, almost reluctantly, they seem to have acknowledged the association.

Though as we strolled along the rather barren river front the locals seemed more keen on swimming than fishing. Bracing!

Perth boasts the oldest hotel in Scotland. But it's not a proud boast. Perhaps, in the best presbyterian tradition, that would be sinful?

So, like a lot of the town's residents, it gently crumbles away. Another interesting feature of Perth is it's businesses' names.

From the 'a spades a spade' school of nomenclature, to what Alan says is the town's second best Mexican restaurant. I think you can guess how many there are.

Alas, my favourite was closed so my mind stayed boggled.

Surprisingly, in a town of such Georgian gentility, I've never found a decent wine shop. So I stocked up in Costco before coming. It's a great place to buy wine, though the selection is very 'Parkerized'. I also picked up squid and John Dory from the fishmonger, Alan had butterflied a leg of lamb. All going on the BBQ. Alan's a chef, in fact he was head chef at one of Glasgow's best restaurants for many years. So no pressure there then!

We kicked off with a German, from Costco, under £9, and utterly delicious. Spring flowers and ripe pears. Only 8% alcohol too.

Once the sun set it soon got cold so we went inside, popping out now and then to cook the food. 

It was a great night, lovely food and wine and the evening had a star.

A sweet Austrian eiswein  Alan had been saving for some years. 

It was absolutely incredible. A myriad of flavours. Including my favourite, glace fruits. Beguiling and perfectly balanced. 

The next day, also a stunner, we recovered slowly over breakfast. 

I made those responsible watch.

The wines were:

An Albarino, forgot to ask Alan how much, Lagar de Pintos. 

Very sophisticated with a flavour of peaches. Probably quite expensive.

Spy Mountain Pinot Noir 2006. 

Delicious, surely one of the best value New Zealand pinots of the market? Normally about £10.99.

Peter Lehman, The Mudflat Shiraz 2004. About £9 in Costco. Very nice, has some of the white grape muscadelle added to the blend. It lifts and lightens the shiraz.

Mitolo Jester Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. About £9 in Costco. Very rich, bit too much so for me. A proportion of the grapes are dried on racks as for Amarone.

And, of course, the Weinrieder Eiswein riesling. No idea how much, but it can't be cheap.

Funky wine

A few years ago I was watching an interview with a big French 'nose' from a big French perfume maker. It was all very interesting in an "oh, that's interesting" sort of way, when, out of the blue he announced that the most erotic smell known to mankind is that of rotting human flesh. Monsieur 'Le Nez' went on to say that another very erotic smell, albeit not quite as arousing as those not for rousing, was that of babies faeces. As a result, in small doses, both became important perfume ingredients. Somewhat unconvincingly he insisted that nowadays they were artificially simulated.

Nuits Saint Georges, Premier Cru, Domaine des Pedrix 1999

I've been eyeing this wine across the Costco isles for some time now. Those alluring, 'come hither' eyes from the Partridge on the label. But it always seemed a bit out of my league. Then last week something came over me, what the hell, I was seized by desire.... I just had to have it, oh, and it was the last bottle! I secreted it away ready for the right moment.... which turned out to be last night, just 3 nights later. Note to self, must improve self control.

Delectable stuff. A smokey bouquet reminiscent of good lapsang tea with more than a hint of strawberries. Noticeable browning at the rim. Perfectly balanced palate with hints of powdered ginger, glucose and an unmistakable wallop of funk. A real sense of decay, but in a very sexy life affirming way. Then, when it's almost over, a post swallow hit of classy tobacco. Nice. (approx. £22 if there's any left)