Sunday, August 12, 2007

I went to the market and I bought ...

When the children were small, on long car journeys we would sometimes play the old memory game: I went to market and I bought ... (the first person says something beginning with A; the next says something beginning with B and the first person's A item, and so on.)

Well, I went to the farmers's market today and I bought some samphire and something else (more later ...)

Now in case you're of a literary bent, this wasn't King Lear's samphire:
"Half-way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!"

That's rock samphire; the one I bought today is marsh samphire. Buying it felt very Mediterranean as it was served by the handful. 'How much do you want? About this much?'


I cooked it this evening with sea bass, roasted red peppers and courgettes with garlic and mushrooms (they're not in the photo as they would have disturbed the layout of the plate!)


Samphire is very easy to cook. Simply plop it in a saucepan of boiling water for one minute then toss in a dressing of 5 parts olive oil to 1 part lemon juice.
Now you can see the other thing I bought at the market in the photo on the left: any ideas what it is?

9 comments:

Clare said...

it looks like a meatball, but I assume its something herby...

Liz Hinds said...

Not a meatball. Not herby either.

Puss-in-Boots said...

A Hass avocado? A rock? (How do you cook them?) A cheese with a suspect rhind? I give up...what is it?

Colin Campbell said...

Haggis?

Anonymous said...

A yummy cheeseball!!!

Anonymous said...

Chocolate rum ball?

Even typing that has got me drooling ;-)

Liz Hinds said...

And the prize goes to ... Rita! But Robyn came close.

It's a cheeseball. A mixture of hard and soft cheeses coated in crushes peppercorns.

It does look like haggis but a chocolate ball of that size would take some eating!

Anonymous said...

You present a beautiful plate. Over here in the colonies, I have never heard of samphire outside of literary references. But then, I lead a sheltered life.

Before I read your answer, I thought it looked like a big meatball, but thinking you would not be buying a big meatball, decided it must be a cheeseball coated with -- something.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

I don't eat fish but it all looks lovely.