Difficult to find ingredients

When I lived in Eritrea, there was always a bit of excitement if anyone among the volunteers of various organisations discovered some kind of food or drink that we didn't usually see. On one occasion, I was strolling around the capital, Asmara, when I spotted some celery in a small shop. Thrilled with the find, I duly purchased a bunch.

What I failed to realise was that this would cause me a few problems at the airport (the place where I lived was accessible only by a 70-minute flight or by a three or four-day bus ride). The woman who searched my bags at security had plainly never seen celery in her life. When she asked me what it was, I couldn't think of the Italian name for celery (a lot of fruit and veg there is known by the Italian word for it) and eventually, I said, "Salata." I plucked off a stick and had a quick chomp on it to show it wasn't some sort of poison or weird drug. She gave me a rather pitying smile and let me board the plane with my acquisition.
 
Happened by a Holland and Barrett on Saturday. Popped in. No fennel seeds, only fennel tea. Will check out Tesco again soon.


There is a good Morrisons near me. It is usually very good for meat and fish. Ain’t not never seen no Rose Veal though. I reckon my best hope is the farm shops classic33 led me to. Other than that it’ll have to be the website I found.


Still not convinced about the Italian pork sausage meat. Rick threw it out there like it is something you ought to be able to get. Surely he wasn’t expecting us to actually go to Italy…
 
Ken Natton said:
Happened by a Holland and Barrett on Saturday. Popped in. No fennel seeds, only fennel tea. Will check out Tesco again soon.


There is a good Morrisons near me. It is usually very good for meat and fish. Ain’t not never seen no Rose Veal though. I reckon my best hope is the farm shops classic33 led me to. Other than that it’ll have to be the website I found.


Still not convinced about the Italian pork sausage meat. Rick threw it out there like it is something you ought to be able to get. Surely he wasn’t expecting us to actually go to Italy…
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Is this Rick Stein from the UK or the US?
If from the UK, big city or rural?

It seems the pros and magazines based in big cities tend to forget not everyone has access to everything.
There is a magazine called Real Simple here in the US. They are based in New York City. I cancelled the magazine when the recipes went from simple to exotic. The last issue I received had recipes calling for Persian pickles, only available in the northeast seafood and 4 other only found in big cities ingredients. So not simple.

Now as to Italian pork sausage, I can find it everywhere. It is harder to find beef sausages.
 
Ken Natton said:
Still not convinced about the Italian pork sausage meat. Rick threw it out there like it is something you ought to be able to get. Surely he wasn’t expecting us to actually go to Italy…
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Here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bolognese_sausage_rag_01151, he says use good quality coarse pork sausage meat. I really don't know what the difference would be between Italian sausage meat and English. I mean, if it is just coarse minced pork then what would the difference be?

The only difference would be in the seasonings added to the sausages (if you were using sausages rather than plain minced pork). I found this on Nigella's website:

Italian style sausages usually have a slightly coarser texture than a regular British banger. They are also flavoured with fennel, garlic and red wine. The "hot" version of the sausages are also spiked with chilli.
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I think the dish that Rick is making is a generic Italian recipe. There will be many variations, depending on regions and the type of sausages used. I would bet that if he cooked this dish in the UK he would use a different sausage and it would taste slightly different. And you could go to several Italian delis and find different 'Italian sausages' in the UK. So, whatever you do, the dish will never replicate the one that he cooked in the TV programme. Well, not exactly, anyway.
 
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Ken Natton said:
Happened by a Holland and Barrett on Saturday. Popped in. No fennel seeds, only fennel tea. Will check out Tesco again soon.


There is a good Morrisons near me. It is usually very good for meat and fish. Ain’t not never seen no Rose Veal though. I reckon my best hope is the farm shops classic33 led me to. Other than that it’ll have to be the website I found.


Still not convinced about the Italian pork sausage meat. Rick threw it out there like it is something you ought to be able to get. Surely he wasn’t expecting us to actually go to Italy…
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Try your own!
Ingredients
Serves: 80
9kg minced pork
2 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons garlic salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
8 tablespoons ground paprika
250ml vegetable oil
1 tablespoon anise seed
1 tablespoon fennel seed
3 tablespoons dried chilli flakes

Method
Place the minced pork into a large bowl. Season with salt, garlic salt, black pepper and paprika. In a blender or food processor, blend together the oil, anise seed, fennel seed and chilli flakes. Mix everything into the minced pork until well blended. Refrigerate for 24 hours to let flavours blend. Bag and freeze in portions that suit your needs.

Prep:45min › Extra time:1day chilling › Ready in:1day 45min

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/10991/homemade-spicy-italian-sausagemeat.aspx
 
Cinisajoy said:
Is this Rick Stein from the UK or the US?
If from the UK, big city or rural?
Click to expand...

morning glory said:
Here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bolognese_sausage_rag_01151, he says use good quality coarse pork sausage meat. I really don't know what the difference would be between Italian sausage meat and English. I mean, if it is just coarse minced pork then what would the difference be?

The only difference would be in the seasonings added to the sausages (if you were using sausages rather than plain minced pork)...

I think the dish that Rick is making is a generic Italian recipe. There will be many variations, depending on regions and the type of sausages used. I would bet that if he cooked this dish in the UK he would use a different sausage and it would taste slightly different. And you could go to several Italian delis and find different 'Italian sausages' in the UK. So, whatever you do, the dish will never replicate the one that he cooked in the TV programme. Well, not exactly, anyway.
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As Morning Glory says, he’s from Cornwall, definitely not a big city chef. His original reputation was as a sea food chef – I remember seeing him on one program, on an actual fishing boat out at sea, cooking fish and serving it up to the fishermen as it came out of the sea. The fisherman’s life is not generally one that I would envy, but I envied them then.


These days, Rick’s programs are not just about the food. They are as much travelogue as cookery program. Food remains central to the program, but what he seeks to portray is the culture from which the dishes come. As you might tell, I enjoy his programs.


Whatever might be said in the recipe you are linking to, Morning Glory, what he said in the program was, ‘get good Italian pork sausage’ – I think he might have said ‘if you can’ – but what he definitely said is that British sausage meat ‘wouldn’t work’ – those were his words – because it has too much rusk. He did also talk about the seasoning, I don’t remember exactly what it was he said but the basis was that you wanted it without seasoning so that you had control of the result.


But you are right, it is almost certainly worth trying it at least, for a first attempt, with the sausage meat you mentioned that you can get from Tesco, or as you suggested by breaking up good quality pork sausages, which is exactly what I do when I make stuffing. But if I stumble across ‘good Italian pork sausage meat’ at any point, I would like to try it and see if I can get an idea of what Rick was driving at.
 
Ken Natton said:
As Morning Glory says, he’s from Cornwall, definitely not a big city chef. His original reputation was as a sea food chef – I remember seeing him on one program, on an actual fishing boat out at sea, cooking fish and serving it up to the fishermen as it came out of the sea. The fisherman’s life is not generally one that I would envy, but I envied them then.


These days, Rick’s programs are not just about the food. They are as much travelogue as cookery program. Food remains central to the program, but what he seeks to portray is the culture from which the dishes come. As you might tell, I enjoy his programs.


Whatever might be said in the recipe you are linking to, Morning Glory, what he said in the program was, ‘get good Italian pork sausage’ – I think he might have said ‘if you can’ – but what he definitely said is that British sausage meat ‘wouldn’t work’ – those were his words – because it has too much rusk. He did also talk about the seasoning, I don’t remember exactly what it was he said but the basis was that you wanted it without seasoning so that you had control of the result.


But you are right, it is almost certainly worth trying it at least, for a first attempt, with the sausage meat you mentioned that you can get from Tesco, or as you suggested by breaking up good quality pork sausages, which is exactly what I do when I make stuffing. But if I stumble across ‘good Italian pork sausage meat’ at any point, I would like to try it and see if I can get an idea of what Rick was driving at.
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I can't think of his name right now but we have a travel/food chef on one of our channels too.
Then we have Guy Fieri, who promotes various restaurants.
 
Ken Natton said:
His restaurant, oft mentioned in the programs, is in Padstow.
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That's what I meant when I said he was from Cornwall. He now divides his time between Australia, where he also has a restaurant I believe and Cornwall. But he was brought up in Oxfordshire.
 
morning glory said:
Yes, brought up in Oxfordshire, privately educated with a big family house in Cornwall where he spent holidays as a boy. Hence the Cornwall connection.
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Educated at a boarding/private school in a neighbouring County, leaving the country the first chance he got, aged 16.

Holiday home bought since his return to this country, which is why the locals, in Cornwall, want him out.
 
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Who was wanting to try and make their own "Golden Syrup"?

Edited this morning.
 
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