Food you have never eaten but would like to try

Spookily, on last night’s Drivetime Foodie Thursday feature on Radio 2, Nigel Barden did a turbot dish. Now the dish sounded great and is certainly a much simpler dish to take on than the Nathan Outlaw dish, but that’s not why I mention it. According to Nigel Barden, a 3kg fish would serve 6 people – 500g per person – and cost about £3 per head! – I suppose that means he paid around £18 for his 3 kg turbot, which doesn’t sound too bad. But I was working on a 500g fillet serving two people and working out at £7 per head. I know what you said about the 3 kg whole fish including the bone, but I’m not sure it makes that much difference. Reviewing the Nathan Outlaw recipe, he uses about 750g of turbot to serve 4. Anyway, I’m guessing Nigel Barden got his fish at a London fish market.


Actually, he offered a piece of advice about going to the fishmonger that was the second time I had heard pretty much exactly the same advice about going to your fishmonger in a few of days. And that was, don’t go with the idea of buying a specific fish, go with the idea of asking your fishmonger what he has that’s good today, and then deciding what you will do with it.
 
Ken Natton said:
Actually, he offered a piece of advice about going to the fishmonger that was the second time I had heard pretty much exactly the same advice about going to your fishmonger in a few of days. And that was, don’t go with the idea of buying a specific fish, go with the idea of asking your fishmonger what he has that’s good today, and then deciding what you will do with it.
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Yes I heard that too. All very sound advice. I usually do that, and with the butcher too. It's fine if you have a good supplier, but it has been suggested that given the chance some will try and sell you produce nearing the end of it's life - understandably to reduce waste and maximise profit. That doesn't bother me at all with the butcher but different kettle of fish from the fishmonger.
 
Ken Natton said:
According to Nigel Barden, a 3kg fish would serve 6 people – 500g per person – and cost about £3 per head! –
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That seems insanely cheap for turbot - or for pretty well any fish. £6 a kilo? I think he must be mistaken. And 500g per person is a very big portion. It can't be correct can it? A thick cod fillet is about 225g and costs about £16 per kilo.
 
morning glory said:
That seems insanely cheap for turbot - or for pretty well any fish. £6 a kilo? I think he must be mistaken. And 500g per person is a very big portion. It can't be correct can it? A thick cod fillet is about 225g and costs about £16 per kilo.
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Well okay, my immediate crisis is that I might be mis-reporting him – it was only last night, the clip will still be available to listen to. But certainly, as you might imagine, the whole thing caught my attention because it was turbot – which did seem like one of those spooky coincidences – and all the time he was talking it through, I was thinking about the fact that he wasn’t mentioning how expensive turbot is. Then right at the end, the guy sitting in for Simon Mayo – Amol Rajan – asked that very question, and when Nigel Baden said about £3 per head I nearly choked. I have got that it was a 3kg turbot off the website rather than remembering it particularly, but then that is not that different than it was on that website you linked to. I suppose I just took it to be that he had got it at one of the big markets in London and that perhaps he knew where – and how – to get the best prices. As I said, the Nathan Outlaw recipe works out to about 750g to serve 4. It seems to me two of the 500g fillets from that website would be reasonable for that recipe. And £7 a head is not that unreasonable. If you had that dish in one of Nathan Outlaw’s restaurants you’d be paying a bit more than that for it!
 
morning glory said:
We had artichokes (globe) for the Recipe Challenge a few weeks back. If you put artichokes in the search box in the green menu bar you can see the entries. Here is what I did:

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Having looked through the recipes they all seem to use pre prepared artichoke hearts, whereas I had whole fresh globe artichokes. After looking through dozens of recipe books the only suitable recipe I could find was one by Valentine Warner, who advises to simply boil the artichokes whole and serve them with a vinaigrette. I decided to do this, but as a side dish to accompany pan fried salmon. Suffice it to say I won't be rushing out to buy more globe artichokes any time soon, but Warner's vinaigrette was an absolute gem, and went perfectly with the rare salmon: olive oil, tarragon vinegar, dijon mustard and the yolk of an egg.
 
epicuric said:
Having looked through the recipes they all seem to use pre prepared artichoke hearts,
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The one I posted in the attachment above didn't! Those are fresh artichoke hearts which I lovingly prepared myself! Really, the best way to eat them is exactly as you describe but its not really a recipe nor should they be served whole as a side dish. They would normally be served that way as a starter, particularly in France. The reason being that they are a time consuming delicacy in themselves. If served as a side, the main would get cold (or lie neglected) whilst you dealt with the artichoke. I hope you (correctly) scraped the leaf bases on your bottom teeth and that you removed the choke to discover the delicious heart (which you then cut up in the vinaigrette). Here are the very artichoke hearts I used (with the choke removed at top of the image):

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epicuric said:
Suffice it to say I won't be rushing out to buy more globe artichokes any time soon,
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I am so sad to here this. I am thinking that you perhaps didn't eat them correctly... ? They are really the most wonderful taste. The one's we eat in the UK are not to be eaten whole. I'm sure you didn't try to do that though!
 
epicuric said:
Having looked through the recipes they all seem to use pre prepared artichoke hearts, whereas I had whole fresh globe artichokes. After looking through dozens of recipe books the only suitable recipe I could find was one by Valentine Warner, who advises to simply boil the artichokes whole and serve them with a vinaigrette. I decided to do this, but as a side dish to accompany pan fried salmon. Suffice it to say I won't be rushing out to buy more globe artichokes any time soon, but Warner's vinaigrette was an absolute gem, and went perfectly with the rare salmon: olive oil, tarragon vinegar, dijon mustard and the yolk of an egg.
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Were the artichokes you had small ones, i.e. baby artichokes? These can be eaten whole. Generally, the ones available to buy (I see you are also here in UK) are the size of a large fist!
 
morning glory said:
I am so sad to here this. I am thinking that you perhaps didn't eat them correctly... ? They are really the most wonderful taste. The one's we eat in the UK are not to be eaten whole. I'm sure you didn't try to do that though!
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I think you a right - I was trying to hedge bets doing them as a side dish. I did eat them as described - scraping out the leaves, eating the smaller inner ones whole, discard choke etc. but to be honest I really didn't get any real hit of taste. Perhaps, as you say, savoured on their own they would be more rewarding.
 
creative said:
Were the artichokes you had small ones, i.e. baby artichokes? These can be eaten whole. Generally, the ones available to buy (I see you are also here in UK) are the size of a large fist!
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They were the smallest that I have seen before - I think this is why I bought them - somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball.
 
epicuric said:
They were the smallest that I have seen before - I think this is why I bought them - somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball.
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That's tiny! It would mean therefore that the heart (the best bit) would also be tiny. They have some unique compounds in them which can have an odd effect on other ingredients. In many ways I think they are best eaten simply with a vinaigrette. The bigger ones are much better!

As @creative says, the whole edible kind are rarely available here. If you look @MypinchofItaly's post (I'll find a link) she uses the whole baby artichokes available in Italy. I haven't ever seen them on sale here although I'm sure you could get them somewhere. The ones I used were large (about 5 inches across). Here is one half prepped with another one fully prepped. Chef's perks to scrape off the leaf bases.

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And here is the choke which will be removed - the heart left is about 2 inches across and 2 inches deep (including part of the stalk)

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Here is a close up of the hearts which have been split vertically in two. The intense green chunks are pieces of stem which have been left in their cooking water overnight! I think possibly the one's you bought could possibly have been the kind you are meant to cook and eat whole. To eat them as you did, the bigger ones are much better. Trust me, you would taste these. Why don't you have one more try and buy some BIG ones!

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In Italy we have about 6 types of artichokes: the most famous are Sardinian artichokes with thorns and Tuscan violette artichokes..and we cook them in various manner: raw for salad, fried, boiled,puree...I really love artichokes, they have a particularly taste but very good.
 
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