SC - Lucrezia in Marketland - mainly OOP - LONG

[Tina Nevin]

Saluti everyone!

About 2 months ago a new book came out called "The essential guide to
London's Best Food Shops", which I have been working my way through ever
since (some of the places I've been to, but London is a BIG place). 
Anyways, the last weekend I ended up at Borough Market, one of the few
genuine farmers' markets left, which was a totally wonderful experience (I
only took £25 which was a mistake I won't make again). 

One of the stalls sold 12+ different types of mushroom, half of which I'd
never seen before (actually I was quite surprised I knew that many!). I
bought some Pied Bleus mushrooms for lunch - large cream open-topped
mushrooms with a beautiful mauve sheen to them. Fried for a long time in
olive oil over a low heat, they had a strong and distinctly nutty flavor,
with a good meat that didn't shrivel away to Twigginess. An excellent
casserole additive I'd say. Yum. 

Anyways, I also got some French verjuice 'Verjus du Perigord', (which is
delicious, much yummier than the middle eastern stuff i usually use),
which reads "Ingredients Jus de raisins verts du Perigord. Le Verjus etait
frequemment consomme au Moyen-Age. Ce Verjus s'utilise pour deglacer un
foie gras, mijoter un gibier ou sous forme d'aperitif." Could someone
please tell me what that means? 

Another nice thing I picked up was some great Spanish white wine vinegar,
distilled from Chardonnay. It is also delicious, and the Cabernet
Sauvignon version I tried was even nicer (unfortunately they'd run out, so
next time). Which led me to wonder whether they made white and red wine
vinegar in period, as I don't remember ever seeing a receipt specify the
color of the vinegar. Can anyone?

I also picked up some goose fat (which was great on roast potatoes) but
there's heaps too much for me to use over the next couple of weeks. Anyone
know if it'll be OK if I throw some of it in the freezer?

MTIA,

Ciao
Lucrezia


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