Ox tongue that has been soaked and then rubbed with saltpetre, brown sugar and pepper, soaked for a few more days, with regular turning, after which it is boiled with some aromatic herbs and carrots. It is then skinned and cooled in the liquor, which should strained first. The preparation of the tongue is one of my memories of the build-up to Christmas. My mother had battered old pots and pans, real working tools with bakelite handles. My father sharpened her knife ceremoniously before carving the joint each Sunday morning, twanging the blade against the counter top to entertain his children, playing it like a saw to make tunes. All meals were a matter of great pleasure in that house, with Christmas being the best. The salting and spicing of the hams and tongues; the stirring of mixtures and baking of cakes and puddings with glacé cherries and rich fruit and sour smelling brandy; the making of the mincemeat for the mince pies and the careful selection and wrappin of the Stilton in a linen napkin were all part of the reassuring and loving ritual of family life.
This indeterminate heirloom tomato, as the name suggests, produces small orange pink fruit around 5 cm (2") in diameter, with a slightly fuzzy, peach-like skin and comes from Russia. It has excellent keeping qualities off the plant and will ripen without going soft or losing its flavour, but can bruise. It appears late in the season. It is best grown under glass.
An old indeterminate variety of tomato bearing bright red, pear-shaped fruits 5 cm (2") long. It is a prolific cropper bearing fruits weighing about 10 g (¼ oz). Ideal for salads or pickling. Prone to cracking.
Large varieties of red pepper (US: sweet red bell pepper) are used as a vegetable and can be used either cooked or raw. They are very good for stuffing. Other varieties are smaller, long, with a pointed tip and filled with pungent seeds. They are used for seasoning, either dried or fresh. These peppers are not so strong in flavour as the chilli or cayenne pepper. In fact, in French, piment also means chillis, which are green or red, tapered and contain twice as much capsaicin as red peppers, which is why they provide so much heat to food. They are often available in dried or powdered forms. Colour is not necessarily a guide to the heat, which is measured in Scoville units (named after Wilbur Scoville). Generally speaking the scale goes from small and pointed, with thin skins, having the most heat through to large and blunt having the least. The greatest heat is contained in the membranes and seeds.
A short, thick-bodied marine fish up to 25 cm (10 inches) long. It is found in the North Atlantic. It has an orange-red skin and delicately flavoured white flesh.
Like green perilla, red perilla is also available and is widely used in making umeboshi (pickled plums).
Matsutake, the Japanese pine mushroom, a rare and sought after mushroom.
