Eel pout. A relative of the cod but with the appearance of an eel, in which manner it is cooked. It is a freshwater fish with a yellowish, elongated cylindrical body, speckled with brown and covered in slime. The burbot can grow to 1 meter (3 ft) in length. In France it is particularly abundant in the lakes of Savoy. Once caught it is skinned and then prepared in the same way as a lamprey or an eel. Its oily and almost boneless flesh is very popular. However, in France, it is primarily eaten for its enormous liver which is made into pâté or it is fried in the same way as calf’s liver.
Horse mushroom. Edible, and very delicious, but easily mistaken for other less palatable or even poisonous mushrooms.
Amaranth. This covers many varieties of a sweetish green leafy vegetable known by many different names, including callalloo, elephant’s ear, African/Chinese/Ceylon/Indian spinach, Surinam amaranth, basella etc. Most commonly it is a tropical climbing plant that can grow as high as 2 meters (6 ft), the leaves being harvested as the plant grows and cooked in the same way as spinach. In India the most common is Basella alba or Indian Spinach.
Ambrosia cake. A sponge cake covered with a mixture of orange juice, sugar, candied peel, almonds and orange peel.
Amethyst deceiver. It may be cooked with other mushrooms in a mixed mushroom stew or served as a garnish to other dishes.
A close relation of the northern pike, this is the Amur or blackspotted pike. The Amur valley is a remote place in Russia and China which has its own breed of leopards.
