We had a gift from the local goat man – white truffles from our land!  They are huge (like most veg in Portugal…. for example, courgettes (zucchini) are the size of marrows.

Question :  what do I do with them?  They have minimal flavour!  I will research the internet.

Just bought a mini-hot smoker from the UK – Cameron – so another first, smoking fish.  Easy to buy really fresh mackerel, the smoker came with sample wood chips, so sprinkle the mackerel with salt for 8 minutes, rinse, put in the smoker, set over heat and smoke for 20 minutes.  It worked but the only problem was the lid wouldn’t seal – I solved this by reading the instructions and bending the lid a little to seal so next time the flavour will be smokier.  These were tasty and moist, just a little lacking in colour.

Last night was smoked mackerel on toasted seed bread, tonight smoked mackerel pate – just whisk the mackerel, some yoghurt, lemon juice, horseradish and Tabasco together, quantities to suit amount and your taste.  Serve with raw veg, breadsticks, pitta, anything you like.  Perfect snack.

I couldn’t be bothered to queue at the butcher’s counter on a busy Saturday, but it didn’t seem to matter as on the shelves was what appeared to be high quality, locally produced, certificated minced beef.  The fresh meat inside looked excellent quality.

All the right labels…, so I buy it.  Today it’s time to cook ragu bolognese for the kids.  One look at the back of the packet and the list of ingredients – wait, I thought this was 100% beef.  Oh no, only 82.5% beef, then water, breadcrumbs, yeast, salt, corn starch, antioxidants and conservatives.  They got me, I must now check packaged fresh meat to see if it is 100% meat….  Thank you Continente.

I made the bolognese, adding no salt, to Rick Stein’s excellent recipe – the end result is not the same.  The sauce is too glossy as if flour has been mixed in and even without the addition of salt it is saltier than usual, plus the texture of the meat is not there plus more liquid than usual.

The moral to this story is not to be in too much of a hurry – get your butcher to mince the meat you choose, which is normal in Portugal.