328 replies to this topic

[origamicrane]

I think this this would be a useful thread.
A where do i buy X thread.

could merge a lot of threads into this one well a lot of my threads anyway.

like where do i buy a 1kg white truffle ??
bIt seriously anyone know where i can buy small quatities of dry ice?
i know I can get it from http://ind.yara.co.u...tact/index.html
but I only need a few pellets for a dinner party.

any help would be most appreciated.

[jgm]

I need to know where to get... um, I don't know what it's called, but I believe it exists. It would be, basically, a large tea ball, to hold about 1 to 1 1/2 cups. I have some ingredients I need to segregate in a soup; the rest of the soup will be pureed in a blender, but I want to save a few pieces of the main vegetable for texture in the soup. I know I can use cheesecloth, but I'd rather have something in stainless steel, if I can.

I live in the U.S., so an American supplier would be the most convenient.

Edited by jgm, 14 March 2005 - 06:14 PM.

[emsny]

I need to know where to get... um, I don't know what it's called, but I believe it exists.  It would be, basically, a large tea ball, to hold about 1 to 1 1/2 cups.  I have some ingredients I need to segregate in a soup; the rest of the soup will be pureed in a blender, but I want to save a few pieces of the main vegetable for texture in the soup.  I know I can use cheesecloth, but I'd rather have something in stainless steel, if I can.

I live in the U.S., so an American supplier would be the most convenient.

The large mesh infuser on this page comes close; if not quite big enough, you could always use two: Tea Infusers

Edited by emsny, 14 March 2005 - 07:51 PM.

[Suzi Edwards]

I need to know where to get... um, I don't know what it's called, but I believe it exists.  It would be, basically, a large tea ball, to hold about 1 to 1 1/2 cups.  I have some ingredients I need to segregate in a soup; the rest of the soup will be pureed in a blender, but I want to save a few pieces of the main vegetable for texture in the soup.  I know I can use cheesecloth, but I'd rather have something in stainless steel, if I can.

I live in the U.S., so an American supplier would be the most convenient.

You might want to try posting this in the "general" forum. As this is the UK forum you are most likely to get responses about goods based in the UK.

[Anna N]

Try this herb and spice infuser from Lee Valley:

Herb and Spice Infuser

[jgm]

Anna and emsny, both of those suggestions are great! They are exactly what I'm looking for. Thank you!

[origamicrane]

just answered my own question
Yara do 10kg bag of dry ice pellets for £13.95 +vat
hmmm i only need a few pellets any one want some dry ice?
in the middle of next month?

[Clerkenwellian]

just answered my own question
Yara do 10kg bag of dry ice pellets for £13.95 +vat
hmmm i only need a few pellets any one want some dry ice?
in the middle of next month?

I'm curious - what will you be using it for?

[andiesenji]

You might have better luck with a larger strainer like this miso strainer.

I have seen larger ones also.
I have isolated things in my deep strainer by clamping it to the side of the pot with a spring clamp, (looks like a large closepin, just made out of metal, found in any hardware store.)
similar to these.

I have several sizes as they really come in handy in the kitchen. Mine are not as fancy as these as they are older and simpler but you get the ideat........

[origamicrane]

just answered my own question
Yara do 10kg bag of dry ice pellets for £13.95 +vat
hmmm i only need a few pellets any one want some dry ice?
in the middle of next month?

I'm curious - what will you be using it for?

It for a cooking competition.
I got a dishes of peeled pomelo wedges with lemon mint and candy floss.
Touaregsand named that dish "Fresh pomelo with a Candied Cloud"
so i thought it be quite fun to have a few dry ice pellets in a bowl in the middle spewing out white vapour.

Also planning to make fizzy strawberries/ fruit

[endless autumn]

New request:

I'm off to a country with few butchery skills and wanted to take out something so that I could chop up some animals myself.

I've been to Pages and had a look at their super-cleavers and bone saws, which were understandably expensive.

I've looked on nisbets etc. (usual suspects) but can't find much there.

Anyone any ideas for sub-£100 butchery equipment big enough to work its way through small goats and pigs and pygmy cattle?

Thanks...

[origamicrane]

meat cleaver or machete and a medium hacksaw better try B&Q.
think that little lot will allow you to go through a cow.

where you going? and what are you going to be cooking?

also if you going overseas will they allow you to take it in your check in luggage?

[fisherman]

should be no problems taking anything (as long as its legal in both countries) in your checked in baggage, i recently brought back some very nasty looking knives from the states with no problem, despite the bags being xrayed several times at LAX

[endless autumn]

I'm off to Malawi, which has excellent potential for self-sufficiency.

The local butcher will sell us a cow for about £25. If we let him cut it up, he uses and axe and - though he is surpisingly dextrous with it - the joints which result are rather unconventional.

Another problem is aging the meat, as there is little room to hang and it's very sweaty and hot. The only way to get around this is to mince and freeze a large proportion of the animal/ brine and cure some of the rest and set up a ridiculous Heath Robinson/ Jeffrey Steingarten auto-aging pen in the fridge, which involves balancing a couple of handheld fans on the shelf to ensure correct circulation of air. I wil only be doing this with one joint at a time - I wonder if I can freeze the beef and age it later? I doubt it.

I suppose I cuold wet-age some of the rest of the beef, just by vacu-packing it but I'm not sure how successful that would be and whether I have enough room in my luggage for a vacu-packing machine.

The things which are available at the market are: bananas, white beans, black beans, peas, onions, tomatoes, orach, spinach, aubergines, dried fish, salted fish, fresh fish, eggs, chickens, flour, scary black meat (don't ask), maize flour, cassava (ugh!), potatoes, mangos, chillis, prickly pears and some other things which I can't remember.

In the garden I will have: chard, tomatoes, lettuce, mint, basil, parsley, coriander, chervil, courgettes, chillis, aubergines and some other things planted in advance by my other half. (Though a rampant chicken has eaten quite a lot of the seedlings.)

Other things I can buy include: limed birds (still alive, stuck on a twig: apparently they don't taste the same if not plucked while tweeting); huge catfish (capable of hauling themselves about half a kilometre across land, they claim); goats; pigs (riddled with tapeworm); anything which has just been killed (various antelope). There will hopefully be other delights I'm not yet familiar with.

My favourite thing is a fish called mpasa, which they call 'Lake Salmon', but when I looked it up, it didn't seem to be a salmo at all. Never mind, it tastes delicious. It has greyish-pinky-white flesh (I don't think there are higher-order crustacea in Lake Malawi, but I am probably wrong/ not very good at googling for the relevant facts) and tastes so sweet it reminds me of peas.

[origamicrane]

you moving out there permenantly?
sounds interesting but also sounds like hard work
will you have access to internet ?
as would be interesting to see what you cook while you are out there

[endless autumn]

you moving out there permenantly?
sounds interesting but also sounds like hard work 
will you have access to internet ?
as would be interesting to see what you cook while you are out there

only there for 10 weeks or so, but that makes c.210 meals (plus more if I manage to find space for a new meal between elevenses and lunch).

There may be internet, but intermittently at best. If it is working I'll try to post a few reports.

[origamicrane]

wouldn't it be cheaper to buy your tools out there?

[endless autumn]

wouldn't it be cheaper to buy your tools out there?

cheaper yes, but less likely to work.

If there was a good supply of excellent value butchery implements I imagine the butcher would use something more suitable than an axe...

I think I'll improvise with a B&Q hacksaw and a mighty cleaver. Thanks for suggestions.

[fisherman]

my advice would be to take two of each, replacements wouldnt be easy to find by the sounds of it

[origamicrane]

hmm good advice take a replacement blade for the hack saw just in case.
you will need a sharpening steel/stone for the meat cleaver too.
Pop into a chinese super market the meat cleaver there should be cheaper
and indestrutible .

but if you only there 10 weeks how many cows, goats and pigs can you eat?

[jpdoctor]

Where is there a good asian supermarket in London (preferably in zone 1 or 2) ?

Specifically looking for a place with lots of SE Asian items.

[Brithack]

Where is there a good asian supermarket in London (preferably in zone 1 or 2) ?

Specifically looking for a place with lots of SE Asian items.

there are lots of Asian grocers in Soho, of course, on Brewer St.

But there's a clump of Malaysian shops on either Hogarth or Kenway Road opposite Earls Court tube as well.

[origamicrane]

chinatown main port of call for chinese produce.
then maybe brewer street for japanese stuff.
Think there are a few small vietnamese shops down hackneyand dalston but they mostly stock teh same stuff as the ones in chinatown.
For Indian produce brick lane will have a few place.
Maybe even Edgware road.

really depends what you want to buy?

[Charlie O]

There are a few Japanese shops on Piccadilly near Piccadilly Circus. One masquerades as a restaurant (and it used to be a Japanese travel agency apparently) but go through it and downstairs where there's a supermarket and sushi bar.

[Foodie_Penguin]

Where is there a good asian supermarket in London (preferably in zone 1 or 2) ?

Specifically looking for a place with lots of SE Asian items.

I would have thought London's Chinatown would be the place to go (nearest tubes: Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square). The foodstuffs and fresh produce on sale are predominantly Chinese but you can buy Japanese, Korean, Thai and other SE Asians products there.




Foodie Penguin

[sandra]

Where is there a good asian supermarket in London (preferably in zone 1 or 2) ?

Specifically looking for a place with lots of SE Asian items.

There is also Oriental City in Colindale on the A5 (EdgwareRoad) or Wing Yip, also on Edgware but just inside the North Circular...

[Matthew Grant]

Where can I get pré-salé or Pauillac lamb/agneau de lait in London.

I want those little critters (like you get in France) that have been whipped away from their bleating Mothers shortly after birth and are as pale as the last drink of milk that they took

Edited by Matthew Grant, 31 March 2005 - 06:55 AM.

[endless autumn]

I've been trying to buy some for ages. The furthest I have got is by pleading with friendly farmers to kill their pride and joy a few weeks early. I have a couple of potential sources, but they are not Pauillac or Pre-sale. Rather, one is an Oxfordshire farmer who supplies usually to Waitrose and the other is someone in Northamptonshire, whom I've never spoken to.

Apparently Harrods/ Harvey Nichols sometimes sell the stuff, but it obviously would be super-expensive.

I remember there was an article somewhere with Sam and Eddie Hart of Fino talking about Milk-fed lamb and where to get it. You could ring the restaurant or their PR company.

[Suzi Edwards]

Could solstice help? It's not on the site but they may know a supplier.

[endless autumn]

Wild Harvest (see here) have milk-fed lamb but it's coming to the end of the season. I gave them a call and if you go along tomorrow morning (it's in New Covent Garden) they should be able to help.