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marlena spieler

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Everything posted by marlena spieler

  1. Sheep. Lamb. I forgot to mention that when I awoke this morning I remembered that I had had a very happy dream: I was cooking lamb. I could even smell it, and the lamb pieces (some sort of chop but i don't remember any bones, there was a good balance between lean and fat) were browning on some kind of stove, and they were very fragrant and rare inside, and when i woke up i could swear i could still smell the lamb. I'm sure its because I visited the egullet thread on lamb last night before i went to sleep. Am I the only one here who dreams about cooking lamb? (at least it wasn't a baaah-d dream, please forgive me for that....). Marlena
  2. Helen, your tempura looks beautiful. mine always turns out heavy so i tend to not eat it except in Japanese restaurants when i'm in california. Your Nanakusa-kayu looks really wonderful though. i clicked Rick LaPointe's article on the subject and on the herbs, but it looks as if most of the herbs are not available. i'm thinking that i want to make this for my daughter in new york city, or get her to make it: it looks so comforting and healthy, and the herbs promise fragrance and the promise of spring freshness. and we both LOVE daikon! what herbs should we use in their place or do you think we can get such herbs, ? (there are a lot of japanese food shops near her house). i do note that the article said 'wild greens' congee. Marlena ps wonderful photo of you in cooking motion (and bossing around son motion!) ! i so feel like i'm in the kitchen with you--next i want to see a photo of you smiling! this is great, i wish i had a digital camera as would post a pic of myself in the middle of cooking too. i will get one soon, but am not confident i will ever figure out how to use it!
  3. When i was a student in Jerusalem about a thousand years ago, I used to buy bagelah's, round pretzl-like things, sold on a hanging string. they were so chewy, i loved them! there was something to dip them in, maybe it was sesame, or salt, or perhaps it was za-atar, is that possible? mmmm, speaking of za-atar, maybe that will be my tomorrows breakfast, with flatbread and olive oil........now that i'm i've had two days of bagels, the thrill is fading a teeny bit. i like to keep a thrill going by not getting tired of anything, by keeping it all fresh and exciting (but i do always come back to bagels. true love in a chunk of boiled and baked dough). Yes, there is butter and there is butter. I get very dissappointed when I'm in California cause much of the butter is bland, i think it is the milder weather and the cows are too mellow, they eat a lighter diet, the weather is gentler, who knows? New York butter is better, though some of the artisanal butters in California are good. (i think i'll make an informal survey on my upcoming trip there. perhaps i'll put a thread up in the california section?) Funnily enough, when I'm in California I end up buying a French butter that over here, in Europe i tend to look my nose down as its good, but overshadowed by the many fabulous butters--especially French butters--we have here. Also, though, the Dutch butter we get is pretty good, as is the Irish, New Zealandish, and some of the English. I like sweet unsalted butter usually, as i love the contrast of sweet cream and crunchy briney salt (i do a little sprinkling on top), cause salted butter has a slightly briney flavour and as it can keep longer than unsalted, it never tastes quite as sweet and fresh. But sometimes I love a salted butter too. We have many French butters, and they are so wonderful. There is one from Brittany that is unsalted but studded with coarse seasalt: divine. you don't cook with it, you simply spread it and appreciate it. i'm not terribly fond of the italian slightly fermented butters though. When the shops have an overload of cream and are selling it cheap, i'll buy a lot of it and make my own butter; it tastes so fresh and creamy! when we lived in our warehouse flat in london with lots of friends all around i would do this and then bring all my friends and neighbours little crocks filled with the glorious stuff. my neighbours in Hampshire aren't really into this sort of thing so we'd have to eat it all ourselves! (and I know we could, that is the problem). There are so many wonderful butters here that we are really spoiled. And I hate when my husband buys an ordinary supermarket house brand butter (its irrisistible price-wise, and he is an accountant, read: bargain hunter par excellence) as its alright for cooking, but its a butter-appreciating opportunity missed!!!! I bet Danial Rogov is completely right about that buffalo butter; you should go get yourself a nice creamy slab of it! and describe it all to us (I actually have had to wipe the edge of my mouth, an errant drool just thinking about it.) One Melting (as in butter) Marlena
  4. Breakfast update: Okay, so there was no butter left and I had eaten half the bagel. I was chompin at the bit for the rest of the bagel. So I ate it with a swipe of mustard (light brown, mild but flavourful, that i brought back from germany), with a few grains of coarse salt, as if it were a street soft pretzel. yum. it was good. the bagel was crisp edged like before, soft fleshed, from being toasted from frozen, with the contrast of chewy flesh and crisp edge. now for another cup of coffee. i have work to finish!
  5. You're so right about chains conditioning peoples tastes, and as long as we have Outback Steakhouse with its nasty fried onion and even worse steaks, or Olive Garden, or Subways which is so disgusting and bland i just can't figure out why anyone would go there, or to any of these places which exist not for our delectation but rather to line the pockets of the businessmen/shareholders who own it..... but i differ with you in that I DO consider chains the scourge of the earth. just so tacky, and the food (even on the rare chance that it tastes good) lacks soul, is bereft of 'chi'. In the village (in Hampshire, UK) I live in the only two restaurants of any popularity are the mcdonalds and kfc; on friday nights there is a queue out the door of the latter. (thank god for eurostar where there is a wealth of little family owned restaurants to take me into the bosom of their kitchens and feed me gooooood. but france, too has its chains--i remember speaking with a british food writer who said that they always stopped at a buffalo grill when they were travelling in france! i'm still trying to figure out why.......) back to our village, there is a mighty fine fish and chips place here, family owned and not a chain. but while i like--no,make that love-- fish and chips, i love to eat them about once a year. i'm never hungry for them again until about a year has passed! and i never ever go to starbucks except that the people there are usually friendly, and they have bathrooms, so occasionally, if i am desperate......but i don't like to support the whole competition against individually-owned cafes. the main thing about chains to me is that they are all cookie-cutter the same. the food. the atmosphere. very alienating. i hate the taste of the vegetable oils they use. and the food is all the same!!!! (though in some places, having the food reliably the same is a positive thing, esp if the alternative that they are replacing is undependable). whew. i feel better now. Marlena
  6. That is so how I feel about a good bagel! Especially the everything ones, slathered with cream cheese and smoked salmon. CaliPoutine's right about the Bread Baker's Apprentice recipe - it does make some damn good bagels. Adding baking soda to the water helps make the outsides good and chewy. See? Well, you can't see the chewy, but trust me, it's there! I think I remember reading somewhere that you're partial to Acme's bread when you're in the Bay Area. You have had Bay Bread bread, I'm sure - it's in half the restaurants in town (as well as the bakeries). I think we (since I work there) do make some damn fine breads. ← I LOVE Bay Bread! I just sometimes forget to say so! Last year I was eating at Piperade and was totally loving the bread--i asked where it was from and they said Bay Bread! I went looking for Bay Breads last month on a bread rampage, but was tight on time and also didn't have an address (how wacky can a girl get--did i think i was just going to sniff and find the place, well i think i did......). Your bagels look beeeauuutiful. i love when bagels are just all laid out, fresh from the oven, they look so peaceful and beckoning.......mmmmbaking soda in the water. i might have to give the bagel baking thing another go. but its the sort of thing that its more fun if you have other bagel eaters around, i think that bagel baking is a communal thing, at least thats my fond memories. My solitary ny bagel this morning was garlic. exquisite. but a calamity struck: i ran out of butter and could only eat half, well about a third cause it was a fat rascal of a bagel and i had cut it three ways. that damned treacle sponge pudding used up so much butter than i had only enough for half of my bagel. interestingly, i just got a readers letter--i get letters from readers all the time and really really adore the whole process. its like doing a foodblog 24/7 sometimes, and sometimes people want travel advice or help in putting together a recipe, or they are a little crazy and want to rant, but mostly they are the most wonderful letters and they fill my little office with thousands of voices, thousands of hungry, happy eaters voices! anyhow, this letter this morning was a very angry letter about a throwaway line I wrote, about butter. but he attached with it a letter that included a lot of research on the health benefits of butter, and it seems as if i--a butterhound who tries endlessly to reform herself--don't use enough butter! the irony of it still has me laughing, as one of the things my editor said was : try not to use too much butter in your super foods recipes! (i'm famous for loving butter!). What do you do at Bay Breads? Sounds like you're a baker. Tell us everything! x Marlena ps but i actually like my bread without butter if there are rich sauces involved; its the french thing: dip the bread in the sauce, swoon. if there were butter on the bread it would change the delicate balance of the sauce.
  7. Lets go to your house in umbria! egullet weekend in umbria! The grape and gingerroot chicken is really good; i make it in about a zillion variations, i think the one that michelle has contains orange juice and/or white wine for the sauce, and is on my website: www.marlenaspieler.com as a recipe of the month. i adapted it from a classic north african jewish dish, but added the fresh ginger, expanded the types of grapes, in fact i'm not sure if the original has grapes at all. in any event, its a good recipe. i make it in pieces if i don't have a whole chicken, or if i want to make chicken for a crowd (pieces are easier). where is your husband from? my recipes are from all over the place; my family is ashkenazi but i've lived in places with sephardim, and also my brother married a couple of different separadim or had relationships with them. the persian family especially were wonderful cooks. i love a lot of the sephardic foods and spicing; in israel i learned so much about them. so fragrant and zesty. invigorating. while the ashkenazi food i grew up with, eastern european fare, anything but invigorating. except i do love the sheer amount of garlic my family always used. michelle, our shiksa=matzaball=maker hathor, abra, calipoutine, daniellewiley, and everyone else out there: shabbat shalom! x marlena
  8. Count me in! (except i couldn't pull up the old convent on my computer?).
  9. I don't know about the Bread Baker's Apprentice recipe. But i do know that once upon a time i used to organize make-your-own bagel singles brunches at the san francisco jcc: it was so much fun! i'd make a big batch of dough--i used the recipe from the sunset bread baking book, i'm sure it wasn't the worlds best, but the fun part was the shaping and the boiling and the adding our own goodies. This was in the days before everything bagels; i would put out poppyseeds, sesame seeds, onion, garlic, coarse salt, caraway seeds, everything, and all of the singles would shape their dough, boil their bagels, dip in various seeds and goodies, lay it out on the baking sheets and i'd keep it all going: the boiling water, the hot oven and baking trays, the conversation. i'd also prepare the rest of the meal which involved eggs, and really yummy tray-baked hash-browned potatoes with whole cloves of garlic. we would have about 50 people, and couples were always getting together, some got married! i was single in those days, and always too busy working the dough, working the pots and working the ovens to get even a date! but it was wonderful, they were really fun gatherings. and the bagels were not too bad. better than brick lane, not as good as....new york. nowhere near as good as new york. but nice and chewy: we boiled the hell out of them. oh yes, they were c h e w y. but good.
  10. I make a sort of faux, or streamlined, welsh rarebit, on toast with a poached egg: here is what i do: shred lots of sharp Cheddar, toss it with a little bit of Worchestershire sauce, and a few drops of Tabasco, a tablespoon or two of beer. Poach an egg, then lay it on top of a piece of buttered wholewheat toast, top with a very big wodge of the shredded cheese mixture and run it under the grill/broiler. When it is sizzly melty, the rarebitty thing is ready. this is one of my desert island comfort foods. how do you make yours?
  11. me too, esp bottled salad dressings: i just want to yell: get a bottle of evoo, and a lemon! where do you live in umbria, what do you do in umbria, do you like strangozzi with truffles, are the truffles out and about right now and where are you right now can we go truffle hunting? when i was in umbria last i did a little walking around trying to imagine myself living there, but an italian friend i was with said: no one will ever accept you, it will be worse even than britain where 18 years here has left me feeling even more estranged and lonely, and yet, i did begin to wonder.....she said that when she went back to italy it was very difficult. but then, there is italy and there is italy, every region is so very different. did you do the buy a run-down place and fix it up thing? (am jealous of people able to fix things up, we can't even figure out how to plug our phone in, and still use the broken one with the crackling, dangling wire). i have some strangozzi right here on my shelf. after our late afternoon tea of treacle sponge and custard, i don't think we would have room for strangozzi. but still. eventually i'll get hungry again.....and when i do, strangozzi will be there for me! whats your favourite umbrian thing? Marlena
  12. I too know what its like to see sparks flying all around the microwave (no one mentioned that there couldn't be even a speck of metal in the bowl). it made the microwave look as if it was having a visitation by otherworldly forces! I don't make elderflower cordial as am too lazy and there are too many good kinds available on sale. i do love it, and if i'm ever far from it i'll have to learn the secret to its preparation. i bet someone out there knows! Ah i love Umbria! do you spend much time there? where? my culinary heart is divided up into several parts: italian, french, greek, israeli, mexican, black southern, with a wee bit of spanish. i'm sure there are other compartments that i haven't even ventured into. there is a little corner of bulgaria there. whenever i am where i'm eating these things i feel like i totally belong: the language, the lifestyle, the whole damned thing! Umbria is really an enchanted place though. very cozy. and i love the truffles! love the italians, of course! and don't even mention the porchetta! Lining up the refrigerator/pantry goodies and putting together dishes IS a great sport, isn't it! do you ever do it at friends houses? thats my fave, cause people just go: wow, i thought i had nothing on the shelves, and there you are making schnitzel, shredded vegetables, whirling up a little cocktail.......
  13. i WAS rather proud of those lines and feel very very flattered to have them called egullet-ish! well, perhaps proud is not exactly the right word, if you know what i mean, but thank you, thank you! i SHOULD come out to blackberry season your way! when is it? maybe just maybe i'll be able to come out. we could have a blackberry-a-thon! what do you do with yours? Actually i have this fruit soup/dessert that i was making last summer, very light and refreshing. i should rifle through my files and see if i have it anywhere. after all this heavy steamed pudding stuff i'd like to show that i can, indeed, have a lighter touch! now, to get back to the subject of steamed puddings for a moment, though. my treacle sponge was deeee-vine. this time as i said i used a little extra milk, and more syrup, even more syrup than the original. the sponge kept absorbing golden syrup, so i kept adding more. i served it with warm....wait for it......ambroasia custard from a tin. YES. i opened one of the many tins of Ambrosia that my hopeful husband bought while i was gone, and here's what i think: treacle sponge is fabulouso with tinned ambrosia custard. the thing about ambrosia custard is this: its very thick, and has a lovely creamy texure, kinda like the pudding inbetween the balls of tapioca. its just that it has no vanila, well no flavour except for sweet. bland. creamy. but with the treacle sponge, its juuuuuuust right. the secret to this dish, according to husband, is that the sponge and the treacle is piping hot, and the custard is as warm as it can be. it WAS good. says marlena
  14. Helen, I am so enjoying this glimpse into your life! I feel priviledged being allowed to join your two boys and husband, as if i am a guest in your own home. this is such a thoughtful blog. and so exotic. thank you, marlena
  15. I think that I now know why you have never had a non-heavy steamed pudding . In Australia we have an old fashioned pudding called "Golden syrup dumplings" which is basically scone dough poached in golden syrup and butter and is similarly rib sticking. If I create a 'pudding thread' would it be OK to copy this recipe over? ← what are you saying? you're not clear. marlena a treacle sponge recipe note: i have one in the steamer right now. when i was making the sponge i added 3 tablespoons instead of the 1 to 2 that the recipe initially called for. it should be ready in.....about 15 minutes, its bubbling and steaming away. the sponge seemed light and fluffy; i tasted the batter on my finger of course. it was delicious: i licked the spoon and the bowl too. i almost didn't want to put the batter into the pudding bowl. further note: i made the whole thing in the food processor. i might eschew a microwave, but i love my food processor. ← Eh, just that I though I now knew what you meant when you said "But I've never eaten a light steamed pudding." as the recipe will be quite rich. ← but rich is not necessarily heavy; and most of the steamed puddings i've eaten have been made and steamed by someone else's loving hands. this pudding is so rich that you find parts of your body shaking that you never even knew that you had. well perhaps i exaggerate. but it does make me shuckle with delight. if i'm gonna eat heavy, i'd like it to be rich. you know, like shortbread: they are very rich. and filling. but not necessarily heavy.
  16. goodness, once again with the pudding-talk, and i've completely forgotten to tell you all about my lunch. last night i mentioned poaching some chicken in a broth with star anise, gingerroot, dried shiitake, and onions/garlic. Today I took the two chicken legs and browned them lightly in a pan, then added some thinly sliced carrot, red pepper, fresh chopped ginger, shiitakes, and baby bok choy. I ladled in some stock a little at a time to reduce it into a sauce, seasoning it with a little bit of sugar and soy sauce for a sweet-savoury balance. i served it with a drizzle of soy and sesame oil. very very umami. and warming on this cold afternoon. i had gotten the idea from visiting helenjp's blog, but the spicing was a result of my vietnamese-philia: i love the star anise and ginger, sweet- spicy thing. mmmmmmm.
  17. I think that I now know why you have never had a non-heavy steamed pudding . In Australia we have an old fashioned pudding called "Golden syrup dumplings" which is basically scone dough poached in golden syrup and butter and is similarly rib sticking. If I create a 'pudding thread' would it be OK to copy this recipe over? ← what are you saying? you're not clear. marlena a treacle sponge recipe note: i have one in the steamer right now. when i was making the sponge i added 3 tablespoons instead of the 1 to 2 that the recipe initially called for. it should be ready in.....about 15 minutes, its bubbling and steaming away. the sponge seemed light and fluffy; i tasted the batter on my finger of course. it was delicious: i licked the spoon and the bowl too. i almost didn't want to put the batter into the pudding bowl. further note: i made the whole thing in the food processor. i might eschew a microwave, but i love my food processor.
  18. When I come visit you, and really, you're closer than Mochihead so i should do it sooner, so when i come visit you i'll bring you some of our english pineapples, which are very sweet, and well yes, folks, i'm sure they dont GROW them here, but not sure where they do grow them, as they are very sweet-tart-juicy. and reasonably priced! (not like in nyc where you need a 2nd mortgage to buy a pineapple!). i'm interested in the red and white guavas. and the passionfruit. and yes, when blackberry season hits we have blackberries along every road, alleyway and path in the area, along every fence, and down by the creek. and yes, they are so much better than any you can buy. interestingly enough, though not a big surprise, there don't seem to be any blackberry specialities in the area. I once did a BBC Radio 4 programme, i think it was Woman's Hour, on Blackberries. they had two food writers bring in blackberry dishes. the other brought in blackberry mint pie, and also another british traditional blackberry dish which i forget. i could mention the other food writer but i don't have a good word to say about her, so i simply will leave that blank unfilled. in the same vein, it would be churlish of me to mention whose dishes the production crew liked best, but i might just add a meow right here. and believe me, i don't like myself for this! i brought in a spicy grilled duck salad with blackberries, and also my very favourite summertime pud: I make a gelee of elderflower cordial and suspend blackberries in it when the geleatin is half-gelled. sometimes i do this in bon-bon size to just pick them up with your fingers and eat them before they slither off in the summertime heat; sometimes i make them in regular dessert sized portions; individual ones look nicest. sometimes i add raspberries too which gives a lovely pale pink tinge to the crystal clear blackberry dotted thing. elderflower cordial is one of britain's finest foodstuffs as far as i'm concerned, for the gelees i love to make. there is nothing so light and fragrant on a summers evening, and very elegant for entertaining! sometimes i think i live for blackberry season, and elderflower cordial. (i know you can make your own, but i always buy it. so easy! so good!) i believe you can buy it online in the us. as for israel? i don't know.......
  19. Mochihead: you're not annoying at all--you're wonderful! your questions are great, and i love answering them. Half the fun of this is tapping out answers, the stuff that is exotic to you is everyday hum drum to me, and vice versa, i mean: passionfruit all over the place, and GUAVAS! maybe i'm the one who should buy that airplane ticket asap! will answer more of your questions a little later, i'm actually checking the recipe i put up on the blog yesterday: yes, the recipe for treacle pudding. husband is standing right over me with a very expectant, very "soon i'll be happy" look on his face. x m
  20. Sugar loaf white pineapples, macadamias, lychee, rambutan, my favourite fruits! is there passion fruit in hawaii? i love passion fruit so much, that recently in california i bought one for a friend--a little pathetic looking one, they didn't have any that looked better--and i paid 5 dollars for it! i wasn't going to see the friend for about a week and i couldn't wait any longer. I ended up eating it myself! As for my husbands food idiosyncracies, oh where or where do I begin? he loves apples and beetroot. he could eat apples and beetroot for every meal and then go into a different phase. he's a little compulsive. my only complaint is that he isn't as exotically minded as i'd like him to be. he always ends up reverting to a kind of euro-table. though he is very good about eating strange things that i might be put off of, such as Greek stuffed spleen. and bulgarian tripe soup--he couldn't get enough! I think i'll have a little confab with him, remind him of the happiness of his strange little foodies habits which he will probably get all excited to relive, and then i'll get back to you with the details.......once i came home after a trip abroad and every cupboard was filled with a different sort of Victorian sponge cake; another time there was beetroot everywhere, even in the cats dish. The kitty also had a treat once when husband was on his cilantro phase: he thought: hey, if i love cilantro (fresh coriander) than the kitty will love it too! (it was his first cat). meanwhile, he has talked me into making a treacle sponge!
  21. I truly think that is because you haven't had a good one (I think the beigle bake in bricklane to be the most over-rated bagels anywhere, ditto ridley road, and other british bagels, even san francisco bagels, though if you get house or bagels or marin bagels and they are fresh, they are good) You need a good bagel tutorial, like a tutored wine-tasting, cause i think it is worth the pleasure when you finally get the good one. Trouble is there are too many bad bagels on this planet (most are pretty bad). And also, you have to eat them in the right state: anything over a few hours old must be toasted! and you have to eat them with the right stuff: its a texture thing. Since bagels are so dense, you can't treat them like other breads. they are simply too heavy to be eaten with other sandwich fillings, and they overpower them as well. Bagels are a force unto themselves! My husband isn't crazy about bagels either. He's British, but not Jewish. on the other hand he always hated rye bread until our recent trip to Germany. And now he's got a bit of a passion for the stuff. Still despite repeated trips to New York, he would never willingly eat a bagel. Whereas I, who was raised with one arm in a pickle barrel and the other reaching for a bagel, well........ I get an inner hum when i get a good bagel.
  22. Oh you are wonderful! all three books, wish i could give you a discount, but the evil old publishers are the ones doing the buying and selling, and the evil old booksellers too. i hope you enjoy the books, and use them in good health! i knw there is a mail order source for golden syrup. if you like, i can bring some to california and mail it to you from there, in another month or so. on the other hand, it might be quicker to go to amazon. Definately recommend bringing good food back from wherever you can find it! bread and cheese are one of my favourite reasons for living in europe. i love the fact that at most italian airports you can get big delicious hunks of parmesan, of prosciutto or other cured meats, the sorts of things that no one should leave italy without! once i brought home a whole leg of jamon from spain--a really nice man helped me with my suitcase on the walk back from the tube from the airport (when i lived in london) and when he asked what was so heavy in it, i showed him the jamon. he expressed interest, and before you know it, right there on the east end street, we were slicing up lovely pieces of rosy serrano ham. we had a little street snack then i packed some up for him, and he helped me shlep that thing the rest of the way. Last trip to Italy was to umbria and i came back with a chunk of prosciutto called a pocket prosciutto--a small prosciutto for travel i guess. it was tasty alright; every time my husband opened the fridge door he took a bite, i mean he didn't cut it, he just dug his teeth into that prosciutto. a bit uncouth, but he loved that prosciutto so! my freezer isn't small, but its not a walk in. we are only two people, though with lots of eating guests; my freezer is half my refrigerator, the bottom half. right now its pretty much all bread and tortillas. my husband wishes it had ice cream in it. when i was recently in san francisco, a restaurant (part of a chain) opened serving Hawaiian plate-lunch. a hawaiian neighbour said it was pretty authentic and i do mean to try it one of these days. i can get excited about the salty-sweet teriyaki thing. and the macaroni-potato-salad-rice thing is kinda interesting. she also brought me a spam sushi which she made specially and i didn't have the heart to tell her i just couldn't stand it. something about the spam and the nori, together in one dish. the sushi rice was okay. what is your life like in hawaii? have you blogged or do you have a personal history up in the egullet innards? did you now that bette midler was from hawaii? my father was also based there during the war, on the same army baseball team as Joe Dimaggio! and i've heard that the pineapples there are divine--worth a trip? shall i outfit my suitcase to accommodate a surfeit of pineapples when i come?
  23. My Bagel Breakfast My bagel this morning was soooooo good, the first bagel after a long bagel-less couple of months, how good was it? it was so good that when i was biting into it i was thinking: I wish I had TWO MOUTHS! so could eat it in both at the same time! Crisp edges, tons of seeds and onion and garlic, just enough butter that i put on only to sort of warm it not to melt, and since the butter was sweet (unsalted) i sprinkled the tiniest amount of salt flakes here and there. Lip-smacking sounds ensure just thinking about it.
  24. Artisan02: thank you, thank you. i hope you enjoyed it! it was sad having such small sales at the time, cause i thought: no one is loving this book! now i get to meet those who bought it--i think you all are on egullet-- and are happy to tell me about it! wonderful! Mochihead: you're right, no good bagels made locally. I don't know ANY good bread locally. Sometimes when i'm in London i buy my favourite bread, Poilane. I helped the late great Lionel Poilane set up his bakery in London (his Paris bakery was legendary at the time). I love the sourdough and rustic simplicity, the wheaty flavour and whiff of rye, of Poilanes bread which i can buy at the bakery or at selfridges or the canary wharf waitrose. poilane bread is wonderful, and its also wonderful because when i taste his bread i think about him. its a good feeling though sad that he's not with us any longer. but i know there are other bakeries in london, just none whose breads i love. oh, once i had some dynamite fig and anise bread at mr. christians deli. but some of the famous breads, like sally clarke's, continue to dissappoint me. oh, st johns serves really good bread, and also egulleteer dan leperd is a wonderful bread baker. but still, unless he's willing to come live with us and do our bread baking, we're sorely left without. i gotta travel for my bread! once i was really fond of cranks sunflower seed bread, but even that has gotten very commercial lately, and sold in its plastic wrapper it just ain't the same. though i still love to pick off the sunflower seeds from the outside of the loaf and nibble them up before i eat the bread. london's baker and spice makes terrific sweet things, and i think i ate an oniony baguette-ish bread not long ago that was teee-rifffick! i'm sure that one of the British members of egullet will chime in with this or that traditional bread, and perhaps they once did really exist, or perhaps they exist elsewhere in the country and i don't know about it, but there is no wonderful bread around. not near me, and seldom when i travel through britain which i've been doing for the 18 years i've lived here. unlike germany where i was blown away to discover the wealth of breads: the wholesome, sour, grainy, breads. i brought back a couple of loaves and froze them, of course. like i have my stash of tassia's bread and my ess a bagels; i even have a stash of ordinary baguettes that I brought back from Paris. i also keep some dark rye from germany, little square slabs of dark rye and not much else except for the occasional other grain or sunflower seed, etc. I don't like the baguettes here except for one exception: the ones made of french flour sold in waitrose. the others are gummy inside, and just never taste right, make me feel bloated afterwards. Lionel used to say that a good bread was one that got better as the days went on: a bread that you could toast and really appreciate the flavour and texture, or cut up and ladle soup over and the bread wouldn't turn to mush. in fact, he wrote a wonderful little books called Tartines, composed of things to be layered on top of a slice of bread. He gave me a copy, in French, but it might have been translated into english. i'm not sure. No, Mochihead, sometimes I just travel for the bread! (i'll travel for tortillas too, and bagels, and flatbread from the mediterranean; they are all in my freezer). i have a friend who lives in the Spanish countryside and doesn't like the local bread either. He says his favourite time of the week is Sunday morning; they get up early and drive over to Portugal where he really loves the bread, then they have a coffee, pack up their shopping and head home with their bread and other goodies. as for markets? we have a farmers market once a month. i don't know what the good people of hampshire eat the rest of the time. (i guess its from the supermarket like we are forced to do). oh, i exaggerate a bit, there is a weekly market but nothing special, nothing wonderful. The one time we had a French marketplace in our local village/town, was when we went to Greece! how irritated was I about that! The french markets are really nice; vendors come across from northern france and set up their markets: fromage, foie gras, and saucisson for all! speaking of shopping, my husband just left for up the hill where the waitrose is. i wonder what he'll come back with. its always a surprise. but i know, after we have been having this egullet discussion about puddings, i just know he has pudding on his mind. i heard him muttering something about treacle...... x marlena
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