curlywurlyfi

Matt - do you have to treat them differently to normal pans? using detergent on them, oiling after use, etc?

I went here on Saturday for lunch with Moby. Fantastic. Stephen Harris is an ocean-goingly nice man, passionate about working with the terroir - all his ingredients come from within a few miles of the pub - eg the little lambs you see gambolling in the salt marsh across the road are the ones that appear on your plate; the kitchen scraps (cabbage parings, etc) are taken to the farm on the hill where they are fed to the pigs who later become the delicious ham; the rhubarb for the sorbet comes from the kitchen garden... He showed us round the kitchen + garden, talked us through the ham-curing + sea-salt-making processes, and proposed a tasting menu for me + Moby (Kate, Kate's mum + Gabe went à la carte). Here's what Moby + I ate: Except, of course, being greedy weasels, we decided we'd like to add in a crab risotto. Between us - we're not THAT greedy. Well, except Moby nearly cried when I vetoed ordering some pork belly as well. Highlights: Oyster + chorizo - mmm. I'm not a fan of oysters, but this one had a fabulous, slightly crisp texture. Potted crab - served in a shot glass. Possibly bound with double cream (so beautifully light, not solid + buttery). Stunning. My dish of the day. Ozoney fresh crab, heaps of white meat, clean intense flavours. Pickled herring on soda bread with lemon + vodka jelly. One bite of fishy goodness. Fantastic counterpoint with the sweet jelly (so soft-set it melted while we watched). Ham + tomato - now doesn't that sound like the worst kind of petrol station Ginsters sandwich? Ha. This was the ham we'd seen curing. Strong, salty - Spanish style rather than Italian. Heavenly sweet crisp fat. Tomato granita intense + sweet. More more more please. Beautiful piece of turbot, mini mini broad beans, asparagus tips, courgette brunoise. Gripe? I didn't want tomato in this dish + left my little squares to one side. Lamb - a shade disappointing in flavour. Also, same veg as the last dish (mini asparagus, beans, etc). Rhubarb sorbet - in a shot glass, with a thin layer of yoghurt on top + a layer of Space Dust under that. Really charming! Sorbet itself had the most perfect consistency - not a hint of granularity. Served on a square duck-egg blue plate so looked totally beautiful with the pink + blue. My other dish of the day. Strawberries + brioche - a little bit Tiptree on toast (I'm not mad about poached strawberries). Didn't stop me eating the lot though. Had tried the junket on its own first (the size of a thimble, + served on a tiny little duck-egg blue square plate - very very pretty), and wasn't enamoured - for me jasmine tea is all about floral notes followed by astringency, and you don't get much astringency if you add cream (are you listening, Mum?) But eaten in conjuction with the strawberries, it made more sense. Meanwhile Kate + her mum were having an astounding chocolate mousse cake, with a texture I can't explain - imagine if velvet suddenly melted on your tongue?; and a delightfully unsweet almond + raspberry tart. Both with raw Jersey cream. which I went at with a teaspoon only because there were no bigger implements available. With a bottle of Chablis, lots of water, coffees + delicious chocolate brownie squares with the coffees, the bill came to... well, I can't tell you, since Stephen, completely unecessarily, didn't let us pay. How nice of him was that? I *loved* this place. Friendly, happy staff; superb ingredients; intelligent cooking; gorgeous spot by the shingly beach. If only Whitstable were a little closer to London.

ah, mizducky, you are surely a woman after my own heart (on the aubergine horror front, at least)

thank you - that's exactly what I wanted to know.

can you freeze tofu? the kind packed in a plastic tub in (?) water, with a clear peel-off film lid. Does it affect the texture (this is silken tofu not firm)?

That, my friends, is (are?) peas puréed with crème fraîche, nutmeg + mint. Utterly delicious, especially with ham, but oh dear god, they're vivid.

OK, so I had the sort of man who makes foie gras ravioli with asparagus foam + a crenellation of lark's tongue when you go to his for dinner round last night. I gave him... cold ham + salad. Endearingly retro? Yes, but not only that, eye-searingly colourful too! These are just four of the side dishes (I did slice the tomatoes). Look! Purple, bloody-hell-that's-fluorescent green, red and, er, brown. Let's have a closer look at that bowl of brown. Aubergines, since you were wondering. Originally beautiful - small, slim, lavender-streaked-with-white - transformed by my genius into something that came out of a dogfood tin. Delicious!

Can't remember who (Nigella?) has a recipe for baked custard with armagnac prunes at the bottom of the ramekins - very good.

I had two lunches from the leftovers, though, Suzi (er - now that I think about it, one lunch and one breakfast - eek)!

>bump< I'm going to Menorca for a week (escape to the sun!) and would appreciate any recommendations, at any level - beach bars + casual snacks as well as high end. thank you! Fi

"oh pwahv-r" - kind of just tack the r on at the end like an afterthought. edited because, if you put an 'r' in brackets, it turns into an ®

oh now see this has made my day!

hmm - there's a very simple Jamie Oliver recipe - from memory, mulch up lots of garlic + thyme with olive oil, smear on a pork tenderloin, roll in Parma ham, sit on a bed of chopped rhubarb + roast.

Chufi that is hysterical!

so my friend Em was in town with her new baby girl (five weeks old), and I decided to make her pink cupcakes to celebrate. I have learnt several valuable lessons from this experience. 1. I need bigger cupcake tins - mine squashed the paper cases leaving holes gouged vertically in the cupcakes 2. Said gutters were perfect for the icing to drool down, even though said icing refused to cover the entire top of the cupcake 3. Nigella's vanilla cupcake recipe sucks. They came out of the oven looking fantastic, if a little pointy on top, but as they cooled they sank + developed the texture of something you would use to wipe up spills on a kitchen counter 4. Red food colouring plus white icing sugar does NOT give you baby pink - it gives you a lurid magenta, suitable for Hammer House of Horror vampire blood special effects 5. I am 36 years old and well past the age of Barbie Fun Sprinkles The Cupcakes of Blood: A closeup. Please note how this one looks like it's in the death grip of a miniature cerise octopus:

here y'go. My parents lived in nearby Kilmarnock til a couple of years ago + we would go here for good (and enormous) but relaxed dinners at Christmastime. I think my cousin even waitressed here for a while. Don't eat for days before you go. It's a teeny weeny village about 20 mins from Prestwick. http://www.craigieinn.com

Apparently Malta is one of the only countries in the world where Coca-Cola isn't the biggest selling soft drink - the Maltese prefer their locally-made Kinnie!

Welcome, IvanC! Oh, Maltese pastizzi - I love them - have mentioned them on eG previously. My parents live in Malta + I often bring back a foil tray of frozen (uncooked) pastizzi from Mr Maxims in Sliema - I have a Maltese friend in London who practically cries when I give him them! His mother has taught his wife to make them, and I went over one night when she was trying them out - heresy - she had put Parmesan in the ricotta 'to bump up the flavour'! no no no! the point of the cheesecake is that it is plain smooth delicious ricotta! And who knew that the pea ones are made with those awful tinned marrowfat peas which I hated so much as a child. Have never knowingly seen meat ones, I must say.

I got my bottle of mineral oil in the IKEA on the North Circular; it was right by the wooden chopping boards.

Kathy - thank you - my mother has a stack of those exact same cards with the pineapple on the left + that is exactly how they look - typed on a manual typewriter, and covered with years of food stains, sorry, kitchen medals. The one I'm thinking of is titled "Chinese Pork" and features celery, treacle + cashew nuts - the height of exotic in 1972.

Hello therese! *waves across the Atlantic* Well, here I am, back in London after my Parisian mini-break. The restaurant was charming and very good, which was a huge relief, since we had chosen it largely on the strength of me once writing an essay on a compilation of fairy tales called Les Contes de la Rue Broca - not really the traditional way to pick a restaurant. My soup was crème de sauveton, croutons et ciboulette. I had to ask what sauveton was - crushed game bird carcases, apparently. Add about a pint of warm cream, some chopped chives for the all-important vegetable component and some unadvertised but naturally extremely welcome cubes of foie gras, and this was the most delicious, savoury, perfumed, slightly frothy soup. (My only sadness was that it was very similar to our amuse - a shot glass of slightly frothy cream of rockfish soup with croutons et ciboulette. Hmmm.) therese's pressé de langue de boeuf et foie gras was absolutely delicious; fantastic contrast between the cold smooth buttery foie + the shreds of tender beef tongue. And as she has said, it was gigantic. And came with three scraps of lettuce, to keep your arteries open, presumably. I tested one of therese's coquilles St Jacques persillées with endives meunière. Lordy lord, dripping with butter. Nice enough, but for me lacked zing - the sweetness of the (four large) scallops needed a lift. The endives were wonderful - bitter and limp (which doesn't *sound* like a good thing, but trust me - great.) I had (for an EUR8 supplement), the milk-fed lamb. I had totally forgotten there were potatoes too! A colossal plateful of probably just slightly too rare (for me) lamb (the thing I love about lamb is the contrast of the scrackly savoury brown caramelly outside, and the pink middle. This was red to the edges + the fat went cold + hard too quickly for me). But the flavour was superb, and so tender. therese's vanilla blancmange with fresh pineapple + toasted almonds was definitely menu winner; my sablé was a little solid (though I did eat quite a lot of it in the interests of making sure). I'm not much of a one for gushing, but really, this is what makes eGullet great - someone I met online invites me for dinner in Paris? And to stay overnight, and meet her children? I was really touched - and delighted. Plus, we laughed HEAPS. And I got to try on some fantastic yellow shoes. And now, it's back to dry crusts and gruel. Thank you very much for having me!

and click here for a mention of The Elephant in last Saturday's Telegraph. Congratulations, Simon, on being "a better looking Jamie Oliver"!

I've just opened this month's copy of Sainsbury's Magazine + found a recipe for dark chocolate, banana + marshmallow brioche toasted sandwiches. The recipe notes "can also be made with slices of panettone". The first thing I thought of was this thread!

And my friend Tilly, who orders through her mother's account!!

what about coconut creme brulee?