curlywurlyfi

oh, I'm getting really into this now. Weren't the 80s all about overelaborate presentation? what if you made little boxes out of After Eight wafers [for the US - proprietary brand of small thin flat 2.5in square mint fondants dipped in dark chocolate] glued together with piped chocolate and filled with afore-mentioned chocolate mousse, maybe spiked with creme de menthe, and a chocolate leaf on top? Or Josceline Dimbleby's Tarte Montmartre (which has nothing at all to do with Paris as far as I can recall) - chocolate shortcrust pastry, lemon souffle-ish filling, iced with dark chocolate ganache, lemon rind shavings to garnish? Again, have recipe somewhere. This is making me Hungry Like The Wolf...

Kiwifruit, girl, you gotta involve those kiwi fruit. what about a tart with creme patissiere then kiwi fruit slices and apricot glaze? or, what was that thing that we all had to death - the chocolate pots with the macaroon crumbs in, can't remember what it's called but I think Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken & Other Stories has a recipe (have got at home so can dredge out if you warn me). Or what about just a good old chocolate mousse - the first thing I learnt to 'cook' as a young laydeee - must be made with Bourneville chocolate rather than anything with a high cocoa solids percentage, of course. Or a raspberry pavlova? god I love the 80s. "You are gold (gold!), always believe in your so-oul..." (Exit Fi stage left, singing.)

AzRaeL, you are so right (though I'm talking about MY mother's marmalade rather than yours!) I bring jars of it home after Christmas and Easter and parsimoniously dole out to my friends if I need a favour. They write her thank you letters - I'm not kidding! Hey - wanna have a motherly marmalade stand-off??

Hi Hillvalley - weighing in with another tea suggestion - if you like the flavour, fennel tea is very soothing for tummies - drink warm not hot though (easier on the system). Fi

I think the crucial thing for Birchermuesli is that you have to grate in a whole unpeeled apple, seeds + all. Hmmm.

Hi Ben, and congratulations! I've just come back from New Year spent in Italy (in Le Marche + Emilia Romagna) and driving on the autostrada is a bit intimidating from a navigational point of view because, in their infinite wisdom, the Italians number the bridges that pass over the road, but not the junctions... So we were dealing with a lot of instructions that said, 'the turn-off for Forli is immediately after bridge 178' (clue to scour road for tiny brown sign with green number). Plus, there are no useful signs along the road saying '20km to Bologna' - basically there are no signs for anywhere till you're right on top of the turn... But I love Italy. Got to love a country where you can go to a motorway service station and they don't even blink about offering you a bottle of wine with your lunch!! Fi

when we had Mad Cow in the UK it definitely made people wary of offering beef as a choice at formal dinners/lunches. but it was not a problem serving it to friends + relatives at home (assuming, of course, that you'd sourced your beef from a reliable butcher in the first place, and that your friends/relations knew they could be confident of that). Fi

ooooh yes me too me too. love the idea of travelling dinner. didn't urbane suburban dwellers do them in the 70s between houses? (lots of fondue and melon balls methinks.) we could also go to The Atlas (Earl's Court 2 side of the Old Brompton Road). Mmmm, smoked salmon with tzatziki + bulghur wheat + green beans.

in the Brave New World that is 2004 (yesterday was my first day back at home after New Year in Italy where I basically ate my own body weight daily in gorgonzola gnocchi truffles cream truffles wild boar sausage truffles parmesan prosciutto truffles olive oil tortellini and truffles), last night's dinner was ENTIRELY vegetable-based: - baked sweet potatoes - courgettes, green beans, garlic + lemon quarters, tossed in oo + roasted - plum tomatoes, tossed in oo + bay leaves + roasted combined on a plate with feta cheese crumbled over. And two glasses of a light merlot-shiraz blend, since stopping alcohol consumption cold would most certainly have been injurious to my health. And Kristin, those gyoza look absolutely superb! Fi

Go timpano, go! am deeply jealous and drooooling all the way from London. Have a Maltese grandmother who makes this (though it's called 'timpana' in Maltese) and my GOD it's good stuff, though it would equally well work as ballast for deep sea divers as it is seriously not light nor fluffy (pasta wrapped in pastry? I spit upon your Atkins head!) She saves the drippings from the bottom of the roasting tin to put into the tomato sauce when she makes hers... and roasted aubergines also feature. It's very good cold for picnics, too. Your pastificio sounds like a great idea generally, in fact! Fi

oooh, Raynickben, is this actually a real burger, or just the tennis tournament sponsor in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest?? (which I am currently re-reading for the third time, mainly to improve my bicep definition.) Fi

Jackal, that blog is amazing. Your pheasants are stunning! and the panettone, my god, a labour of love. you are almost (almost) converting me to Aga cooking... Happy 2004. Fi

here are some quick and easy ones (which I will be using a lot in the coming weeks, having just returned from New Year in Italy where I ate truffles EVERY DAY, mainly with pasta, cream, gorgonzola, gnocchi, butter... aieeeeee). Steam some baby new potatoes. Slice a skinned chicken breast into fingers and poach in a little (I usually use about an inch in the bottom of a 7-in-across pan) slightly stronger-than-usual stock. Slice a courgette (zucchini) into thin coins and when the chicken is two mins away from being done, drop the courgette into the stock with the chicken. When all ready, slice the potatoes into the stock and dot with some fierce harissa. Serve like a soup. Sear a salmon steak in a seriously hot frying pan, then cook to how you like it. when ready and while it's still in the pan trickle over a couple of tablespoons of balsamic + 1-2 of soy (depending on sodium tolerance) to make a sauce. Scrape up any crusty bits from the pan. Serve with steamed green veg. Finally, a good low fat salad dressing is a mixture of rice wine vinegar, soy, grated garlic or chopped spring onions, grated ginger, red chilli flakes, chopped coriander, and a couple of drips of sesame oil and maybe half a teaspoon of sugar. It is good as a dipping sauce too with eg prawns or chicken or tofu. Good luck, sockettrousers! hope those pounds just fall off you. Fi

finally at home in Scotland with my parents, my brother, his not-girlfriend, my aunt, uncle + cousin. Mum + I made a vat of her legendary lentil soup. Ingredients: 4 large turnips, 4 large leeks, 4 kilos carrots, 3 ham bones, 3 kilos red lentils. Simmered for four hours in a pan made by my grandpa out of the steel they used for the Queen Mary (he worked in the Glasgow shipyards). Went to the local pantomime and when we came back about 9.30pm we carved a chunk off the motherlode and thinned it a bit with boiling water ('no point freezing water, Fiona' as my mother says), sprinkled parsley and served with bread + butter. Sigh. it's good to be home. the rest of the soup was sectioned into tupperware (14 boxes with 8 portions each!) and into the freezer.

clementine sorbet, with cloves infused in the sugar syrup also, you can have a fruit lantern making session. cut round the clementine's pith at equator level in a zig zag all the way round, then carefully peel the two halves so they don't tear. cut out pretty hole decorations (imagine it's a v-e-r-y small pumpkin), put a tealight in the bottom, cut a hole in the top half of the peel as a vent (just take out the stalk a bit vigorously), light candle, replace lid, and voila. family competition round the Christmas table. for the ones that tear, you can 'spritz' them across a candleflame to see mini sparks? am I pathologically attracted to flames?? Fi

Putting a cross in the base of Brussels sprouts. Believing best-before dates for yoghurt + cheese. Eating parsley takes away garlic on your breath. And (my mother's favourite), serving cream with dessert 'cuts the richness'!!

My version of this loses the initial parsley, then I toss the tomatoes + spices in olive oil, add a couple of bay leaves, several whole unpeeled garlic cloves and quite a lot of dried red chilli flakes. then put a WHOLE chicken on top (longer roasting time + more fat runs out so much more melty + reduced tomatoes). Chop parsley or coriander over before serving. Dead easy weeknight supper.

We all congregate at my parents' house in Scotland for Christmas - by all I mean my M+D; my brother who lives in Malta; his 'not girlfriend'; my aunt + uncle from Glasgow; and my cousin Isobel (their daughter) who lives in Toronto. A few years ago my mum and my aunt (who are sisters) had breast cancer and were having chemo - please don't worry - all fine now, and they have regular checkups - so my cousin and I volunteered to cook Christmas lunch. That has been our Christmas tradition since then - Isobel and I locked in the kitchen from 10am with a bottle or several of Sauvignon Blanc, cursing the brussels sprouts, basting the ham, mashing turnip, generally steaming up the windows, occasionally emerging from the fug to ask one or other of the mothers how to make bread sauce/gravy/custard... of course we know perfectly well how to, we just like to make them feel indispensable. Isobel and I bond like crazy (I only see her once a year and she's like the big sister I never had); my brother carves, the not-girlfriend washes up, and all's right with the world. Can't wait. I'm heading up there on Saturday morning and I'm happy already.

Carpet picnic! pregnant friend + various others came over and we couldn't be bothered to cook properly so set out on the coffee table: - smoked salmon, blinis, sour cream, lemon quarters - Cheese Melts - little crispy biscuits with grated cheese toasted on top (packaged) - tortilla chips + taramasalata - marshmallows - cherries + strawberries - four different kinds of chocolate Sat round on the sofas and drank champagne and laughed a lot. Really lovely happy evening.

a note to add to this - make sure you get taps (and I agree, a single mixer tap, not separate hot + cold) that you can turn on and off with your elbows - looks a bit 'pass the scalpel please, nurse', but it drives me INSANE that in my current kitchen, if the phone rings, I have to turn on the tap with my bread-dough covered hand before I can run the water to wash my hands. And then have to waste more time wiping the tap down before I can get back to my work. Elbow taps, elbow taps. Also, had you considered getting deeper-than-normal work surfaces? I'm going for ones that are 60cms deep plus a shallow (8cms high, 25cms deep) step shelf at the back, so you can put electric kettle, knife block, herbs + spices tray, wooden spoon pot, etc on the shelf and get them OFF the work surface - makes it look less cluttered and makes for easier clean up as you don't have to lift all the items to wipe underneath. can't wait to see photos of the finished kitchen! Fi

oh god, now you think I'm some sort of pervert. Sorry, have no idea about SMEG (as opposed to smeg)...

My Maltese Uncle Lely (short for Emmanuel - who knew?), who is a legendary cook, never puts onion in his tomato sauce. Garlic, yes. I'm loving the idea of lemon peel, though! A revelation I've come to lately is not to add black pepper (to anything, not just tomato sauce) until the very end. It loses something and goes dusty.

er - I don't think you're going to like the smeg answer very much. don't look if you're squeamish. smeg Fi

A Josceline Dimbleby recipe, Tarte Montmartre - a lemon souffle tart baked in a chocolate pastry case, glazed with bitter chocolate. Served with chilled pouring cream (it cuts the richness, you know...)

to lessen the chance of encountering Christmas timing issues, you could always head for one of the vast range of Lebanese/Middle Eastern places on the Edgware Road. my favourite is Al-Dar but it is, deep breath, grips side of chair, not licensed, thus rendering it utterly pointless. Maroush is good but not always stellar. If you go there you can have a prod round the brilliant Green Valley supermarket (Edgware Rd end of Upper Berkeley St) - I reel just at the pastries, but they also do an amazing array of olives and fresh roasted nuts. Or, if I drag myself back to the restaurant request, there's Al Waha on Westbourne Grove, which is great, and prob a bit closer to High St Ken.