eskimoted

thanks a lot for all the ideas here. Personally, I agree with everyone who thinks that slumping is a fact of life - they taste so yummy I never have time to look at them anyway. But non-slumping was still Victoria's quest. The change from pyrex to aluminium seems to have done the trick - also smaller pans seems to have helped a lot. It looks ike most of the fault was that of the pyrex in heating the sides too fast. At any rate everyone is now happy - me with the taste and Victoria with the appearance! Thanks for the great help everyone, wish I could send a sample in thanks.

My wife makes a fabulous brownie but she's not happy with the way they slump in the centre of the pan after she removes them from the oven. They look great just as they come out of the oven but the centre of the pan falls while cooling. Any ideas very welcome, thanks.

Following the subject of wonderful typos being discussed earlier, Stigand, I guess you meant to type "Tataki". Tatami is the straw matting floor covering used in Japanese buildings.

Deep Fried Pizza http://www.begbie.com/dish.html

In my experience most of the bitterness in a fish stock will come either from excessive time on the simmer or excessive temperature in the process. Either will liberate calcium from the bones which, in fish or poultry carcasses, fail to fix the calcium to the bones as definitely as beef or veal. Whilst beef and veal bones will stand up to (and, in fact, demand) a long simmer, I find the best approach with fish is a short (say 30 - 40 min), slight simmer followed by a 20 min rest then a short return to a simmer followed by an immediate strain through a chinoise. Chicken can take slightly longer on the simmer and duck longer still. After that the calcium leaches out which adds a nasty bitter taste to the stock. I know it's obvious, but under no circumstances allow the fish or poultry stock to boil - whereas a boil in a beef stock will often lead at worst to cloudy liquor, which you can probably clarify out, in fish or poultry a temperature above a glossy simmer is guaranteed to ruin it by leaching out the calcium and changing the taste, making it bitter - about which you can do nothing.

One idea - rillettes de porc. Keeps well and you probably have everything else you need already in the kitchen. There are a million different ways to do it, but here's a recipe for a start - you can fiddle with it to suit yourself. http://www.galaxylink.com.hk/~john/food/co...ettesdeporc.htm

Hi Edsel, Re the stuffing - I stick in whatever I have lying around. Breast or dark, often I'll add in some bacon if I have the last stump of some in the fridge - this isn't exactly a recipe, just a concept. It definitely helps if you add some fat in, whether it's just some skin (duck skin is good if you have any lying around) or some pork fat chopped up is nice too. I typically chop the chicken rather than grind it, a slightly coarser thing works nicely. Re timing, I just prod the thing with my finger and see when it firms up. When it feels done I'll stick a skewer in to see if the juices run clear.

I'm rather partial to boning the chicken out, stuffing it with lots of garlic, ground chicken and fresh tarragon then reforming the whole thing back as a chicken. The carcass then produces the stock for the gravy. Quick and easy to do. Wouldn't say I have a favourite - I like plenty of different ways of roasting chicken - but this one is in the top 5. Another great way is an Indonesian recipe. Roasting is only one of the 3 cooking methods so it might not count on this thread! You steam the whole chicken for a bit, then roast it (preferably in a bbq), then portion it and simmer the portions in a coconut gravy (pound shallots, galangal, lime leaves, chilli, blachan, garlic, coriander root, peanut oil & turmeric & fry off till the oil breaks out and the paste is a mahogony reddish colour). Finish with fish sauce at the table. YUM-OH

I agree Seth, Cod can be a pain to work with because it flakes easily, but it tastes so fantastic. The trick is not to fondle it overly. I cook cod a lot here in Tokyo; often marinate in miso, sugar, mirin and sake (this is the Nobu dish that tastes spectacularly brilliant but is sadly overpriced at the restaurant). http://starchefs.com/NMatsuhisa/html/recipe_05.shtml 2 easy ways to cook, put it in a fish cage and under a broiler on as high as it will burn. Other way is to pan cook and not turn but put the pan to finish under the grill too. Either way, there's no turning to break the flakes apart.

There's another thing that seems to get people all excited and that's using a mortar and pestle for curry pastes. I'm in favour of mortar and pestle for certain things, but I have to say for most curry pastes that I'm going to cook slowly for ages the blender is much easier and there is no difference in outcome. On the other hand - neither fresh turmeric nor galangal are replaceable by their dried versions.

Egyptian cooks just simmer the stuff in a chicken stock along with flavourings of their choice, often just garlic and lots of fresh black pepper. Simmer till the whole soup thickens up. You want it nice and gluey! A friend of mine is an Orthodox bishop with a big Coptic following - he told me that his flock are so enamoured of Milookhiya that they tear out every other plant from their gardens and plant it with this stuff so they always have it fresh.

Weird; I just looked at the Cooking forum and there's a whole thread there on Milookhiyya started a couple of days ago by Kristin herself. What sort of bizarre cook's synchronicity is going on here? Anyway question for Kristin - where are you getting hold of it?

Yep, I agree that the Asian 'Superstore' is about as precisely named as the 'New' Otani in Akasaka! But if I can at least get my hands on a couple of otherwise impossible-to-obtain ingredients then it's a win. I'm a bit hard pressed to find Middle Eastern stuff here - Torakris do you know anywhere that handles stuff like Milookhiyya and affordable pulses, or is that another one for care packages from abroad? The National Azabu and Nissin are fine as far as they go, but limited (which is fair enough) & ridiculously expensive.

Let's face it..Xmas is a mercantile tradition for most. And Japan certainly knows how to rig up a good shopping excuse! Have you noticed how fashionable it has become for young girls to wear crucifixes lately. If we judged purely on accessories you'd have to assume that Christianity and Louis Vuittonity were the biggest religions in Japan. Off topic - there is a chocolate shop that has just opened up in Roppongi Hills around the corner from my place which is turning over JPY 40,000,000 a month. The lines are always long; people queueing up for a $10 commemorative chocolate. Then it's off next door to join the queue for Louis V!

There are quite a few good SE Asian (mainly Thai) shops up in Okubo - jump out at Higashi Shinjuku Station on the Oedo line. The Asia Superstore is the only place here in Tokyo I've ever found rau ram - how does one live without rau ram! Here is a good list of stores: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/miho/selamatmakan/i...a/tokobahan.htm

I used to live in Aus, I'm going there for Xmas actually, and kangaroo is unquestionably great to eat. 10 or 15 years ago it was illegal to sell it for human consumption, only for pet food, so it has a bit of an image problem to overcome. In South Australia it became quite fashionable, at the more innovative restaurants, as a great flavoured lean meat and to a very limited extent this approach moved interestate as regulatory issues allowed. Unfortunately, along with produce like emu, crocodile and other 'aussie' foods, it tends to get lumped into the gimmicky, tourist area. In the case of emu and crocodile this is wholly reasonable - they are not interesting at all from a culinary perspective. Kangaroo, on the other hand, is a great game meat and could do with some image enhancement.

Good article in the Independent. http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food_an...sp?story=467119 I've made mincemeat over many Xmases and this is pretty much the same as I've done - it tastes good - maybe I add more liquor. If you make it without the meat in it, the mincemeat will keep and improve in flavour. Make it weeks or months in advance.

I live in Japan and there is a recipe that everyone loves. It's called Buta no Kakuni and is simply pork belly stewed in Soy Sauce. Take the belly and place it skin side down in a pan to crisp up the skin and render out a good deal of the fat. Then put it whole into a pot with a few slices of ginger, and a clove or two of garlic and water to cover. Stew this gently for at least 2 hours, till it is really melt-in-the-mouth. You'll know when it's ready because it becomes really 'floppy' in the pan. Then you need to add the real flavourings. Cut the belly right through against the grain into pieces a bit less than an inch wide and 3 inches long. It's easier if you can refrigerate the belly overnight at this stage, since you'll find it easier to cut cleanly, but don't worry if not. Then put these pieces into a pot. Cover with soy sauce, a couple of shots of mirin, a splash of the stock from the first stewing and a scant handful of sugar. Stew this for about 30 minutes. Yum. It's also nice to soft boil some eggs, peel them, then store them in the remaining cooking sauces (after you've finished your pork) at room temperature for an hour or so. The stock you have from the first stewing is great for the soup for ramen - 50/50 pork/chicken stock is perfect too.

Can't say I'm a personal fan of the proprietary gravy things, although I expect some of them could have some good flavours. Adding a small amount flour the cooking fats and then making a dark roux with that is a good way of doing it. An even easier way, in a sense, is to make a really stiff espagnole sauce and freeze it into portions. Then just deglaze the pan with some wine and then add a portion or two of the espagnole to the deglazed juices. Because the espagnole has already spent a good amount of time "deflouring" (as it were) the roux, you'll see the benefit of the thickness without the nasty mouthfeel of adding corn starch or flour at the last minute. Of course, you have to have been bothered to make the espagnole in the first place! I definitely don't recommend beurre manie for a pan gravy. But it works well to thicken a thin gravy in slow cooked dishes like a boeuf bourguignon. Add it at towards the end, because the often the sauce will thicken naturally during the cooking process. Remember though that you'll need at least 30 minutes further cooking time to deal with the flour.

Thanks fifi. I'm really very impressed by this site - food, or more correctly cooking, is one of my favourite things. So to find thousands of like-minded people wanting to chat about it is brilliant. Re Duck: they are fun to cook with and the flesh and stock taste great in themselves, but the lard is so handy to have around. Anything cooked in it has a special taste. Of course, potatoes are the classic but try sauteing some spinach in a couple of spoons of it, or using it instead of bacon fat in preparing cabbage will give more subtlety to the result. Or blanch some garlic quickly and pound it to a paste with some coarse salt then add in cold duck fat, rather as one would add oil to egg yolks to make mayonnaise; the result is a great paste you can use in lots of ways, as a spread or spread on crusty bread then grill, etc. See you around here!

If you're making shellfish stock or fish stock here's a great sauce which is perfect with the shellfish meat. Take your stock, say a good 3 litres of unreduced stock, and reduce it by about half, then add a good whack of a decent white wine, say 500ml or so, and continue to reduce till you have a caramel glaze. This will smell beautifully sweet and will truly have the consistency and colour of a light caramel sauce. Add in some cream till the sauce looks about right (probably 300 - 400ml or so) and then finish with some saffron strands that have been soaked with the soaking liquid. Simple and lovely sauce. Also works well with chicken stock.

I agree, paying for duck fat is mad. It couldn't be easier to render down and there is something pleasantly complete about taking the carcass apart and using it all in the manner MichaelB describes. Duck is actually a very cheap meat given the fact that everything in the carcass has a use. One thing to add - rendering the fat is a tad simpler and I think the result is, perhaps, slightly sweeter if you simply finely mince the fat with a knife and then use water to cover it in the rendering pan. Bring it to a very gentle simmer very slowly and keep simmering until the water has evaporated off. This way there is no possibility of the skin colouring on the bottom of the pan. You can keep simmering until the skin is crisped in the bottom of the pan and the result will be a perfect yellow fat when melted.