jayt90

That is so touching, Jasmine. We should all take time for our most senior of citizens. In another section (Adventures in Eating) Andiesenji notes that 'Food That Really Schmecks' is about to be re-released in paperback in October.

I am so glad to know that this book will be available again. I have borrowed several of Staeblers's from my library. Edna Staebler died in Waterloo Ontario on Sept. 12, 2006. She was 100 years old.

Edna Staebler, author of several Mennonite-Canadian cookbooks, and also historical non-fiction, died on Sept. 12 at 100, in Waterloo. Edna was not Mennonite or Amish, but was able to research and document an important part of our culture in a lively and interesting way. I remember her being interviewed by Peter Gzowski about ten years ago, hopefully this is archived.

Prissy females, Anna, Ann, Cali, and Marlene. Fish and chips is just another problem to solve, as Alton has shown, and need not cost $32 for a couple of halibut servings.

I wonder if persons put off by fishy smells, but agreable to halibut, really give fresh fish a fair chance. If it is truly fresh, and kept on ice, few species will smell fishy. Many cookbook writers, such as Beard and Child, have observed this. Reminds me of my lunchroom, where a wide variety of people, 'won't eat fish'; can't stand pepperoni, mushrooms, or anchovies, and pull the feta out of a greek salad. I don't really expect this on egullet.

I think it looks fine. If the water rinse helped, that should be sufficient. Koshering for a few minutes is also helpful. The photo shows a nice glistening, and that's a good sign.

I'll keep that in mind next year. We have lots of wild lilies, even on road sides. I have heard that cat tails or bull rushes have sweet edible parts (Euell Gibbons, I think) but I never found a good sweet-corn like part. Next spring I'll be looking for peppery cress in the streams, and wild leeks in the bush. I think they're called something else in the U.S. but the name escapes me.

How about pot au feu, or a simple boiled beef? This has many variations around the globe, but can be amazingly good. Especially with fall vegetables in the market.

I enjoy finding new things in the meadows and forests nearby. This was the year of the pod. This year I found quite a few preying manitis egg pods in late winter, and early spring. I took two of them to my back yard and watched them hatch on a warm day in May. Each pod produced about two hundred tiny, hungry, cannibals. A few survived in my back yard garden. In early summer I found milkweed pods, and had heard they were edible. Indeed they are and I gathered a dozen or so. They can be prepared just like snap peas, and are just as sweet. But they have to be taken while small and immature. It is autumn now and I'm looking for puffballs and chanterelles. Never did find morels this year...

Marlene, I sifted through last year's posts and made my own several times. None was any better than your photos, and description, but I quickly learned not to put the battered fish in the basket before lowering. The technique I observed at Penrose (Mt. Pleasant Rd., Toronto) works well: Lower the basket in the oil, then slip the battered fillets in, one by one, slowly. As the bottom of the fillet forms a crust, in about 1 second, it will not stick to the basket when it slips all the way down. Tongs could be used to avoid spatter. There is lots of good halibut in the Ontario market this year. I have had good fish from unlikely sources, Sobeys and Loblaws. Good luck!

A quick google of Bornholm rapeseed oil: produced with heat, enzymes and water (instead of hexane) in Denmark. Sold in health food stores, and used by Danish chefs. There is no indication of flavour, so it may be flavourless, like Canola.

The old small, 1500 watt models are great, as they provide a lot of intense heat and can even be used as a small salamander/broiler. Great for fish, chicken, or finishing a gratin. Mine has no safety features, so it must be watched while grilling.

Canola is tasteless and odourless (at room temp.) but it is possible to find cold pressed, organic canola in some health food stores. There may be some flavour there.

Gordon Ramsay, in every viewing, says to some poor bloke, "You know that, don't you!" when they clearly don't get it, and are totally humilated. He could use better English, without the swear words, to explain and educate.

If you are that bold, why not bite into a few kernels? The host on the original 'Victory Garden' used to do this. In my town I have four vegetable stands to choose from. Three of them discourage peeling. But the other one has a bushel basket for husking, and most people husk before buying. The product is good, depending on time of year, and this stand gets most of my business. I don't see many rejected ears there.

This post is NYC-entric. You can expect very fresh bluefish, striped bass, weakfish, lemon sole, trout and others, but how fresh is fish shipped, or air freighted to New York, such as grouper, snapper, dover sole, cod, salmon, or halibut? These are also air freighted to major inland and western cities, and can be just as fresh, even in a supermarket if the personnel know the product. And most ocean caught fish are seven to ten days old when sold at retail. You may gain one day by going to Fulton at 4AM. There are many types of fresh fish avalable in landlocked areas that may not appear regularly in NYC. Pickerel (walleye), bass, salmon-trout, Arctic Char, Greyling, Pacific Halibut, sockeye from interior rivers etc. If they do appear in Fulton, they will be a few days old.

Is Danish butter or bacon bad for you? There is a residual (.2-.4g.) transfat in meat and dairy products, and it appears on the label. And what about those snack food companies, such as Lay chips, or Kraft peanut butter, who get 0 trans fat on the label, but still use some hydrogenated oil.

it is the same article, just no photos.

Your're right, Joe. I gave up half way through that lengthy diatribe, but the link redeems itself admirably toward the end.

I could never broil a steak or chops with these entry level gas broilers, though I tried many times. They are OK for chicken and fish, however. But a good, small toaster oven will do just as well.

The anti-Canola information here and in another post from Joe Blowe is emotional and unsupported. I would have to agree with Patrick (as usual) for an informed opinion on the oil. Besides, there is unprocessed cold pressed Canola available in health food stores. I would guess that it tastes and looks just as bland as the commercial product.

Today's Globe and Mail contains the Report on Business magazine, with a exhaustive 15 page story behind the scenes at Canoe, by Trevor Cole. If you are not a Globe susbscriber you'll have to hurry to a corner box or a newstand, as the ROB issue is usually a sellout.

I think the real key for this kind of cooking is the heat capacity of your cookware- which means there's no substitute for something heavy. My gas burner is pretty underpowered, but since I switched from a carbon steel wok to a crazy heavy cast iron one, I've had much less problems with the temperature dropping. The only downside is that it's too unwieldy to pour food out: you need to scoop it out and that can be hard to do quickly. -al ← A good suggestion. I have seen low priced cast iron woks in Chinatown, and can think of a few good reasons to have one.

Your skillet is overtaxed for this job. An inexpensive steel wok, over a very hot gas flame, (I don't have a stove for this job, but use a propane powered patio burner) is ideal, as the food is heated quickly bottom and sides, and falls back onto the middle as you stir.

Toss both of them. The Crisco is heavily hydrogenated, to make a thin oil thick. The lard less so, but the the only reason the packer will hydrogenate it is to gain shelf life, at room temperature. All you gain is high trans fats. If you render your own lard, ask the butcher for pork fat back, from the kidneys. This is the whitest and purest lard you can get.