jayt90

I have seen wizened old chip truck proprietors blanch and hold fries in the on board refrigerator for a day or so, in plastic bags; they maintained that several days of holding were possible, but they never froze them, for the above noted reasons.

Now we're getting somewhere! But I have several questions: (1) Should I reduce my own beef fat from scraps? I have heard that back fat from the kidney is best, but don't have a supply. Is lard from pork scraps a substitute? (2) I need more recommendations for batter. I like a crisp outer batter with no holes or gaps. (3) Many well known fish and chip shops use frozen halibut or haddock. One of our esteemed contributors and critics, Jamie Mau, says that deep frozen halibut shoud be as good as fresh if it is thawed slowly over ice. Any suggestions? (4) I don't know King Edwards or Maris Piper potatoes, but Russets are ubiquitous in North America, and they are large and starchy. I'll bet they are similar. (5) any suggestions for how long to fry the fish to get a moist yet hot serving?

In northern climates there are allia known as wild leeks gathered in spring from wet soils, and used in the traditional 'Cock-a-Leekie' soup. It's a lot stronger than a potato/leek potage. Early spring streams also bring fresh watercress, and pansy flowers for salads for batter and fry.

As supermarkets go, Highland Farms is a good resource. I went in today for a Cornish hen, (could get that anywhere), and came out with some vegs, a small tin of Russian salmon eggs for $9. (says it is a U.S. product but the printing is Cyrillic.), a jar of taramasalata, and a 10 lb. pork leg roast for $10. which went right into the pickle, to be hot-smoked before Xmas. If I went into Loblaws, I wouldn't find these extras!

There is a small place east of Lansdowne, on Bloor, with a comida corrida

How to make the best Fish and Chips at home comes up from time to time, but I would like to see a full discussion. Marlene had a nice pictorial, and would have done it perfectly if the fish had not stuck. She used fresh halibut in beer batter. What kind of potatoes are good. I like Russets for texture, but they don't have a lot of flavour. Fresh versus frozen fish? Soft versus firm flesh fish? I have used canola or soy oil. Should this be upgraded? And finally, is there a preferred temperature range for frying?

You should look at the some regional goodies such as Eden Valley Riesling, Hunter Semillon, Barosa Shiraz, Tasmanian Pinot Noir, and Western Australian or Coonawarra Cabernet. Way too many wines to recommend and easy to find all over Sydney in the bottle shops and fine wine merchants. The Hunter Valley is only 2 hours way by car if you can find the time....well worth it! Cheers, Stephen Great suggestions. If you spot the single vineyard Rieslings from Henschke, they are well worth grabbing. They are mid range but very well made. Vancouver ←

I read somewhere (probably a Toronto Life guide) that there are several Baltic stores and bakeries on the Bloor St. West strip. What piqued my interest was the availability of imported frozen rye bread dough, the real thing, unlike the white flour blends we usually get. Haven't got there yet. Anyone had these fuller ryes? edited to say that the dough actually comes from Lithuania, Estonia, or Latvia.

My local Mediterranean store, Nasr, sells coffee ground to spec. If you want cardamom, they add a well rounded teaspoon to a pound of beans, then grind. You could use this as a starting point, if you have cardamom seeds, and coffee from Africa available (Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen etc). The store also prefers to add some dark roast to the regular roast but this is why they grind to your specs. For me a little dark roast goes a long way... I use a drip device, as I can't get the French Press to work for me. Arabs will drink it black, and sweetened, but it will be fine with cream and a little less sugar.

Firm white fish fillets will work well. The suggestion by Chefcrash to use cod and beer batter is good. Halibut and haddock are great if you have them. Sole, flounder, turbot etc can be a little soft. Ditto catfish. The best potatoes will be Russets or large oval baking types. Smaller ones, such as Yukon Gold, or the reds, may be too soggy.

I learned a poaching technique from a restaurant doing a large Sunday brunch. They put 1"-1.5" of water in a large pan, brought it to a simmer, and added the eggs, then covered and kept simmering until barely cooked. The scant amount of water allowed for yellow topped eggs, and there was very little sticking on the pan.

I don't know why the World Atlas of Wine (Robinson and Johnson) would not be adequate. The vineyards are clearly mapped by elevation and soil type. Separating the crus is just a matter of learning, which will be necessary with or without a colour guide.

Could be a local or regional (East coast) decision. I can still get veal cutlets, veal stew meat, and ground veal (sometimes) at my local Costco. We never had the shoulder roasts available here.

They may peel more easily if thay are blanched for a few seconds, then rolled under hand pressure over a board.

I don't know exactly where you were yesterday, but it couldn't have been a Price Club, as they succumbed to Costco 10 years ago. But you're in good company: Shelagh Rogers makes the same mistake on CBC-1 The Staub features an indented lid, to force steam droplets back down on the food, evenly. There are Chinese knock-offs of LC at much lower prices, at the Bay and elsewhere and the ones I have (La Campagne) are pretty good. But I would expect to pay more for the French product, and there is a certain mystique about them.

The zeal to rid the wetlands of Purple Loosestrife was often fuelled, and funded by, Ducks Unlimited, as they thought ducks for their pleasure would be restricted in habitat. I loved to watch bees and butterflies feeding in the loosestrife, and wondered why we were so dismissive of it, when it was valuable to many insects. Many hectares of it were uprooted in my area, and a predatory insect from Europe was introduced to keep it under control. It was a great source of wildflower honey when it flowered here, and it was a very valuable way station for migrating Monarchs.

This is so pompous. I can't put 370 into a grinder for breakfast coffee, American-style. In fact I do just fine with the Cuisinart blade grind and brew, which grinds coarsely, and produces no dust or burnt grounds because the coffee is forced through a wind tunnel as soon as it is ground. This works well for me in the morning, when I'm generally inept. But I am looking for a cheap burr grinder for the occaisional French Press, later in the day. It won't be for Expresso, and I can tolerate a little cloudiness at the bottom. For these moderate needs, what differences in burr and motor construction could make a difference? ← It's really not pompous, it's fact. You do say you can tolerate sediment so a cheap conical burr grinder is fine. Since I use mine for espresso more than once a day I need a capable grinder that gives me the best results. Do a search on coffeegeek.com and find out the importance of a grinder even more so than the coffee machine itself. It is well known in the coffee fanatic realm that you buy the grinder first, and then you buy the coffee machine. You will get inferior coffee out of a cheap grinder, especially a blade. However, if it tastes great to you then you are all set. ← Well Rich, I'm beginning to agree with you. You get what you pay for. My cheap burr grinder is fine for filtered coffee, but it produces a lot of dust, even on the coarse setting. As well, the housing and container parts are all plastic, and fit together like dominos; when one part is stressed, it all falls apart and makes quite a mess. So, I went one or two notches up, and got a KitchenAid A-9, about $160. I have only had it a few days, but it seems to grind more evenly, without nearly as much dust. But there is still some uneveness, and I suppose the more expensive grinders avoid that. For my early morning use, I don't think it is important. But I have come to realise that that there is some value in the the more expensive grinders, if you need them.

I picked up that set today, as well; I think the rebate ends on Sunday.

I was there today and I thought they were a little overloaded on Martha, but I bought the Staub set. Can't wait to try one of them with a chicken braise and a pastry seal around the lid. They also have Bridel Camembert for $16/kg., and some large Austrian crystal wine glasses that look like certain Riedels, for about $3.50 each. ...jay

One description of pine honey and the relationship with bees here. ← That's an interesting article, but I'm not convinced that bees can gather enough honeydew from aphids to make a quantity worth gathering. If you have ever watched the honeyflow from a field of buckwheat, or clover, then it is easy to see that the amount of honey will be much greater than the yield from the backs of aphids. I have not seen pine honey offered in pine rich North America.

You could try a food mill, fine sieve, instead of a strainer. It will force most of the soft food through, while the strainer depends on spatula power.

Sam, and Abra, How do the bees manage to get nectar from pine?

Like Susan, I have the Cuisinart Grind'nBrew, but I have relieved it of its grinding duties, as it was too coarse, and very noisy. I use a cheap burr grinder, but I'll move up to something like the KitchenAid if it will eliminate most of the dust. I like two mugs of brown roast coffee, every morning, while I read the Globe and wait for the B.M. Last March, I found JBM at $6./lb in the big box store, liked it, and put 30lb. in the freezer. It has been exceptionally good, each and every morning. I can't replace it, because, as the Big Box manager says, they can't buy it at that price now, and have moved on to other things. I'm looking for a small roaster nearby, but I think I'll have to travel a few kilometers, once a week, to satisfy my morning ritual with a new supply of beans.

Maybe what I'm really getting at is the amazing Quality-Price-Ratio of many if not most, Chinese goods. We all know why they are are low cost, and when considering knives, it is possible that some of our beloved brands can be duplicated, right down to meticulous hand finishing, at a fractrion of the cost. Hence, disposable, or discardable. I don't know if this is true, as I have held on to my Euro-knives for years. But I'm willing to try some of the new imports, just to see if they are the real thing.

Maybe we are getting to a point where kitchen knives are disposable: buy a cheap set made in China or Brazil, use with a steel for a year or so, then replace with another set. Just like telephones, DVD players, even cameras...