Adam Balic

I have been given three copies, two Australian printings, one UK and all have been fine in phyisical quality. Could be a USA specific problem? Certainly, USA paper backs fall apart very easily. As to cooking from the book, I haven't seen any real issues with it. I live in Edinburgh, which produce wise is terrible, but I can get all the ingredients, except yabbies and murray cod, which are Australian specific, and long coriander, which is I know not what. I know that you had problems getting fresh green peppercorns, but I assume that other ingredients should be OK?

Nah, stick introduces to much air. Just blend the sloppy stuff (shallots) or annoying stuff (kaffir lime leave) and add to the pestal ground stuff. Blending lemon grass or gingeroid stuff is a no-no (fibre issues), unless you cut it up real small, in which cse you might as well pound. I want a bigger mortar.

Arbroath - home of the smoked kipper isn't far from Aberdeen. I'd be amazed if Aberdeen didn't have some good places to eat, it's a very successful place economically speaking due to the oil. Where's there money you'll usually find somewhere decent to eat. You really must come to Edinburgh some time. Aberdeen is cool. Made out of grey granite and I have always liked the place because it makes me feel tall. Food though? Arbroath may have kippers and even kippered haddocks, but its famous product [Arbroath Smokie] is a hot smoked haddock (actually two haddocks). Finnan haddocks (cold smoked) come from around there too, don't they? Both excellent.

Pounding fun. And you can use a blender, although he says not to, but then says it is proberly OK to use blender.

I would have put them on the oven rack, except fear held me back. Yes, I liked them very much. My only thought was that they lost a great deal of weight in the cooking, maybe if they were cooked in water this wouldn't occur and the texture of the egg would be different? Not, that there was a problem with the texture, which was similar to a 'normal' hard boiled egg. Cumin was an excellent suggestion. Next time I will use Aruacana eggs (or Cream Legbars) and get people to peel their own eggs. The contrast between the tan egg whites and the blue of the shell will be quite pretty.

I would have put them on the oven rack, except fear held me back. Yes, I liked them very much. My only thought was that they lost a great deal of weight in the cooking, maybe if they were cooked in water this wouldn't occur and the texture of the egg would be different? Not, that there was a problem with the texture, which was similar to a 'normal' hard boiled egg. Cumin was an excellent suggestion. Next time I will use Aruacana eggs (or legbarrs) and get people to peel their own eggs. The contrast between the tan egg whites and the blue of the shell will be quite pretty.

It's fine if they stick to the first ten pages . After that is were the rot sets in.

I use refrigerator temp large eggs, the cold water, bring to boil, take off heat, wait 10 min, shock and peel method. Never any problem. They don't crack because I put them into cool water at the outset (at least that's why I think they don't crack). But I'm quite curious about them not being as good if not started from room temp. Could you elaborate a little on the differences you see? Is it flavor, texture, appearance? It is a taste and texture thing. Which I mention in this post: My Bio I find that the whites of the eggs break down and become watery when stored in the refridgerator. Keeping eggs at room temp. for two weeks is fine and why would you want to keep eggs longer then this? There flavour and texture is only going to break down, so no need to refridgerate.

What wgallois said about butteries (also come under several other names), they are excellent and should be more widespread (can't get them in Edinburgh). Smoked fish products are very good in the East coast. But apart from that, Aberdeen is a bit of a gastronimic desert. I'm sure you could get good fish 'n' chips there though.

OK so I roasted eggs on the weekend. Eggs soaked in water and put into small Spanish terracotta pot to (in case of egg breakage and as a nod to Hedgehogs art/literature references). Oven pre-heated to 65.C. Eggs roasted for 5 or 8 hours. After roasting period eggs put into water, cracked and peeled. No problem with peeling eggs, shell and membrane removed easily. Egg white now a dark tan colour, darker in the longer cooked egg. On slicing the egg, brown colour was seen to penatrate entire white in 8 hour egg, patchy in 5 hour egg. Egg yolk had a very distinct green ring. In any case all eggs were chopped roughly, sprinkled with maldon salt, freshly ground cumin and New olive oil. Served to guests, who I told that as the eggs were experimental, they should feel they had to eat them. Obviously, my cunning reverse physcology worked and they all tasted them. Eggs were pronounced "excellent, fantastic", so I was pleased. Note: to egg boilers, if you keep eggs in the refridgerator, they won't be as good as if you keep them at room temp.

Pernod was originally a Absinthe producer. After it was banned in France they set up the production of Absinthe and Pastis (=pastiche "copy, replica"), the Pernod of today, in Spain. Absinthe went to te countries were it was banned, Pernod Pastis to were it was banned. Eventually, Pernod stopped Absinthe production. It was never formally banned in the UK, so you can buy Absinthe here (although mostly it is green dyed ETOH). I have a poster (copy) of a Pernod advert. for one of the early Pastis. It has a picture of a green faery and the phrase (in French) "Bring alive the Green Faery". At an egullet dinner in London I brought alone some home made wormwood liquor (made by a great aunt in Croatia), no real ill effects, except that running around squealing in an empty meat market at 2 am in the morning.

OK, now I am really impressed. That was exactly the article I was refering to! Note to self: Hedgehog seems very well read PPC and Ovid? Most likely ex-diplomat. I shall do this in the next two days and report back.

That sounds easy. In the article I read, the author had compared various techniques (different water temps, in oil, in oil and coffee etc), he concluded that to get the development of flavour was a seperate issue to leaving the white of the egg creamy. I am curious about what this new flavour tastes like.

No crockpot (although I remember the '80's), but my oven goes down to 50.C. I have a very long article on cooking eggs in this manner, I shall see if I can find it.

But would the texture be changed? Gah. Apparently not. Thank you Hedgehog. I shall try this out, although I do wonder how I am going to explain to my wife that I need the oven left on over night to cook some eggs.

I have read about cooking eggs (pre-hard boiled) for about 16 hours at a low temp (65-70.C) (is a Middle Eastern thing). After this period the eggs develop all sorts of amazingly complex and tasty flavours. Has anybody done this? Eggs are never "Gah" , although sometime they are "RrrrrHHg", especially when they are quail eggs and you are cracking and frying them.

Edinburgh/GMT+1HR=15:40/Rain status/zero.

Well it was better then Ganges water.

Sorry, I have not idea. Vlados has his/there own herd of cattle that they get there beef from. Queen Victoria Market is a 'must see' in Melbourne. It is also in the centre of town, so a pretty easy trip.

Sandalwood was used quite a bit in European Medieval cooking. Mostly for the red colour, rather then the flavour. A type of Sandalwood grows wild in Australia, at one point I tasted a red wine that had been flavoured with it.

The Loch Fyne Oyster bar has a great reputation for it's seafood. Assuming you accept that Inverarnen is a must visit destination, then this restaurant is less than half an hour from the Drovers Inn. You'll also get to drive through the rest and be thankful, yet one more astonishingly beautiful area in the place that I live. Adam was wrong. Thankfully. I'm not quite getting why the west coast seems to do so much better for dining than the east coast, Adam. Any ideas as to why this might be? We tried to go to the LFOB on the way back from Islay. They were quite rude to us and generally treated us poorly because we looked like maybe were weren't rich tourists. Basically, when we asked for a table they told us they were full-up/closing, we went to have a look at the produce in their store, we noticed several groups of people that had come in after us been taken to the tables. When we questioned the staff on this they said "Oh, some tables had come free", which is a polite way of say piss-off. I would never go there again. And they don't have Squad Lobsters, so I am still No. 1 . In that area I would go to "The George" in Inverrary, one of the best pubs food, although not a gastro-pub, that I have been to in Scotland. The West Coast is just better then the East Coast.

2000 - 2003 - I've never been so cold and wet in my life, either. If I was to be completely honest about Edinburgh, I would say that I rarely go to restaurants here, maybe three times a year. The food, value for money or service often makes me angry, so I just go for the company really, not the food. I would rather buy some of the rapidly disappearing Scottish produce and cook it myself. I bet that I am the only person in Scotland to have cooked: Arbroath Smokies, Squat lobsters, Finnan Haddies, razor clams all in the last six months.

Will Studd is Australia's Cheese guru (well he's English, but that doesn't matter) and has several outlets, both wholesale and retail. For details see the following link: Will Studd There are several small shops that sell cheese in Melbourne, but this may be a pain to go to them all. I would suggest visiting "The French Shop" in the Queen Victoria Market. They have a small, but excellent range of cheese and it is a good excuse to go to the market!

What Matt said and there are different grades of Jasmine rice, some of these will have been washed etc some not. I buy ten kilo bags from the Asian Market and don't bother washing, as the rice I buy doesn't need it. You can add saffron if you wish, but this will mask the flavour of the rice. Maybe use basmati instead.

Yes we stopped there on the way back from Glen Coe. Must go back there, although I am really keen to go back to Islay and this time do some hiking in Jura as well. Ah the West coast, so fantastically different to the east coast.