Adam Balic

Kikujiro - why cook with it, what else? The allow me to create recipes that have a historical spin and have interesting flavours. Last thing I cooked was Wild Scottish salmon with a sweet butter and barberry sauce. Was tasty and pretty and I always like that. Vanessa - Most things are avalible, as they are still in use. Others require searching Asian food stores (eg. 'Barberries', still used in Iranian cooking, 'galingale' used in Thai cooking). Others have to be ordered (like 'Grains of Paradise' and 'Cubeb' (tailed pepper). I could have bought Ambergris and Civet Musk in Morocco, but my damn ethics stood in the way.

Only UK supplier I have been able to find is a Black Magic supply place. Surely, there are other sources in the UK?

DAMN. Would love to taste these Austrian Rhieslings that have got everybody so excited. Am busy.

Yes there are some v. good New Zealand Rhieslings, although, in general, they have more residual sugar (although still 'Dry') then the Austalian versions. The trend in New Zealand over the last few years is to make drier style Rhieslings. Lawson's Dry Hills makes good Rhiesling (as well as an excellent Gewürztraminer and value for money Sav. Blanc). The problem with Australia rhieslings may be that they are far to dry and high in acid for many people (although some people mistake the 'fruit' for sugar). Often they taste like somebody has squeezed a lime into the glass, as they are so fresh and citrus like.

This is absolutely my favourite value for money white wine. However, I have much difficulty trying to convince wine savy friends in the UK of this. Am I wrong or are there other factors at play here. For those who would like some addition information on Australian rhiesling here is a link: Australian Rhiesling 2002 vintage n.b. In Australia the Rhiesling variety grown is Rhine Rhiesling, one of the worlds great white wine varieties.

Changed my mind. New fav. meal is chickpeas, with tuna belly and new oil.

Ah, I see. Based on some type of sympathatic magic idea no doubt. Eg. The cure for something going through you like a dose of salts is obviously going to be pepper in'it?

Yes that is the stuff, except I want entire fruiting bodies, not powder. Simon - really? How odd. I am interested in it as it combines hotness and sweet spice flavour, which I think would be interesting. And I want to recreate some pre-1600 recipes. Its use in Europe was dropped after the introduction of the New world pepper (chilli), as this supplied heat in a meal, but could be grown locally. It doesn't tast the same though.

Jaybee - he is a link to an old thread discussing Rock shrimp. Has some snappy banter between the Rodent botherer and myself too. Ye Olde Rock Shrimpe Thread

I am trying to make a collection of spices etc. that would have been used historically in European cooking. I have just found out that one of these spices "long pepper", while un-known in Europe for hundreds of years, is still used in some Indian cooking. In hindi it is known as "Pipli". Would there be any chance of getting this spice in the UK (from an Indian food store) or via the web do you think?

This certainly true. I was more thinking about it in terms of replication in a domestic oven. Tell me then, how do you feel about eating pizza with a knife and fork? Is this a significant issue for this new restaurant?

Something must of gotten lost in the translation here? I think free enterprise is allowed in Italy too, without it destroying all cultural integrity. Free enterprise is a disease of stoopid Americans, real Italians would never prostitute their proud cultural traditions to cheaply sqeeze a few extra bucks out of Americans.

Typical stoopid American answer. Agree about fiddliness of it all, but it was a good way of stopping the clams from drying out and tasting like fresh clams, rather then preserved ones. How you get clams not dry out without shells? Cook clams seperately then tossing on at the end, seems wrong with pizza making for some reason.

Oh, so what Peter should have said was that Americans were stupid and ignorant and Italians have no cultural integrity . Must be terrible if you are an Italian-American.

Bux informs me that there is some discussion of the use of clams in their shell on pizza in this thread. Some help to the main points please,as I can't seem to find that information. Below is a discription of a clam pizza I ate in Radda in Chianti recently. "Clams were tiny, ~1.5 - 2 cm in length. Very little meat, but this cooking technique had the advantage of allowing all the juices to be captured by the pizza. Bigger clams would have ment soggy dough I think. Clams were added at end of cooking of pizza so they didn't dry out during cooking. As soon as they opened up pizza was taken out. Clams can be sucked of the shell in seconds, pizza eaten as per normal, can't see to much problem with that. Could be a problem if it was a cheese containing pizza I guess, but I prefer them without cheese and tomato anyway, so no problems for me." Why problem with pizza and clams shells in NY?

Otto, a new restaurant in NYC (big thread on the NY board because it's Mario Batalli's new joint) came in for some criticism of its clam pizza. Most diners seemed to think the unshelled clams were out of place. They wanted to just dig in eat the pizza without opening up small clams. I see some advantage in having the pizza there to catch the juices so nothing is lost. How tiny were your clams? Bux - Clams were tiny, ~1.5 - 2 cm in length. Very little meat, but this cooking technique had the advantage of allowing all the juices to be captured by the pizza. Bigger clams would have ment soggy dough I think. Clams were added at end of cooking of pizza so they didn't dry out during cooking. As soon as they opened up pizza was taken out. Clams can be sucked of the shell in seconds, pizza eaten as per normal, can't see to much problem with that. Could be a problem if it was a cheese containing pizza I guess, but I prefer them without cheese and tomato anyway, so no problems for me.

Yes, I see your point, but these points come back to the fact that it is your opinion that a perfectly cooked peach is "better" then a perfectly ripe raw peach. And I'm not sawing your are incorrect, just that I don't think that it is possible for you to convince all people of this view and I that is relavant to jaybees question.

Oh so I shouldn't drink Alsacian wine then, otherwise I am a tourist? Actually, in terms of terroir is there a best time to drink wine at on its aging curve. Eg. Drinking hypothetical wine X at five years out tells you nothing about terroir, but at 15 it is the perfect expression of its terroir.

Is it not possible that you are making the peach less perfect ( ) by introducing these extra techniques?

actually, I think that's pretty clear. The question is how terroir is expressed through blended wines, which in many cases come from distinct terroir. If is a case that the broader the geographic distribution of the grape, the less terrior expressed, then why would it be any differences in if the grapes were from single variety or not? For that matter many single variety wines contain multi-clones of particular grape, so does this mean that Burgundy isn't a good wine for expressing terrior?

I rarely cook the same thing twice for guests, so no signature dish. But I do cook a side dish, that goes well with a number of things or even as a simple meal in it self. Beans with sage, garlic and New olive oil. Soak beans over night. I usually use Cannelloni beans or some of the smaller Tuscan white beans, but Borloti beans and chickpeas work well, although they don't have the creamy quality of Cannelloni beans. Place beans (~250 gm) in a good heavy based pot that has a close fitting lid. Earthernware is perfect, but enamelware is what I mostly use. Place enough water in pot to cover beans with about and inch of water. Add six garlic cloves (whole) and 10 sage leaves (add more or less as is you want). Put in 100 ml of very good quality extra virgin olive oil. Heat until simmering point then turn down to lowest heat setting. Cover with parchment paper and place on the lid. Cook for about 3.5 hours. Do not turn the heat up higher to speed things up as it will break up the beans. Check beans after two hours, as they take different lenghths of time to cook depending on the type of bean, storage, age etc etc. Beans should be in very little water at end (none really) and be whole, but extremely creamy on the inside. Season with salt and pepper add this point. Garlic should have disintergrated, but if not either remove or mash and mix through beans. Becareful with handling the beans as they will break easily. Great served with pork or game, even chicken. Also great on some toasted bread. I always pour over some New season EVOO, just before serving, but this is difficult to get so use you best EVOO. In effect what this recipe is, is "Bean Confit" and it is very good.

Ah, I see. Interesting quote, but is it really true in itself or is a construct? I similar story could be said of a housewife in Tuscany, except in this case the store holder would be extremely angry as it is not done to handle the produce (at least in the villages where I have stayed). I suspect that the general case is that any French housewife worth her salt would have built a relationship of trust with vendors that she frequents and relies on this relationship to ensure that she will get excellent quality produce. I can't see people going through there lives being so mistrustful of individuals that they have day to day intereactions with. So I see much of French Cuisine as a construct, as is most everything.

Interesting, I think that I have made my views one the topic clear on the peasant food and other threads. The origins of French cuisine is extremely complex (as is in the case of most cuisine) and what facts there are tend to be hopelessly mixed up with romantic notions. Take the above example of the pot-au-feu, which as a French example is given to indicate the inherant goodness of French cuisine. On the other hand a similar practice of putting everything into and endless pot is often cited as an example of how bad British (late 19th-early 20th C) cooking is. The point of the peasant food thread was to illustrate that preceived notions of peasants roots of cuisine while not incorrect, tended to obscure the contributions made by other factors, such as the cooking of the middle-classes in the 19th C and the rise of the restaurant. Maybe it would be best to define exactly what aspect of French cuisine is to be discussed, before the dicussion goes any further?

Peter - don't be so hard on yourself, you aren't pretentious.

I don't know the answer to that Steve, I just don't have the experience to be able to judge. At this point I am looking for interesting wines, rather then great wines (although a combination of the two would be nice ). These new 'middle class wines' don't really interest me I guess. Interesting that you have said this, I was talking to some friends recently about how the new interest in Amarone has resulted in many of these wines been made in a new style fashion and this is a very sad thing for this particular wine type. Well I think so.