Adam Balic

Similar recipe to CathyL, but with the addition of a bottle of Aquavite, raisons and blanched almonds. Raisons soaked in booze first. Very drunk making, so I guess the alcohol isn't cooked out.

Then we could get one of half a brain to represent an australian academic. is there such a thing? Don't you get a degree in Oz for knowing how to open a can of XXXX without cutting yourself? thank god for those emoticons, eh? S Simmo - "XXXX" was only drunk by Up North, I don't really know much about it. Australia is not a monoculture. I imagine you remember it as an Australian Icon, due to it being promoted by Allan Border during one of the many times he whipped the English cricket "Team". My mention of Cricket and implying that you chaps weren't very good at it most likely brought all these memories out, sorry. Magnolia - it roughly means " in spite of the frogs".

Ooh Goodie, and we can get an emoticom of a half a cricket team for the English? Very iconic.

Sigh. Meanie ? Damn this for being an American site and therefore not having a "Sarcasticly wryly teasing" smilie. (insert hypothetical smilie here) . That and a 'here be damaged goods' emoticon would be neat.

Was that one of DNA's then? Never bother to remember these things myself, once you have accepted that you aren't an original thinker then it's just a little sad to keep tabs on these things and pretend that you are outside of popular culture. Once you relise that you are a goldfish, why bother with the how and whys of the bowl. 'Course if this what you do for a living, well that's OK too, all part of the great illusion of existance..

You ate your pasta out of Bowls? Christ that is so un-hip, its a wonder that your legs didn't fall off.

Steve - I'm afraid that as you can't eat pasta (gluten?), then you aren't able to interact with the pasta on meaningful level that would allow you to make any significant contrabution to the subject matter - according to the book of Plotnicki that is. Sorry Dude, but no matter what you write about pasta, as you just cannot "get it" then such a topic would be a bit of a non-starter .

"Punter" is a mis-spelling?

If you want to make a really authentic mortadella, you will have to find yourself a horse or donkey . With making the proscuitto, the recipes are pretty basic, (basically a brine soak, then hang), but the most important thing is to be able to hang it in a cool, dry location. If you get the initial soaking time wrong then the meat tastes over salty, this can be a problem because different legs of pork have different bone:fat:meat ratios, so going by weight isn't the whole deal. Maybe somebody else has a fool proof formula, but my guess is that it is experience (in my family my grandmother did this, my father is only now starting to take over). There are a few variations on proscuitto as well, in Croatia they cold smoke the hams and the brine solution contains red wine, garlic, spices and a few herbs. I have a few old British recipes for now extinct smoked/cured meats that I could post if you like. I will see what I can do about recipes from other the rest of Europe.

I wouldn't worry too much about the mould. EU regulations will soon eliminate such icky, stinky medieval traditions. A sterilized green/blue (or white for brie etc) organic dyed, oat-bran derived, cellulose product is almost ready for release to replace the un-hygienic penicillium mould in blue cheese. All the flavour and texture of real mould, but not actually mould. Organic chemists have also isolated the esters responsible for the flavour of moulded cheese; these are encapsulated in patented micro-liposomes for release when the customer requires such and event. After all, life is too short to wait for a cheese to ripen.

Sigh, have you learn't nothing from egullet Bux? Obviously, it is better in French then English. . You are just damn lucky that nobody has made bad jokes about "Pierre Potiron".

Suvir - with all respect to awbrig, they are great to have in the home and involve very little mess. I have a Mercato/Atlas hand cranked model and it works very well for most pasta types. I wouldn't bother with the ravioli attachment as you can make better ravioli using stamps or moulds. On of the nicest things about them is that it is an activity that several people can participate in. One person to roll the pasta sheets, another to fill the ravioli etc. A nice way to wind down after work is to make pasta together with you partner.

Peter - Firstly, I think that this may suit your needs, good tradional regional food/wine/beer in a splendid setting. Bierstubs/Winstubs are one of the most fun places to eat in Alsace. If you can, try to go on a day where they are serving baekeoffe (although it maybe a little difficult to get through if you are eating alone). Good luck, Alsace is a wonderful food city. Bierstub Second - I would try to drop the anti-Plotnicki stuff, it just makes you look damaged.

What did they taste like? Like capers ( ), just very very bitter.

Baby spinach leaves + rocket with pear and red fleshed figs. PX sherry vinaigrette. Would normally put in a few shavings of Parmesan, but not with fish stew.

Worked late last night, got home after riding bike through crappy Scottish cold rain for half an hour, wife sick in bed. Made bibimbapoid meal with chinese sausage, yellow beans, dried shrimp, greens, holy basil. Cracked egg on top. Question: I steamed rice with all ingredients mixed through (cracked egg on top for last five minutes) is this bibimbap or just a pilaw? Egg was excellent, white had texture of silken tofu and had taken up a lot of the aromatics.

Yvonne - you didn't like fish or porage (well that's how they are spelling it here now, but you know what I mean), truely you were destined to leave the fair city of Aberdeen. . But sugar and fish .

My mother, while an excellent gardener, is a terrible cook. One memory that I have is having to bring a cake to some crappy grade 2 function. My mother obviously made a commercial, circ. 1979, brand mix 'n' bake thing evil-vileness. It was really bad (some sort of brown hippy-oid thing, with fibre and sultanas) and none of the other children would eat it, which upset me, so to get over this problem of "I love mummy, but her cake is shite", I started eating the cake to remove its evil from the world. Unfortunately, it was a big cake and I was only a little boy, furthermore, it wasn't one cake it was two cakes as my mother had made a second cake for some kid who's mother was dying of cancer. Two large evil cakes. I ate them both (well, mostly ate, some I fed to the magpies) and then, one hour later, threw-up all over the class room. The teacher made me stand in the punishment corner for being greedy. Bastard mother, bastard teacher and bastard cake.

I picked capers of the old defensive walls of a hill town in Chianti. They taste really, really bad un-pickled/brined. Very pretty plant though.

Surprise guest, so pasta alla Cittarra with Italian sausage (garlic, celery, carrot, onion pancetta 'base'), fennel seeds, tomato, cream, egg yolk sauce. + salad.

A bowl of chicken livers soaked overnight in milk looks a bit yucky the next day.

Is that the reason why? Go figure. I just figured that milk was a buffered solution and therefore less harsh on the soaked article. Had no idea anybody else did it.

Deep fried anchovy bones with a glass of cold manzanilla sherry is Gods gift to the cook. They never make it to the guests in my home.

By repute the anchovies in salt are better then the one in oil. I leave them in the salt, but you must keep them in an air tight container as they dry out. To use, wipe of the excess salt (or wash), I then soak them in milk for several hours to get rid of even more salt. Sometimes I remember to change the milk as well. If they are intact (the best of all) pat the fish dry, place on its tummy and press down softly, turn fish over grab tail and pull out the backbone + ribs ( as the first bit of backbone seperates from the flesh, put a finger on it to help you pull out the backbone). The flesh is now ready. Do no throw away the backbones, these can be deep fried for a few minutes and make one of the best Tapa around.