Adam Balic

"would not". now edited thanks. Furphy means "a false report or rumour or an absurd story". Furphy was a blacksmith engineer that produced famous water-carts, the ends of which were stamped with morality lessons. During WWI Australian soldiers would gather around the Furphy water cart to gossip and spread rumours - hence the meaning of a "Furphy". So an example of a Furphy would be "Britain is now the foodie destination, with excellent seafood resturants in every coastal village".

Made perfect sense to me . I think that "produce" = things from the ground, is specically an American English thing, after all produce just means something that is "produced", but surely the meaning is clear from the context and content of the article? Actually, the thing that most non-Australians would not get is "Furphy".

Good God, who would have thought that an ornamental phallic symbol could be so tricky. Still, I am well known for my lack of perspective, so it is only to be expected. Speaking of artificial flavours etc, what natural extract did the blue for the icing come from?

Wonderful! Although, one hopes that the reclining lighthouse is not overly symbolic. Best (late) Birthday wishes.

I have the "Wyvern" book, and there is a very good section on "Curry" in "The Cook's Oracle" by William Kitchiner. Another on going project of mine. About 150 years of Anglo-Indian curry. They start at the Glasse's recipe, which is the first record of 'Curry' in an English cookbook, to Lady Clarke at the end of the 19th century. There is no selection for these recipes, other then my access to the books. I now have a few more books, so I should add to the list. The odd thing is that the British seem to have replaced Medieval type spiced dishes, only to replace them with another style of spiced dish. People are always saying the the British like bland food, but I would argue the opposite. Hannah Glasse, 1747 Coriander , Pepper Coriander toasted. Onions not pre-cooked. No acid. J. Skeat, 1769 Coriander, Turmeric, Cayenne Pepper, No acid. No onions. Garnished Charlotte Mason, 1773 Uses ‘curry powder’, browned onions. Acid is orange or lemon. A. Kellet, 1780 Ginger, turmeric, pepper Hammond, 1829 edition. Curry powder. Browned onions, no acid. William Kitchiner, 1820 Tumeric, coriander, black pepper, mustard, ginger, allspice, cumin, cardamom. Onions not pre-browned. No acid. Rundell, 1825 (58th Edition) Curry powder; coriander, cumin, cardamom, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. Browned onions, Acid, lemon juice. Meg Dods, 1829 Advises reader to mix their own curry powder and not to be taken in by a ‘one powder suits all recipes’ product. Curry powder; ginger, coriander, turmeric, cayenne. Browned onion. Acid, vinegar, lemon, orange. Francatellis, 1875 Captain White’s curry paste. Browned onion. Acid, sour apple. Marshall, 1890’s Home brand curry powder. Browned onion. Acid, sour apple. Lady Clarke of Tillypronie, 1841-97. Numerous collected recipes. Often ready made curry powder and curry paste, but many variations including discussion on the ‘true curry of Upper India’. There is a great deal of variation, but in general an English curry in this period is: Onions browned, meat added with curry powder/paste, liquid added and the stew is cooked until done. Common variations are an addition of an acid, coconut or cream (I suspect the latter is a local replacement for the coconut milk).

I have one of there books, "The People's Indian Cookery Book; New and Popular Culinary and Household Recipes" by Olivia C. Fitzgerald, 1900, Calcutta, which is where the two recipes above come from.

Yes it is Anglo-Indian, but it is much closer to 'Indian' food then the Anglo-Indian "currys" now sold in the UK. I imagine that local cooks were employed by this level of household as there are many dishes that would not be familiar to the British (veg like 'drumsticks for instance). The traditional British dishes (roasts etc) and the Indian food are kept pretty seperate in the cook books, but I wonder how exactly the traditional foods would have turned out in the hand of a native cook. I when through a period of collecting all the 19th century Indian cookbooks or recipe collections I could lay my hands on, and have made a few of the recipes. "Fish curry" "Malay curry" Sadly, they are not photogenic at all.

Yes, the recipe I have for farcidure mentions that there are many variations. Regarding beef, the breed has been around for some time in one form or another, but I imagine that they were often used as draft animals and that as is ever the case peasants would rarely have access to the meat in any case. A pig is more egalitarian and useful. I have a bottle of sour cherries, so I shall try to cook the duck dish later in the week.

Not to continue to pepper debate, but even those peppers with Italian names on them, at least in Dallas, are still grown in Holland: we got corne di bue one year, and a frying kind, and both had a "Grown in Holland" sticker on them when I bought them . . . ← Hey, I hope that you are not suggestiong that extra special peppers that I ordered weeks ago from the Milan market, especially to make a dish for this thread and specifically the same as I bought in Tuscany are not infact quite right? Actually, it is a good point really. I will have to take more notice of where things are sourced from in the Italian markets next time I am there. I have noticed a lot of items that have come from elsewhere (sparrows from Tunisia, fish from Australia, porchini from Croatia). Also it may not be a big thing, but I guess produce avalible out of season locally or difference, non-local varieties of fruit and veg, is going to alter the local cuisine in Italy. What happens to a national cuisne that is so heavily based on regional dishes when that regionality and seasonality breaks down?

Sometimes when you plan to cook a specific dish, on a certain day, that is exactly when you will not be able to find a key ingredient. Today it was chestnuts. A week ago I swear there were chestnuts in every shop, vendors were selling them on the street and people were getting drunk on chestnut wine. Oh, well one has to press on. After reading a little about the food of the Limousin, a few words started to repeat themselves; "hearty, rustic and peasant" seemed to be the most common. Tonights meal most definately fitted into this theme. Roast pork shoulder, braised red cabbage with "chestnuts", farcidure. The latter two dishes are traditional to the area, the pork is somthing I felt like. The pork shoulder was just simply roasted for 3 hours at 150.C. The cabbage is similar, but quite different other such dishes I have made in the past. Onions are cooked in lard until soft and golden, bacon and celery is added and cooked until soft. The cabbage is then added along with red wine and thyme and a touch of sugar. Most other red cabbage dishes I have made like this contain some sort of spice and a stronger acid like red wine vinegar. The Farcidure (which means 'firm stuffing') are wholewheat bread pancakes with bacon. Bread cubes are softened in milk, then flavoured with parsley and bacon, mixed with creme fraiche and eggs. Bacon lardons are cooked then a spoonful of the batter is placed on the lardons and they are cooked until done. This would have been a meal in itself originally.

Regarding Fontina. The newer cheeses have good melting properties, but the older cheeses are quite hard and can be used as a grating cheese. There are cheeses called 'Fontina' or variations on this in a few countries, some of these are very commercial. True Fontina is marked with a Consorzio stamp of a the Matterhorn and FONTINA.

Pictures taken in Hydra. Middle bottom is spinach and middle top is amarath. The rest are brocolli, cauliflower and beans .

"radikia," (sing. radiki), wild chichory, according to Sazji. One of Greece's most popular greens. This is from the Hydra. ← interesting but it is not hindbeh. would like to try it though. have you tried cooking it? if i am not mistaken, the hindbeh one buys outside the lebanon is not the same. i will check with my mother who happens to be over here and will report back. ← OK, do they look like the green in the bottom left?

No these are not Dutch. They had some Italian regional name on them, but I forgot which one exactly. "Dutch Veg" is fighting words in these here parts. (Appologies to Chufi).

No ricotta. The milk forms a few curds on addition to the onions, but most the texture comes from the very gentle cooking, so the eggs are semi-scrambled (and set when cooled down) rather then setting hard like a frittata.

OK here is my dish, "Torta di Peperoni" (Pepper and sausage pie). The reason why I waited to make a dish is that I wanted these specific peppers. Sometimes really simple dishes are the hardest to make as you are depending on the quality of specific ingredients. Italy's best peppers are said to be grown in the region between Voghera in Southern Lombardy to Asti in Piedmont. These are from the Milan market. As they are out of season I have no idea where they are actually from, but are very good quality (and expensive). This dish would not work at all with UK supermarket peppers, which are not sweet enough, nor have enough flavour. The recipe (from "The Classic Food of Northern Italy" by Anna del Conte) is straight forward enough. Sweat onions, add a little milk and cook until the onions are melting soft, adding more milk if the onions dry out too much. Add the peppers, soften, then added the sausages and then the eggs. This is put into a pastry case and baked until just set. The pastry is a oil and water based pastry, that is common in tortes in this area and also in Liguria. To be frank I am rubbish at pastry work. I tried to buy phyllo, but was out of luck. The pastry should be crispy and wafer thin, but it isn't. I hate pastry. Apart from the completely sucky pastry (which I blame on Scotland for lacking phyllo pastry in every supermarket I checked), it is really a lovely dish and as it is eaten at room temperature it can be made well ahead of time. It would make a great primi.

My wife still refers to "The Cardoon Incident", which is the occasion where I took up our entire luggage allowance with a monster bunch of cardoons, when flying back from Florence. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to cook them and they ended up in the rubbish bin. But, now that I know what I am doing with them I love them and I will grow them myself when I get access to a garden.

"radikia," (sing. radiki), wild chichory, according to Sazji. One of Greece's most popular greens. This is from the Hydra.

I'm envious as well. I'd never seen nor tasted them until I grew some for myself in my garden last summer. The plants were imposing, and very bitter until late summer when the nights got cooler. Then they tasted similar to artichokes. I wish that it had occured to me to freeze some. They'd come in handy about now. Since the sformato can be made with a creamy texture, perhaps you could substitute artichoke puree. It's not quite the same, but it might ease your pain somewhat. April ← April - did you blancH them? It is usual practice to wrap them in newspaper etc, so that they will not be so bitter. But this takes away their visual impact in the garden I guess.

The cardoons were more mushed up when added, so there were few 'chunks' as such. Not sure if the is a preference of that particular family or region though.

Wow what an excellent looking meal! Cardoons are very common in Chianti as a winter veg, and when I asked my brother-in-law's mother how they cooked them, she said that they were nearly always prepared as a sformato. It is often made in a ring mould and is pretty much a very eggy souffle. The version I have had was more reduced in texture, but I think yours look nicer.

Interesting post oysterguy. The comments about giving the Brazilians an option for a cheap form of protein is very intersting. As you know this what oysters were used for purpose in many regions. Here in Edinburgh, when there has been road works around the Old Town, oyster shells tend to turn up in the soil. I think that the Nature article raised and interesting point, the majority of the five species effected were actually by-catch. So they most likely were not even used as industrial fish, just dumped. Some forms of shrimp fishing generate hugh amounts of by-catch (80% in some regions), but Shrimp aquaculture can also be incredibly destructive. Globally, people are not going to stop buying shrimp, so I don't know what the answer to this issue is. Regarding aquaculture, I think that it has to be taken in a case by case basis. The oysterguy indicated some really positive points about oyster aquaculture and I am sure there are other examples. My major concern about salt water fish aquaculture is not the pollution, or the health of the fish, but more that it takes up to 3 kilos of wild caught 'industrial' fish to produce a kilo of farmed fish. Obviously these industrial fish are mostly not fish that we would eat, but other things do like, eh, fish that we might want to eat. Not sure what the solution to this is, but my guess is that population crashes of fish, commercially important or by-catch, will become more and more common. I hope that egullet is around in 20 years time do that I can compare what I am eating now with what is avalible then.

Is this what you are talking about?

Los Caracoles - you know I have been trying to work out the identity of this restaurant for nearly ten years. A few days before Christmas '96 I was recovering in Barcelona from pneumonia caught a week previously on a train full of Basques, somewhere between Bordeaux and Lisbon. To be very honest I have very little memory of the meal, other then a sense of excitement at the energy of the place, the chickens turning on spits and my first taste of snails (A snail and rice dish). Although, I have now eaten snails many times and I now know the species of snail I ate that night, I remember then thinking that this was "exactly why I traveled 18,000 km to backpack in Europe during the middle of winter - eating snails and rice. How exotic, how European" Last week I caught part of an old Keith Floyd program where he was cooking in the kitchen of this restuarant, so I was able to identify it. I am very glad to have been able to solve this minor life mystery.

That's what I get for citing a childhood legend without ever having checked it. The yolks of all chickens' eggs are of course yellow. You can tell from the one that's spread all over my face. ← For detailed cassoulet instructions, all is forgiven. For what it is worth, I don't think it is very common knowledge. My family are that breed of people known as "Chicken fanciers" and, eh, some of the knowledge must have rubbed off.