Adam Balic

Quite right, Adam. And as I'm fond of reminding people, the tomato is in fact a fruit. ← Ever had a tomato in a fruit salad? I rest my case. ← Sure, tomato salsa is good. You should try. As I said it is a matter of perception and the inherit qualities of the fruit involved. Duck with cherries, not problem, duck with banana (OK, I could conceive of a duck and plantain stew that may be OK), no thanks. If 99% of tomatos sold were not rubbish, I can see no reason why they shouldn't be used as a in a dessert, only experimentaion will determine if it will work or not though.

The recipe I used was from Rosemary Barron's excellent "Flavours of Greece. However, interesting as it is to make, it is expensive and takes some time. Not sure where you are, but looking for another deli source may be a better option. PM me if you would like the recipe though,

I'm starting to regret the inclusion of the eels....One of my guests is a fish biologist and I thought he would be interested in them. They actually from a tin. As to what they are, we are unsure. The ones I have eaten in Spain have eye spots, these don't but they are much small. So they could be fake. However, the fish biologist and he thought that they may be too immature to have pigmentation (although its unclear how their eyes would work). On the otherhand, he also pointed out the the European eel population has crashed 90% in the last two decades and that we really shouldn't be eating them at all. So, I am in the position of potentially serving fakes on one hand or eating and endangered species on the other. An ethical Schrodinger's cat situation. Not knowing the true will set you free. Concentrate on the sprats, not the damn eels

Prunes is cocky leekie is traditional, if anachronistic, even in Scoland. Mostly a matter of perception I think. Who thinks twice of tomato with meat? A decent tomato is actually quite sweet. Most european traditional cooking contains a fruit element quite commonly.

Not really, they are very mild with a hint of the adult eel flavour. Fun though.

12 guests around for dinner this week end. I decided to cook Greek food as I was feeling a little homesick (Melbourne has a large Greek population). I started with various Meze, including mixed salata and bread: Clockwise form the top we have beetroot, chickpea, cucumber, carrot and fish roe salata. Deep fried small fish (in this case Sprats): Tiny figs from Shiraz, flavoured with fresh bayleaves and pepper: Baby eels. OK, this isn't really Greek, but I had them and I flavoured them with ouzo and lemon : At this point I was very busy, so no photographs of grilled haloumi, spanakopita or dolmades. Sorry. For the main we had pork and bean casserole, seafood pilaw and red mullet with a rich sauce, stuffed tomatos, roast potatoes with lemon and peas. Again too rushed for photgraphs, but here are the raw ingredients: Excellent seafood from 'Eddies Seafood' in Edinburgh. Excellent quality seafood in a city the routinely does mediocre seafood at resturants: Stuffed tomatos before baking: As I said, no photgraphs that night, but here are some images of next days leftovers. Doesn't really do the meal justice, but there you go: Seafood pilaw: Pork and beans: Red Mullet (this looks very sorry compared to the original ): Dessert was sticky Yogurt cake, either with quince surup or with cintron and bergamont syrup: A slice of the quince verion, the cream is amadine, sheets of dried apricot juice that are soaked in hot water and whipped into a cream, as you can see:

That looks great Paula. Does the flavour of the lamb come through via the steaming or are lamb bone/chard stems liquid form the basis for a sauce?

Shallots softened in butter, mixed through with enriched mashed potato, cover with gruyere cheese, bake. Can be done individual rings. Is delish.

Ed - thank you very much for the detailed explanation, it is a small thing but it has been bugging me for a while now. Regarding brown smoky paella. I'm begining to think that it was due to the over liberal use of smoked paprika.

Lampredotto is the fourth stomach (the acid or true stomach), I love it. For an actual hole in the wall place I would not miss I Fratellini (2 blocks from Piazza della Signoria, off Via Calzaiuoli, Near the Duomo), which is a fiaschiteria that sells wonderful panini and wine from a doorway. You stand in the street taking in the vibe, drinking cheap wine and munching excellent panini. Porchetta is good, as is the truffled pecorino with rocket and the wild boar salami. A few Euros of pure joy. Apart from the cental market, don't miss mercato Sant' Ambrogio (Near St. Croce), there is a small restuarant/dinner inside that does cheap and cheerful meals (Farro salad is good). The piazza at S. Spirito offers some good cheap options (has not been as good in recent years).

Or you could break up some very thin (eggless) spaghetti into 1.5 inch lengths and make fideos instead. Just as authentic (if not more so) and in some ways much easier, especially in bulk.

Difficult isn't it. The two spanish speakers that I work with (one from Madrid, one from Colombia) insist that the Spanish double "l" is spoken as an English "Y" sound. Yet I have heard otherwise.

Behemoth - thank you very much for the recipe and the pictures. These have always been on my 'must get around to doing' list and having seen your thread I think that this has forced my hand.

My favourite green. One thing to remember is that the leaves can stand my more prolonged cooking then other similar looking greens (spinach, turnip greens etc). A Croatian preparation that is quite simply is to boil some potatoes, in the last couple of minutes add the swiss chard, drain the lot, add to a pan with plenty of olive oil and crushed garlic (S&P), fold everthing to gether until the chard is soft, but don't crush the potatoes to much. For some reason the chard seems to enhance the flavour of potatoes. If you can get cuttlefish, there is an Italian stew of chard (actually beet tops, but the are almost the same thing, hence the red/yellow/orange types of chard) and cuttlefish that is delicious.

Going back to phaelon56's question, how burnt was burnt? I crisp browned bottom to the rice is good, but it should not be burnt black for instance. My paella is very large and covers four burners on the stove (we don't do 'outdoors' in Scotland), the bane of my paella existance is juggling the burners to avoid hotspots and burning. I think of paella as a rich dish (quite oily infact), full of contrasting flavour (quail and clams are good), but without anything dominating too much. What I don't like is paella that resembles a pilau, rice being light, fluffy and lemon yellow. One last thing, what is the correct way of pronouncing "paella". Non-Spanish types in Australia like me would say "PAY-el-lah", but in Valencia it sounded more "Pay-e-YAH". Discussions with non-Valencian Spanish speakers have not reached a consensus to date.

Spain has some pretty bad paella in it as well. I believe to be 'authentic' it has to be cooked by a man, outdoors using a paella. Everything else is open to debate.

Planning. I spend a lot of time doing this and is of great interest reading up on background details etc. Cooking. Depends on the meal. Eating. Rarely enjoy this as nothing is ever perfect.

In Tuscany the have/did have a method for cooking beans in a small amount of water in a glass bottle (old style Chianti bottle, straw removed) called "Fagioli al Fiasco". Now days you can get flask shaped bean pots made from terracotta. After learning how to cook beans in a small amount of liquid I don't think that I would ever do it another way.

Texture wise they are out on their own, but flavour wise they are more similar to tripe (depending on how they are prepared). An old word for chitlins (especially from a deer) was "umble". A variation on this was "humble", so if you wanted you could make "humble pie".

I prefer marmite to vegemite, but actually of find the former sweeter then the latter. But, I'm thinking that they both are not really that sweet at all. You know the more I think about it the more I am convinced that a vegemite flavoured dessert would be revolting. I have not heard of this vegemite and banana sandwich idea before and I'm not sure I'm happy about it now.

I like vegemite, I eat it almost everday, but I think a dessert may be pushing the culinary boundaries a little bit. Maybe you could do a very rich chocolate thing (cake, souffle, torte) with a tiny bit of vegemite.

I wouldn't even put Ardbeg in my glass. I've had a pretty wide variety of single malts, and greatly enjoy Islay malts, even Laphroaig (OK, I have to be in the right mood for it); but I just can't stand the taste of Ardbeg. If I were going to use an Islay at all in cranachan, it would probably be a mild one like Bunnahabhain, but I'd be more inclined to go do a milder taste, or alternatively the very rich taste of Glendronach that comes from the maturing in sherry casks. ← Different things for different people. I like the Ardbeg more for its sweetness then for its smoke/peat, but to be honest I prefer to drink single malts for the variation they offer, rather then any particular style over another.

You should try the fish version! edited to add: maybe not so funny because I know somewhere out there someone might try braising a fish for three hours. I'm certain I've had this served to me in a few nameless restaurants. ← Not quite cooked for three hours, but the Freshwater fish stew from Burgundy is called "Pôchouse", there is even a "Brotherhood of the Pôchouse’s Knights", who will most likely be tracking you down now that you have dissed their stew. ← Hmm. Larousse describes Pôchouse as a Burgundy fish stew made from a selection of pike, gudgeon, eel, perch, carp, and preferably the very rare burbot. It's cooked with white wine and thickened with kneaded butter. It sounds quite good. Those brotherhoods seem like an excuse for otherwise grown men to dress in funny costumes and get drunk. Not that it's a bad thing. If I see any sinister Citroën 2CV's in the neighborhood with an eel stretched across the dashboard, I'll let you know. I've studied the Monty Python fish dance and can deal with this threat. ← I think that the Burbot is locally restricted rather then rare, we had a discussion on the topic a while ago Burbot/Eelpout. As you can see if you are in the States you could form your very own chapter of the Brotherhood....

You should try the fish version! edited to add: maybe not so funny because I know somewhere out there someone might try braising a fish for three hours. I'm certain I've had this served to me in a few nameless restaurants. ← Not quite cooked for three hours, but the Freshwater fish stew from Burgundy is called "Pôchouse", there is even a "Brotherhood of the Pôchouse’s Knights", who will most likely be tracking you down now that you have dissed their stew.

1990 Trimbach, Clos St. Hune, on my wine rack taking out several other bottles. I sucked a few drops out of the broken neck of the St. Hune. No tasting notes though, to busy crying.