Adam Balic

Not worth it at all I'm afraid.

.What is the collective opinion on this suggestion? Is this sound advice and/or a common practice? Has anyone tried this, how did it turn out? Any other suggestions? Thanks, RedHermes What everybody else said about health risks associated with eggs. Not sure where you are but Samonella cases associated with eggs are very very low in the UK, higher in the USA, but this is still only five deaths or so. Not many then. As for using cooked eggs. Well you can, but the product will be different. Mayonaise made with cooked eggs, isn't Mayonaise is it 'Sauce Gribiche'. No only does it have a different name, but it tastes different. Hollandaise in effect cooks the egg yolk, it maybe doesn't get hot enough to kill all putative bacteria. I think that by using cooked egg yolks you would get a sauce (I imagine the many commerical sauces use powdered egg yolks), but I doubt the it will be the same velverty sauce that is characterised by Hollandaise. I would think that most salmonella contaminations occur after a product has been left sitting about for time enough for the bacteria to multiple up to an infective dose. Hollandaise doesn't sit about, so the risk in this case is going to be very low. But at the end of the day is a matter or risk assessment. Is a great sauce worth the the very very minor risk of an upset tummy and the even more minute risk of death. For me yes. But I wouldn't eat Fugu kidney ever, using the same risk assessment.

Bugger. Has just ccured to me that the chaps at the Middle Eastern stores proberly sell it as they have great supplies of other imported fruit and veg.

Sure, do you think that they would grow in a Scottish window box?

Nice Balsam plants. Can't see any evidence of harvesting? Have you cooked with them yet?

My understanding is that the traditional plant familys Malvaceae, Bombacaceae, Sterculiaceae and Tiliaceae are now classified as the family Malvaceae and that the Corchorus (jutes) are a genus within this? Damn botanists.

Mosciame from Sicily, as well as swordfish with mint. Fresh anchovies from Liguria, as well as batti batti (eh, and date shells) Venice and soft shelled crabs, plus once there I had some great Murex shells Various salt cod/stockfish preparations (is this seafood?)

chutney

Paste (as in quince paste/cheese) Crab apples are rich in pectin pickled, preserved in booze.

Brad excellent notes, thank you. After hearing viognier described as "Chardonnay kissed by the Riesling Fairy" I made some effort to try this wine type. But, I don't think that I 'get' viognier. Have had nice enough examples as young wines, but the 5+ years examples have all seemed rather flabby and disjointed, be they Condrieu or New world, cheap or expensive. What exactly am I missing in the aged wines? edit: Pleased to see that you enjoyed the Rutherglen muscat (Buller's). Are the desert wines from this area common in your neck of the woods?

Love them, have had them mostly in the east, Lyon and Beaune for instance. Mustard cream sauce, with some sauted potatoes and salad. Could eat tem everyday. Andouille I have had exactly once, bought in Le Samaritan (sp?), smuggled in the UK an eaten in Edinburgh.

Yes the Haar has been a right bastard of late (nice weekend weather though, so mustn't grumble). Oloroso - what everybody else has said, but when the weather is not utter shit, it is a good place to go up to the balcony area and have a drink and talk about the Castle etc.

They are from Valle d'Aosta and ae called "Grolla", big carved wooden bowls with lids. You drink from the spout and pass it to the next person etc then back to you eventually (hence also called a friendship cup). The mixture in the Grolla varies but the versions I have had contains strong coffee, grappa (and/or some other alpine booze), sugar, orange peel and cinnamon sticks. Basically a hugh hit of caffeine, alcohol and sugar, resulting in a primative form of being stoned out of your skull.

Grappa I can drink until the cows come home, unless in involves one of these. When these are involved I notice that even Italian etiquette is quickly abandoned. edit: image removed due to copywrite issues. Will provide a link for those interested in the Grolla.

Useful information on starch

Arrowroot = translucent, Cornstarch = opaque. Potato flour can be used like Arrowroot and this is what I see used most often in decent Chinese places. Cornstach is for tourists etc.

Bamboo skewers. Push on between the cork and the glass, it should go in easy. Start pulling, the friction should be enough to remove the cork, if the cork is soft you may have to use two skewers place opposite of each other. If you have plastic cork then you really have to just push it in. Easier to push in then to pull out, I think the grain of the skewer makes it a little like stroking a cat backwards, if you see what I mean. Or you can freeze the bottle. The cork should pop out before the bottle cracks.

This is actually an extremely apt observation by a probable expert. Write it down in your notebooks, students. Thank you for the flattering comment, sadly I'm not even close to being an expert. Just a punter who happens to like Riesling - a lot.

I see that you did. The are not quite mazipan, although they share similar ingredients. One thing with making these is to let the raw "dough" rest overnight one the cakes/biscuits have been formed. Not sure why this makes a difference, maybe because it allows the almond flavour to develop (the "bitter" almond flavour develops in an aqueous setting).

Pan - I think that you are thinking of either panforte nero or pan pepato, as mentioned by albiston. As you can proberly guess "pan pepato" does have a bit of pepper in it! I love panforte, my Italian in-laws are fully paid up Sienese contrada members, so we go there a few times a year. For our wedding in Australia we had my sister in law and her boss bring back two 5 kilo panforte, one margherita, one pan pepato - they were our wedding cakes. You may get lucky and track down an original recipe from a disgruntled, down on their luck Sienese, but I doubt it. But a basic recipe is pretty easy and fun to make. Basically a soft nougat of cooked down honey and some flour which is mixed together with nuts/fruit and spices. Texture can be altered by mixing through ground almonds etc. This is then cooked in a very low oven and then allowed to cool. Keeps forever. I have two differnent types in the flat at the moment. Tell me that you tried some Ricciarelli while in Siena? One of the worlds greatest almond/macaroon type cakes. One of the great things about traveling in Italy is the different types of cakes that you find from town to town. "St. Lucy's eyes", "ugly, but good", "bones of St. X", "cantucci", fig pastries in Lipari, mazipan fruit for Sicily. The list is enless in terms of my ability to eat them all.

I have had excellent dry riesling from Australian producers such as Jim Barry. But I have occaisionally had spectacular riesling from Henshcke's single vineyard bottlings. They are offered in Ont. by the LCBO every year or two, and there is a small following for them, as they are priced in the $25 range. Proberly the most famous Australian Rieslings are produced in the Watervale region, which is sort of an sub-region of the Clare valley (South Australia)."Tradionally" these were ment to be aged really, they were drinkable, but not that interesting for a 12 months, then went through a dumb period of 5-10 years, after this point if they were any good they would have lots of complex flavours. Newer style wines drink much younger. Western Australian Rieslings can be much more full bodied then the South Australian wines, sometimes with tropical fruit overtones, but the state also produces some lovely delicate wines. Appologies for hi-jacking the American wine discussion.

I quite like honey I have a few types in the house: Mesquite honey from a trip to the US Chestnut honey from Chinati - not that sweet and quite bitter, very good with fresh pecorino Forest flowers from Chianti - quite floral, not suprisingly. Italian strawberry tree honey - very perfumed, similar to Tasmanian Leatherwood, bit more macho. Tasmanian Leatherwood - very aromatic English Bluebell honey - quite light Sunflower honey - again light in flavour, but an incredible golden colour Scottish Heather honey - possibly the best of the lot Australian Yellow Box honey - caramel toffee flavours Spanish orange blossom - tastes like what it is. Couple of Middle Eastern honeys, no idea about varieties During the childhood my uncles would sometimes rob a few wild hives, the honey bearing combs were put into muslin bags, this was hung from a rafter and the drips were collected. This not quite honey, not quite nectar is possibly the sweetest thing I have ever had.

I think that Riesling has been producing in Australia for ~100 to 120 years, so I guess this is a type of tradition. I like Riesling the best out of all white wines and possibly all wines, but I find the differences very interesting. I like both dry and sweet versions, but the biggest problem I have is when the sugar levels are not balanced by acid. German - honey/apples Alsace - pears/citrus (not lime)/floral Traditional Australian - lime/honey/flora depending on location and age Would be very interested in trying the US wine, wonder if it is in the UK. Oh, I assume we are talking about Rhine Riesling? A lot of "Riesling" around the world are different varieties entirely, "Italian Riesling" for instance is pretty vile, but I have had some good "Rhine Riesling" grown in the North of Italy.

Africa? I hope you're not talking about guinea worms here. <shiver> I would rather have allergies any day. No, schistosomes (blood fluke), which you also really, really, don't want. But, it should be remembered that for every bad infection, there are 99 are without any negative effect.

Good, then you can send me money as well.