Wholemeal Crank

Looking at two pots now--the 1.7L chrome beehive pot and the 1L mini chrome pot. I rarely need more than a quart at a time, but the extra capacity might be nice at times, plus help the water hold its heat longer when I get it up to temperature for a longer gongfu session. Also, I remember reading someplace as I was looking these up previously that the beehive pot was faster to the boil because of the shape or something. Looking at these, the spout of the beehive pot looks different, with the black piece at the tip. What is it? Is that going to be hard to clean/easy to break?

An update just FYI: RIP Adagio kettle, time in use, approximately 6 weeks. Cracked it on the porcelain sink divider while washing it out. It was too cute to last. Now will get a simplex, and never buy another.

Not clear how Morton & Bassett gets around this, as their e-mail referenced above suggests they use both interchangeably. Good point about being sure of your plants and leaves: where I go hiking in the California coastal ranges, the California Bay is very common, and I know the tree well. I just finished reading Wicked Plants and am freshly versed in the possibilities of problems with the wrong plants, and would not recommend anyone sample unfamiliar plants! I was not aware of the headache connection with umbellularia: I found it difficult to find any references to it when I was first learning about it, long before wikipedia, but I learned about it's culinary uses here before I ever tried the leaves. I also once collected a few nuts and tried to process and roast them per the instructions in that book (they were eaten by native americans), but found them quite unpalatable.

Yesterday, just the two teas from the current tastings, the lao mansa puerh, the best infusions yet, and the sencha select. Both wonderful teas. Today, started with the sencha select again, and am following up with the Diamond Tie Guan Yin. It was an interesting contrast to the sencha--not as overwhelmingly sweet, but more of a hay/caramel/honey note.

1.4 grams to 2 ounces of 160 degree water* today, and the result was excellent, but not so different from the one gram per 2 ounces version as to really justify the extra quantity of tea. The best part of this tasting for me is that it confirms that senchas can be pretty amazing without going all the way to the gyokuros. Again this time, the 2nd infusion, very short, but after a break of 2 minutes or so to prep some toast, seemed to pull out most of the bitterness, but still just a little, and the first and remaining were nearly all bitter-free. Now suspecting it is a timing thing--the sweet elements are drawn out first at these temps, and the bitter starts to come out a little later, and a short infusion captures a lot of that but the sweet is coming out at a steady rate and so the short infusion gets a lot of the bitter (again, not that there is much there) and less of the sweet, so is relatively less sweet, but the remaining infusions are again dominated by the slower, steadier release of the sweet. At any rate, a delightful tea, and a marvelous companion to my brother's honey on sourdough toast. *had meant to try hotter but the water had cooled to this by the time I started brewing and the toast was ready. Oops.

Fresh California Bay leaves are do make a difference most anyone can notice; I can imagine not missing the typical old, crumbly, dry laurus nobilis. Because they're so strong, they're used in even smaller quantities than the laurus, so small that it's hard to imagine a seriously toxic consequence of the occasional wild-grown leaf. I really got interested in them when I was trying to make an unusual bread from one of Paula Wolfert's books that starts out with a tea made with bay and cinnamon, and was amazed by the difference between two batches made in short succession--one with regular dried laurus nobilis, and one made with fresh umbellularia leaves. The latter was so fragrant as to be intoxicating, the former was interesting but bland. The starter never worked properly, so I can't say anything for sure about the bread. But it got me paying attention to the bay leaves.

Laurus nobilis are pretty easy to find plant nurseries and online. The umbellularia is quite a bit harder to find, so you're not likely to end up with the wrong plant.

Today after such good experience with the senchas, I tried a new strategy with the lao mansa: I 'woke it up' with a 20" rinse in boiling water in a preheated yixing, then let the leaves sit in the hot pot while the water cooled to 160-170 degrees for the infusions. The leaves opened beautifully during the first infusion of cooler water, and the fruity and sweet flavors are really strong now. Also used a little more leaf to water than I normally do--about 2 grams for the 60mL pot. Next time I'll probably do this again, and use a bit more leaf for the same size pot.

Been trying to rustle up an old newspaper article I read about someone who had agreements with various landowners to go pick their California Bay leaves for their spice company, but can't find the reference. I think Morton & Bassett may use them, based on the images on their site and recollections of unusually long, dark leaves in the jars on the shelves in stores. They don't fess up to theis on their web site, however--it says not a peep of umbellularia or laurus nobilis.

Sounds like you may have gotten leaves from the California Bay, Umbellularia californica. It's a fairly distant relation to the true mediterranean bay laurel. I started grabbing a few leaves here and there when hiking, and really like the stronger flavor of these vs the mediterranean laurel leaves. I like them so much I have two of them in my yard right now, one potted, and one in the ground (and I certify their leaves are organically produced). But I can completely understand how you the difference might be rather shocking if you weren't expecting it!

I did not give this tea enough credit--did only three infusions the first time. After reading the other notes, started over with smaller quantities--1 gram in about 2 ounces of water in a small gaiwan--and still 160 degree water, and did 30, 10, 45, and then another 4 or so 30-40 second infusions, good to the last one. The shorter 2nd infusion did cut down on the bit of bitterness I noted the first time around. Gorgeous stuff.

A few smoothies I liked enough to record so I could repeat them: Raspberry-Orange-Banana-Apple concocted to match a favorite raspberry blend from Odwalla, which I couldn't get when I moved to Missouri Blend together: one medium-sized ripe banana about 1/2 C raspberries, fresh or frozen juice of 2 valencia oranges (about 2/3 C) 2/3 C apple juice Mango-Blood Orange Blend together: 1 part blood orange juice 1 part ripe mango, peeled, cubed, and preferably frozen Raspberry-Lime the martinelli's was the perfect fizzy finishing touch; made a nice party drink instead of punch Blend together, in batches as needed, then mix together in a large bowl: Flesh of 1 large very ripe honeydew melon "Pint" raspberries, fresh or frozen juice of 4 limes one tablespoon sugar 1 bottle Martinelli's sparkling cider But the last couple of posts about squashes and starches got me wondering: would flavor combos like I used in this Sweet Potato Cranberry Tart or the Squash Mock Apple Tarts with Cardamom and Ginger translate well to a smoothie? I bet they would, although I think you'd need to cook the sweet potatoes or squash first to get the texture right.

I've only resorted to microwaving a couple of times; usually if the tea gets cold I just drink it veryveryfast or dump it. And of course I will now make some of the less-fabulous green tea in the back of the cabinet and let it sit out overnight. Probably should also set out some black tea, and photograph the befores and afters, in little white cups.

This is so difficult because I swing back and forth between which ones I'll be craving from time to time. I always am happy to find these, a list heavily weighted towards the non-chocolate because I spent decades allergic to it, so had to make do.... Snickers Sweet Tarts Spree Lemon Heads Mini M&Ms (the perfect proportion of candy shell to cheap chocolate, at this lower concentration the cheap chocolate matters less) Reeses (mini are the best) Other than snickers, I do love some nut-containing items like m&m peanuts and the payday bar, but they're often disappointingly stale.

[cat-ectomy completed] 2 grams in 6 ounce glass pot, preheated, water 160 degrees*, 30 seconds first infusion sweet, just hints of asparagus/vegetal, trace astringent; delicate yellow green liquor with silky body 45 second second infusion, more astringency/vegetal and some slight bitterness, but still immensely sweet 30 second third infusion, sweet still there, astringency milder, aftertaste of sweet grass LOVE this tea! *will try warmer next time, but the denstea site recommends 160-180, and I'm a bitter wimp, so started low, and so rewarding

Got mine last night, intend to start the day with it shortly, after I evict the cat from my lap so I can get to the kitchen.

Today I'm drinking the Rishi Tuo Cha Puerh. Reliably mellow, earthy, hints of sweet. I was having trouble finding it for a while and bought several tins at once, so have a lot to drink my way through. I haven't ever tried it gongfu style, hmmmm.....

Just wondering about the proportions--how sure are you of the flour/honey weights & egg ratio? With so much honey it seems more custard or pudding than cake. Also, I'm curious if the nuances of the honey flavor come through well in such a simple recipe. It could be a great way to showcase some very special honey if those don't get lost in the baking.

I use the original Cake Bible regularly; scouted but am still on the fence about Rose's Heavenly Cakes, mostly because I don't bake cakes regularly, and a few base recipes plus my own variations really suffice pretty well for me; didn't buy the Pie and Pastry Bible because I was already comfortable and confident with my own pies; did buy the bread book despite her really annoying bias against wholegrain flours because the little pretzel breads are fabulous and quite unique among all my other bread books and recipes (and I do make them with my fresh-milled whole wheat flour).

Welcome, Matthew, and what a gorgeous kyusu! What is your favorite thing to enjoy in it? And does the "one of my antique teapots" imply that you have a collection?

As suggested above, the eggs in a brownie are all about texture, not about flavor. The eggless Korova Cookies from Pierre Herme (from Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets) are glorious and miss the eggs not at all. However, they are crumbly and crunchy, not brownie-like. I'd start with my favorite brownies and try milk protein as the binding agent, since you indicated that other dairy is ok. Might try it a little denser than regular milk by using powdered milk, and instead of the usual 1 cup powder to 4 cups water for reconstitution, would try 1 part powder to 2 parts water, so using an approximate volume of one large egg as three tablespoons, would start with 3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk and 6 tablespoons water per pan of my favorite brownies. And maybe add an extra tablespoon or two of butter per pan to make up for the missing richness of the egg yolk. Could require several tasty rounds of experimentation to get it right.

I just tried 2 grams in a 100mL gaiwan, and used much cooler water--160 degrees, as for a gyokuro, just to see what treating it as something very delicate would do. Answer: took some of the liveliness out of it. It was a bit too delicate and bland at these temps. After about 4 infusions, reheated the water to 190 degrees, did a 20 second infusion and was rewarded by a richer liquor and more flowery, fruity tea, with soft grounding notes of earthy and smoky mixed in.

Today, mostly drank the Diamond Tie Guan Yin from norbutea.com. Finished off the work evening with a bit of gyokuro, brewed in a gaiwan at work. I was too distracted to get the timing just right--need to set a timer to avoid the oops, overdid it syndrome--not a problem with the forgiving oolong, but very poor form with delicate gyokuro!

Berthillon was one of the food destinations I made a priority during a too-short trip to Paris, and it was absolutely worth it. Sadly, I only had one serving there--couldn't make it there twice, darn. Had the Caramel au beurre sale, and it was as good as any ice cream I've had anywhere, anytime, as good as the gelato at Vivoli in Florence. Disclaimer: that was the only ice cream I had in Paris, but can't imagine they're all that good.

Looking forward to hearing more about the Lao Mansa Puerh. It does seem to take some tweaking to get the full potential of this tea.