Adam_Balic

Pah! Pretenters one and all

Good, I like MSG.

The fish I am thinking of is a member of the Salmon/trout group, (currently Salmo trutta). Basically, it is a Brown trout that acts like a Salmon and lives part of its lifecycle in salt water. http://www.wild-trout.co.uk/atlantic.htm Weakfish/Sea trout seem to be a differnt type of fish (do they taste like salmon?): http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/weakfish.cfm Sorry for taking this thread off topic again .

Most Croque Monsiers I have had in France (Paris, Lyon, Cluny, Avignon, elsewhere as well) have had Bechamel as well as cheese/ham. The older recipes I have for them involve frying the bottom in butter, then grilling/broiling the top to melt and brown the gruyere, later recipes simply toast the bread then broil. Croque Madame is an evil blight that needs to be stamped at all cost and I like eggs! What's this talk of chicken?

I wonder where she sources her sea trout. They are very scarce these days, and I gather if you are fishing in Ireland and catch one, you are obliged by law to put it back. Adam Adam - Sea-trout (Salmon-trout, Sewin) are relatively common on the east coast of Scotland, at least when they are comming up river. For some strange reson they are also very cheap in season (maybe as low as 5-7 quid a kilo). They are utterly delicious, better texture then even wild Salmon (flakes of flesh a bit more fine then Salmon). I have had the privelage to watch them leap up water falls (they look more reddish then the Salmon), which is quite something to see only 45 minutes of so from Edinburgh.

What were you making it with - beef or lamb? I find that with lamb you have to drain off the fat before you anything else otherwise its grey food time. The fat leaves a dank, musty aftertaste which is quite unpleasant. As for the thai dish - the only think I can think of is that something's gone off - perhaps the oil has spoiled. Also, too much fish sauce could ruin it. I use about 2/3 beef and 1/3 pork (my Croatian grandmother has very strong views about people who don't add pork to a mince base), plus some fatty procuitto for flavour, some ground fennel seeds and about one cup of full cream milk. The rest is similar to standard recipes. If my wife isn't looking I sometimes slip in a chicken liver or two, but this is rare as she watches me like a hawk. Mamster, thank you for the suggestion, which is a brilliant idea (Much better then the instructions on some of the Thai products I have, eg. "Cook until good"! So if we work on the sweet/sour/salty balance theme what order would you add them and at what stage in the game? Is order/time of addtion important at all?

Hmm, can't remember, so I must have been .

M&P, but I used my Italian one, not my Thai one (back in Australia). It tasted good up to certain point then a small flavour blackhole opened up in my Wok. I'm thinking too much fish sauce? Can oversalting deaden flavour? Had this problem with a Ragu the other day, almost unedible. It tasted of fatty meat only, even through it had loads of other ingredients. At the eleventh hour I added a few more tomatos and bang, problem solved. Maybe my tastebuds are caput? Acid levels wrong? I dunno, why everything is going to hell at this stage in the game though.

After reading about Thai curries on The Mamsters excellent site I was inspired to make a Red Curry after several months of not having this dish. For a change I managed to get all the ingredients that I wanted (Fresh paste, Tamarind water, Lemon ginger, kaffir lime leaves, palm sugar, Asian Basil, fresh bamboo shoots, fish sauce, coconut cream). Now I made the curry as normal, but it didn't work. The flavours came out "muddy" (like when you mix together all those colourful paints as a child and end up with a grey-green mess), no matter what corrections I made to the sweet,salt, soar levels or the individual flavour components. I have noticed this happening with other recipes such as Ragu and stews. Is it possible to use to many flavour components?

I had some peolple around for a casual meal last night: Great Big Salad: lots of ingredients, including fresh anchovies (not salted or brined) Beef Daube (Like Mamsters stew, but with olives, orange zest and prunes) New potatoes with butter/parsely Two very good French Cheeses Panforte Drinks: Couple of Cape Cods, Prosecco, two bottles of Grenache, Amontillado.

Circeplum - I had several wondeful meals in Riomaggiore at a restaurant called "La Lanterna". It is down at the habour (if you can call it that), so if you book ahead you can get a patio table (there are only four of these) and have a wonderful evening meal. Several dishes have to be ordered ahead also (like fish, mantis shrimp, shrimp, squat lobster, cuttle-fish in a saffron and tomato stock, all cooked together in a terra cotta amphora) Also good and cheap is the restaurant right at the top of Venazza (sorry, can't remember the name), you can't miss it as it is near the tower on the path on the way to Corniglia . Cinque terra has had a significant increase in the amount of tourism over the last few years. So be prepare to walk the coastal paths early in the day to beat the rush. It is also best to book restaurants, as they fill up early as well. Have a fantastic time, I love Cinque terra, even with the increased amount of tourists. Ooooh, if you see it, get the "Cerdoicello", like limoncello but light green in colour (being made from Cedro (=Citron)). Very tasty.

Squirrel's ear? I thought it was mouse ears. There is a morel species in Australia, it is found growing under certain types of eucalyptus trees in the South east. Looks and tastes very much like the Europeon version. During a camping trip I once picked half a garbage bag full. We ate so many morels on the trip that people were complaining that they just wanted plain mushrooms. Can't please everybody I guess.

I would second ED's "French Provincial Cooking"as my most used/loved book. Other then that I am very sluttish in regard to cooking books. At the moment I am using Maria Kaneva-Johnson's "The Melting Pot: Balkan Food and Cookery" and Clifford Wright's "Mediterranean Feast" (this later book must be one of the greatest cooking books I have ever read).

I made a bastardized version of a Goan fish curry using some Cod (which I have never tasted before in its fresh form). Was quite good, but I made the mistake of serving it with brown basmati rice, which was the wrong taste and texture.

Cabrales - could you provide some information on this topic of whale meat consumption in Japan? My understanding is that until the latter part of the 19th C. red meat was not consumed in Japan, would this include whale meat also? The official view from the Japanese Gov. is that is an important tradional food stuff. Fair enough, but is this true? Even if Whale meat was outside the ban on red meat consumption, I can't see how you would transport large amounts of it around the country before the 20th C (could it of been salted?). Where does this leave "Tradition"? It is an emotive subject, so it is difficult to get the a clear picture on the subject (especially as I know very little of Japanese social history). There seems to be in incredible effort to increase the level of whale meat consumption in Japan, why is this do you think?

I was offered some Ambergris while in Morocco (I was buying spices etc). It looks, as LML said, like a greyish waxy lump. However, its odour was rather nice, distinct but similar to the Musk that I was also offered (along with all type of interesting drugs). Both are very complex and in the case of the Musk, far more so then the synthetic versions I have sampled. I toyed with the idea of buying some of each to recreate some of the Robert May recipes, but decided that since I didn't know how the stuff had been obtained then I didn't want it. I had already seen enough examples of rare animals for sale alive or made into tourist trinkets to make me wary.

Green plastic right? Bought several jars back from Paris last time I was there. I just bought a 19th C. pickle fork though damn it. Have you tried the Maille Cider Vinegar? Excellent stuff for a commercail blend.

Daylesford - hate the sodding place, had to go there for Family holidays, no wonder the food was bad. Hanging Rock - love it, we would go there for the boxing day racing. Sometimes a picnic as well .

Nah, the sweet chilie sauce is my own discovery. I am very proud of having discovered the combination. "Fushion" cuisine at its best! I was mixing the Martini's, so they were very large O.K. It was the rotten Belhaven that gave me the hangover.

Monday - grilled wild boar loin (marinated in Fino Sherry, garlic and olive oil), mashed potato with lots of Burro di Parma and petit pois. Tues. - pasta with ricotta/leek/smoked bacon/vermouth/chilie sauce. Parmesan microplaned on top. Wed.- five dry Martini's (+five olives) and three pints of ale. Deep fried Haggis from Chippy with Sweet chilie sauce. Thurs. - Hungover, don't care for food today. Had have a Charantais melon, nice, but still hungover. Will have a medicinal drink later and consider something.

Freshly made English Mustard is my Fav. I like the way in burns through your sinuses, then no after effects, more like horseradish then chilie. This is closely followed by Maille Dijon with green peppercorns, yum. Apicius has a recipe for Mustard, dead simple and rather tasty. The is an adaption of it in one of the "Two Fat Ladies" cookbooks.

White A. can be a real pain. It is often, so turgid that it can shatter during transport home and it can be difficult to cook. Try steaming it or if you can, stand them upright in a pan of water, so that the water comes up about 1/3 of the way up the stems, then simmer until cooked. The green has more flavour though.

They are protected in the sense that the British goverment is about to kill 10,000 of the blighters to protect their cattle from Mycobacteria bovis (Moo-Cow TB causative agent). But yes, this one was poached (then roasted), you see that was the funny bit about it, serving up Mr. Badger to a whole bunch of Delia Smith enthusists and telling them it was Mr. Piggy. Not a single one of them noticed that there was something a bit different about it.

Roast Hedgehog is Romany I think. The spines remain on and peel of when you remove the clay. Australian Aboriginals do similar things with Echidna and also fish (scales peel off with the clay). If you want to eat Porcupine you have to skin them first (spines are too long), but this gives you an effect not unlike a skinned human baby I have been told. . Very tasty though. . At a recent Farmers Market in the UK, people were served roast badger, however most people didn't know the real identity of the beast (they were told it was "Earth-pig"). Apparently, it was well received anyway.

Sounds utterly revolting. A pity, as the word that springs to mind when I think of Yabbies is "sweet". If the rest of the fish was off, then it is a good bet that the Yabbies were too. Where was this place?