maremosso

The most instructive info is at www.justhungry.com - always dump your somen in ice water after cooking - check it out

Add Nutella to your favourite Rum Balls recipe. Fill pear halves with Nutella, top with meringue and brown with torch or under the grill. Add Nutella to Eton Mess, and strawberries or raspberries or chopped pears. Spread on Panettone slices, and make individual Bread Puddings. Alternate Nutella and mascarpone in Tiramisu recipe. Use Nutella as topping for minicheesecakes. Etc. etc....

I have a couple of hundred food sites stored in my Firefox Bookmarks. Besides all the usual suspects, these are useful too: Made in Italy adieta.it mangiare bene nikibone maria-brazil.org Leite Culinaria chow simply ming online food down under cooking for engineers a la carte cuisine cuisine bawarchi.com ndtvcooks.com elgourmet.com chocolatier ...and the Discovery Channel recipes link, which is wonderful. Regretfully, I am unable to recall it exactly as I am away from my own computer.

Coppa is not salami. It´s an "insaccato" that you can buy ready made, at any coldcuts counter, or you make at home - ground meats, pistachios, spices and seasonings - and then sliced thin at the time of serving. It´s a Ligurian specialty, not difficult to make - but it´s important to follow the right procedure.

While I love browsing recipes in books, magazines and the internet, I only keep those that I actually deem a success. For years now I have gathered my best recipes by menus (that I have actually made, corrected and improved), in ring binders with plastic folders inside. I also make a note of the numbers of guests I have had at each dinner/lunch party, and of other useful details such as occasional suppliers, table settings, colour schemes, etc. While dishes go out of fashion (no one in my circle makes cookies anymore, or lasagna, or ratatouille, or meatballs, etc etc), it's nice to keep a record of past entertaining and family cooking, and a good source of reference. Nowadays I feel cooking is more a matter of technique and the right combination of flavours than exact measurements.

Well, I haven't had very good luck with seafood here in Buenos Aires - yet. Unless you go for Japanese, the smell of any fish restaurant leaves a lot to be desired. As an Italian I seldom encounter properly cooked pasta, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with home made (al dente) pappardelle al pesto at Piegari in La Recova. Good pizza pizzaiola also, for a change without tons of cheese on top. I am toying with the idea of Katmandu - got a hankering for Indian food. Anyone know how authentic it is? (I live in India half the year).

Well, I am back in Buenos Aires, after one year. Interesting to read about chimichurri. But actually it's just a plain old sauce called salmoriglio in Italian.

Kugel Gefillte fish Haggis Black pudding Tripes Sourkraut Soups Smelly smoked fish (herrings etc.) Sugar in savoury dishes Fatty cold cuts Deep fried foods Sweet salads served with main courses Overboiled, watery vegs English sausages Baked beans Gummy cheese, (Cheddar, American, Edam...) Jap traditional desserts Chinese creepy-crawlies All fast foods... and the list goes on and on...

← How very strange that this recipe would omit parsley! But then, in Sicily the oregano is usually fresh and wild and full of flavour. One of my favourites is Pescespada alla Messinese, charcoal grilled swordfish served swimming in salmoriglio. Further North, in Tuscany, we always add plenty of fresh parsley to this sauce - no doubt the flavour of dried oregano is just not the same as in Sicily. Here in India I often use salmoriglio to dress room temperature boiled potatoes, which proves very popular among our vegetarian Indian friends. And in Buenos Aires, all I have to do is add red chili flakes to turn it into chimichurri!

Thank you for posting this, culinary bear. I have been making moelleux for years, but I have had trouble finding a recipe that serves more than 8 - and it doesn't double or triple well. I am going to use these measurements for an upcoming dinner party - would the 18 servings be of 200ml each? If that is the case then I could perhaps stretch the recipe to serve my 26 dinner guests, as I plan to add strawberry sorbet on the side (in this hot country it will become a coulis in the bat of an eye!) , and anise tuiles.

I checked out the Heston Blumenthal's fondant recipe, which is part of a larger dessert. What on earth is sweetcorn powder, any easy-to-find substitutes one can use instead?

Make an Aloo Subzi side - here is a version: Temper half a teaspoon mustard seeds in hot oil (even better: ghee). Add half a teaspoon cumin seeds, then some fresh ginger and a thinly sliced red onion. Saute till golden coloured. Add a little turmeric, stir a couple of secs, then add 2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves and a thinly sliced green chili. Stir. As soon as the aroma develops, add your leftover mashed potatoes and stir quickly. Top with 1 teaspoon garam masala, stir to blend and take off the fire. Squeeze some lemon juice on top, mix and served garnished with coriander or chopped scallions.

And what about salmoriglio?

Nutella-filled Bomboloni are more common in Italy than their jam-filled American counterparts. And the French have been using Nutella in their Petits Pains au Chocolat for a very long time.

A few days ago I made this from the Nutella Italian website: Nutella Cannoli: 12 Cannoli (I used home made brandy snaps, rolled) - 750 g. Nutella - 1 Kg. ricotta - 150 g. sugar - cinnamon to taste - 150 g. roasted and chopped hazelnuts - Brandy - powdered sugar. Mix ricotta, sugar and cinnamon and pass through sieve. Fill one end of each cannolo, or brandy snap. Mix Nutella and Brandy to taste, and fill other end of cannolo or brandy snap. Sprinle hazelnuts over Nutella end. Place in serving dish and dust powdered sugar all over.

The Barilla pasta we get here in India is made in Italy.

Yes, Ravum. Half a cup lemon juice for the quantities given - but then, I do like my lemon ice cream nice and tart. It depends too on how sour your lemons are. 1 cup water to 1 cup sugar sounds right.

Barilla started out in Italy making egg pastas, and the quality used to be very good. Later on they started making regular pastas as well, in all shapes and sizes, and in competition with Buitoni. But it's never been considered top quality mass produced pasta. Barilla used to be privately owned (the Barilla family), but it's been sold many times down the line, and always deteriorated in quality. De Cecco, Agnesi and many others are far superior. But for excellence I would suggest the artisanal spaghetti packed in the traditional long blue packets that are available in all the better supermarkets in the US. Sadly (or not), for other shapes, you'd have to go Italy.

The world's easiest Lemon Ice Cream recipe: Combine same quantities Mascarpone and simple syrup (i.e.) 250 g. mascarpone cheese and 250 ml simple sugar syrup. Mix well. Chill 24 hours. Churn in ice cream machine. 15 minutes before done, add half a cup lemon juice. That's it! Optional: instead of lemon juice, you can add half a cup of any fruit preserve you like, or Dulce de Leche, Honey, Chestnut Puree', the sky's the limit.

Daniel, thanks for posting your findings. It's close to the time when we leave the shores of India, for our 6 months in Buenos Aires. Whereas I personally love the great Argentine parrillas, my vegetarian husband is less enthusiastic about the cuisine - so your post is really very useful. We usually shop in Jumbo, because it's a convenient one stop grocery store. And we go to the Belgrano area for all the fresh spices, which we buy in Chinatown. In BA a lot of people have citrus fruit right in their garden, and the quality and aroma of the lemons and oranges is hard to beat. On the whole there is not a wide range of fruit and vegetables available in BA, and we are not particularly fond of the pumpkin family, so your tip re La Organica is great!

I would make granita with it.

I do apologize, Esperanza. I did not mean to offend. Simply, I am a total ousider (an Italian who lives in India), and I know I have a lot to learn about Mexican food.. I just thought that I would mention how surprised I was when I recently discovered that there is indeed a lot more to Mexican food than the usual fare served in restaurants in Europe and the US. Recently in Argentina, it was a revelation watching some great Mexican Chefs doing great things. I really wish that level of cuisine was available at Mexican restaurants world-wide!

The South American TV Food Channels often feature Patricia Quintana, Isabella Dorantes and many other young Mexican Chefs who do wonderful dishes. If anyone is interested in the US, go to: www.elgourmet.com and see for yourself. Except for the availability or not of many ingredients, I found the TV shows very interesting - and a definite improvement over the traditional recipes. After all, how many tacos, tamales, enchiladas etc. etc. can one eat? As I am not particularly mad about the high carb content of many Mexican dishes, this was a revelation to me - and a good insight on a new (for me) type of cuisine.

Italians never, ever add lemon juice to tomatoes.

Mumbai. Varanasi, Simla... and not Delhi? I concur about Trishna in Kalaghoda nad Mahesh Lunch Home in Mumbai. I would also add Viva Paschim in Dadar, and Apurva restaurant. But for North Indian food, Delhi is definitely the place. Karim's in Nizamuddin for Muslim inspired dishes - and no-one still beats Bokara at the Maurya Hotel for Tandoori dishes.