kitwilliams

In Darina Allen's "Irish Traditional Cooking" there is a recipe for Nettle Champ which is, basically, mashed potatoes made with hot milk in which your nettles have steeped for about half an hour. To 675g of hot, peeled potatoes, add 300ml of milk in which you've steeped a cup or so of chopped nettles. Mash all together. Salt & Pepper. Lots of Irish butter. A big spoon.

I spent ten days in Kuwait last year and, although I've eaten plenty of Americanized Lebanese food (which I love), I had no idea how utterly over-the-top amazing real Lebanese food truly is (I wonder how I'll feel about it if I ever get to Lebanon!) I fell in love with Karabige and several other desserts. Can you recommend a cookbook, website recipe...anything that might come close to an authentic recipe? Thanks so much, Elie.

Abra: Coincidentally, my boyfriend and his two brothers are returning tomorrow from ten days in Brittany. I can't wait to hear the details, as I've always wanted to spend time there, and I'll post some of their tips soon. Lucky you!

Has anyone tried malt syrup instead of powder?

I am not criticizing anything that anyone has written on this thread as it is what each and every one of you has experienced with friends/loved ones who have diabetes. I would just like to point out that each and every insulin-dependent diabetic is different than the next and for those of us who have lived with it for a long time and are aware how our body reacts to different foods/exercise/alcohol/insulin, we (along with our doctors) know best how to handle our situation and are pretty much able to do so in any situation. It is always GREAT to have people concerned about us (especially great when newly diagnosed), but for those of us who are out and about in the world, we're pretty savvy about how to handle our dietary needs. On low blood sugar: The goal of the diabetic is to keep their blood sugar as close to "normal" as possible. The thing is, there is a very fine line between "normal" and "too low", so low blood sugars are not uncommon for diabetics who are in very good control. If your blood sugar is normal and you have a tiny bit more exercise than usual, your blood sugar can drop. If you've given yourself the dose anticipated for a meal then don't eat quite as many carbs as projected, you can have a "reaction". I don't know dawnie2u's SIL, who may or may not be in good control of her situation. I just want everyone to know that a low blood sugar does not a "bad" diabetic make. So my advice is, have plenty of good, fresh food on hand that everyone in the family will enjoy and that you enjoy cooking and everyone will be happy! PS If any of you have loved ones with insulin-dependent diabetes, the insulin pump has been the best solution for me and has made a more spontaneous type of lifestyle possible for those of us with the disease.

Driving across the country last month we saw nothing but corn growing, from Buffalo, NY to California. No "amber waves of grain" anywhere I expected them to be. We heard that Western NY is getting into the ethanol biz in a big way and we were pleased to hear that as it is a beautiful part of the country whose economy needs that boost. But we were concerned then and even more so now, having read THIS article about the rising price of wheat. Farmers switching to corn (and we don't have enough ethanol-run vehicles to utilize all that is being produced), not enough wheat being grown, weather affecting the wheat crops and cultures who used to rely on rice alone are using more and more wheat. This article states that world demand for wheat is so great that "record crops" are required to keep up to demand. Very scary. Interesting topic. As a baker, it will be interesting to see how this affects mass produced bread/pastry as well as our local artisanal products.

I love pound cake. I love toasted teacakes (just ate the last of a stash from the freezer). I love shortbread. Michael Recchiutti's Triple Chocolate Cookies in his book Chocolate Obsession is very shortbread-like but not quite as simple to throw together. Absolutely worth the effort, though! Always make a double batch as you refrigerate the logs of dough and you won't be able to get enough of them.

Well, flour is the big one that you really need to measure by weight... nearly all other ingredients will be OK by volume. Not great, but OK. I think it's a good compromise, especially if the editor said "No Weights!" and the author was able to squeeze in at least that one. No idea if that's what happened, but maybe... ← Yes, it is a start, but I must disagree with you on "nearly all other ingredients will be OK by volume", Chris. Eggs vary greatly in weight, despite being graded by size. I always use "large" eggs and they usually vary between 48 and 60 grams per large egg. I've compared liquid measuring cups and they can be very varied as well. One cup of granulated sugar is always going to be close to 7oz/200g (as long as the user is using a dry measure and not a liquid!). But brown sugars? Powdered sugar? I just think it silly, lazy and, most importantly, inaccurate. I wrote to Saveur about this issue. They advised me they are constantly trying to make their magazine more user friendly. I appreciate that. Perhaps I should be pleading with the Food Network, since they attract the largest audience. Maybe they can convince the masses to purchase scales and then, and only then, will their attempts turn out like their Favorite Food Network Stars.

Thanks for the extremely informative posts, project. And about the child who preferred radio to tv because the pictures were better...well, if you have an imagination, this is so true. I find that I retain more information from radio cooking shows as opposed to television -- you have to listen more carefully rather than simply losing yourself in the visual. We need twenty-four hour radio food networks! I'm bumping this up today as I just had a look at Alice Medrich's new book, Pure Desserts. I read a review of it in the LA Times and was so excited to read that she used weights as well as volumes in her recipes. What I didn't do was read carefully as the author of the article DID state that the FLOUR in all the recipes was shown by weight as well as volume. ONLY the FLOUR? ONLY the FLOUR????? I guess it is a start but.............ONLY the FLOUR?????????????? I keep promising that I'm finished with my ranting. Then something like this occurs and it sets me off again. Sorry, folks. But, as usual, I'd love to hear what you all think!

I lived in Dartmouth Park for a couple of months this past summer and our landlord raved about St John's (not Fergus Henderson's, of course), a gastropub not far from Archway Tube. 91 Junction Road. 020 7272 1587. We were never able to get there so can't recommend it personally.

I keep checking back here to see if any one of you has tried this out yet! Come on, gang! I'm dying to hear what kind of results you get! I'd take it on but it is College Football Saturday and I'm too busy............

Can you imagine being in Britain and not having a curry? I was recently in Kuwait and my fabulous hosts took me to a Japanese/Chinese fusion restaurant which was delicious, but my favorite meal there was Lebanese and was one of the best meals of my life...so far. So, no, I wouldn't limit myself to a country's cuisine. In fact, I want to eat where the locals eat and, very often, a local community's favorite joint is often some other ethnicity, don't you find?

What a coincidence. I was just reading an issue of Saveur from last year and so I know what SOS stands for! Growing up, we always called it "Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast". Total comfort food. You either love it or hate it.

Many good points listed above. I agree in measuring small amounts with measuring spoons. I agree that specificity of ingredients is terrifically important. However all cookbooks can not be all things to all people so those of us who are more experienced must bear with the dumbing down of recipes or perhaps be a little more selective in our cookbook purchases as don't we all want to see those who are cooking challenged have better results in the kitchen? Another thing I'm curious about: do you all find yourselves buying/using cookbooks with photographs (and those of you who write them, are you encourged by publishers or feel the need to include photos)? I find this troubling as some of the best cookbooks out there have none. I worked part time in a little cookbook/kitchenware shop and when customers requested a good Italian cookbook and a good breakfast cookbook, I encouraged the owners to get Marcella Hazan and Marion Cunningham and Margaret Fox in order to fill these requests. But no, as they had no pictures! These books include clearly written recipes, easy to follow, but, for some, the lack of photographs makes it undesireable. What has happened to imagination and creativity? Or am I being hypocritical here, encouraging a clear, concise recipe yet not requiring a clear glimpse of what the final result should be? In response to project's comments, I WAS going to suggest that we should ask some textbook publishers to publish cookbooks...until I read further down that they are even VEFEEEing textbooks (do you teach, project?). I agree completely with your words about the Food Network. Do you have an "in" with ATK -- perhaps they could start a new food network which might incite the original to provide more than fluff -- I mean VEFEEE!

I would think that if they were going to put an index at the back of the book, listing EVERY ingredient and its weight, it would be just as easy to list each unit of measure in each recipe. 1 cup/7 oz/200g granulated sugar 1 cup/8 oz/225g unsalted butter 4 large/240g whole eggs and so on throughout the recipe. Wouldn't you think that if someone is shelling out $35 to $50 on a book that they would want to put the time, effort and perhaps a little extra money for a scale, so that their efforts would turn out as terrific as possible? I understand that we all don't have the financial resources. But having a recipe turn out like crap or not at all can waste a lot of money. Why not invest in a scale? I can answer that question. Because most cookbooks in this country DON'T MEASURE BY WEIGHT. So why bother with the scale? I'm going around in circles!

Thanks for sharing that correspondence, Dan. And you're right and I apologize to those of you who write and publish recipes and are trying your utmost to educate these editors/publishers, all in the name of accuracy in baking. And, in the midst of all this ranting of mine, my KD600 scale broke. Just today! I've had it about five years so am out of the loop as far as new scales. Recommendations, anyone? Thanks!

The problem, Lorinda, is not the posters on egullet (who all know that anyone who hangs out here probably has a much better equipped kitchen than the general population of cookbook readers). It is the writers/publishers of cookbooks who are assuming that most home cooks in the US do not own scales. This is probably true of the majority of the cookbook buying public in the US at this time. As far as Europe goes, I can only speak for the UK as I've spent a lot of time there, however I think that throughout most of Europe, home cooks DO have scales and measurements are always by weight. I've just decided that from now on, my go-to wedding present is going to be a kitchen scale.

We just drove cross-country from Buffalo, NY to Long Beach, CA and boy, would I have been happy to see a Tim Horton's in some of the spots we stopped along the way where even Starbuck's has yet to appear! I shed a few tears for all the truck drivers who have to survive on the swill served at roadside stops in this country! Let's hope, for their sake, that a few Tim Horton's will appear occasionally along the I-90!

I don't know if the rest of you are having problems with the lower cut waistlines these days, but I think they suck. My boyfriend's daughters were explaining "muffin tops" to me, and they didn't mean a nicely-rounded, crumble-topped blueberry muffin! I'd like something just slightly lower waisted, say like wearing a perfect pair of men's (sorry, but they fit me well!) Levis 501s!!! Suggestions? Thanks.

No, not yet, McAuliflower, but thanks for the reminder to do so! Dan: I'm with you in that I am all for old-fashioned, homely-type recipes (I was just given my grandmother's recipe for lemon meringue pie in which she would whip her egg whites on a platter with a fork! I'll turn on the KitchenAid, thank you very much!). However you probably know that here in the States, our butter comes by the pound, each quarter pound individually wrapped. Each of those quarter pound "sticks" or "cubes" is 8 tablespoons. Most old recipes would have stated "2 cubes" of butter. I doubt very much that even the originator of the recipe measures her butter by the tablespoon! I'm not asking that volume measures be eliminated, but let's at least give our readers/bakers/cooks the OPTION of volume and weight. And I certainly don't want to lose any old traditions. But let's leave less room for error by making the ingredients list as clear as can be, and let's give as much information as possible in the method of the recipe.

I've ranted many a time on egullet about my frustration with American cookbooks (baking in particular) and the fact that most still tend to utilize volume measurements rather than weight, be it avoirdupois or metric. Hey: we all spend thousands on our computers -- why not shell out a few bucks for a scale and have our baked goods actually turn out as they were meant to? Why not, when writing a cookbook, offer the option of volume AND ounces AND grams? So. I decided to bake the gorgeous looking caramel cake in this month's SAVEUR. Baked the buttery layers last night and they look gorgeous. It wasn't until I was prepping to make the icing this morning that I re-read the recipe and saw that the first ingredient did NOT read "16 ounces unsalted butter" as I thought, but "16 tbsp unsalted butter". Tablespoons? Why would anyone measure out 16 "tablespoons"? Why not "8 ounces" or "224 grams" or "1 cup" or even "2 cubes" of butter???? Why would a magazine the calibre of SAVEUR print a recipe that way? Truth be told, it is my fault for not reading it correctly. But when I see a "16" in a recipe, it usually refers to ounces, not tablespoons. Bakers beware! And then the icing. The caramel icing cooks a long, long time. I had it on the lowest flame possible. And it burned. The recipe made it all sound so simple with no warning of possible burning during the one and a half hour cooking period. Granted, I've made caramel before. I know the ease with which sugar can burn. But what about all the non-bakers who decide to make this cake and icing and after an hour or so of stirring "occasionally", they end up with bits of gritty black in their smooth caramel icing? So I am starting a petition for better and more accurate recipe writing, and especially getting the US in step with the rest of the world in jumping on the metric bandwagon. But first, I have to go to the store in order to pick up some more evaporated milk so that I can spend another hour and a half making the damn caramel icing in order to frost my very, very, very buttery cake.

What are the dimensions of the sheets? Are they big enough to cut out 9" or 10" rounds or is that too much to ask?

Does anyone remember the Bisquick "Velvet Crumb Cake"? With the broiled coconut icing on top? Anyway, I'd love to try to duplicate it without the Bisquick (a little too much of a chemical taste in the cake) so if you have the proportions of flour and butter and bp, Kerry, I'd love to know! Thanks. ← Replace 1/2 cup bisquick with 1/2 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 3 to 4 tbsp butter. I'd love to see this velvet crumb cake. ← Thanks, Kerry. Can't wait to see if the texture of the homemade cake resembles the really soft (hence the velvet!) texture of the Bisquick cake! I'll try to remember to take a picture before we devour it.

Does anyone remember the Bisquick "Velvet Crumb Cake"? With the broiled coconut icing on top? Anyway, I'd love to try to duplicate it without the Bisquick (a little too much of a chemical taste in the cake) so if you have the proportions of flour and butter and bp, Kerry, I'd love to know! Thanks.

If you don't have time for a leisurely lunch at Chez Panisse, go to Alice Waters' other place, Cafe Fanny. Poached eggs on levain toast (the levain from Acme Bread next door), or beignets, or some of her pastries other than the croissants (I'm always so shocked at how heavy their croissants are!) and big bowls of cafe au lait. Eaten on the edge of the parking lot. And always a line out the door. What a hoot. Cheese Board is fun. I love their scones and a few of their pastries although not all. Cheeses are fabulous and pizzas down the block are terrific (always vegetarian). Nabolom's Bakery in the Elmwood neighborhood of Berkeley bakes my favorite egg bread (poppy. sesame or no seeds (my preference). In summer, their berry and other fresh fruit danish are fabulous. Down College Avenue from Elmwood, before you get to Claremont Avenue, is La Farine, supposedly the home of the Morning Bun. Not the original owner anymore, but might still be a good bakery stop. Up Claremont Avenue towards the big, white, Claremont Hotel, is Domingo Street housing Rick & Ann's - a great breakfast or lunch stop. Next door is Peet's Coffee and next door to Peet's is Bread Garden Bakery, another favorite stop when I'm in town. Love their Cinnamon Swirl bread (especially toasted and buttered), and lots of good pastries and scones. Have fun! And I'm thinking, if possible, rent a car!