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lexy

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Posts posted by lexy

  1. :laugh:  someone needed to point that out!  i can imagine ling lording (ladying?) this over henry for years to come!  "but who won the iron chef?  need i remind you?"  :wink:

    Hah, I was just thinking the same thing … my parents (jokingly) do the same thing ("Well who tried to pitch a tent in a valley during a rainy Scottish winter?" "Who once tried to make their own beer in the basement and decided to 'kick it up a notch' by doubling all the ingredients except for the water?" &c &c)

    What was the peach foie gras like taste- and texture-wise? It looks great, but did it taste as cool as it looks? And can we get recipes (or guidelines) for the stilton biscuits and avocado cream? They look fabulous.

    Votes:

    IC 1: 8.5 - The first and last courses look really great. Interesting and sophisticated, but tasty-looking.

    IC 2: 8 - Everything looks good, but I wasn't as excited by it. Also, I love sweets, and a spoonful of sorbet for dessert vs a tart? Sorry, no contest :raz:

  2. Just another congratulatory post - thank you for the fantastic photos and commentary. I really enjoy the armchair travel! And I'm amazed (as always) by chinese cuisine - I'm simultaneously shamed by my own attempts to cook it, and super keen to hop a plane to China and try the real stuff for myself.

  3. One of my favorite cookbooks!  Daley's tome has too many outstanding recipes to mention here.

    Too right - I love that book. Haven't tried the butter toffee crunch shortbread, but her regular shortbread recipe is fabulous, especially if it's allowed to age for a few days.

  4. Do not use old vanilla beans to make vanilla sugar, and then use that vanilla sugar to make leche flan only to realize upon tasting said leche flan that you didn't make vanilla sugar, but vanilla salt.

    Vanilla salt might have some interesting savoury applications though … did you just bin it, or did you try to use it anything?

  5. Hmmm, well good to know. I've also often walked past the counter and considered it, thinking "I bet that's not good sushi … but maybe I should try it anyway."

    It probably depends where you are though. If I were in downtown Toronto I wouldn't buy it; if I were in Timmins or Thunder Bay it would probably look pretty good (apologies to anyone from Timmins or Thunder Bay - I assume that stellar sushi is not on offer there)

  6. But, since egg whites taste of nothing, and the yolks are what deliver most of the flavor, consider a savory curd type concoction, maybe even with bacon in it, an addition for the breakfast boozer. Maybe a bacon/sausage zabaglione?

    Poached or hard-boiled egg yolk 'olive' garnish?

    (I post this idea hesitantly - I can't decide whether it would be really awful or actually sort of good)

  7. Shal, as far as cocktails go, I would just provide the raw ingredients and let 'em rip.  In any large group there is always a would-be bartender who loves to mix things up for everyone else - and besides most people know what they want to drink and how they like it made. 

    And it's always fun just to mess around with ingredients and make stuff up - especially once you've already had a few :raz:

  8. I'm trying to have an "executive chef" model where I'm rarely in the kitchen and everything is delegated out. We'll see on the day how well that theory will work.

    I think that's the way forward - reclining in another room, glass in hand, occasionally barking orders to the kitchen and doing random spot checks/taste tests :smile:

    Drinks are tricky. For god's sake please do not serve rum & cokes - maybe it's just me, but it seems they're always the non beer or wine drink option. For during the day, what about having a bowl of sangria and then a sort of mix-your-own bar with a variety of juices and a few different kinds of mix-friendly spirits? Allows for a variety of tastes, and takes some of the pressure off of you.

  9. Hmmm. The boats look like the Maritimes, but the mountains don't....unless it's Newfoundland somewhere. But my money's on the West Coast.

    I missed the mountains somehow - darn, the west coast's lovely but I'd been hoping for an east coast blog (especially since I'll be in Nova Scotia in a fortnight)

    Unless we have a newfie on the board - a summer blog from Newfoundland would be fantastic

  10. Wow - when I was a student (in the real Durham  :wink:  got to get my British Snobbery in somewhere) I was considered a culinary icon just because I'd knock up the occasional bowl of pasta in the college kitchen!

    I'll say - I like to think I eat rather well for a student, but I'm not anywhere near your level of technical ability and experimentation.

    What sort of kitchen set-up are you going to be working with at school next year? I'm living out in a house next year, and I was pleasantly surprised when moving some of my things into the house to find a gas oven in the kitchen and a grill in the back yard!

  11. Sounds delicious! Is maple vinegar still made and sold in Canada?  I got absolutely addicted to maple syrup on a short visit a few years ago. We can buy it here but no real choice of quality or range.

    I grew up in Canada, and I've never heard of it. Sounds interesting though - next time I'm back I'll keep an eye out for it. I suspect that if it's still made, it's the kind of thing that never makes it to larger markets, that you can only buy directly from the sugar shack.

    Vinegar (white or malt) for chips, all kinds for salad dressings. I often add a shot to soups as well.

  12. 2. wrap a pork fat mesh around each kebab before inserting the skewer. The fat melts and the mesh will tie the kebab. I don't know whether there is an english expression for that sort of mesh.

    I think it's called caul fat

  13. I bought my first raspberries of the season at the market today, and enjoyed them with some leftover trimmings from yesterday's pound cake. (Unfortunately you can see the berries got a bit squashed on the bike ride home)

    gallery_22182_2693_96976.jpg

    I think one of my favourite things about summer fruits is that their short period of availability makes them that much better. I like apples, but I eat one everyday - there's not much special about apples for me. But every summer it's like eating summer fruits for the first time again. I'd forgotten really what raspberries tasted like, and nearly didn't buy any at the market. However, at £1 a punnet I figured why not, and I'm glad I bought them - I'd forgotten how much I love raspberries :biggrin:

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