Dave Hatfield

Just for the record Google chrome & chrome yellow seem to work fine. Or at least I haven't seen any problems. Haven't tried the Explorer 9 that was just released, but will I think this is a great project.

Like many other I think the truffles would be somewhat wasted. Mashed potatoes, beans or lentils all go well with lamb. You don't mention which cut of lamb you'll be braising. If its shoulder then I might suggest a very slow roast (4-6 hours) with the herbs de Province, garlic and salt & pepper. The pan juices make a wonderful gravy. If its a leg I suggest boning it then placing several anchovy fillets in the cavity before tying it up for the slow roast. Herbs de Province on the outside go well. If its other bits the I suggest a braise with lentils. This is especially nice with lamb shanks. Yet again, H de P work well. Enjoy. PS: Personal prejudice . I can't stand mint sauce with lamb. This creates problems with my English wife!

Don't know about 'gourmet' cassoulete, but the old peasant varieties always used bread crumbs. They weren't about to waste the stale bread. Besides, the bread crumbs helped to soak up the juices.

Thought of you when I was in my French Supermarket today. They were selling every bit of the duck you can imagine. If I thought we could get away with it I'd ship you some. Although it fresh its all vacuum packed & I think it would survive the journey. You alternative is a trip to France.

Depends upon how much you like your friend. THE best corkscrew isn't modern at all, but was invented some time ago. go here to view. The Estate wine opener is absolutely the best. We've had one for years & have given several our serious wino friends. Always a hit & always a conversation piece. The real point, however, is that they are the best & easiest tool for opening wine that we've ever found. Screwpull, waiters, and so forth are all good, but just don't compare in terms of ease of use, versatility or sheer utility at a party. So, how much do you really like your friend? They ain't cheap.

Very nice expose on salt cod, thanks. In our part of France (the Rouergue) a local dish is called "Estafinado". Its basically a Brandade, but with walnut oil instead of olive oil. Its excellent! Here's a recipe: (in French I'm afraid, but I couldn't find an English translation) (iIngrédients pour Estafinado du cantal 1 kg de morue salée (salt cod) 1 kg de pommes de terre (potatoes) 8 oeufs entiers (eggs) 3 gousses d’ail (cloves of garlic) 1 bouquet de persil (Parsley) 2 l de court-bouillon (beef stock) 1 citron (One lemon) un peu de lait (si besoin) Milk, Optional) 12 croûtons dorés au beurre (croutons fried in butter) 1 verre d’huile de noix (a glass of walnut oil) sel, poivre Préparation pour Estafinado du cantal Faites dessaler la morue pendant 24 à 72 heures selon salage, en changeant l’eau deux fois par jour. Faites-la cuire doucement pour 20 min au court-bouillon. Pelez-la, ôtez les arêtes et écrasez bien la chair à la fourchette. Laissez cuire les pommes de terre à l’eau et en faisant une purée sèche. Faites cuire 3 oeufs durs, écalez-les et réservez-les. Battez les 5 autres oeufs en omelette. Mélangez la morue avec la purée et les oeufs battus à feu très doux. Poivrez. Ajoutez l’ail et le persil hachés et malaxez le tout jusqu’à ce que le mélange soit bien homogène. Incorporez l’huile de noix très chaude et continuez à malaxer encore 5 min. Si le mélange est trop sec, ajoutez un peu de lait bouillant. Vérifiez l’assaisonnement. Décorez avec les oeufs durs, en quartiers ou en rondelles. Servez sur des assiettes chaudes avec des croûtons dorés et une tranche de citron.n French . If in difficulty PM me & I'l will translate the whole thing.

We've used Kenwoods for many years and can highly recommend them. They are very heavy duty and will stand up to a lot of hard use. We much prefer them to KA. The meat grinder/sausage stuffer attachment is especially useful. Buy with confidence; they're great!

Spot on. You can get Salade de Gesiers at most simple restaurants in this part of France. Mostly they're chicken gizzards, but duck is even better when available. Stuffed 'cou' (neck is also popular. Its stuffed with bits of the duck meat. Another popular thing is 'friton'. This is the duck carcass which is fried in duck fat. You strip off & eat all the little bits.

Trust the French to come up with the perfect gift for the wine lover. Wine gadget Get yours today!

I think the complete version of "LaRusse Gastronomic" is about as close as you will come. Not 100% comprehensive, but the best source that I know of. The original French version is best

Food for forward thinking. We don't do this after Thanksgiving, but could I guess. We do it the day after Christmas which is Boxing day in the English tradition. In any case we invite any number of friends over for a pot luck. The only rule is that the dish they bring MUST be made from left overs. We give a silly prize to the dish voted best by everyone. In our case we coupled this with a casino night with lots of games (poker, black jack , roulette, craps ) Each guest gets a pot of 'money' and the one with the most left money at the end of the evening gets their very own silly prize. Great fun & now a tradition for us & friends.

Picture taking banned in restaurants? Whoopee! Great! Love it! I've been on eGullet before to state my views and I'm glad that maybe some restaurateurs are starting to realize that the practice is extremely annoying to the majority of their customers. Other than the occasional picture taking which accompanies celebratory meals I find the practice very annoying. Rude! Intrusive! Boorish! Pretentious! I sincerely hope the banning practice continues and spreads.

"Peter, yes, all curry connoisseurs know that Birmingham is the curry capital of the Western hemisphere" I think there are probably about 230,000 folks in Bradford who might dispute that statement! Roll on, I'm looking forward to this blog.

You could try Chez Ruffet in Jurancon just outside Pau. ( http://www.restaurant-chezruffet.com/) Not sure if they're open or not, but if they are you'll have a memorable meal. Their 2 Michelin stars are well deserved. Not only is the food as good as one would expect, but the ambiance is great; very relaxed, friendly, yet top class service. Put yourself in the hands of their sommelier, he's excellent and won't kill your budget. Ask him for wines from the region. You won't go wrong with a top Madiran or a Jurancon for that matter.

I never take it off;its too delicious. What I do is to cut the skin across the narrower direction of the belly. Cutting just deeply enough to cut through the skin but not the fat or meat. Then rub some crystal salt into the cuts I then lay the belly skin side up on top of row of yellow onions that have been peeled and cut in half. This then goes into a low (120 C) oven for at least 3 hours. At the end of that time I turn on the top grill in the oven to crisp up the skin. You have to watch very carefully to ensure no burning. You can now slice the belly into nice slices each with its strip of crackling. People rave & the onions are delicious as well.

Its no accident that most all restaurant kitchens use gas hobs. Heat intensity, control and you can use any cooking utensils you like. Its only if you've been stuck with old fashioned electric rings that you will think induction is wonderful.

Don't know if this will help, but I've had success by cooking rinds slowly in the oven (120C or 4-5 hours) then turning on the top grill element full blast. The skins then bubble up very quickly. You have to watch them like a hawk to prevent scorching.

Why not just make your curd in a sauce pan? That way you can stir & watch the consistency until is right. When ready pour into a pre-baked crust & let cool and set. Another trick is to melt a sheet of gelatin in the lemon juice before adding the other ingredients. Again,I'd recommend making the curd in a pan. The gelatin will give you a pretty firm set.

At the risk of being called a heretic I have to say that after 10 years of living in France I've finally gotten tired of baguettes. This is not to say that I don't still think they're great, but rather to say that the same thing day after day no matter how good it may be gets a bit boring after a while. Thus, I've switched to eating other types of loaf. Rye, buck wheat, corn bread, variations upon the classic white baguette loaf (not just size) and so forth. I've even, sacre bleu, taken to making my own bread. using the no knead method featured on this website I've found that its easy to make one's own. Further I've discovered that the Super Markets sell some really great flour mixes. You can buy multi-grain, country style,rye, buckwheat as well as classic white baguette flour, By using or mixing these you can produce some very tasty bread very easily. Examplw: Today I mixed 'campagne' flour mix with plain white bread flour; added my salt & yeast then raisins, flaked almonds and candied fruits. Just enough water to keep it together then let it rise for 4 hours. Into a container in a very hot oven and 30 minutes later I had a really nice almost Hot Cross bun beard for Good Friday. So, not to knock the greatest bread in the world, but just to say that variety is the spice of life. Long live the baguette - And all of its relatives!

Good luck! We've had some friends who have had a variety of problems with Meile. I just hope this works for you. Hopefully the performance will justify the price, Deutschland uber allles!

We have two ovens in our kitchen here in the Tarn et Garonne. Both are about 6 years old; they were installed when we put in our new kitchen. We are very happy with both of them. We've had no problems at all with either of them. The one that I think might suit your needs best is a French brand; ROSIERES. Our particular oven comes from their 'Creatis' range. It is all singing, all dancing with a host of cooking modes most of which we don't use. We tend to use just the regular oven, the grill & the self cleaning. It is the European standard 60 cm width and is built into a standard kitchen cabinet. I can't remember the cost, but it was modest. Around 350 Euros I think. Certainly it was a lot less expensive than the big German brands. It looks good and performs well. We bought it at a shop called Salson in Villefranche de Rouergue. I know they have a main store in Rodez, but I'm not sure if they have any other outlets. The other oven is part of our gas range by Arthur Martin (Electrolux) This is a 90 cm range with 5 burners. The over is full width with a grill, but is not self cleaning. It does have the special ceramic coated side panel. This is a great oven (and stove) for when you're cooking for a crowd. This Thanksgiving for instance I was able to roast a 15 pound turkey and a 10 pound ham at the same time. We mainly use the Rosieres oven, but having the second oven is a blessing when you need the extra space or want to cook things at widely different temperatures. Good luck with your search.

Be modern guys. Go electronic. Kindle? The soon to be released Apple tablet. All proceeds to the Society. Opportunity knocks! Get on it boss.(AKA Fat Guy)

I remember going to eat with Bruno many years ago. We were on vacation staying at a gite in Bandol. The deal was that once each week one couple could choose & pay for a meal out. The rest of the time we had a pot to pay for food & meals. My sister-in-law had seen a write up for Chez Bruno; it sounded nice. Casual ambiance, good food and so on. So I called and made a reservation. Since we weren't quite sure of the exact location or given my lousy French our reservation we decided to check it out during the day as well as doing some sightseeing in the area. Well, we found it OK, no problem. Our first clue that this wasn't the casual little place we were expecting was when we entered the car park to be greeted by a young man in uniform with e palettes. My wife & I went in. AS we walked up there were baskets of truffles on one side & of wild mushrooms on the other. We confirmed our reservation with no problem, but noticed that the luncheon diners we all very smartly dressed. Back to the car where the ladies decided that: A) they wanted to eat here. but" B) they needed to wear their finest clothes. No problem. We had time to drive back home for them to change. Then the fun began. As we drove back we entered the most violent thunderstorm I've ever been in (we later learned that a number of people had been killed by it) We could only make 20 MPH ON THE FREEWAY! It was still going strong when we reached Toulon right at rush hour. Very congested and slow going. When we got home we told the ladies they only had a 20 minute turn around time. WE guy studied the map & worked out a way to avoid central Toulon. This, we hoped, would save time. Off we went, Leo driving, me navigating. It was working until as we went up a steep hill the guy in front of us stalled. (at which point my wife said; "if we stall & I have to push this skirt & these shoes come off. I'm not wrecking them!")I immediately said; "curb Leo" He instantly went up onto the curb and made it around the stalled car. From there on the drive was slow, but uneventful.Needless to say we were late, but no problem at Bruno's. The meal was memorable. Truffles with every course except dessert. One incident was comical. When Bruno himself came to the table to announce the menu he, of course, did it in French. My friend Leo immediately said; " Could you please repeat all of that in English." A big laugh from Bruno, but no translation. Later we were invited to inspect the kitchen. It was nice, but what impressed was the full size oil painting of Bruno as you entered. Yes, a truly memorable meal. Almost as good as the story of our next meal which was the best bouillabaisse ever, but that's a different story.

Hate to be negative, but you may well be disappointed in Conques. Certainly it was (is) an important stop on the pilgrimage trail, but.... I can second the recommendation about the market at Villefranche de Rouergue Its a great regional market; every Thursday morning. As we live only 20 minutes away we go frequently. I must say, however, that my favorite local market is in Caussade on Monday. You could visit either one if the day is right as you best (quickest) route from Conques back down South is via Villefranche, Caussade, Montauban & Toulouse. This route should take closer to 3 hours if you don't stop & will cost about $20 in freeway tolls. (you can stop by our house for a cup or coffee, tea or wine since you'll pass very nearby.) The slower route via Castres, Albi, Cordes sur Ceil offers more interesting scenery, but will take at least 4 hours. (By the way the newly restored market in Albi is great and open every day. Also, the Toulouse Letreck museum is well worth a visit as is the cathedral.And Albi has an abundance of good restaurants) Finally, since you will be staying nearby I can recommend a visit to a winery named 'Pujol-Izard'. They are in 11800 Saint-Frichoux. Its run by a lovely family.Very nice wines at reasonable prices. One of the sons is married to the daughter of a local friend of ours. He stocks & sell their wine from his farm just up the hill from us. Its our 'house' wine. Its probably less than 10 km from where you are staying. have a great trip!

If you are going as far north as Conques you should swing over to Belcastel. Its not far. Not only is it a very pretty village you can have a meal and/or stay at Le Vieux Pont. A Michelin 1 star that's just great. While up that way it would be a shame to miss St Cirq l'popie; without question one of the prettiest villages in France. Also, do not miss the Victor Hugo market in Toulouse; mind blowing. There's also a one star restaurant in Albi called Le Ingress d'Violin (I think ) and a one stat in Cordes whose name I can't remember. Give me a PM with an email address & I'll send you my restaurant list for the area around Parisot (82160) where we live.