Dave Hatfield

We could call our wines 'Chateau Carton' to move them upmarket a bit. It would be a fun business. I'd be willing to do the tasting and buying if somebody else does the hard part (all the paperwork) We could hold joint tasting tours. I do agree that boxed wine in the states seems to be mostly plonk and pretty undrinkable. Maybe in these hard times some enterprising vintner will bite the bullet and try boxing decent wines. Although really fine wines don't get boxed here some pretty good stuff does. It gets aged in vat or cask and when ready to drink gets bottled or boxed. A lot depends upon how the wine is made as to how long it 'needs' to age after getting packaged. Just let me know when we should start our 'Chateau'!

I think I agree, but how about some examples of what you (or anyone else) consider a dish of 'Brasserie' food. In the modern sense that is. Many of us know and love the traditional dishes associated with Brasseries. I'm curious.

The only one to mention THE most important tool. GOOD KNIVES!!

I'm with John. A man after my own heart. My wife on the other hand is like John's friend. She'll start a conversation with anybody anywhere. In my experience ad hoc restaurant neighbor conversations run about 7 to 1 bad or embarrassing per good/ interesting, C'est la vie.

Here's a simple start: -grind your pork adding no more than 10% fat. - Mix well with a modicum of salt plus coarse ground pepper plus fennel seeds (about 1 tablespoon per 1 lb of meat) plus finely chopped fresh garlic to taste (you can also use garlic granules if preferred, but NOT garlic salt.) plus herbs de Provence (about 1 teaspoon per pound). Make sure the mixture is well kneaded by hand. - Fill your grinder, mount your casing (making sure it is well rinsed and free of salt) and away you go. Be sure to hold the casing back a bit to ensure good full filling. Don't be tempted to do very long sausages at first, a foot or so is plenty until you get used to the process. - Tie off you sausages into convenient lengths and you're ready to fry. As a note to those who don't have a grinder/ stuffer you can buy the ground pork from a butcher/ market then mix as above. Then take a handful of the mixture, not too large & roll between your hand into a rough sausage shape. Place this on a piece of cling film & wrap the cling film around it. Now roll the cling film back & forth on a smooth surface pressing from the center. Unwrap and you have a reasonably shaped sausage. Not quite the real thing, but they fry up pretty well.

Hummmmmm.... Would egoistic food settle the debate? I for one certainly find that many of the Chef's referred to have enormous ego's. Which get expressed in some pretty weird concoctions. I, personally, have no quarrel with narcissistic, but it does it seems to me have a rather personal connotation. Pleasing one's self. Egoistic to me implies that I know better than anybody else - including my customers. What do you think?

Judging France by Paris is like judging the USA by New York city. We live in the country and find that costs are no higher than in the states overall. Come down to our area and I'll take you to a one star Michelin restaurant for lunch. 27 Euro's. Want something cheaper try 11 Euro's for a full 3 course lunch with wine. As to health care look at how much of France's GNP is spent on health care compared to the states; its much lower. And, believe me because I've had occasion to use it recently, the quality of care can't be faulted. This recession is worldwide and everybody is suffering to some degree, but I don't see the French nearly as badly off as many other places. Paris will continue to be Paris & will survive quite nicely thank you very much.

I agree that cottage cheese should work well, but might be a bit 'sloppy' Try adding some gelatin to the mix and then resting the cheesecake in the fridge to set. This, of course, is if you're doing an uncooked cheesecake which is what I would recommend.

I was sure that I had started a discussion on what cheese one could find in France to use when making cheesecake, but I can't find it even though I've searched diligently. In any case I got a good answer from Pti. Use Kiri since Philadelphia is difficult to find outside of Paris. I tried that and it worked perfectly. Only problem was that it seemed to take forever to open all of those small packets of Kiri. I've never seen Kiri packed in anything except those small wrapped morsels. Yesterday I tried a new tack. I went to our little Friday market and bought 4, 100 gram blocks of a very young local chevre. These worked perfectly! This was an uncooked cheesecake, lemon in this case, so I added a packet of powdered gelatin to the lemon juice and heated this until it dissolved. A cookie crust was baked, the chevre mixture went in and then it rested in the fridge for several hours. Due to my diet I used Splenda instead of real sugar. The result was great. Our guests loved it. The only thing I would change for next time is that I would add more gelatin. I thought the cheesecake was just a bit softer that I would have liked. We live & learn.

Maybe they're kalamata's from Greece. Those are sort of a purple- red?

Had trawl through the web and a look through my French cook books and didn't come up with anything out of what I think you already know. Some thoughts about almonds in the choux & on top, some interesting variations on the pastry cream. Nothing special. I'll keep trying. Good luck.

Anything with the name Hatfield on it must be good! I'm no relation (that I know of) to this branch of the clan, but I'll stick by them. As to pork I'm glad I'm here in France where they're pretty careful about additives to animal feeds and where our local butchers post a notice showing which local farms their pork come from so you can go look for yourself should you care to.

I've just read through this whole thread and the first thing I wanted to say was that I'm really sorry to hear about your health problems. I hope by now that you have managed to reintroduce lots of cheese into your diet. I try to curb my cheese enthusiasm purely for reasons of vanity (I don't want to be the size of a house!) so I try as far as possible to stick to the highly flavoured varieties, more 'bang for the buck' so to speak! I was amused to see the discussion way back about aged gouda, I am lucky enough to have a great cheese shop quite close to where I live which used to be owned by a lovely elderly Swiss lady. Long story short she was finally persuaded to retire when cutting the ancient goudas became too much for her! We had all watched, for years, as she jumped up and down trying to chisel away at the wretched stuff, half convinced that she would literally die in the attempt. Of course she refused all offers of help! She must be in her 90s by now but still helps out when the new owners go on holiday. They pre-cut chunks of gouda before they leave Ironically the one cheese I have found difficult to get round here (eastern Scotland) is a reliable strong cheddar. You'd think it would be easy, wouldn't you? The best I've found is sold by Marks and Spencer and is called Cornish Cruncher, absolutely yummy. It is one of the few cheeses I will buy prepacked. Nobody (as far as I can see) has mentioned Vignotte which is so wonderful to eat with a ripe pear - or several. ← Great story! I can just picture her. I'm not back on much cheese, but am slowly starting again.

Well I just couldn't stop with the cheese. Having got an all clear from my cardiologist (good heart & good blood) I've started experimenting cautiously with cheese. Here's my latest. I'd never seen this goat's cheese before so I bought a round. Besides it was on special at the local supermarket. It was Ok, mild and smooth, but nothing to write home about. Notice, however, that unusually the label gives two measurements for the Materiel Grasse. This sent me off on a hunt to understand why there would be two measurements and what they mean. This led me to some interesting sites all of which I've written up (or will very soon) on my website. Interesting stuff if you're into cheeses.

Depends upon your definition of pie I guess. But if you want something that's both unusual and delicious try a tart tatin. You don't see a lot of them in the states yet they're easy to make once you master the technique and they meet your other criteria.

I made poule au pot today, but didn't use Paula's recipe. I did some looking on the net, but in the end pretty much followed Jacques Pepin's recipe plus local advice. I didn't use an old hen as they're expensive and I was serving 6 hungry people so would have needed two hens. Instead I used 3 coqullet (young roosters). Otherwise the recipe was similar, onion, carrots, cabbage, leeks and butternut squash cooked in the stock made from the little chickens. I didn't stuff the birds as one of our guests has a gluten intolerance so can't have anything with bread in it. Besides there are as many unstuffed recipes as there are stuffed in any case. After boiling the chickens carved easily into two halved & the skin slipped off with no problem. I also removed the rib cage & back & breast bones. The real trick was to serve the dish with Dijon mustard and cornichons. They absolutely 'made' the dish. (not sure whether Paula's recommended green sauce would have been better or not. I'll have to try it.) I'll post my recipe on my blog in the fullness of time, but suffice it to say that this version was delicious and much enjoyed by all. (I've now done it.)

Wow! They must be gigantic anchovies to cost 42 cents apiece. As to salt or oil packed, I've used both for lamb with equally good results. If using salt packed just cut down or eliminate any other salt. For a tunnel boned leg of say about 4 lbs net I'd use 2 fillets inside and about 3 across the top at roughly 11/2 inch intervals.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/mas...mni_index.shtml ← Many thanks for the link. Its interesting that none of the winners is running their own restaurant. Sort of reminds me of the old expression we had in Management: "Those who can't do, teach" Or in this case write as well.

As a test of MC winners ability/ambition does anybody know of a kind of "where are they now" type of forum or information? I would find it very interesting to find out how the past winners (finalists for that matter) have done since their win. Does anybody know anything about where they are now?

We cooked a three course meal from Paula's book yesterday. All recipes that we hadn't tried previously. The meal turned out well although I wouldn't say it was brilliant. More like nice ordinary Sunday French cooking. We cooked: "The Archbishops Tourain" This duck comfit based soup with rye bread was true peasant food despite the title. Just the thing after a long walk on a cold day. Very hearty and flavorful. "Michael Guerard's Pureed Celery Root" I've always wanted to try something with celery root other than the classic cold salad dish. This cooked version with apples was was good and went very well with the duck based soup. I'll do it again. "Batter Cake with Fresh Pears" Good, but disappointing. It didn't rise nearly as much as advertised. Don't know why as we followed the directions pretty carefully. Taste wise it was fine. It defiantly needs the sugar coating as the pears are a bit bland otherwise. Overall this turned out to be an 'ordinary' French dinner. I've written this up in far more detail on my blog (link below) and there you will also get the story of shopping for the ingredients at Limogne market.

Personally I'd go for leg. Tunnel boned and trussed. (use only the thigh bone portion for uniformity of slices. Keep all of the lower shank end for braised lamb shanks) Easy to roast and easy to carve. Carving for 14 is no mean task & takes a while so ease is important if you want to serve the meat hot. For an interesting twist I'd season the lamb with anchovies. A few fillet in the cavity & a few laid into cuts on the outside surface. Salt, pepper & fresh rosemary. That's it! The anchovies give a delicious added flavor. I'll almost guarantee that none of your guests will identify what it is that's adding that nice flavor.

I've gone through the posts on this thread and still don't find many real recipes so I thought I'd try to start the topic over again. I've recently had a couple of minor strokes and really need to watch what I eat so I'm really interested in low calorie, low fat, low sugar, low salt dishes A real challenge! I'm looking for any & all contributions. To get started I've posted three recipesher. Let's hear your favorites! edited to correct spelling.

We live pretty close to this 'hotel' and can vouch for the quality of the foos. We've never stayed as its so close. You might want to explore this link for a nice write up.

Can give you two good possibilities that are right next to each other. Both are about one hour North of Toulouse in the countryside. 1) link to this place. Small stone cottage for two people. Recently renovated. Not normally a B & B, but I suspect that Jean would give you breakfast if you asked. 2) 2ond link. B & B run by a Belgian couple. Warm welcome assured. Bravo is a great cook so you can probably get dinner as well as breakfast if you like. If you decide to book either one lets us know & you can come up to our place for a drink.

Today I was sitting at a cafe in a local town having a coffee. As I drank it I was studying the large menu on the wall and realizing to even in these tough times my wife & could afford to have lunch there if we wished without breaking the budget. We could have had a decent lunch for no more than $25.00 for the two of us. And we could have done it knowing that the food would be good. That got me to ruminating upon the fact that as I thought about it we could have done the same thing pretty much anywhere we've ever lived, the states, England, Spain, France. (I've put my detailed thoughts in my blog, address below.) Thus my question to my fellow eGulleteers is: Where are your cheap, but good places? Please share.