Dave Hatfield

Thanks for the tips. Which type of flour do you use? Now that fall is falling I'll be coming inside and spending more time on things like cakes. I will persevere with the carrot cake.

I added Cheddarvision to my Facebook profile. Another PGMC party, another cheese platter, for which I am gaining a reputation. (The cheese notes probably help.) And another opportunity to turn folks on to Roaring Forties Blue, which, I suggested to several fellow members, is even better than sex. One member disagreed strenuously with me, insisting that only Locatelli Romano was better than sex, to which assertion I suggested that he substitute Parmigiano-Reggiano. He did agree with me that Roaring Forties Blue was a mind-blowingly great blue, though. ← Whoa there! I may be a complete cheese nut & I may be over 70 years old, BUT I still know that no cheese is better than sex! I think we need a better comparator.

Hi Pennylane; to answer your questions: crème semi-épaisse does not need to be whipped but I suppose it would whip allright, just in case you'd like to know. As for Bridélice I never use it (I always prefer a little of the real thing to a lot of the fake thing), but I think it was conceived for all the normal uses of crème fraîche (i.e. a dollop on tarte Tatin or the like). ← Please straighten me out here. If I want cream to whip I just buy crème entier, normally around 38% butterfat. Works well. If I'm being American in my dessert serving I'll use this instead of crème fraîche or any of the other 'soured' varieties. Should I being buying one of the other varieties?

Well we do now. I've added a symbol (a red triangle with an exclamation mark inside it.) to indicate places to be avoided. Now if anyone posts a severely negative review I will add it to the map. Please though let's limit the marked places to the truly awful.

The fridge. I warn you, it's pretty cramped, which is inevitable if you have a food-loving couple cooking a lot and not having an American-style huge fridge in their kitchen!!! Here's the main part: Starting from the top shelf, left to right: a jar of pickled mixed wild mushrooms (a housewarming gift from my cousin Maiu), on top is a jar of cherry & Amaretto jam (made by me). Then three Lock&Lock containers, containing sea buckthorn berries (bottom), blue cheese (middle, incl. Irish Cashel Blue), and another box of cheese. Then a ceramic bowl with fried gypsy mushrooms. A jar of adjika (remember the market lady?), another glass of jam, and the tall jar at the back is full of salted wild mushrooms. Second shelf from above, left to right: a tub of cream cheese, a packet of whipping cream; a packet of puff pastry, and some cheese that Kristjan's mum brought back from her trip to Slovenia last week; the small glass with a white lid on the back contains my rye bread starter , and it's MacSween of Edinburgh haggis in the front; a jar of Kalamata olives, a jar of Fonduta (we went skiing in Italian Alps in February, and brought this back with us. Need to eat it soon!!!). The stripy bowl is full of salted gypsy mushrooms. Third shelf from above, left to right: seven small jars of wild strawberry jam, and two jars of plum and vanilla jam (all made by me). A packet of eggs we get from these happy chicken. A tub of miso paste (on the back), a small bowl of sour cream. Small plastic drawer contains garlic and butter. Lower shelf, left to right: a bottle of soya sauce, a jar of pickled crab apples (by Kristjan's mum), a jar of wild mushrooms (picked by us and pickled by me), two tubs of sauerkraut (one white, one red), a jar of gooseberry chutney and some jam, and a large glass of salted cucumbers (from my mum). The bottom drawer is stuffed with vegetables: beets, carrots, onions, cabbage, bell peppers, fresh horseradish/limes/lemons (hiding) and fresh herbs (you can see rue, sage and parsley on the photo). Green tomatoes aren't usually in that drawer, but the rest is pretty typical: And the fridge door: The very top shelf is empty (at least I've never used it ). The second shelf contains some mouthwash ( ), a small glass of peppermint oil, tahini, Thai fish sauce, horseradish, capers, wasabi, sherry vinegar, Dijon mustard, tomato puree and Guinness-flavoured Marmite. The third shelf contains (from left to right) hempseed oil, chocolate sauce, veal bouillon fond, Tamari soy sauce, agave syrup, soy sauce, and lemon & lime 'juice' for those moments when there's no fresh fruit in the house. And the bottle shelf contains (left to right): half a bottle of Põltsamaa Kuldne apple wine, small jars of carrot jam bought from a market fair recently, a carton of kefir, /a carton of milk/, a large bottle of 100% unsweetened pure Azerbajiani pomegranate juice. ← That's a pretty good looking fridge no matter where! It looks every bit as big our American style monster. I'll happily sneak up you your place to raid the fridge any time!

No, I was too absorbed by the conversation with my dining companion and I didn't even think of taking a picture. I'll gladly go back though. ← My point exactly! Who needs to take bloody picture when you're having a good time with your friends and enjoying your food. Bet you can describe the meal perfectly without resorting to digital imagery. Conversation, delicious food, taste, AMBIANCE. Not pictures!

You're now on the map! More reviews please.

Here's a follow up on the posts a few months ago about watching a cheddar cheese ripen. Here's the link. You gotta love the Internet!

Dare I say it? Don't take pictures of your food! In fairness click here for a discussion of this somewhat controversial topic. Chaque un a son goût as they say.

Thanks, but my tongue was firmly in cheek doing that description. Not that I'd tease those who take pics of beautiful food, but I'm still a firm believer that food is for the eating.

Ok, despite or maybe because of my opinions expressed earlier in the thread I broke down on Sunday and photographed my food. I'm still so surprised at myself so there was nothing for it, but to inflict my poor effort on you my fellow eGulleteers and habituates of the French forum. Here goes: Fortunately we had reserved our table well in advance as the place was completely full, not a seat to spare. This meal had been eagerly awaited for weeks. The table decoration. A clever trick here. You can't see very well but the vase (a cut off plastic bottle) is filled with water, but weighted down with chestnuts. The local ladies inform me that they help keep the decoration fresh. In any case they're very pretty. Water placed on every table. Cooled to exactly 9.28 degrees as per recommendation. The place setting with the remains of my free apero. Note the ribbon and my tombola ticket. (I'll tell you now that I didn't win; nor did I win the guess the weight of the ham competition although I was very close. By now you are probably getting the idea that we're not talking Michelin starred restaurant here. In fact we're talking Salle des Fêtes and a fund raiser for the church restoration in Nueivalle. Still, the food was good. Our first course. Perfectly ripe local melon with jambon de Pays. Both excellent. Seconds anyone? More ham offered as well. Not a very good picture of our next course which was superb home made pate with mushrooms & a little cornichon. (Note that we are using the same plate as for our melon. Same utinsils as well. This continues up until dessert.) The main course. This is a veal stew that could hold its own anywhere. Green olives and a wonderful stock. The potatoes were equally good. They're a local variation upon aligot (also local) The potatoes are sautéed in duck fat with garlic & herbs then mixed with tomme fraich. Absolutely delicious. (In aligot the potatoes are mashed & stirred for a long time with the cheese) The organizers let themselves down a bit on the cheese. President camembert doesn't stand up very well to our local cheeses. Still, at least it was properly ripe. The local ladies more than made up for the cheese with a wonderful array of desserts. Lots of seconds offered on these. Next came coffee and Eau de Vie. Mind you this was all in the same plastic 'glass' we'd been using for our water & wine. Our local people are nothing if not frugal; more money for the restauration! To round off a nice afternoon and my first food in public pictures we were served this: Over on my blog (see below) I'll be posting a fuller account of the repas along with quite a few pictures of some of our local characters. I'm not at all sure that I'll ever take public food pictures again and I haven't changed my opinion about taking them in 'proper' restaurants despite the excellent arguments several you you have made in favour of the practice.

All very true, but there seems to be one disadvantage to this type of Miele. You can't hide it. That is that you can't put a door on the front that matches all of your other cabinets thus hiding the dishwasher. Or at least that's what we figured out when doing our new kitchen here in France. (there's probably a picture somewhere from when I did a thread on kitchen remodels, but I'm pretty hopeless at finding the links.) We ended up woth a Bosch because we could hide it. We preferred the Meile for functionality and because of the third shelf, but in this case looks won out.

I have heard rumors of a cheese which is said to be covered in live maggots but have yet to have seen it. Can anyone confirm its existence? ← Yes, it's made in Sardinia called Casa Marzu. It's a Pecorino that's infected with a fly's larvae. Apparently the larvae can make some surprising leaps, and eye protection is recommended while eating the cheese (no joke). More info can be found here: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/4112/ Bon Apetit! ← Also, in the good old days a Stilton cheese wasn't considerd ripe until the maggots started crawling.

I found legall - Beurre de Baratte de Bretagne in one of my favorite cheese shops in Caussade today. It is truly excellent. Thank you for pointing me towards it, Ptipois. He also had some local uncultured butter. I bought a nice chunk. Bland taste, but I'm looking forward to cooking with it later today.

What a great start! I know that I'm going really enjoy this blog. Unfortunately, I never made it across the strait from Helsinki, but I still have hopes to get up your way. Thanks for the kind remarks about the Apricot tart. Also, you were kind about my guesses. Does your sauna ritual differ much from that of the Finns? Are Estonian linguistic roots similar to those in Finland? Or are they more Germanic as in the other Scandinavian countries? Finally, are Estonians as nutty about crayfish as the Swedes & Finns?

I did a bit of research on oven drying tomatoes then tried doing them with pretty good results. I've written it all up on my blog. Link below.

I'm thinking Scandinavia, but dithering between Helsinki & Stockholm. Think I'll go for Helsinki since I can't remember Stockholm having that much open water in it's harbor. Is that a sauna house I see in the background?

Having just read Ptipois post on butter (here) I am prompted to ask what is the best butter in France that is available in most parts of the country? Much as I would love to be able to go to Saint-Coal every week to buy my butter its just too far from where I live. So, what in your opinions is the best widely distributed butter available. I'm thinking of butter that can most likely be purchased from one or more of the big chains I guess, but I'm open to suggestion. Both salted & unsalted are of interest. PS: As we don't live in Paris, Parisian shops are out.

Flocons de Sel has a couple of stars, but I haven't had the chance to try it myself.

Blush!

Well I guess you can whip out your camera in the restaurant and take pictures; discreetly of course. That is if you want to be identified as an American tourist. Now, there's no shame in being so identified especially if you are in a restaurant that you are unlikely to ever return to. But, I've never in many years seen a European take pictures of their food. It just ain't done. I've been & am regularly tempted, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Gauche is the word that comes to mind. Maybe its just me, old age and old fashionedness, I don't know? I'd love to hear from others who actually live in France to hear their opinions. What say you? Guru's of the French forum.

← John, I absolutely agree, but would add "and as interpreted by a specific cook." We all are familiar with the ferocious arguments even within small villages about who makes the true version of XXXX. But, Madame X's pot au feu may well taste better than Madam Z's. Both are 'authentic', but one is a better cook than the other. To carry the argument further it follows that even in 'modern' cuisine the only authentic version of a dish is the one created by its originator. Everything else is a copy or a variation until eventually a sort of common recipe emerges and it then becomes 'traditional'.

There is a book written by El Bulli team where all the key technical aspects of Espuma making are clearly exposed. They explain how to prepare all the variations os Espumas: Cold and Hot, with gellatine, egg white, cream, grease or fecula, etc. It is written in spanish but the example recipe for each kind of espuma is clear and easy to understand provided you have a dicctionary http://www.cookingconcepts.com/PDF/Espumas_elBulli.pdf ← JorgeA Thank you. What a great book! I've downloaded it and must say that just looking at the pictures makes me hungry. Between my pathetic Spanish & the dictionary I'm sure I'll be able to try the recipes. Again, many thanks!

Ah yes! Tomato's & cheese a combination made in heaven. We too are getting really good local ripe big tomato's currently. I guess they are what you would call 'heritage'; they're huge and so good. I'm also a great fan of cucumbers with cheese and, of course, those are at their peak just now. No a great lover of fruits , jams and other sweet thing with cheese, but that's just a personal thing. The exception is very young fresh chevre with really good fruit compote. I think of wine as keeping me young. Mostly likely a false belief, but one I enjoy. As a snack dinner tonight it was sliced in half baguette with a smear of dijon, a think slice of garlic sausage and a topping of cantal entre doux with herbs de province grilled. Yummy!

A parmigiana grater?