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Dave Hatfield

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Everything posted by Dave Hatfield

  1. My British wife & I aren't sure, but we think preserving is the closest British expression to the American canning. The British do call items that come tin tins tinned, but that's not usually associated with home preserving. Of course tins are no longer tin either.
  2. The French are great canners. They're very frugal so canning seasonable vegetables & fruits as a way to save money has been popular for a long, long time. This not to mention things like comfit & rillettes for preserving meats. Canning jars in a variety of sizes can be purchased in any French supermarket. They're a different design than the American mason jars. Your post was timely in that a friend brought me 5 pounds of plums yesterday so I'm making plum chutney this afternoon.
  3. I have a cook book called "2000 Favourite French Recipes By Auguste Escoffier. It says it was first published as Ma Cuisine in 1965 by Hamlin. My edition published by Treasure Press in 1991. (ISBN 1 85051 694 4) It purports to be the only book he wrote for the home cook. I have no idea of the authenticity, but its a wonderful cook book. All the classic recipes, but sized ans rewritten for the 'home ' cook. Any help with the origins of this book would be greatly appreciated.
  4. I think he meant that a salted brine is a sort of oxymoron. At least I think so. I certainly don'''t know of any brines that aren't made with salt. I second that link to the Mark Bittman recipe. I've used it a number of times with great success.
  5. Have a look at at website called Paris By Mouth (www.parisbymouth.com). Lots & lots of good information. Its run by foodie for foodies. They do give tours, but I suspect that given your limited time you'll want to see a lot more than just the culinary delights. I agree about taking the metro in. Cheaper & faster. As to a tour I might be inclined to start at the Arc de Triumph (take the metro) then walk down the Champs Elysée to the Place Concord, cross the river to Invalides & the Eiffel Tower; Then down the Blvd St Germain to Blvd St Michel. Once on the island turn right for Notre Dame. After that finish crossing the river and have a quick look at the Louvre. This is very walkable if a bit long, but you take in some major sights & pass some very interesting areas. Airport hotel a good idea. They're used to late arrivials & most have mini-bus service to the terminals. Have a great day!
  6. I'm happy to say that the bread in my part of France is holding up very well thank you. Our 1€ baguettes are nicely crusty. Its still an important local topic and everybody has their favorite boulangerie. I buy my 'cereal' loaves from our village baker, but drive over the hill to another village for my baguettes. In fact the over the hill boulangerie is just great. In addition to their normal white bread in its various sizes & shapes they do a couple of special breads every day. My favorite being a very skinny baguette type made with old fashioned somewhat coarsely ground flower. Tuesdays only.
  7. liuzhou is right 'arroser' is the word the French use. Here it is in use: Assaisonner la viande de sel uniquement. Saisir la viande sur une poêle très chaude pendant une minute sur la première face. Retourner la viande et cuire à nouveau pendant une minute. Baisser le feu, ajouter un morceau de beurre et arroser pendant une bonne minute la viande avec la sauce. Laisser reposer 2 à 3 minutes hors du feu pour que les muscles de la viande se détendent. Ajouter le poivre et déguster. This is from a lesson on how to fry meat.
  8. A reading of Wikipedia tells me there there is (or was) an English Rarebit & a Scottish Rarebit as well as the Welsh Rarebit. Nobody seems to know the exact origin of these terms. The earliest published mentions seem to date from about 1725. Thus, although I wouldn't put money on it there seems to have been a Welsh Welsh Rarebit. I think the original poster is onto a losing wicket (to keep with Englishness of this thread) in trying to pin any country down to a single National dish. Unless of course its Mom's apple pie.
  9. Well, Welsh rarebit is by definition Welsh even though its spread even further than leeks. The original request was for ENGLISH dishes. Wales is not England. Separate language even. Maybe it should be the signature dish for Great Britain?
  10. rotuts, thanks for the pointer to Loraine's site. Some good stuff there. luizhou, peace. I don't take kindly to disparaging remarks when all I was trying to do was point out what seems to be a good new resource. Here's a link to Mark Bittman at the New York times. Some nice videos. http://www.nytimes.com/video/landing/the-minimalist/1194811622323/index.html. Of course you have to suffer through some ads, but I think its worth it. Dare I say that Bittman is impressive?
  11. First let me say that I was viewing the site on Windows 8 and there doesn't seem to be any advertising on that version. The relevance of the geographic comments was due to the fact that the only negative comments came from those countries. Still, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I'd love to see posts pointing to better ad free cooking sites, we might all learn something
  12. Well, I'm disappointed that a couple of you didn't appreciate the Great British Cooks site. Pity. On closer examination you might have learned something. These chefs may not be well known in the USA or for that matter China, but on a quick count there seem to be oven 10 Michelin stars amongst them. This is not to mention their other awards & recognition. Nor the fact that they all run very successful high end restaurants. As far as I can find there is no advertising on the site. There is a bio of each chef if you look for it. If you didn't like the duck cutting up video then why not post your own? Fact is that whether you like her technique or not she did get the job done & didn't cut off her finger.. Criticism for the sake of it? Chauvinism? Who knows?
  13. I can't make any specific recommendations, but I can tell you that most French restaurants are very child tolerant. If the children are well behaved they will get special attention and catering to. If not well behaved then they will be at least tolerated. In general the French love children and go out of their way to be nice to them. Restaurants are no exception. Enjoy your stay.
  14. Like the almond ideas, but how about toasted pine nuts instead?
  15. In my continuing pursuit of the perfect lemon pie, I'm going to try the one in this article.
  16. I've just come across a new on line cooking resource. Its called: http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/ The Chefs involved are pretty well known in Great Britain. The site has a number of recipes that are interesting as well as some 'how to' videos. Overall the site is well presented and interesting. Its also available as a free Windows 8 application through the Microsoft store. In fact I think it works a bit better this way than as a conventional website. Have a look, I think you will find it both interestin & useful.
  17. I am blessed with wonderful friends two of whom just returned from Corsica bearing cheese for me. Both are sheep's milk, unpasteurized from the Antoine Ottavi fromagerie. I did a bit of research on Google as I'm not familiar with either of these cheeses. Turns out that Antoine Ottavi who started this fromagerie in the 1950's is quite a character. There's even an article about him in the NY Times. The cheeses are: - Antoine Ottavi. This is their signature cheese. Its a soft creamy tomme like cheese with some distinct flavors from the sea. - Fleur du Maquis. Again, a sheep's milk unpasteurized cheese. In this case its covered with crushed rosemary, fennel and juniper berries. These over time soak into the cheese giving it a unique flavor. Lucky me!
  18. Thanks for the answers to my question about the lack of decent cheese in US supermarkets. They make commercial sense I suppose, but its a shame that there aren't better outlets for the quality producers. This leads me to ask; where does one buy decent cheese in the US outside the cities large enough to support specialist cheese shops?
  19. I'm very pleased to learn that the Cheese Board in Berkeley is still going. I used to go there most Saturday's when I lived in Emeryville during the 80's. Pig by the Tail was just down the street as was the Monterey market. With Chez Panisse just across the street I was in foodie heaven. Ah! The good old days.
  20. Sigma If you look at all of the pictures you will see that the selection is very extensive. Certainly as good, if not better than any stand at Montauban market or the covered market in Cahors. In my experience the cheese vendors at French market tend to have a smaller selection of cheeses, but with some specialisation and excellent quality. An issue is the almost total lack of foreign cheeses. I'm not complaining as I love my French cheeses as can be told by my numerous posts on this thread. Not having been there I can't comment on the attitude/ quality of their staff nor can I comment on the other stands. The largest 'fromageries' in our area of France tend to be those in the HyperMarkets. Good selection, but almost all French Can you give me the name of a good shop in say Cahors?.
  21. I could recommend a number of places, but they're quite a ways from the city. Believe it or not there are other places in France; in fact there are even other 'cities'.
  22. I have a question. As I read these posts by djyee, Frog Princes & rotuts I am impressed by the variety of cheeses made across the USA. It looks as if there is both a lot of variety as well as quality. Given that, why is it that every time we visit the states the supermarkets don't seem to have any cheese worth buying? CostCo seems to have a bit of decent cheese, but nowhere else. Why? Or am I missing something?
  23. How about some brave restaurateur raising their prices by 15%, but making it very clear (Large letters at the TOP of their menu) that this increase will ALL go to the servers. Along side the raised price menu they could have the old prices, but make it clear that tipping was not included in those prices. Let customers decide which price they wanted to pay. Customers could even add something to the tip included menu if they felt so inclined. This isn't so different to the common practice of adding 15% or more to the meal price for larger groups for 'service'. I know which priced menu I'd go for.
  24. djyee 100 - You are making me homesick. Thanks for the information. I grew up in the Bay area and love the city. I'm delighted to see so much cheese activity. I'm old enough to remember when the Ferry building really was used as a ferry building. My parents would put me in the hands of the Southern Pacific porters for the trip across the bay to catch the train to my grandmother's house in Eugene. Oregon. I like the idea of the cheese school although I'm not sure that learning the hard way (by testing) isn't just as much fun. Frog Princess - More trips please with lots of pics. If I didn't already live in cheese heaven I'd be tempted to move back to S.F.
  25. Now that's what I call a cheese shop. It could hold its head up high in France. Lots of hard cheeses. I'd like to see their soft cheese section. Any hope?
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