Dave Hatfield

What chances are you talking about? I'm confused by this post.... ← Keeping a raw custord mix carries the risk of bacterial growth. The ingredients are an ideal culture. The risk is small, but present even if you are careful about refridgeration.

We're talking custard here, folks. raw eggs, sugar, cream. BE VERY careful the bacteria just love it. Normally you're going to be Ok, but why take any chances. In my experience overnight doesn't make enough of a difference to be worth it. Try here for a different take on brulee. Then let your imagination go.

Don't know that I can add anything other than personal observation here, but from what I can see the bistror is hanging in there. Being in the sticks I don't see much of what's happening in the larger towns & cities. Out here within the 30-40 km radius that I know well enough to comment on we seem to be about breaking even. We have closings, but roughly an even number of openings. About normal I'd say. I think the era of 'just' cafes has long since passed. There are few here now days that don't serve food of some description at least at lunch time. Some buy in a lot, but most don't. They can't afford it. Being still mostly family affaires they try to do their best as cheaply as possible which means using free family labor. If some member of the family turns out to be good with food they do well, if not then they struggle. They very much cater for local tastes. As Serge, our local village restauranteur, tells me: he depends upon local custom. The locals like their traditional dishes. So no matter how much he'd like to be more adventerous & up to date in his menu he doesn't quite dare. So he survives, but only because he employs no one outside the family. My take is that there are probably different worlds going on depending upon whether your 'bistrot' is in a city, the suberbs, a large town or a village. My hope is that a critical mass manage to work it out & can make a profit. Its up to us, those who care about food, to do our best to support & encourage the small guys who are doing an honest job of trying to provide good palitable food in a nice ambience at an affordable price. Sorry for the soapbox, but I'd just hate to see France succomb to the mass marketeers.

No, its just that the Germans need somebody to organize them. We had John. What upset?

France was terrific! I ate all kinds of appetizers before hand while watching the dismal display. You just knew it would be scoreless & that England would lose on penalty shoot out. The sour grapes were especially tasty. Now think an agreed upon national dish for France is imperative. Any suggestions?

I may be out of date a bit not having lived in the City for awhile, but The place if you were a native was The Big 4 lounge in the Huntington. The old real SF. Special kundo's for anyone who can name who the big 4 were. Yank PS: The restaurant wasn't bad either. Great SF waiters; probably all retired by now.

Chacun a son gout. Interesting though that every one so far who has been has mentioned the service in a negarive manner.

As an FYI look at my post titled "Goose Fat & Garlic" This is other great South Western France cook book by Jeanne Strang. It is a great compliment to Wolfert's book. Anyone who likes Paula will also like Jeanne. Both excellent.

I've been enjoying the thread about Paula Wolfert's book on Southwestern French cooking. I'll certainly be using many of her recipies. I started wondering, however, how many of you were aware of Jeanne Strang's book "Goose Fat & Garlic"? GF&G was published in 1991 and revised in 2003. The author lives in SW France and has done so for many years. The book is even more narrative in style the Paula's and gives a wonderful look at life in rural France not so long ago. The recipies are superb and probably more home cooking style rather than restaurant cooking. I look on the two books as complementary; both are essental to the understanding of this part of France and its cooking. GF&G is available from Amazon. So, my question is? Is there any interest in starting a thread on GF&G? Maybe not cooking our way through it, but a compendium of experiences, comments, success stories (or otherwise) I await your comments.

After last night I take it all back. They were great. As far as I'm concerned they can eat whatever they like. Still waiting for American humble pie recipes though. Yank

We, a party of 6, were at Bras for lunch not too long a go. In a nutshell - none of us would go back. The area the restaurant is located is very beautiful & the restaurant archetecture is stunning. We did not like the layout of the dining room. Tables were so far apart & sort of shielded from each other that although the restaurant was full you didn't get that buzz & ambiance that is usually part of a great dining experience. The service was not up to what one would expect. Example: two of our party arrived about 15 minutes before the rest of us. They were plunked down in the waiting area, but not offered a drink or anything else. During the meal there were a number of small slips in the service that better training mught have eliminated. The food was, as you would expect, very good & beautifully presented. But it was not memorable; neither my wife nor I can clearly remember a single dish. Finally, the wine list had the distinction of being the most over priced list I have ever seen. Nice wines, great wines, but silly prices. There was hardly a wine of any description under the equivilent of $60. So, we certainly won't go back. Interestingly one of our couples who had stayed overnight in a local B&B decided to have lunch at Le Vieux Pont in Belcastel the next day. (Le Vieux Pont has one Michelin star) They had a better meal, enjoyed it more & paid a lot less. We agree having been to Le Vieux Pont a number of times. Bras might go & take some lessons. Not on the food, but on how to run the restaurant. Great ambieance, great service, great food and fair prices.

The closings are mainly in Paris & the large cities. Most of the French stay in France for their vacations so most of the plaves in the south & near the coast stay open. It is certainly a good idea to book ahead for hotels & restaurants to make sure that they are both open & not fully booked. We've never had a problem with wineries or other attractions in August, but again if you want to visit any of the famous wineries do check ahead as some won't take visitors without a reservation. Most of the smaller guys are Ok & much more casual. Other than the weekends traffic shouldn't be a problem. Even then just avoid the autoroutes. Via Michelin will give you routes & links to traffic reports as well as telling you where the speed cameras are. You should be fine. Have a good time. Bon courage! edited to remove redundant link.

Lemon Brulee Serves 8 as Dessert. This is a light dessert ideal for hot summer dinners. Its very easy to make and almost everything is done ahead of time. For my original recipe go to my blog. 4 lemons 4 eggs lighly beaten 4 oz butter 5 T sugar plus extra for tops 8 fl oz full cream 1) Zest the lemons (i.e. scrape off the yellow part of the peel) then juice them. 2) Melt the butter in a saucepan. 3) Add the lemon juice, zest and sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. 4) Over medium low heat place the eggs into the mixture. Stir constantly with a whisk. Watch carefully & as soon as the mixture starts to thicken remove from the heat. Keep stirring. If it’s not thick enough put it back on heat very briefly. (NOTE: For the faint of heart you can do the heating by placing the saucepan in a bain marie. This is just a larger pan half filled with simmering water. This method is safer as you are less likely to over cook the eggs.) 5) Let the thickened mixture cool and then transfer to a sterilized jar with a sealable lid. Keep in the fridge until ready to use. Stage #2 Make the mixture. Ingredients: All of the Lemon Cheese About 8 oz full (30-35%) cream Method: 1) Put the cream in a large bowl and whip until stiff. 2) Gently fold the lemon cheese into the whipped cream. (Just like adding the egg whites to a soufflé.) Make sure it is well mixed. 3) Spoon the mixture into whatever serving pieces you will be using. (I use either medium sized ramekins or some tall heavy wine glasses, but any thing that has a wide top will do.) Make sure that you smooth the top of each serving. 4) Place the servings in the fridge until needed. Variation: You can enhance this dessert by adding in a half of an apricot or peach that has been baked in a medium over (about 150C) for 30 minutes. To do this half fill your container with the cheese & cream mixture, and then gently place your piece of baked fruit on top. Add the rest of the mixture & smooth as before. Stage #3 the brulee. Ingredients: Sugar Method: 1) Bring your desserts out of the fridge and sprinkle the top of each with a nice, but fairly thin coating of sugar. Try to make the coating even. 2) Using a kitchen blowtorch melt the sugar on each dessert to make a brulee topping. (Note: I’ve tried a handy mans blow torch, but they’re too fierce. My sexy little kitchen thing works, but is a bit slow. I’m going to try & find a medium sized blowtorch that model maker’s use. I’m told that they are the happy medium.) Alternate method: Use the grill (broiler) in your oven. If you’re going to try this way then put you desserts in the freezer about ½ hour before you want to make the brulee. Get the grill very hot. Prepare the desserts as before with the sugar. Place them on a tray & place under the grill. Watch carefully & remove as soon as the sugar melts. 3) Serve immediately. If you used you grill be careful as the top of the containers will be hot. Keywords: Dessert, Dinner, Easy, Pudding, Vegetarian, French, Fruit ( RG1746 )

How about one of the 'new' micrograters? They come in 2-3 sizes & are great. Also fit within your budget.

Wouldn't dream of it; besides my waist line is already too big. Agreed. Agreed again. Peace. Sorry haven't quite figured out using multiple quotes yet. Think its readable.

Being pretty new to eG I've only recently read some of the excellent stuff in eGCI. I really liked Andy Lynes course on meat so decided to try the 7 hour leg of lamb. We've been slow roasting shoulder of lamb for many years, but at higher temperatures around 100C. Works well, but we just had to try leg at 65C. My plan was to flash the leg in our electric oven then transfer to our big gas oven for the slow cook. Turned out that the gas oven won't maintain that low a temperature. Not to worry I'll use the electric which will. The sear went fine & I turned the oven down to 65C & left the door ajar so it would cool more quickly. I then slashed to top of the lamb & laid my anchovy fillets in the cuts. ( see My blog for the proper recipe.) The oven is now down to about 130C so I put the lamb in thinking it would get down to 65G pretty quickly. MISTAKE! It took quite a while to cool. Meanwhile I was struggling with malfunctioning meat thermometers. Left the meat in the oven. Checked 4 hours later & found that the internal meat temperature was at 75C already (according to my untrustworthy thermometer) What to do? Turned off the oven, but left the lamb in. At 6 hours I checked again. The temp was at 70C. Turned the oven back on at 65C. At 7 hours & a bit I took the lamb out. Temp was still 70C. Color was great. I had a professional guest chef do the carving - if only I could carve that well sigh! Made a gravy with the pan juices. The taste was absolutely fantastic. Everybody raved. WOW! The moral of all this is: First, give your oven time to cool properly before starting the slow cook. Second, the method is very foregiving. Hard as I tried I couldn't screw it up. Third, the lamb was so good that I don't think I'll ever do a leg any other way again. Thank you eGCI; thank you Andy!

Maybe not cheddar, but what about other 'hard' cheeses such as Cantal, Laguiole, Salers, the various Tommes all of which have been made in France for milliniums. There's defintely a French market for these types of cheese. True, perhaps, but you can say the same thing about Brie. Either cheese properly made, aged, stored & eaten is a delight.

Don't know if you would consider France, but if so a friend of ours runs some wonderful courses. Her website gives all the details. Anne's a delight and a wonderful teacher.

Don't know if its common or not. I started adding it because once you've peeled & deseeded the cucumbers & peeled, deseeded & cored the tomatoes I found that the taste was right, but the gazpacho was too thick. So I added stock for consistency ( I was afraid that plain water would dilute the flavot too much.) Like the recipe you pointed at & will try it. It reminds me of how I was served gazpacho years ago when I lived in Madrid. In a relatively 'posh' restaurant they would serve the mainly tomato soup with small bowls of diced cucumber, spring onions, peppers, croutons & more tomato on the side for you to add as you wished. Tasted good & was a nice presentation.

I always serve it with garlic croutons as I like the crunch you get that way. My croutons are just stale bread chunks mixed well with some good olive oil, herbs de provence and garlic and roasted until crisp. Works either way, I think.

Summer's here & that means its time for Gazpacho. My favorite summer soup. Recipies abound, but variety is nice. Even though I found three resipies in Recipe Gullet and a few on the recent white gazpacho thread and I'm sure there are more in the archives I would still like to hear of everyones favorite variation. To get the ball rolling I've put my current favorite recipe on ITT-S so as not to clutter up the forum too much. Comments on authenticity might be interesting as well.

Very interesting posts about the history of cheddar & why the French don't make it. Maybe its because like so many people they've only ever eaten the mass produced 'stuff' which can be pretty horrible. Although I don't know any of the real history of cheddar I do remember my first ever visit to Wells Stores in Streatly in the early 80's. A revelation! Mostly French cheeses, but with more real farmhouse cheddar than I knew existed. By the time I moved back to England in the late 80's the cheddar selection had really expanded and the movement to ressurect proper English cheeses was gathering momentum. I now hear (unverified) that Britain has more varieties of cheese than France??? I only ever met Patrick Rance, the owner of Wells Stores, as a customer in his shop, but from everything I've read or heard he was the most important individual in 'saving' cheddar by giving the farmhouse & artisanial producers an outlet. A real food hero. His first book "Great British Cheese Book" is a bit out of date now, but still has a lot of very interesting information. His second book "The French Cheese Book" is wonderful. The forward by Jane Grigson is a treat. We still take it with us when we travel.

After today's performance by the USA I'm wondering if anybody has a recipe for humble pie?

Sigh! I'm really disappointed that we must have moved away from RI shortly before you opened Farmstead. Your shop looks great! Nice pics Chris! We used to buy our cheese at Wholefoods who were pretty good by US standards, but don't look as if they're in your league. Good luck & if we're ever back in RI we'll drop in.

I'm in the Cobb Salad fan club. Wilted lettuce comes second. Followed by Nicoise. Does anybody know the history or origin of Cobb Salad?