Snadra

Those water caltrops really do look like water buffalo horns - and I'd hate to step on one too, so caltrops is rather perfect. So is the water chestnut starch used as a binder in your meatballs or are you using for a coating? Does it have a particular flavor? And are there applications where you would prefer arrowroot over cornstarch, or do you find it not worth the expense?

We usually keep a bit around in 250ml boxes for 'emergencies'. I like the taste as a change in my tea or coffee (my parents always put tinned milk in their instant coffee, I think as a result of living in Northern BC for a while in the 60s, and it rubbed off), but I don't drink milk by the glass or eat cold cereal. The only brand I remember seeing is Devondale or home brands. Actually, I was just out picking up a few things at Aldi and was amused to see a woman buying a flat of each of UHT skim and whole milk, so some people certainly like it! Here it's sold next to the tinned milk along with UHT cream. Kerry, can you explain a little more about the benefit of UHT cream in ganache? Is it something to do with the enzymes in milk? Your post made me think that it might be an idea to use UHT milk in some yeast baking applications (not that I do a lot, but there are a few recipes I want to try) as presumably it wouldn't need to be scalded, and could just be added straight from the cupboard. I only see thickened UHT cream here but I know 'pure' UHT cream (as well as tinned butter and cheese) is produced here for export to the middle east and other warm climate areas.

This topic made me curious, so I looked it up in Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food. She lists a number of starches for thickening, but doesn't mention one as more or less 'authentic' than any other. Arrowroot Cornflour/Cornstarch Kuzu Lotus root starch Mung bean starch Potato starch Rice flour Tapioca starch Water chestnut starch/flour/powder Wheat starch/wheaten cornflour I include mung bean starch only because she says that arrowroot and cornflour make an acceptable substitute-she doesn't specifically say it is used as a thickener. And it seems kuzu may only be a thickener in Japanese cuisine. She also says that starches made from roots and tubers absorb water more easily and thicken at lower temperatures. My mother, who learned to cook a few chinese dishes from a friend, always used arrowroot in preference to cornstarch when she could get it, based on what she was taught. Personally, I am always amazed at how widespread and important foods from the Americas have become throughout the world, and how much they have changed the cuisines they are introduced to.

Your husband obviously has great taste! A Powell's dedicated to cookbooks? Excellent. Can't wait to see what else you'll be showing us this week! I adore bubble tea, but my husband refers to it as "camel snot tea". Loving your blog - great market pics!, and I'm now suffering from bookstore jealousy... Has your change of place has changed your cooking style? Edited for grammar

I've never heard of a DW with a top rack w/ smaller front-back dimensions than the lower rack. I just took the front to back measurements for both racks in my Bosch and they're exactly the same. Weird. I'll ditto everything on your "love" list and add another: the height of my top rack is adjustable, it's easily moved higher/lower by 2". It might sound insignificant, but it gives a lot of flexibility. When you need a little extra space up top (ex: big bowls), move it down. When I want to wash large baking sheets or the baffle filters from my vent hood and need extra height below, I move the top rack up. Don't like: the silverware container. it's awfully small. We have a Bosch with the same feature and it's great, plus SO quiet. In fact, I usually only know when it's running because the pipes make the noise, not the dishwasher. Although the energy saving feature means we do have to unload with a tea-towel in hand, we've come up with two strategies to minimise the painfulness of this. First, always unload the bottom rack first so that no extra droplets fall onto the dishes from above. Second, unload about 10 minutes after it's finished. This seems to give enough time for the residual heat to get evaporate most of the water, and means you only need a quick swipe with the towel. We use the time delay so that we're around when the dishwasher is finished. I do find it annoying that it seems to have been designed with smaller plates in mind. There's an extra plate rack on the bottom tier that can be raised for two rows of plates, but our plates are too big to fit in it.

SO into this kind of thing!! Love your list - are there any that you particularly treasure? There's a thread here on the Culinaria books which makes them very tempting... I've got please to the table and it's pretty extensive - there are a huge number of recipes which I've tagged and am looking forward to trying. There's another Russian/soviet book I've come across that apparently was/is the book given to new brides and I'd like to get - just can't remember the name... I can also highly recommend "Georgian Feast" and "A Taste of Russia" by Darra Goldstein -her background is in Russian Lit, and she spends some time discussing the culture and traditions, which I personally love (she also wrote the text for a coffee table book called Russian Houses which is gorgeous). Am I right in thinking the Lake House book is a Russian-influenced? Have you come across European Peasant Cookery by Elisabeth Luard? It's got a strong focus on Spain, Italy and the UK, but most regions are covered. There are more pancake recipes in than you can stab with a syrup laden fork. If you want more German cookery, the Mimi Sheraton one is very worthwhile (I don't really like the Oetker ones). Snowflakes and Schnapps by Jane Lawson (Scandanavian) came out a year or so ago, but it has little context to the recipes so i passed on it. (Recs for any Baltic cookbooks eagerly accepted)

I'm looking forward to other's suggestions, especially for Dutch and Polish recipes. Re indigenous Australian cookbooks, the two that came to mind were The Black Olive cookbook and Edna's Table. Are these the type you had in mind? I don't have either, so can't comment, but I have seen Mark Olive's TV segments, and think his book would be worth a look. I never made it to Edna's Table before it closed, but its reputation would also make the book worth a look. There are four copies on eBay (and one copy of 'food that really schmecks'). Also, there are some Arabic and Uighur recipes in Flatbreads and Flavours.

Whereas I, on the other hand, while allowed to load the dishwasher piecemeal, am overruled by the DH who is the only one who can load it correctly. And I don't know who Larry David is. There is a deep pleasure in annoying those you love by using household appliances "incorrectly". It puts a smile on my face.

What drives me mad about many tv cooking shows aimed at 'everyday cooks' is how they always have mise en place all nicely done, no chopping mess or measuring fuss while they bray about the glorious simplicity of whichever bit of corporate sponsored food dreck they are serving up. We all know the reality is so much messier! Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals has been showing here recently, and it's been a pleasure to see him do the prep and measure things out as he goes. That seems much more like the way most people cook on a regular basis. Like many here I do a modified prep which alters depending on what kind of dish I'm making. With cakes and biscuits I usually do a dry bowl for sifting the dry ingredients together, and a jug for the liquid (especially where they are to be added in alternating batches) before I start mixing. This helps me ensure I don't forget to add things like the leaveners (it's happened!) and makes me feel in control, as I'm not a very confident baker. Like others I do the prep for a stir fry type dish in advance, starting with the veg and finishing with the meat so as to only use one board and knife (laziness!). Otherwise I usually do things as I go, maybe taking advantage of a particular stage of the dish to finish off most of the prep (like while browning meat, for example). That said, I generally do a quick check of the cupboards and haul most of my ingredients out in advance - I too have started making something only to find I was out of the key ingredient!

When I was a teenager we had a huge morel season the year after some major fires came through our valley. Our farm was used as a buying station and it was often my job to turn over the morels as they dried on sheets of plastic. Being a teenager I did this with the blackest of scowls on my face of course - what was funny that my scowl matched the charcoal-blackened faces of the pickers. Only a few were sold-on as fresh and most were dried before being shipped off. For years afterwards I had nightmares about the creepy-crawlies and assorted other wrigglies that would come scrambling out as I turned the morels. Which is all to say I could never eat one unless I washed it very well first. I've never seen fresh morels here, although I occasionally see very high-priced dried ones at David Jones. When the mushroom buyers were staying with us I recall having them in various sauces, or crumbed and fried if they were small or stuffed with an herb, parmesan and fresh bread crumb stuffing and baked in the oven if they were monstrous.

Not a stupid question at all. I've been considering freezing meats with a marinade for specific dishes, but have been wondering exactly the same thing. One thought I did have was that even if the "marination process" halts while the meat is frozen, it might continue as the meat thaws and I presume becomes permeable again.

Having just spent yesterday battling an invasion of pantry moths that appear to have come from a couple of large bags of nuts, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about bulk buying at the moment ( and now that I'm off work I had PLANS for them too!!). Those things eat through plastic! That said, I do find it worth it if I KNOW I'm going to get through everything in a timely fashion (eg flour), and I'm less ambivalent about tinned goods, which don't have quite the same risk as dry goods. I do buy two or three 'flats' of 12xtins of Aldi's organic tomatoes at a time, and I also buy tinned chickpeas in larger quantities.

It's their sharp little teeth that frighten me! I like the idea of a mixed fruit salad, but it never seems successful unless it's tropical fruit. And I can't stand buying them because they are never quite right - underripe fruits, badly seeded, poorly cut and probably sitting there all day. In fact, pre-prepared salads in general are my 'purist' thing - I can see no point in a salad of any kind unless it is perfectly fresh and flawless. And the same with hot chips/fries. Keep anything sitting in a bain marie or baked in an oven away from me, please! Re guacamole: I'm not sure if it qualifies, but my preference is just avocado, lime and salt, ocassionally garlic or fresh chile. I'm also conservative about mayonnaise - fresh is best and miracle whip is no substitute.

In general here there is 'pure cream' (35% milk fat, no additives), thickened cream (the same fat percentage, but with gelatine and sometimes vegetable gum), or double/dollop cream (in varying fat ranges, but higher than pure cream). Anyone else feel free to come in and add to this/correct me. I have only seen either Pura or Dairy Farmer's pure cream at the supermarket (usually side-by-side, which is funny, considering they are both owned by National Foods). Double cream is pure: I see Gippsland Dairy and King Island cream at the supermarket. It's very nice on a hot winter dessert. Ultra-pasteurized cream is not something I've come across. Aldi's organic milk is ultra-pasteurised though, so it's probably going to happen sooner or later. We do have long life cream available though - one person I know uses it for things like potato bakes because it's more convenient that keeping fresh cream. While light thickened cream is common, I've never seen light unthickened cream, coffee cream or half & half. Actually, I don't know anyone here who puts cream in their coffee at home (although I've converted a few over the years) and out and about it's all about the cap/latte/flat white. More info (though little detail) available at Dairy Australia. ETA: King Island is owned by National Foods as well.

Pam, I'm enjoying your blog so much! These are all foods that I've read about in books & stories, but never really had pictured properly in my mind. That brisket and those blintzes look delicious too. Not to mention being just the thing for me to try as we head into autumn here. I'm so glad you're taking the time to share this. I have a few questions. First, I was curious about how you make the mash for a meat meal. It looks so fluffy! Second, do you always use potato flour or cake meal in the blintz wrappers, or is that only because it's Passover? Also, how long can you keep the filled blinztes for before you fry them? Finally, is most of the kosher meat you have access to frozen, or are there local butchers as well? Edited to fix really bad sentence structure.

Ah! But this is the land-of-lamb!! Would you believe we can get lamb tenderloins at the grocery store even in the outer suburbs where I live? Of course, when I saw them the other week they were nearly $43/kg... I agree with you though, they are truly delicious. With regards to the OP, Neil Perry's shredded lamb shoulder came immediately to mind. I have made it three times now, although I used vietnamese pickled chiles instead of making the salted ones. It's perfect at room temperatures or slightly warmer, and it's really nice with some steamed buns and marinated cucumbers and/or carrot. You could make little stuffed rolls out of them using chinese buns (baked or steamed) and lightly pickled veg of some kind. Another thought was a variation on manti: you could make small ones and serve them on a spoon with yogurt sauce and an herb topping. Also, one of my favourite things at the Uighyur restaurant in Sydney is 'special fried lamb pastry'. I think it's quite similar to chebureki or samsa: basically a baked/fried dough stuffed with lamb. I know I've got a recipes for both (thanks to eat your books!) so PM me if you'd like a recipe. Finally, YES to others' support for some sort of kebab/kofta/chevapi skewer. Thisthreadhasbeenapprovedby .

Based on my early experiences when I moved here, Australian BBQ seemed to be less about grilling than frying piles of cheap meat on a steel plate until it gave up played dead. But things have improved a lot since then, and I've even come to be fond of the traditional sausage in a folded bit of white bread with tomato sauce.... Was about to mention the cost of a WSM here, but you beat me to it Chris! The prices we pay here are unbelievable. I have been looking into getting a Kamado, but the prices have put something of a halt to that. The Big Green Egg is no longer available here (they are still sold in New Zealand), although BBQs Galore now has Kamado Joe, which they say is equivalent. Someone in QLD is importing and selling Grill Domes, and there someone on ebay is selling Imperial Kamados, although I haven't been able to find anything out about them. In addition to the link mentioned above, check out the Aussie BBQ Forum. They are a great bunch of people, and they cover everything from traditional Aussie BBQ to style you're asking about. Based on their recommendations, I bought a second hand weber off Ebay as a starter model, and have used it a few times, although I still haven't done any proper smoking as yet. If you go that route do get the larger size rather than the smaller size (no longer sold new, but still around second hand) so that you can set your fire for a slower cook. I've seen WSMs show up on ebay from time to time as well, so it's worth keeping an eye out for them.

Come out to my 'burbs Nick! It's coin trolleys all the way! In fact I thought they were everywhere now, so I'm surprised that you're surprised.

I have made this a number of times since Erin linked to it in her blog (how did I miss it before?). Fantastic! Actually, I misread the instructions the first time and made it with undrained tomatoes and blended it pretty fine - but it's delicious that way and so I haven't tried to make it any chunkier. I used to ocassionally buy jarred salsa if I couldn't get decent tomatoes for a fresh one, but they were never that great. This is perfect and I love that it uses store cupboard ingredients - even if I don't have a fresh chile there's always some sort of sauce or jarred chile in the cupboard. Thanks Jaymes! (edited to fix quote)

Good bargains can be found at local pet supply stores (the kind that are hidden away in industrial areas) when buying necks etc. Greyhound supply places will probably have good quality and prices. A yellow pages search will might get you further than a web search as they are all pretty much locally-run places. I'm not sure why frames are so pricey considering they're all bone - same thing with pork ribs here, which are climbing higher and higher in price! Looking forward to seeing your take on Victorian produce, especially as the weather is starting to turn! Will we see any chestnuts? Like Pam, I'm curious to hear what you miss from Canada and if you've found any substitutes (I had to start making my own perogies as I couldn't find any here for years the only ones I could find here cost a fortune). Also, are there any new foods that you've fallen in love with? Roo, Tim Tams, Vegemite? By the way, if you decide to make Anzac bikkies, learn from my mistake and don't use quick oats!

61 in Eat Your Books, plus another 5 that aren't in the library. Now, to stop reading them like novels and start cooking from them more!

That article is absolutely fascinating. I love learning about how food traditions travel and change from one place and time to the next, but I've never come across this connection before. Thanks so much for sharing this.

I work in finance in an office with a pretty strong wine culture. We have a cupboard full of wine and a fridge with plenty of beer (as well as soft drinks). There are also higher-rated wines kept separately for boardroom functions. Unspoken rules are big around here and I've only seen a bottle opened on a weekday a handful of times and even then only when ordering in dinner. Wine o'clock is usually sometime after 4pm on a Friday and people either drink socially in the common area or have a glass at their desks if still working. It's considered polite to at least stop by to say hello on the way out of the office for the weekend, even if you're not having a drink. A glass or two of wine or beer with lunch (off premises) is perfectly acceptable. In my only hospitality job here staff drinks were a nightly occurence, with staff given 2 drinks each at the end of every shift - we usually had them after cleanup. I vaguely recall reading a few years ago that Tetsuya Wakuda was sued for encouraging a culture of alcohol which lead to one of his staff becoming an alcoholic. I don't know what the outcome was, but I wonder if it affected staff drink policies at many places.

Second on the pfeffernusse - they improve with age too. I've been making Chicken in Caramel Sauce a few times a year since it appeared in the Washington Post (couldn't find a link to the original article). I gather it's not quite the traditional way to make this dish (apparently it's a clay pot dish?), but it's delicious and the black pepper flavour is a definite highlight. Plus it's one of the dishes that's slowing converting me from white to dark meat.

After too many local encounter with staff who use gloved hands to pick up food, handle money and who knows what else (my favorite was the time I bought raw chicken at a Butcher and was handed raw-chicken-juice-laced change) I have concluded that many people wear gloves to keep their hands clean, not my food and change uncontaminated.