KaffirLime

I'll come clean and admit to having an interest (co-owner) in Birmingham Plus, a West Midlands based restaurant website with over 3000 restaurant reviews and an active, if sometimes heated, forum. Please feel free to visit us and hopefully enjoy what we do here

[Moderator note: The original Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment (Part 3)] Somebody directed me to this thread so I was pleased to see the first post asking the question 'Is Sous Vide practical and 'do' able at home?' which is exactly what I want to know. I've ploughed through the first quarter of the 59 pages that follow but most posts seems to be immersed in cooking techniques and times without addressing the first question. Can it be done at home? So back to the original question - Can it and with what equipment? I've got vacuum sealing equipment. What I haven't got (and have no intention of buying at £1000) is a water bath. So what is the best way of keeping a constant low temperature without a water bath. Somebody once told me you can adapt a rice cooker but I've never owned one so I don't know if that would work. I've got a brand new Magimix deep fat fryer which has never had oil in it - the temperature on that can be set as low as 50c - Could that be used? All ideas gratefully received!

Xanthan Gum

Kim, I assume you live in Birmingham so I'm a bit surprised to read you perpetuating the old disparagement about Edgbaston being a red-light district. As someone who lives in the heart of what used to be a problem area -i.e the junction of Gillott road and Rotton park Road I can assure there has been no real prostitution problem for at least five years if not ten. That aside, Glynn is obviously getting a lot of attention as so he should but if I can just add a shout for another local boy - Richard Turner - who opened his own restaurant, Turners, in Harborne last night. Richard has worked at Le Manoir but in recent years was head chef at Pat McDonald's Paris restaurant in the Mailbox where he achieved four AA rosettes (and in many people's opinion should have got a star). Turners looks to be offering french brasserie food at the top end with prices coming in at about £25. I've not eaten there yet but tried his food at Paris three times and if this boy doesn't get a Michelin Bib there is no justice in the world. Check out his menu at: http://www.birminghamplus.com/news/news_it...?nid=1185463015

Actually yes - Under 'Cheap Eats' the whole of Birmingham's Balti Triangle gets a name check (as if it's one homogeneous whole of equal quality throughout. It's not) with special mention for Al Frash and Zeb's. The sad thing is that Al Frash has been closed for a refurbishment for nearly a year and while the Independent do point out that Al Frash staff can be found at Zeb's during the refurbishment, It's still very much Zeb's food that is being served which does not stand recommendation. Could the Independent not have picked a restaurant from the Balti Triangle that people could visit on account of it actually being open (the consistently excellent Plaza for instance), or am I being too fussy? I'd agree with Duncan's comment - It does look like the workof one person but not a list of favourites or even a wish list as such, more the product of an afternoon trawling around on the net.

Thanks for that guys. I've actually got bourdian's cookbook and just found the recipe - Doh! Must remember to check my library first! Think I'm going for his recipe with (sifted) juniper!

Thanks - Now I understand

Forgive me but isn't 'poaching' fish in fats otherwise known as frying or am I missing something very obvious

Hi all, Thought i'd cast this out to the great and good. I've been asked to prepare an after theatre supper for a group of people at the weekend and thought I'd make life easy for myself my serving pork rillettes with hot toast for the starter. Does anyone have a good recipe they'd like to share? Suggestions on a surprise twist to the original would also be welcome. I have been toying with the idea of adding juniper berries or horseradish to the mix but won't have time to trial run the ideas beforehand.

I know what pork scratching are but what the hell are chicarrones?

Essence - D.E.M without a doubt. Worst book? Tom Aikens - All those posy photo's of him and seriously dull recipes. We waited so long for this?

Absolutely none whatsoever. Most of us up here live on bread and dripping and whatever vegetables we can forage from other people's allotments with a pork pie as a treat every other Thursday when the dole cheque arrives. You're best advised to stay strictly within the magic circle of the M25 and not venture up here. For everyone else I would suggest that Jessica's is the best restaurant for people who enjoy food and Simpsons is best for people who enjoy expense accounts.

Don't rush up here on our account - We already have more than our fair share of parochial minded bumpkins from down south

"not infrequently" - does that mean often? - jeez! can we do away with the doublespeak

Surely the name is huge firmly whippingbottom?

In Prague recently we came across an item they described as 'crackling spread' which was basically a starter consisting of a little pot of pork dripping served with pork dripping - Except I'm sure it wasn't just dripping. More likely it was dripping with ground scratching added for crunchy bits! The only reference i can find to it on the internet is what looks like a similar thing from Germany called Griebenschmalz or crackling fat. Does anybody know how to make it as friends that visited Prague with uws thought it was wonderful and I'd love to serve it up to them as an appetiser this Friday!

Four times - far better than the Michelin recognised duo of Jessicas and Simpsons. It is a sad loss for Birmingham.

Sterile and up itself could be an apt description of a lot of places and even a lot of posters on this site. Ever eaten there yourself Andy?

Not much in Warwick but Leamington Spa is just down the road. Mallory Court (Michelin Star) for a blow-out or Oscar's for classic French Bistro food at extremely reasonable prices. While you are in Leamington you can visit Aubrey Allen, the butchers reputed to supply Gordon Ramsay.

How did the staff pronounce the apostrophe?

Just to add to alexw's reply on point 2 - the potatoes. As I recall it GR only ever referred to his spud dish as boulangeres - The only time I heard him mention dauphinoise was when he proffered the opinion that boulangeres was 'like dauphinoises but healthier'. Oh, and he definitely did mention stock. Overall though, I'm not convinced about the program. My gut instinct is to write it off as a complete load of tosh (what was all that fawning over Martine McCutcheon about?). Given that GR has always strenuously denied he is a "f**king celebrity chef" he seems to have sold out big time. And what the f*ck was Giles Coren thinking when he signed up for the part of GR's glove puppet (even given the guy is a complete twerp)?.

On the subject of damning reviews AA Gill's piece on Taqueria in yesterdays ST was notable. Don't particularly like AA Gills style - invariably wittering on about unrelated topices for 9/10ths of the review before mentioning the restaurant in question in the last paragraph but I dislike Mexican food even more so in my book it was fair game. The food here was so bad (in his opinion) that he went one better and refused to talk about it beyond describing his lime soup as 'pub-glass rinse'. Classic

I think the charge that I was being snide is a little over the top. Don't want to get into a spat over this because at the end of the day it's inappropriate but i've worked in media ad sales for over twenty years and I can assure you if Shanks restaurant was one of my clients I'd have known about the circumstances and pulled the ad - If there was time enough to run a story there was time enough to do that. I accept the plea that the ad was not run deliberately but that just means the rep who sold the ad was ignorant of a fairly tragic circumstance regarding his or her client and whoever it was wouldn't get a job on my paper. Golden rule: know your clients. Call me old fashioned if you will but it's always been my understandiong that one aspect of an Editor's job if to final proof check all the pages and anyone worthy of the position would have spotted the error. Insult me if you like but however you try to call it Restaurant Magazine dropped a bollock.

This weeks Restaurant Magazine carries a perfunctory 90 word news item on Robbie's death which makes it particularly shameful that they decided to continue to carry the recruitment advert for sous, pastry and chef de partie in the same issue asking interested parties to contact Robbie at the restaurant. I'm led to believe that the restaurant probably won't re-open so the least we can hope is that his wife Shirley won't be billed for the ad. I'm assuming she wasn't contacted but even if she did want the ad to run I can't imagine she wanted Robbie's name to appear on the bottom of it. Was the ad rep's commission to important to lose?

Turron is Spanish for nougat