Corinna Dunne

I agree. A particularly good salad for using mint is 'fattoush' which is: Chopped mint, parsley and cilantro/corriander Chopped spring onions, tomatoes and cucumber Tossed in an olive oil and lemon dressing (about half and half), just before serving And mix in toasted pieces of pitta bread last This is great with grilled lamb or chicken. It's really refreshing and summery and would follow on nicely from your weekend mojitos! Edited to add: This is bizarre, 2 people posting a recipe for fattoush at the same time! Didn't mean to duplicate. You simply have to make fattoush now!

I had wondered about this. But surely it is something you can 'control'. For instance, I would expect that injecting melted butter into a chicken breast before (and perhaps during) roasting would improve the flavour of the bird.

So now I understand! Last night's show was so 'deja vu', I was convinced that it was a repeat with a new graphic added to the title which said 'Revisited' as a euphemism for 'Repeat'. Cheap, lazy programming. It didn't engage me at all, and I started reading. Looks like I didn't miss anything. Well, it is the summer season. So what's next? Big Cheffer? (I suppose we kind of had that one already). Or lazier still, you could just stash a few cameras in some dreadful restaurant and leave them rolling and transmitting 24 hours a day. We might literally get to watch paint dry if they do a GR redecorating job.

I'll be visiting Edinburgh late in July and will be staying over for a Saturday and Sunday night. It's a girlie break (not hen party!), so I'm not looking for anything intimate or romantic, nor do I think I'll get a consensus on going to a Michelin restaurant. So what I'm looking for are recommendations for good mid priced restaurants. And I've got a few specific questions too: 1. Is Marque Central still around? How would you rate it? 2. I see Centotre is the only Italian restaurant that is mentioned. Is it the best there is, or is it quite good in its own right? 3. Is La Garrigue still around and how would you rate it now? 4. Are Kalpna and Nargile still around, and any updates on these too? And last, but not least, if you were to pick just 2 restaurants for dinner, what would they be? Comments in relation to any of these questions would be very welcome, so thanks in advance.

I understand - from the grilled chicken thread - that marinade injection kits are available in the US. As I am about to be the lucky recipient of some syringes (from a fellow eGulleteer in Dublin), I would be very interested to hear about your experiences with this technique. Specifically: 1. Different types of meat/poultry and vegetables used 2. Marinades 3. Do's and don'ts Please feel free to recount the disasters as well as the successes!

In 'How to be a Domestic Goddess', Nigella Lawson has a recipe for bagels which is adapted from George Grenstein's "Secrets of a Jewish Baker". I have had great success with this. One of the things she suggests is to add malt syrup to the poaching liquid to give the bagels their "sweet and shiny crust". Regarding texture, I found an interesting point in Claudia Roden's "The Book of Jewish Food". When looking for tips to "improve" her bagels, she found that most people use egg in their dough to give it a lighter texture. So if you want a traditional chewy bagel, make sure not to include any egg. And for the glaze on top, Claudia Roden uses egg white. Enjoy making your bagels. I don't make them often, but get a real kick out of the poaching stage. There's something magical about it.

Thanks Suman. That would be great. I'll certainly take you up on this offer and perhaps get an injector thread going. Actually, I have an idea in my head about injecting eggs, so if anything comes of it I will post the details.

Frances, this may appear to be quite a distance on the map, but actually it will only take about an hour to get there. It's mostly moterway. The food in Can Fabes is extremely accessible (and their icecream is the best I think I've ever had), so a non foodie shouldn't be too daunted. Also, they have a shorter lunch menu in case your pal isn't up for the marathon task of the tasting menu.

Tess... I had a huge laugh over it! It is extremely misleading in Ireland too. To clarify, I am not talking about Equus, I did not have relations with that horse, but some of my relatives who live in the countryside have horses. My lovely American husband is laughing helplessly. Well caught!

We were in the car - I was 4 - and we were on our way back from my grandmother's in the country. "We've got to go back" I hollered. And my Dad had very little choice in the matter. As we got towards the house, my grandmother came to the door, and in her hand was a small 'golf ball' of brown soda bread. My bread. I'd made it with my grandmother, and there was no way I was going home without it. Following my cullinary debut, I spent many years 'assisting' my mother, but was unable to get control of the kitchen. But my moment of independence arrived when I was about 7 or 8. I went on holiday to my godmother's house in the country. There was a big farmhouse table, lots of fresh eggs, milk and cream from the farm and a constantly hot stove that yearned to be filled with bread and cakes. And my Auntie Jo just let me get on with it. It was wonderful. I cooked to my hearts content: brown soda bread, scones, madeira cakes, whisked egg sponges and a load of strange coffee flavoured recipes that I found on the booklet accompanying a bottle of 'liquid' coffee (very new at the time!). Now, thankfully, I have my own kitchen, and have 2 little girls chewing at the bit. Yes, another power struggle has begun!

Just one more preference for grilled chicken: the legs and tighs are infinitely more succulent and tasty than the breasts when grilled (bone in of course). And chicken wings too. I think chicken breasts - which tend to be dry - are better cooked another way. Dare I suggest the much maligned Chicken Kiev? Of course, I have yet to embark on injecting marinades, and this could open a whole new world to me!

Wow! That's some provenance. And a great story to go with the dish too! Thanks again.

Can Fabes is well worth the trip, particularly if you have been unlucky with the others. Just be sure to get in training if you intend to have their tasting menu as the servings are extremely generous. I was just thinking today about their crayfish on diced saffron potatoes in light bouillebaisse... and the baby octapus dish... really.

Combine yogurt/egg mixture with rice. ← Thanks Jaymes. This sounds really good. Do you know what part of the Middle East it is from?

Thanks Mabelline. I'm in Dublin to boot... but do have relations with horses in the country, so I'll follow this line of investigation. Is there a thread on injecting marinades? I'd love to hear some more about it.

I think lovely Nigella's finger licking may be responsible in part for this trend. I thought this was a really good, informative show too. Like last week, there was more of a positive chemistry going on in the kitchen (although we were teed up for Waterloo at the beginning). It was great to get an insight into a well run kitchen with talented chefs. So much more interesting than the stomach churning 'Italian sauces' a few weeks back.

I agree with the skin on, bones in people. And it must be a good quality bird. On the marinades, here are 2 of my favourites: 1. Chopped rosemary, minced garlic, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Then grind over some salt before grilling. Great with a mixed salad. 2. Yoghurt, cumin and coriander seed (lightly roasted and ground), grated onion, minced garlic and lemon juice. Again, grind over some salt before grilling. Great with more middle eastern type salads, eg tabbouleh or fattoush. This also roasts very well in the oven if you place the joints on a rack (particularly handy if you are entertaining and want to take the pressure off the barbeque to cook something else, like kebabs, kofta etc). I am very interested in the discussion upthread on 'injecting'. I was discussing this possibility with a friend recently, who promptly burst out laughing and said he couldn't wait to hear how I got on when I went into the local pharmacy to ask for a needle. Any advice on this issue?

Nice one johnnyd. This coral sauce is along the lines I remember, although I think what I had was more of a beurre blanc with coral. Ross Burden is one of my favourite chefs on Ready, Steady, Cook. He also has a profound knowledge of food.

This could be because the coral cooks more quickly than the scallop. Regarding the taste, it wouldn't be one of my top cullinary delights. I eat it mostly, 'because it's there'. The actual scallop meat is far tastier as far as I'm concerned. I think that making a sauce with the coral is probably the best use for it.

The coral is a little coral coloured sack of roe attached to the side of the scallop. Sorry I don't have a photo.

I think there are probably 2 issues here: 1. Salmonella 2. Stale eggs It sounds like you don't have a salmonella issue in Japan (which as far as I know is related to intensive rearing). In Ireland and the UK, there are a number of different classses of eggs, and the ones labelled free range or organic are generally considered to be fine for using raw (but not for the old, pregnant or the very young). On the freshness issue a good rule of thumb is to test the egg in a bowl of water. If it stays firmly on the bottom it is fresh, and if it floats to the top it is stale.

I had never heard of umami until I read this thread yesterday. I was captivated. Something about it resonated. I learned that mushrooms - among other foods - have umami and I kept thinking about truffles, their heady assault on the senses - taste and smell and texture - and wondered: is this more heightened taste experience the fifth taste? Is it umami? Then, call it serendipity, but last night I had a taste experience that caught my attention. It was while I was eating lobster. As it is a rare treat, I forrage hard for every morsel of meat. So the legs get sucked dry, the meat behind the eyes gets devoured and so too does the more gelatinous, flat sliver of meat in the 'flipper bits' at the end of the tail. It was the taste of the flipper meat that startled me. Whereas it is normally very sweet (in, say a 1.5 lb lobster), the meat on this 'flipper' (from a 2.5 lb lobster) seemed to be wrapped in a coat of another flavour. It was the taste of the shell, like lobster bisque, but lighter with a fresh touch of anise. The true moment of awareness of something 'cerebral' came later, when the smell of the lobster shells being simmered for stock wafted across the room. It was like a trigger and set off a stream of consciousness and taste memories. I rolled my tongue around the inside of my mouth, thinking about the residual lobster taste as I did it. I noticed how dry my mouth was, as if lightly coated in tannin. The more I sucked on this taste, the more I thought that this was something different. Something that did not fit the sweet, sour, bitter and salty quartet. I thought, this is like truffle. And as I thought of truffle, I thought, truffle is like miso in the same way. I thought more about this taste and sensation and realised that it seems to act on the surface of the top of the tongue and work its way down to the top of the throat. So then I thought about some other 'coveted' foods and tried, in my memory, to compare their taste with this new oeuvre. Caviar: a bit, oysters: a bit, foie gras: a bit. I realised that the taste that I felt linked these foods was iron. Aah, iron and tannins. That got me thinking about red wine. And terroir. And silage. Then another taste memory popped up. The yolks of hard boiled eggs. thay have the taste too. That sense of dryness on the palate and the edge of iron. This brought to mind an incredible meal I had recently in Can Roca, just outside Barcelona. One of the dishes was 3 hour slow cooked eggs, sea urchin and black sausage oil. (This dish was discussed quite a bit on the Can Roca thread). I realised that not only was this taste in the egg yolk, but also very much in the black sausage oil, and to a lesser extent in the unctuous sea urchin. And then I wondered: is this cerebral taste what is driving the cullinary revolution in Catalunya at the moment? I thought about how I had raved to friends about the 'new gastronomy' food when I returned from Catalunya. How I had found it so exciting and experiential. How I long to get back to once again experience that sense of being transported into a higher level of taste pleasure. And how I think that everyone should try this wonderful, new food. I wouldn't call it spiritual, more hedonistic. So there you have it. A pretty raw and rather long description of a taste experience. I am not claiming that what I experienced was umamic or that I have discovered the cullinary G spot, the holy grail. The experience was purely sensory and at times subsconscious and in no way scientific. But what I will say, is that there are more tastes out there. Think of the layers of taste and nuance a wine expert can find in a great red wine, and you begin to realise that there's so much more than sweet, sour, bitter and salty.

Yes, it looks like very fine threads of asparagus, tastes even milder than seaweed, and is wonderful with fish. We were in Barcelona recently, where it was being used a lot. I also had it with John Dory (St Pierre) a short while ago in Dublin. In Ireland, it is more commonly called samphire.

This formula is a classic management technique for presentations, the key part being the big 'bad news' bit in the middle, leading on to the solution. As you say, it's perfect for television as it maintains interest. Grand Designs uses this formula too, to a lesser extent.

How did you use it? Did you add it to everything along with salt, or just in Asian dishes? Did you experience umami when you were using?