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polly

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Everything posted by polly

  1. polly

    Potatoes

    That pretty much sums up my knowledge on the subject The only other thing I can think of at the moment is that if you want to make gnocchi, use floury potatoes.
  2. polly

    porchetta

    YUM I adore pork belly and porchetta. i'll give it a go too. I find that if you roast pork belly it does need quite a bit of time to get tender. It's such a good cut of meat to braise; I wonder what a braised version with the same seasonings would be like?
  3. I think caramel oranges would be a good end to an Indian meal. Slice all the skin and pith from oranges and slice them cross ways into discs. Place the discs, slightly overlapping, in a single layer on a beautiful platter. Pour caramel (toffee) over the top and leave for an hour or two. some of the caramel remains brittle and some dissolves in the juice of the oranges to make a sauce. You could serve this with a million things: ice cream, kulfi, thick cream and meringues, cake or just by it's self with shredded mint and thin cream.
  4. Every day mum would feed us all a BIG spoonfull of cod liver oil...
  5. You could also try the fun egg freshness test: Place the egg in a jug/deep bowl of cold water. If it lies on it's side on the bottom of the bowl, it's fresh. If it stands up in the water it's not so fresh, but still fine. If it floats, it's off.
  6. polly

    Tim Tam Biscuits

    The best way to deal with the trauma is to suck cointreau through the Tim Tam.
  7. One of my favourite ever pasta dishes is orecchiette with cauliflower and anchovies. Blanch cauli and sautee with garlic in olive oil, add some roughly chopped anchovies and stir them around until they dissolve into the oil. Season, add chopped parsley and/or crisped breadcrumbs et voila! The sweet creaminess of the cauli is gorgeous with the salt of the anchovies...
  8. polly

    Porcini powder

    I have some porcini powder thats really gritty. I don't use it much for that very reason, but if I want to add it to a sauce, I just strain it through a fine chinois at the end.
  9. Exactly right. Just lightly bash (if those last two words aren't mutually exclusive) the whole pods to break them open, and flip out the black seeds. Then into a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
  10. I think for 'at home' sauces, malawry's way is good. In a restaurant, sauces will usually have stock in them which increases in body as it's reduced. But for non stock, creamy sauces, it's best to reduce the flavour base until it is concentrated, then add the cream etc a la malawry. Happy cooking
  11. polly

    Truffle Oil

    One really easy thing is tiny puff pastry tarts (hors d'ouvre size) (yeah I know the spelling's wrong) filled with buttery leeks and curls of prosciutto, drizzled with truffle oil. Or anything with mushrooms.
  12. If dicing brunoise or something, I just let the bittle bits mount up on the blade until they are nearly at the top of it, then push them off on to the chopping board before they topple towards the floor. Things always stick a bit if they are that way inclined...
  13. I'd say almost any wet meat dish, and quite a few thick soups, weather meaty or not.
  14. That looks like a good kit. Three sharpening stones seems a bit excessive though. Mines pretty similar but without the stones and only one set of scissors. I don't usually carry around stuff like spoons, b/c restaurants have them, but if you were going to someones house... My basic list is: 20cm cooks knife long salmon/ham knife serrated knife boning knife sandwich knife paring/ turning knife cleaver steel peeler by far the most used one is the cooks knife, which I can fillet, bone and peel with if necessary.
  15. It's great sprinkled on to kebabs or other middle eastern meat dishes. I like it rubbed into chicken before being roasted too. Try searching under sumak/sumac for more info.
  16. I am not a fan of most fruitcakes, because they have all those horrible glace cherries in them and sultanas, which for some reason I don't like... But when I make it myself I put lots of dried fruit (apricot, apple, peach, currants, etc but nothing too sweet like dried paw paw) and chocolate! sounded a bit wierd to me at first, but the chocolate flavour mixes in with that dark spicyness very well. I don't have a favourite alcohol, but I usually use whisky and rum. Once I made a cake with a jar of fruit that I had been marinating for 3 years! It was put together in London, travelled to NY, back to London and then on to Australia. Not sure if I could taste a difference, but it made the cake seem special.
  17. A couple of thoughts: It's a very odd club Do you usually eat a meal during a plane re-fuelling pit-stop? I have eaten in about 14 countries and would love to eat in many more, but it seems really bizarre to have to make an official club out of it...
  18. polly

    Potato Salad

    I too love most types of potato salad. For mayonnaise based ones I like lots of chopped spring onions or a brunoise of red onion through it, along with lots of other herbs and seasonings. Good quality mayo is also a must. Most commercial brands are sooo sweet and artificial tasting...and they can't be served chilled. Refrigerated potato is horrible. Warm potato salads are probably my favouites. The German type with garlicy vinaigrette, lots of parsley and crispy bacon, or warm pots tossed in savoury ( the herb), creme fraiche and salt and pepper. I now wish I had some potatoes in the house to play with...
  19. My boyfriend hates saffron. I wouldn't use it that often anyway, but when you've got a hankering for paella or saffron butter sauce it's a bit of a pain. Luckily, he shares my passion for smoked paprika...
  20. I think it would be too heavy and crunchy if it were all cornmeal. You could experiment with a batter of cornmeal and beaten egg whites, it may come out light and crunchy. Never tried it though.
  21. polly

    Onion Rings

    Straightfoward and lovely. Beer batter is great too, it just gives a different result. I make my beer batter by eye: 2/3 plain flour 1/3 SR flour strong tasting beer Beer batter protects the onion more, so be careful that it's not too thick, or you can end up with steamed onion inside a big wad of dough.
  22. polly

    Onion Rings

    I make thinish onion rings and this is how: Slice onion rings Toss in flour Then in milk Then in flour again Deep fry Stir gently in the oil to prevent them from clumping Salt immediately and eat
  23. polly

    Stock for soups

    It's a method that's still used quite often in restaurants where that amount of time can be spent on the food. Consomme its self does not appear on menus that much these days, but all professional chefs should have no problem clarifying a stock with a raft, or making consomme. You can make lovely clear stock just by taking care of it and never lettting it come to the boil. Simmer, simmer, very gently, so that the impurities coagulate without being boiled into the stock, skim all fat and foam from the top and ladle or gently pour the stock into a container, discarding the last of the stock which will have a flotilla of bits in it.
  24. Keep up the good work malawry. I know it's pedantic, but i think the french name for silverbeet is blettes, not bettes. Maybe just a typo on your part...
  25. The wierd thing is, Marcella Hazan has a recipe for canapes of mortadella and gherkins, processed together into a paste. I don't think Marcella knows about cheez whiz though...
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