dougal

So, I'm guessing this might be made from the residue after pressing for oil? (Peanuts being something like 40% oil.) Nice idea if so.

Heart is super lean muscle. It has the potential to become tough on cooking. So either go VERY fast, or VERY slow. You may find more inspiration if you search for Ox Heart recipes. How about: - chop to bite-size, marinate for several hours, skewer and then grill the kebabs over hot charcoal?

Hi I am looking at the Adria chapter in The Cooks Book, and trying to understand some of the general principles, before I use up too many cartridges ... does the chilling of the machine aid the aearation or simply cool the mixture? Is it important to shake the machine several times before use? ... You are trying to get the gas to dissolve in the liquid. There's a general physical principle about gases dissolving in liquids. And its the opposite of the common experience with dissolving solids in liquids. Gas solubility INCREASES with COOLING (not warming) the liquid. So more gas will dissolve if the mix is cold. More dissolved gas means a 'lighter' product being dispensed. So, you are (usually) trying to keep the payload (rather than the machine) cool, to maximise 'lightness'. Hence warm foams may need more gas pressure (more charge) to get sufficient gas to dissolve. And shaking, just like stirring a liquid/solid mix, will encourage/speed the process of dissolving. Quite apart from initially getting the gas to dissolve (once the liquid is cold and saturated with gas, its saturated and more shaking won't help), there's the potentially important consideration that the occasional shake will help keep the payload uniformly mixed. But I'm not so sure that shaking immediately (seconds) before using is always a good idea. There's the potential for entrapping actual bubbles in what goes through the nozzle. Those bubbles would then expand to be much bigger than the bubbles from the gas coming out of solution (which is what gives you lots of tiny bubbles - foam) -- releasing actual bubbles of gas would lead to either 'spluttering' or a non-uniform foam. Incidentally, it is in the foams chapter in The Cooks Book that Adria apparently believes that Gelatine is "suitable for vegetarians" ... ooops!

... and this morning, sadly still not even available for pre-order on amazon dot co dot UK.

Aaah, I presume you don't have the "False Chanterelle" (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) in your area ... The false one is not a good choice to eat! Do you have a reference for that? My immediate thiught is that you may be confusing it with certain members of the Coprinus group - notably the "Common Ink Cap" Coprinus atramentarius.

No Place Like Home - by Rowley Leigh first published 2000. ... but its not everyone's idea of home cooking!

Curing aside (for the moment), think about the smoking. What sort of smoking do you intend? Hot or cold? Hot smoke will cook the fish (in about 20 minutes or so), while cold smoking for some hours (from 1 to 12 maybe, depending on your cold smoking setup) will give you something rather like cold-smoked salmon ("Lox"). Its a job for a plain straightforward wood, like oak, beech or alder. Something like mesquite would be an insult to the fish. I'd suggest you cure in a simple but strongish (and definitely cold) brine for less than half an hour. There's not much thickness of flesh for the cure to penetrate. Then allow to dry properly to give a sticky surface - the 'pellicle' - which helps to hold the smoke, before you go anywhere near the smoke. Airflow is good for the drying, but do beware insects! The brine? Something like 1 weight of salt (honestly, it doesn't need to be special), to about 5 weights of water. If your tastes are American, you might add sugar, up to about half a weight ... I'd suggest a brown sugar for preference. Only difficulty is getting that much salt to dissolve quickly. Warming with stirring is the easy way - but you have to then cool it down again before adding the fish. You shouldn't need much brine, just enough to cover. Probably no more than a pint. The easy way to do the curing (and with minimal brine) is to put the fish and brine in a plastic bag ... and in the fridge. I'd fillet before curing. The smoke won't attach to or penetrate skin nearly as well as exposed flesh. So, expose that flesh! For cold smoking, I'd do the job properly and carefully remove any residual bones (thinking ahead to slicing). For hot smoking, I'd probably just remove the backbone and open out the whole fish. Either way, I'd leave the skin on, to help hold the flesh together (during slicing for cold-smoked, and cooking and handling with hot-smoked). And even hot-smoked, I'd prefer to eat it cold. Blether's suggestion of a herby mayonnaise is a good pointer. Whatever you decide to do, I hope you'll enjoy your trout!

I don't believe that the stored energy would be greater than in a Champagne bottle. Even with two charges into a 1 litre whipper. Significant, but hardly extreme. The way to release the pressurised gas is by SLIGHTLY unscrewing the cap. This should allow the sealing washer to lift slightly and allow the gas to escape down the thread -- exactly like gently cracking open a fizzy drink (US 'soda') bottle. As long as SOME gas is escaping, energy is being discharged, and the thing is becoming safer. So unscrew it ONLY until it whistles or hisses, and then let the gas continue escaping slowly -- it'll probably take seconds, rather than minutes. When it stops hissing, unscrew it a little further. If hissing restarts, keep the cap in that position until it stops, and then unscrew it a little more. Be patient - it'll take much less than a minute! The pressure should be completely discharged long before you reach the end of the thread on the cap. BUT -- there is no need or point in shaking the thing! In fact shaking it is going to be counter-productive. You'd prefer to keep the 'batter' out of the threads - it could block that gas escape route at least as easily as the discharge valve. Rather tha shaking it, I'd prefer to let it stand upright for a few minutes before starting to loosen the cap. Sure, wrapping the thing in a towel will contain any potential mess (and the unlikely, unless you have completely batter-clogged the thread, event of the cap escaping). I wouldn't lean over the thing while unscrewing it, and I'd prefer to do the job outdoors. (Apart from anything else, you don't want to risk finding the whole process "unaccountably amusing" ...)

"Fish Cookery" has all manner of suggestions for pickled Herring apart from the Bismarck-style Rollmops it seems that you went with. There's even a suggestion of doing either Herring or Mackerel in what I would call a Gravadlax cure (salt, sugar, peppercorns, dill and optionally a little brandy, but which Mrs G names as "Home pickled". Anyone tried that with something other than Salmon?

Its just one of the prices you are paying for living in a land of freedom (or perhaps anarchy) of the market. How would it be if you had a law that INSISTED that vendors used terms accurately? Oh, to be a consumer protected from the lies of unscrupulous traders and marketing departments! http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/breadflourguide.pdf (see page 6)

I was just thinking of fashioning Naan into a teardrop shape and slapping it on the stone. Add a few skewer supports to keep skewered meats from contacting the stone, so they cook from radiation and the hot air rather than direct stone contact, and you're done ... You'd need short skewers to allow you to keep the lid tight shut. The stone is probably the safest thing to be dripped upon - just call it seasoning or patina!

Sounds like the problem is with the cooling side of things. One possibility is that (some to most of) the refrigerant has escaped. Refilling it and sealing it OUGHT not to be a problem for a fridge/freezer/aircon repairer. Worst case would likely be if the compressor itself wasn't compressing effectively. Repair should still be cheaper than a new machine, shouldn't it? If replacement parts availability were to be a barrier to repair, would it make any sense to stay with the same brand?

Maybe if you were wanting a horizontal version of an Indian 'tandoor' ... ?

Ah, you have one of those ovens that goes to '11' 700F? 370C? More like 15 than 11 ... that's quite some Tap !!!

There are a couple of titles on this specific subject by the English author (and herb specialist) Jekka McVicar. Although they seem to be currently out of print, Amazon dot Com has them much more economically than the UK site (lucky you!)

Well, there weren't any £2 lobsters in my local today, but I did pick up some raspberries. £2 for 2x 225g of Kentish Glen Ample - and VERY tasty they are too.

With proper laser labels, no creases in the backing sheet and no loose/ragged edges or corners of the remaining labels ... I believe the risk to be absolutely minimal - I've had no trouble, but since it would be me paying for any damage, I'm careful and so don't consider I'm running any sort of significant risk. To reduce any risk even further, one could select the straightest paper path (like you'd use for card). As it is, I only ever use the manual feed for labels (therefore straight in) but don't bother with the straight-out-at-the-back exit route.

Chris, I believe that any thermal printer is going to have issues with exposure of its output to heat and/or uv - like direct sunlight! Most inkjet inks will also fade badly in sunlight. You wouldn't have those issues (to anything like the same extent) with laser-printed labels. Since a laser printer wants to print a page at a time, you need some nice software that will allow you to just print, ad hoc, a specific chosen individual label from the sheet, or a few different (or identical) ones on each pass of a sheet of labels through the printer (using the manual feed). Next time that sheet goes through, you take care to use some of the remaining labels ... My old Mac and HP laser are very happy with a bit of freeware called pearLabelizer. http://www.pearworks.com/pages/pearLabelizer_screenshot.html It doesn't HAVE to be used for printing name & address labels ... ! Just make certain that the labels you use are intended for use in a laser printer. Otherwise you could very soon be needing expensive printer repairs. Maybe worth noting that general-purpose address-type laser-labels (which are the inexpensive and readily-available ones) are actually deliberately designed (with good reason) NOT to be easily-removable. In fact they are usually a bit of a pain to remove from plastic containers. For kitchen use, you would probably find it well worthwhile to source (and pay the extra for) some peelable laser labels. And some weatherproof ones. And some fluorescent ones. And some with freezer-proof adhesive. And ...

I'll be able to report back after my one arrives ...

The ProQ is an English (OK, Cornish) designed product, and yes, they do sell 'special' dust for it. But the basic point is that it doesn't actually depend on proprietary dust - BUT - it is (as I had suspected) indeed fussy about the fineness and dryness of the dust - though it turns out that needn't be a problem!

... I'd love to hear much more about these passive 'controlled smoulder' cold smoke devices. Particularly about how usable they might be with non-proprietary sawdust ... Thanks Jason, but my question was about the requirements for these specific devices, rather than smoking in general. (And Transatlantic shipping of sawdust is too bizarre for me to contemplate!) Research elsewhere shows that the ProQ requires very fine and very dry sawdust - emphasis on dust. Seemingly an electric spice mill can be used to grind sawdust finer, (it doesn't need a large quantity), and a low oven (110C/250F approx) and shallow tray will do the drying. Of course the raw material should be 'food grade', uncontaminated by, for example, chainsaw oil. It seems as though with fine enough and dry enough dust the ProQ works really well - just needing the mesh to be lightly brushed occasionally to keep the holes open. I'm going to have to get one!

WOW !!! Any brand names to Google, suggested export mail order sources or other helpful suggestions? While I doubt I'd ever use it routinely, it'd be fun to have a little to play with, maybe once or twice, and AFAIK, domestic sale of the stuff is alien to the UK. Now, if I could just find a domestic-sized pack of cocoa butter - unlike herbs or chillies, growing a houseplant simply isn't a viable option!

OK - from the forward to the Manual I learn that it WAS - until he sold the business back in 2001. First impression is that the Manual is indeed VERY quirky. Its all in imperial units. And Fahrenheit. Its written in the tone of "Well, if you were thinking of going into the business, this is how you ought to do it." So what's written is definitely commercial in scale. Its very much as though you were listening to the old boy rambling on, and you were totally unable to bring him back to the bits he'd skipped over because he thought everyone knew about that ... So its rather vague in places - sometimes the instruction is merely that the meats should be "cooked" before mincing. Disappointingly I'm currently spotting for omissions, like the paté recipe talking about some lean pork meat which is not listed in the ingredients, but nevertheless the Manual seems to be a great record of traditional, pre-industrial, thus "artisanal" UK charcuterie practice. He won't have anything to do with MSG or PolyPhosphates (naturally) but he is rather keen on adding a bit of mashed up boiled rice and milk powder to his sausages - as well as some (natural) red colouring to then "pink them up a bit". And he even uses his own "Rind Emulsion" -- so don't run away with the idea that this is a specially moral butcher! He's very keen to show just how 'everything but the oink' can be used to make a product that can be sold for a profit, and be so appealing that customers come back for more. LOTS of stuff in there - there are four different Black Pudding recipes (love the longitudinal-slice photos to show the size of the fat chunks) - but (in this book) no Pork Pie.

The recipe seems to say "Allow to set in the fridge for at least 3 hours, though a day would be fine ... " http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=291 Don't panic, judging by the comments on that page, it seems to work reliably. If it doesn't happen to set for you today, I'd blitz it, strain it, return it to the fridge, and then (as suggested) offer it as a fruit soup. Should taste fine ...

The season is from 1st October to 1st February.