CalumC

I've not looked at this thread before, but by the looks of it, when making creme brulee you all bake them in a bain marie in the oven. Anytime i've made them, ive made a custard on the stove and chilled it, then caramelised the sugar on top of it. Is this an odd method?

... whaaaat?

Pow. Over to you.

As the previous was a no result, if nobody minds, ill put this forward. Based partly on what i had there a few years ago, very loosely, and what i would choose if i went back, which i'd like to think i will. ----------- A salad of home-smoked duck with pickled carrots and a five spice syrup Best end of Herdwick lamb with potato fondant, confit swede, shallot purée and a rosemary jus Pavé of Valrhona chocolate with blood orange sorbet

Pah. £90 for that? Come on.

new wine shop has just opened opposite Queens Hotel - quite ambitious range, not sure it'll last long. cheese shop (singular) near Everyman Theatre - good(ish) no good butchers. ← As algy said, theres the new wine/spirits shop at the bottom of montpellier, basically opposite brasserie blanc. I quite agree about not lasting, i don't know that theres a big enough market for it. It used to be a bloody good patisserie, was quite annoyed when it changed. And very true about cheeseworks, there isn't another basically, but its ok, its bloody good.* see note As far as butchers is concerned, the only one of note is Watts, which is what DEM uses. Its pretty decent, ive used it before, very nice guy too. Theres also one down the road from LCS on Suffolk Road in Tivoli, which isn't bad. Theres no butchers that are really excellent or distinctive, but there are a number of decent ones. Other than that, there isn't actually a lot worth seeing. Bath Road isn't bad, theres a very good cafe called Jacks. And i think theres a chocolate shop towards the end of road, towards Leckhampton. If youve got time, you might want to pay a visit to Lumiere, it had a particularly good review from Jay Rayner, but is soon closing. * the cheeseworks, which is run by a guy called Ben that was on Masterchef last year, is selling the shop as a business, so it will remain a cheese shop, but whether it will be much good, who knows. Time will tell, I certainly hope so, the only other source of cheese is the supermarkets. Hope that helps.

McGee - Gelatin Clarification from NY Times

Any experimental consomme pr0n for us? Would love to see how you made the base liquid.

Well i guess melted white chocolate, creme fraiche and water mixed up is the only way forward. It doesn't matter if it splits, which it will, because youre clarifying it anyway. Having said that, theres a HB recipe around where he made a chocolate chantilly with dark chocolate and water, which ive had success with. Maybe you could make that with white chocolate, and clarify that. Dont know if white chocolate would react the same was as dark though. I would go for the gelatin clarification btw, works a treat. I made a banana consomme ages ago, wasnt nearly strong enough, but as far as clarity is concerned, it was gorgeous.

[Moderator note: The original UK Menu Game topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: UK Menu Game (2003)] Resurrection anyone?

Admittedly, living in Cheltenham makes it easier. Then again, that means journeys to anywhere other than Cheltenham

And the worlds a better place again. I'm going for a birthday dinner in february. Can't wait doesn't sum it up enough.

Funny if the cock has closed up, he was on market kitchen a few days ago. Which, incidentally is an awful programme, for the only reason that i don't like Tana and Diana.

when we started farming it i imagine.

Aye but geez, about 9 months off yet. I'd also have to pay just as much for the book as i would in postage. But it does look worthwhile.

If i had the kit, id love to try and compress the cauliflower into blocks, then slice them into a fries shape. Might give a more standardised result. Maybe thats going a bit too far in the french fries direction.

^ I think moving onto the topic of foie gras is something that a lot of people will do. A great deal of free range chicken eaters are foodies, and a lot of foodies are foie eaters. I personally don't know where i stand on foie gras. I've tried it a few times, and loved it, but i can't help thinking that im being a little hypocritical when I tell my schoolfriends that their eating of battery reared chickens is disgusting. I know that most foie gras ducks and geese, if not all, are as good as free range, but is the way they are produced not still questionable. It generally seems that whether someone eats a battery farmed chicken or not is down to personal choice, whether they choose to ignore the methods of farming, choose based on price or don't really understand that free range and organic chickens do actually taste nicer. I'd like to think that this weeks programmes have educated people into changing. On an interesting side note, my dad was Tesco this afternoon, looking for an organic chicken for roasting tomorrow, but alas there was none. At all. They had been absolutely cleared out of free range and organic whole chickens. I have no doubt that this is to do with the previous weeks programming. Not that i'm complaining, we're having duck now. Excellent.

One tires of the restauranteur and his mediocre veg man. I was interested by the guy in the first episode, made pork chop with chocolate sauce. Ignorant vegman decided he didnt like it, wouldnt ever, and would never order it in a restaurant. Which is interesting, because many people have shown it can be done effectively. Martin at khymos is one example.

Surely Iron chef has to be one of the most amusing food shows on tv at the moment! A pro masterchef though, I am sure that will be very interesting, and probably amusing.... ← Iron Chef america is one of my secret vices actually..

Wheres Mr Hayward gone.... I really want to go to the fd, finding time and money is a bit of an issue, but hopefully this year. Having said that, itd be interesting to wait until these big changes have swung in. I got the latest book for christmas too, which hasnt helped my curiosity.

I think in that case Ramsay has a point, its fairly obvious he only owns the place and decides its menu. If the food is still coming out good, does it matter? Obviously if it isnt, as seems to be the case with Ducasse, then it does matter.

Well i got Heston Blumenthal's In further search of perfection today, very much enjoyed the series, so I'm keen to have a crack at cooking this entire book. I'll post more soon if i go ahead. Cracking book btw, if anyone is looking for presents.

Gilpin Lodge seconded, went a few years ago, very good lunch. Chris Meredith has done well with it.

How can you have a blue cheese sorbet? If it contains dairy products, surely it would be blue cheese ice cream? ← Not necessarily, for example milk sorbet, chocolate sorbet. Ice creams are generally literal, iced cream. Sorbets are less creamy.

The Which Pub Guide is great, had a look at that one before.