Blether

We've been here before - click me ! - and I'm still on the same side with Rebecca & Kat. There are delicious eggs. I'm open to the idea that there might be a human-genetics 'taster' v 'non-taster' element at work, though for me it's academic. I keep going out of my way to go to the same store for the same eggs. The tasty ones.

Ann_T, that looks like a great dinner, and an exemplary rhubarb pie, holding its shape so beautifully.

I'm with you, Dakki. If something's good, it's worth repeating. Another gratin: - this time with cauli, broccoli, macaroni & cod. The Mornay sauce has the last of the mimolette, a load of mature cheddar and parmesan, fresh bay, dijon mustard, 'edible la-yu' / chilli-oil-spice-paste, and S&P. I'm pleased with this one - after baking, the sauce is still nice & creamy; the cod, cut in chunks this size and added raw, is cooked through but just so, and also juicy; the pasta retains its bite (being intentionally underboiled) the veggies retain theirs, the cheese flavour is strong, and the whole thing is hot right through so's you feel afterwards that you'll never be cold again. Autofocus wouldn't co-operate - this is the best of two attempts before appetite won out: Too much dairy this week.

Hi, Ann_T. I like the big breakfast / small dinner pattern, when I can set my schedule up for life to work that way. Your frittata looks like it would fit the breakfast bill nicely. What's the green ? I'll give you a shout next time

Dude, I've been slacking at dinner time lately. You have to credit the fish either to robirdstx or to dcarch. The nearest I've been to fish lately is under Breakfast / most important meal of the day. PS I can offer a better rate for sandwich, err... disposal than Dakki's facility - that looks tasty. Good bread ?

Hi, DC. I expect you have hands-on experience with yuzu. I'm not the world's biggest golfer, but these ones were about golf-ball size, as far as I've any feel for it. That price isn't so crazy - we touched on yuzu prices before - in supermarkets around here, 2 bucks apiece is an early-season price, and by now they're down to around one. I put two in the sponge and two in the sauce, zest & juice both, so yes, vibrantly-flavoured ! The funny thing is I've been eyeing the sponge recipe for ages and even put down a small batch of lemon curd that I was going to thin for sauce (thinks: actually it would have been a good combination with the yuzu). Now I'll just have to spread what's left on toast. Dang. I'm still hoping to see your coffee-table book, by the way.

Oh dear. There are still mushrooms (and there's still cream): champignons a la creme, for which I follow (from memory) Elizabeth David's FPC. I enhanced it with some of this excellent smoked ham: Seasoned with garlic, parsley, lemon juice and S&P. I don't remember if lemon juice is in Liz's original - anyway I overdid it a bit and got something more zingy than I intended. Normally I like it either (a) about as sour as sour cream, or (b) without lemon juice altogether. "Mistakes were made". Ho-hum.

Fettucine with mushrooms and gorgonzola. In fact, they were giving away tastes of mimolette at Nisshin World Deli the other day, and by being cheeky enough to ask I got the couple of ounces of crumbs to take away for free. So, fettucine with mushrooms, gorgonzola & mimolette (a bit more gorgonzola than mimol;ette). Seasoned with black pepper at the saute stage and again later; and with parsley and nutmeg: Seasoning & thickness of sauce (by eyeball, using both cream & milk) just right. It's the first time I've combined mushrooms with a cheese pasta - I'll do it again. I liked the nutmeg with it. I couldn't be bothered lifting Marcella off the shelf and poached the basic approach from e-rcps - the first Google result for 'spaghetti gorgonzola'.

Talking of Wikis, apparently you can also use it as the acidifier in your baking powder, or for making bread white.

A mundane main course, made up for by putting some effort into dessert. Yesterday a friend very kindly gave me a gift of half a dozen yuzu from her garden. That was enough to prompt me once again to look out Marguerite Patten's 1920's recipe for a lemon sponge pudding, and to sub the yuzu for lemon. Notable features of the sponge are that it uses no eggs, and twice as much breadcrumbs as flour. The recipe proposes a sauce stretched with water and thickened with arrowroot - I copped out and just mixed juice & zest with honey for something scarcer but punchier: I microwaved the sponge and it was done in all of 8 minutes.

Herring are a winter thing here. Like other seafood, they get them to market in superb condition, and at the weekend I found this pair for 290yen, or about USD2.50: - which were about 10-12oz apiece. Scaled, gutted, de-boned and trimmed, salted, coated, and fried in bacon fat, they made "herrings in oatmeal" for Sunday's breakfast:

It'll keep your fresh-from-the-sea uni in good shape till you can sell them to someone who lives a few days away.

Almost finished, aka a reheating of some of, the pot-roast pork shoulder that I cooked off the other morning and posted in "Breakfast".

A couple of years ago, a friend was looking for a good gaijin-size deep-frying rig. I suggested a big, cheap, thin gauge teflon-coated aluminum pot that we matched for size with a wire basket in the same store. It has always worked well and there have never been problems such as you describe. What is the provenance of your oil ? It sounds like it could be contaminated with moisture and gradually working that off with each boiling you give it.

You can also put the skins in your stock as is. You'll end up with a layer of fat that comes off most easily after you chill the whole thing. That's no more hassle than pre-rendering, so long as the one chilling fits your timetable. I've made a wine stew from skin-on chicken breasts in the past, where I rendered the fat from the (separated) skins in a frying pan and used it in the stew (no skin in the stew, but fat to help the prone-to-dryness meat). I second the thought of chicken fat in cooking - great for roast spuds, of course, and I've used it successfully in pastry for chicken pies / turnovers. Particularly with the price of butter & packaged lard around here, I see this last as quite a boon - to be getting pastry almost 'for free'.

Well, it's a national holiday and I got up before 5am. I'd thought I might get round to it last night but didn't, so I cooked off the pork shoulder roast I've had salting in the fridge the last few days, this morning: - this is the same pot roast pork that was my first post in Dinner!, where everyone was very kind, and I posted the recipe there too. I only roasted it in the oven for 2 hours this time, and that was ample. I can't get the Hock any more. This time I used a basic Spanish white. I figured that with half a batard on hand, and the oven on, garlic bread (not shown - garlic, parsley, pepper) would be a good idea and that's what I served it with.

You might be interested in this, though it's limited to Scottish / British. I certainly found The Art of Cookery engrossing.

To ignore your question and go with the topic name, pastis (Pernod / Ricard) is a surprisingly good partner to lamb - and lamb is the one mainstream red meat the pairing works with.

Another gratin - this time using a piece of defrosted salmon, cut up, and some cauliflower florets: ... with a couple of slices of toast spread with cod's roe, and hot tea. ETA: rarerollingobject, thank-you, and for all the combinations, too. A dry cure with some booze - I'll have to try that. I have to admit, sadistick, that I'm not much of a fan of dill - I can eat gravlax but I find myself asking "why ?"

No, I wouldn't say so, unless you like your stock really, really intense. I made mine concentrated enough that the finished soup jellies up nicely in the fridge, and the flavour's good. Even the stock on its own needed salt added to make it taste right - then of course there were two cans of tomatoes and one of coconut cream to season for, never mind the onions. I don't use sugar for chicken brine/salting amd I don't miss it, but I don't expect it'll affect your stock much. You're right about Rico's photo(s), too. (Rico, he's right about your photo(s)). Yours is a bit grainy from the low light ? But that's not out of place in that composition, IMO, and you've got a nice light & dark going on without it being at all stark.

Oh yes, and...the prices.

For years and years I was a strict recipe-follower - longer than most cooks ever are, I think. These days I'm overwhelmingly cooking 'from the hip', and more and more I enjoy picking out the best things on a visit to the market (or selecting from stores when I'm busy) and improvising something good from them. Andiesenji, you reminded me that I like to cook classics from a recipe. As to voice memos and Word, did you ever try a program called ViaVoice, or similar ? Might save you some transcribing. Helen, Buri & banana ?

Tomatoes with flavour - I mean readily available in the shops as the default rather than the special, premium price exception they are now. And like Mjx, the individual shops - butcher, baker, grocer, greengrocer, tobacconist, confectioner, newsagent - on a High Street that was where everyone went because all the individual shops were there - and each cosy enough that the customers chatted together. High Streets belong to outsiders now, and supermarket shopping is convenmient but can be soulless.

Tomato soup and a parmesan cheese sandwich. Now this really is a crummy photo: The sandwich is buttered toast and thinly sliced parmesan with a scattering of very thinly sliced onion. For the soup, I made a stock from the remains of two roast chickens, total original weight about 4.5-5lbs. I gave the stock about 5 hours, flavouring only with bay leaves. I wanted something rustic, retaining the meat that had fallen from the bones, so rather than strain, I picked the bones and gristly joint and larger fatty pieces out one by one (picking these over for any remaining meat before discarding). To this I added two large onions, two defrosted red chillis and three bay leaves, chopped and fried/sweated together; a tablespoon or so of mustard seeds added for the last few minutes; and a couple of tablespoons of coriander seed, ground from whole, for the last minute or so; two tins of tomatoes, crushed; and salt and black pepper, and simmered for half an hour. I'd no fresh cream so I finished it off with a tin of coconut cream, adjusted salt & pepper, and warmed through to finish (the serving in the picture is microwave-reheated in that bowl). Delicious. I was surprised at how subdued the coconut flavour is, particularly with the sharpness of the tomato. First time for this combination but I'll surely use it again. A few of the finer bones remained to be picked out, but in the end were soft enough just to chew up. I chewed up a larger piece too, big enough for the marrow to be distinct, and was surprised again at how much of its own flavour the marrow still had. Dakki, I like your picture a lot, really painterly.

I pre-salt a chicken in a plastic bag, 1tsp salt for a small 2.5lb bird. After a couple of days in the bag, I quickly kitchen-paper it over to get the worst of the moisture, and sit it uncovered on a rack in the fridge for maybe a day or two, turning once, to get the skin dry. I too do the start-breast-down, turn once thing, but I give two thirds of the cooking time to the breast-down phase. These steps make all the difference in getting a parchment-like crispy skin with the delicious melting fat behind it, rather than slimy old uncoloured tepid chicken skin. I'm very happy with the results this basic technique. I do still think that the whole roasting-poultry-whole thing is too ingrained in kitchen habit. When the whole-bird presentation is important you have no choice, but I keep telling myself the sensible thing really would be to separate breast from the rest and cook each at the ideal temperature for the ideal time.