Blether

Kim, ha ha ! Great potato. And you got the pork just right - it's all too easy to roast loin dry. Did you notice my marmalade fixation ? I think I'm on the point of misappropriating that idea

Now here's a man who knows practicality. But Dakki, you may be having problems letting go of chiles and applying... black pepper (sardines in oil). And enough salt, of course. I can't believe the number of canned brands that forego it and mention nothing on the tin. "King Oscar" is one non-offender, but of course much of their 'sardines' are 'sild' or more accurately, baby herring. Anyway, toast sliced bread on one side, crush fish onto other with knife used to scoop them from tin, dust with pepper (and drizzle with oil from the tin if you can still focus well enough), and grill again to perfection. (You may also be missing out on miso soup as the world's best hangover cure). Here in Blether Heights there are canned sardines (yay ! But only occasionally), canned anchovies, only rarely canned tuna (not generally great value, the Costco multi-pack works but I really just don't go there), and umm... smoked oysters now and then, that never make the cupboard. For the rest, fresh mostly trumps frozen, but both beat canned handily. I take no credit for the distribution network for seafood where I live, just as those who can easily have cured pork products that haven't negligently been allowed to go a little rancid should enjoy that. PS today I scored a fivesome of beautiful, fat, caught-this-morning fresh sardines for 5 bucks and spent an hour or so filleting them and turning them into carpaccio with S&P, EVOO, and konbu ponzu. There were still side-bones in the meat, and it was really, really delicious, but I almost came to understand why sardines are turned into surimi (minced). I was also extra glad I'd taken the trouble to carry my Apex Edgepro down to the boat a few months ago and put an edge on the knives.

Both the beef and the pork sound good (as does dinner out !). Mmm. Yeah. Let's talk about that.

Dcarch, I was serious about the book. Every dish you post is so fantastic in every way - technique, application, concept, presentation and portrayal.

Fresh cauliflower costs a fortune round here - 3 or 4 bucks for a piece that'll serve one or two as a side. So I was happy to find this bag of frozen florets for 1.50-odd, and picked up a bag as well as one of frozen seafood mix (front of pic), half a kilo for 6 bucks: Back in the UK I'd be wary of frozen seafood mix. In Japan you can be sure that if it was anything less than good quality, they wouldn't sell it - no-one would buy it. So it may be farmed prawns, native baby clams and ordinary surume-ika squid (probably from the low-population-coastline Japan Sea), but it also involved no peeling, deveining, steaming open, skinning or cutting up. I started the seafood mix off from frozen, cooking over the bechamel as it simmered, but it was still partly frozen when the sauce was done, so I tipped it into a frypan and gave it a blast of heat for a few minutes, picked the seafood out and cooked the juices down for the sauce. In the meantime I did 2/3 of the bag of frozen cauliflower under pierced wrap in the microwave, about 8 minutes: To the sauce I added salt, pepper, parmesan and a handful of tarragon leaves from the pot plant. Cauliflower seafood gratin:

Holly, when you save your photo in Photoshop, don't you get the 'JPEG Options' dialogue ? Yes, you can use "Image - Image Size" to resize the whole picture. But the 'Quality' part of 'JPEG options', with the slider and the level number (1 to 12 ?), is I believe the same as the type of compression you're talking about.

Thanks, Kim. The salmon fillets are cheap and plentiful by now - I just poached them gently in a few tablespoons of water in a covered frypan, peeled off the skin and had at it. They take some work, what with peeling spuds and doing the breading, but when I can be bothered I'm always glad I could, if you see what I mean.

Fishcakes made from the fresh wild autumn salmon - The cakes are made up and sitting on a wire rack in a deep tray covered with film, in the fridge, so they're easy. Broccoli microwaved from frozen (in a film-covered bowl sitting on the plate I'll eat off, so it gets warmed too). Simple sauce of a splash of konbu ponzu stirred into mayo. I flavoured the fishcake filling with mashed-up anchovies, concentrated fish stock from another yellowtail (filleted & prepared gremolata-fashion over the weekend), lemon juice, onion (no chives - and no parsley (!) to hand), and plenty of white pepper.

Cullen Skink

Did you do this already ? Work out what salary you'd pay if he was on salary alone, and how much annual profit you'd forecast for the restaurant if he generally satisfies your expectations as chef. Calculate the difference between that salary and the lower salary he's happy to accept, and what percentage of the forecast profits that is. He's willing to accept down-side risk as well as upside risk, so you want him to get more in total with the salary & share package, than with salary only. So offer a percentage that leaves him 15-25% better off than the salary-only deal.

Did anyone mention microwave defrosting yet ? Another string to your bow. And how about bread ? Bread is your friend in this situation - rice, spuds and pasta all need last-minute attention (and in these save-the-planet-and-delay-the-inevitable-energy-crisis times I laugh heartily and stick another pin in my voodoo doll of the earth every time I pour a pot of hot pasta water down the drain). Bread just waits for you. For days, depending on the bread, and I've found myself gravitating towards it when I'm looking for speed, efficiency, and no fuss. Think like the French and Italians - who have bread pretty much with every meal (and don't the Italians call everything else 'accompanatico' - "what goes with the bread" ?). We tend to default to 'authentic' accompaniments - for a long time I despaired of naan bread at home, till I found that plain wholewheat toast, buttered, was a far better partner to take-away curry than the naan that'd be soggy and only a shadow of itself by the time I got it home. So, bread. It freezes. It even freezes as dough (and if you can match the timing with the warmth of your home, you should be able to set out freezer-retarded pizza dough in the morning and find it just right for use when you get home). You can make it at home or buy it, both cheaply, and it's always available.

Firste of the fat autumn sanma (Pacific Saury); konbu ponzu; tomato sandwich with a bit of salt and some mayo.

When is your book coming out ?

I made the mash fresh, and the sprouts come flash-frozen-raw, all the way from La France.

That was really breakfast, baby.

Daube de boeuf a la bourgignonne - shank cut into 1.5" chunkc, browned and stewed in red wine together with cut-up large onions, till both collapsed even more than intended; button mushrooms added for the last hour. The stew microwaved from the fridge, the sprouts from the freezer. Skin-on mashed spuds.

This topic is a follow-up to the PLAN thread - I'll copy here the report that we posted on the St Andrew Society web site: Click here for the terms under which this event is listed in eG Forums.

Prediction: Prawncrackers will be along any minute to ask if we've scared off another newbie. Budrichard, overwhelmingly I respect your posts. Commentary: I thought Chad Ward put the 'forged v stamped' argument to bed, even in his tutorial on sharpening here on eG. Summary: it's marketing-speak and there's nothing in it. I believe even most of the "gee-whizz-Japanese" twice-the-price-of-equivalent-European-brand-knives-of-the-same-standard are stamped. IIRC, even the tang-reaches-along-most-of-the-handle rule of thumb is out of date; how it's linked with forging v stamping, I don't understand at all; and why it's better than a shorter tang well-bound (like in a Japanese katana, for example) is yet another mystery. (Let the games commence. Again).

And caper about from time to time ?

Nice action, chef.

Of the knives I pictured, the four on the left were the ones that I survived on for 10+ years. I got the rest and we built the rack when the sun was shining :-) Funnily enough the knife I use least is the boning knife, fourth from right. Not much bone-in meat sold here, for one. I like cooking on the bone, for another. No, you don't need to buy 'a set'. But if you find a range of knives that you like, there's no reason to deliberately avoid them, any more than there's a reason to slavishly stick with them. Where there is value, is in trying different knives so that you're not settling somewhere mediocre, unaware of what's available. I do like having matching knives, and I'm aware others don't give a monkey's for them. I'm at least honest with myself that it's primarily an aesthetic choice, rather than a practical one. They're still damn good knives.

Oh yes, and if you're serious about processing large-size image files, get yourself / build yourself / have made a machine (PC) with at least 4 disks in RAID 10. Used to be the 3ware controllers themselves cost like USD1,500 - now good enough ones come built in as 'Intel Intelliraid', and disks are cheap. Get Seagate - the Western Digitals (as of early 2009) didn't support NCQ in RAID mode. YMMV.

I very rarely do any post-process on my digital photos, but I did this: desultorily with Photoshop (version CS4), using Image - Adjustments - Color Balance. You can vary the three colour vectors separately for shadows, midtones and highlights. An easier option is Image - Adjustments - Variations, whose use you'll find self-explanatory.

I like my knives. I've used the same series since the 1980's and they are still available from the designer's online shop - Robert Welch. The picture on that page doesn't show the full range - there's a better catalogue at the manufacturer, Taylor's Eye Witness. Blurry photo follows. Sorry. Since the time of the picture, I've added a 10" chef's knife and the small paring & veg ones.

You'll find a threaded recess on the underside of the camera. It's about 1/8" across ? Yes, even my Fujifilm 4500 pocket digi from the year 2000 has one. With 4.5M pixels it was top-of-the-range then. It's what I still use. Aw, shucks. I built a box using the instructions (linked ?) in the eG photo tutorial. The hardware store gave me a used cardboard box, and though I had a hell of a time looking for 'tissue paper' in Japan, when I translated it to "shoji gami" (shoji paper) I found it at 3 bucks 50 for 1 metre x 9 metres. Results can be seen earlier in this thread (same photo repeated in the Lasagne cook-off thread). As for the look - the great thing about digicams is the instant feedback, know what I mean ? If it looks good, it looks good. I know the Coolpix. Isn't a Coolpix the camera that Prawncrackers uses to conquer the eG photography world ? Nikons have always been good, and especially have a reputation for indestructibility in 35mm film. Then again, I haven't used one. Look for the 'EXIF info' for your photos in your photo software - that typically will tell you the actual shutter speed and aperture, amongst other things.