Blether

Nice soft-but-bright lighting all round - for such a juicy food as tomatoes, you've done a good job of avoiding 'the wet look'. Nice framing. I like the choice of plate. Did you use a tripod ? What shutter speed did you shoot it at ?

A few recent meals: first, the denouement of the Syrian meat loaf (see: Breakfast), served appropriately cold for July with a potato salad: Next, the 1.8kg yellowtail (inada/wakashi) I've mentioned elsewhere (e.g. fish curry in Breakfast): That chef's knife has a 10" blade, to give a better idea of the size of the fish. I baked the fish back in July, and it lasted well for cold eating in various ways, until the last of it went into that curry. Finally, I noticed a pair of soft salmon roes at the market for only 100yen. They were big, too, must have been 3/4lb at least, all in. I've wanted to make 'friture de laitance' as I've mentioned elsewhere, ever since reading Jane Grigson's comment in her Fish Book, "this is one of the best recipes in this book". I didn't think salmon and herring soft roes would be different enough for it to be an issue, and I went right ahead and used these ones. I stripped the blood vessel from the length of one of the roes, blanched at the tear in the sac, and left the other on. It turned out removal was the best policy. The tear did not develop into any great problem. I followed her directions for a simple flour/water batter with whipped egg white folded in, and was pleased with it. I shot the picture a bit too quickly, I think, so that the excess oil had not fully drained off. As usual, I was more intent on the eating than the display. Jane recommends sauce moutarde, a mustard-enhanced veloute of half milk and half fish stock. That's a lot of kerfuffle for one serving, so I improvised with the egg yolk left over from the batter-making, augmented with a teaspoon or two of konbu ponzu stirred in. The egg was one of my usual well-flavoured brand, and I was very pleased with this dipping sauce (though I'll allow that what with the bird's egg and the fish's sperm, I may be creating a monster, "neither fish nor fowl" brought to awful life). It was certainly good. Now I'll have to make all the remaining recipes to see if I agree with her overall assessment

Y'know, that white reflection on the right doesn't come over as unnatural. You know it's a cutting board; the general viewer won't pick up on it. It's just some light hitting the glass. And I like the light & dark patterns on the base of the glass, they really model it nicely. I think that particular glass is a great choice to go with the pale-colour-heavy ceviche. What would have made the pic more vivid would have been a lighter background, to pick out the dark rim better (and maybe something without the clutter of louvres - I posted a photo in Dinner or Breakfast too long ago to find again easily, with a yellow background - just the plate sat on a cardboard file divider). As for exposure, cameras just don't have the dynamic range that our eyes do - you *will* typically get white-out at one end and black-out at the other. Those beansprouts are almost hyper-real, aren't they, Soba ? Uber-moyashi.

Well, I don't know what your objection to cream is - in your place Trout in Cream would be near the top of my list. It works with salmon, too, and also will with Arctic Char if what I've read is correct. It's fillets laid flat, covered and grilled; it doesn't come across as cream-laden so much as nicely rich, and cut with the savour of chives and the savour of toasted breadcrumbs (I find I don't know how to say 'koubashii' in English), and it scales beautifully. In the linked thread, there are umpteen other ideas.

You won't do meuniere or the like for 16... isn't autumn supposed to be salmon season ? Where are you ? Do you still have summer heat ? Depending on the size of your oven, a big baked salmon (or two) will go round, you can serve hot or cold, and if it's wild it's a special treat; farmed is plenty cost-effective, if you can get good quality. Sorry, not really a recipe. Fresh bay leaves. Black pepper. Home-made Mayo or hollandaise. Just tell the guests you invented the combination.

I love the rib handles - it's like an old-fashioned organ.

With that knife, I'd be concerned at how comfortable a pinch grip I could devise - hence my comment about where you put your fingers.

These kinds of dish - koftas, lamb kebabs - are of course common in North India and Pakistan, along the line of the mountains, aren't they ? I'm interested to compare your kofta experience with my own (mixed fresh and cooked straight away, in the case photographed).

You've got some great advice, Ce'nedra. In your place, I'd sub lemon juice for the RWV. It will be different, but lemon/oil/parsley/mustard is a classic combination. Mixing in red wine will add red wine flavour, but reduce the acidity - so, give you an alternative in a different way. Neither of them better than the other. Andie, I love reading your posts, and I really respect what you say. I've learned from you. But I'll add that roast chicken done with white vinegar, a lot of garlic, something like onion confit, sweet brown onion chutney or plain brown-fried onions to fill in the middle notes and lots of black pepper or chilli, with aromatics of your choice, can make for an exhilarating dish.

The acid in a vinegar - or lemon juice - applied to meat before cooking acts to soften and moisten it a little, as well as leaving a tartness. If it's a tablespoon or two for a whole chicken, you won't notice a lot of difference in flavour between red or white wine vinegar, cheaper balsamic, lemon juice or other fruit or rice vinegars. Even the white spirit vinegar will do in a pinch. It depends what else is in the recipe, whether palm vinegar or Chinese black vinegar or a mixture of them or a mixture including lemon juice will be a better match for the general diner - and what will be best for whoever will eat your chicken might be another question again. You can spend money on more and more complex or refined versions of any particular vinegar - there can be at least as much difference between cheap red wine vinegar and expensive or carefully home-made red wine vinegar, as between red and white wine vinegar, or even between generic wine vinegar and generic balsamic vinegar. FYI lemon juice has an acid content between maybe 5-9%; most commercial vinegars are between 4.5% and 7%. Functionally they can substitute for each other; what taste will best suit is in the skilled judgment of the cook.

Ha ha ! Yes... I did have the rice weevils once - well, my rice did - and the cumin critters the once that I mentioned. There's plenty of bug potential in this part of the world, but where I come from, the ambient temperature kills the eggs and we used to use the deep freeze to keep lunch warm.

It's good to see you here again.

I don't need knives for that 'cos I'm so pretty

Mine are my regular knives, offcuts of leather and bits of kitchen string(/old bootlaces): (I set off to make marmalade on a sailing trip during Golden Week, carrying the stock pot, the chopping board, and the fruit, too !) In fact I bought the 10" chefs' and the two smaller ones - paring and veg knives - just earlier this year. Ordered online from Robert Welch on Monday night, signed for at my door in Tokyo early Thursday evening. They come wicked sharp, the three, shipped, were like USD80, all-in and I've been using the same knives for over 20 years, so I know they're good.

Anime ? Well, I wasn't talking about 'zero' It's funny, the folded and re-folded steel that was/remains part of traditional Japanese swordsmithing, and the same steel-folding seen in Damascus blades, was in its time a workaround for poor forging technology, wasn't it ? You can't make a good, evenly-blended, proportion-controlled steel in the old way in a charcoal forge. The carbon, in particular, won't be well-distributed. So you fold and hammer, and fold and hammer, and fold and hammer till you've effectively done the blending after the steel solidifies. Result - a blade that won't break at a carbon-fault when you hit something with it - your enemy's sword, or his ribcage, say, or your broken-down cart. Nowadays you make a good steel in the first place. Folding is reduced to decoration (let's say for now that sandwich-construction-in-different steels is another interesting subject, but only a loosely-related one). Of course, Dakki, between the two of us you're the one who really knows this kind of stuff...

I should add as a qualification to my comments on cream in carbonara, that that's how it's done in Tokyo, as standard, in the everyday Italian restaurants. I came here in the early 90's, when there were a handful of inexpensive Italian restaurants in the whole city, and tomato-sauce pasta, known as 'Napolitan', generally involved ketchup. Later there was an explosion of cheap Italian pasta/pizza joints, such that now you can barely turn round in the city without treading on a block of parmigiano. And it's good - fresh, well-chosen ingredients; the same lightness of touch, balance and elegance that distinguish Japanese food. They say that the Italian you can get in Tokyo is some of the best in the world. And yet the standard Carbonara here has a lot of cream in it. Why ? I don't know, I'd have to ask some chefs. Because they're all cack-handed ? I don't think so. Some cooking-culture mutation that's spread - a misunderstanding 15 years ago that's perpetuated itself ? Risk-avoidance that stops restaurants serving uncooked egg ? If you add together the Tokyo & Yokohama area, there are 25 million people - that's quite a cultural meme to kick against. As for authenticity police, I can't say I've noticed anyone in this thread behaving that way. I'm always interested in different aspects of food culture in different places and different times, and I'm delighted to read / hear from someone like Maureen, who can talk authentically about the reality of Italian food in Italy, and who knows how to couch her contribution in terms that show she knows what she's talking about.

"Tempora", please, brother Amirault, we don't want the Japanese losing the authenticity of the name.

If you're happy with your purchase, I'm happy for you. I can't resist saying that that's a lot of dough for a knife that, freehand aside, will restrict you to the 4" strip round the edge of your cutting board. Where you gonna put your fingers, for one thing ? And whenever you cut a slice off something, it'll fall on the floor, for another. Sure is pretty. Japan's doing a nice job of mimicking the old Middle Eastern technology.

Freezing dried chillis. Whodda thunk it ? I had a bag of cumin go down to critters once, but they didn't spread. I have unground mace, dried chillis, cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek seed... a bunch of stuff just stashed in bags (no, I don't keep anything else near as long as the chillis - just buy in sizes that take a couple of turns filling a jar before they're empty). Do critters just not to get to the 5th floor, in the inner city ? As I've written before on eG, I've never had a problem with rice either, since I got the clove-of-garlic-in-the-bag tip.

Chillis that are already dried will keep pretty much indefinitely. Mine live in a sealed plastic bag in the dark of the spice cupboard - I'll use them whole from time to time (e.g. for peperoncino or amatriciana) and I grind a few at a time so as to have fresh cayenne pepper to hand. I think the ones I have are from about four years ago, when I bought a bag with something like half a kilo in it. Like Chris, I freeze surplus fresh chillis. They lose heat gradually after six months (at one year old they're maybe half-strength), but I still like them (finely sliced or knife-minced, mostly) in plenty of dishes in preference to dried (especially in Indian dishes). You can't really use the dried other than whole or ground, because cut in pieces they don't soften up readily. And I like it when I can leave little bursts of heat throughout the food, rather than an even level overall.

Your friend & mine, Jane Grigson, says in her customarily thorough Fish Book, that Dover Sole improves after a couple of days. That's not a species we get here, and it's not something I've tried first-hand. (She also acclaims it as possibly the best fish available in the UK). Clams are better after a night in salt water in the fridge with a sprinkling of flour to eat, so they pass any sand out. Might work for two nights (rinse in between and only the use the flour on night two) ? Other than that and what's been said above, fish keeps better over ice than in the open in a typical fridge. Or you could always cook some fresh fish right away and use it in fish cakes etc. later, or go fishing on Saturday.

Well, taste as you mix, of course: but maybe start with 6T oil, 1T grated onion, 1-2t soy or ponzu (or use 50/50 soy & lemon juice - the chef told me it was soy, but I've slipped into using ponzu for a bit more tang). Also peanut oil is the closest I've found to the restaurant's version - certainly not olive oil, and canola wasn't right either. I know some people like a sour salad dressing. I'm not so keen. 3:1 might be correct for an emulsion, but as I'm eating the salad rather than weatherproofing it, I use a good bit less acid, even in vinaigrette.

Yes, I use grated onion often enough in Indian dishes - kebab marinades as well as curries. I wouldn't replace the garlic in tandoori chicken, but in other recipes., onion in place of (all / most of) the garlic can be a nice change. I also like a salad dressing of oil, grated onion, and soy or ponzu (a formula poached from one of our local Italian restaurants).

You could do worse than an Opinel.

I cannot remember where I got it from, but I believe the way to do it is to lay the blade flat on a stone and move it in a figure-of-eight pattern. I haven't had to sharpen either of my grinder blades yet.