Blether

Can you elaborate a little more on this, please ? Is that scallion as a garnish, and a basil/pine nut pesto with wasabi & ginger mixed in ? Or something else ? How many times have you tried the combo, and how did the flavour work out ? I love the smiley mushrooms !

I like that, Kim, Thanks for writing it up (and the oeufs mollets are pretty spectacular !).

Very much so, if you have any interest in charcuterie it's essential reading, in my opinion. Have you read any of her books ? Thorough, learned yet approachable every time. I got it out again just to be sure... (The very first sentence, and some parts from the first page, of the chapter on Terrines and pates) Of course I didn't yet have my copy when I made my first venture into Cold Pork Pie (plug, plug).

IIRC, in her Charcuterie book Jane Grigson makes the specific point that the British pork pie is a pate in a crust, just the same as pates in crusts are.

I quite often find myself buying 'Nikka Black - Clear Blend', 950yen for 700ml (convenience store prices, no doubt cheaper at Don Quixote). It's a smooth, mellow whisky just as is the Teacher's Highland Cream I've gone on about enough around here. Being Scottish I've favoured the Teachers for sentimental reasons, and it's available here for 980yen. I should try them side-by-side, and maybe save on schlepping about the place - I need to go to Yamaya or Don Quixote for it. I've never had a taste for the cheaper Suntory whiskies, not that I'm a dedicated taster or anything. As I have also written before, Famous Grouse used to be about 1,300yen (13 bucks) but went up to a minimum of ~2,000yen a year or two back, I'm pretty sure as a marketing decision of the distributor. Glenfiddich single malt is to be had (Yamaya; Seifu) for under 3,000yen (30 bucks). Of course Nikka and Suntory were pretty much both established by the same fellow, Taketsuru-san, who'd learned the trade in Scotland, and his wife Jenny whatever-her-name-was from Kirkintilloch. Because of the different tax levels, you do need to reset your gauges on price points for booze in Japan - (cheap) spirits are dirt cheap; high-cachet-spirits are downright expensive; and the beer price is strictly controlled at an artificially high level. Sorry not to be more use on great options in the Japanese brands.

Just this week I tried suzuki / sea bass in F&C for the first time - damn good. Not quite the equal of tai / sea bream (but a good bit cheaper), and far better than even the freshest cod I've found here. I even did batter with egg white folded in. I liked the result, but I need to try a few more times to see what proportions will be best.

With luck this topic is maturing with the long laying down. As I wrote in 'Infusions & Tinctures at home', back in March I infused some whisky with raisins, citrus and spices to make Irish Cordial according to a 19th century recipe. I put the soaked raisins in a sealed box in the fridge and finally got round to using them in a fruitcake. I chose a Great-war-era recipe for 'condensed milk fruitcake' from Marguerite Patten's A Century of British Cooking. She says it was related to her as an austerity-beating way to get round the unavailability of sugar. The recipe called for 6oz / ~180g of raisins - I tipped my batch in and found that wet, it was 230g. I left the hot mixture I'd tipped it into, to cool uncovered so some of the liquid could evaporate. By luck rather than design it worked out well: Good ? It's redolent of whisky, nutmeg and other spices, and rich with butter and egg. Are you kidding ?

Yes. But only from the best prawns/shrimp. It's like uni, brown crab meat and fish livers - it needs to be very fresh, and it needs to be good quality, and when it's not good it's really bad. Also, all the (female) roe I've met on prawns/shrimp has been carried between the legs, along the 'abdomen'. Like you, I find the brains don't infuse well in water, but try anything, for example, butter or cream based, or infuse the prawn debris in oil and use that to make mayonnaise for prawn sandwiches, or as you like. You heard it here first

Tarragon pot-roast topside of beef, turned into a well-flavoured risotto, the texture of the rice just perfect:

Chilled baby-clam miso soup.

The stuff's pretty good out of good quality raw prawn heads, too, when it's dark green. Dang tasty !

I meant to say something since earlier in the thread, but there's a thought to be given to how you leave anything in the oven / on the stove when you 'pop out for an hour'. What's the contingency plan for traffic accidents (someone else's keeps you back an extra hour; someone drives into you and it takes longer). Is there a failsafe in the loop ? The maximum I can set my (electric microwave combination) oven to stay on is two hours. It's frustrating sometimes but they have a point.

I'm not familiar with Rouge Tomate. The Prospect of Whitby on the Wapping riverfront used to serve good food (I'm prepared to be pasted for being out of touch !). A little further away on Bridge street there are a couple of good places.

I look at the ginger, then decide. The stuff I buy is usually young and fresh, with a thin, translucent skin, and has obviously been (pressure ?) washed before being packaged. This stuff, I'll wash again, cut in chunks and use/freeze. If it's older, with thick, dry, whitened skin, I'll peel it. Where I live now, I'm lucky enough not to have to contend with this. The home and kitchen aren't sterile environments anyway, and if washing/rinsing is good enough for other veggies, it's good enough for ginger too.

You may well find that it makes wonderful lasagne or tagliatelle, even with grainy bran in (I love & prefer the grainy w/w flour for bread, and was disappointed the first time I bought the Indian 'atta' flour for that purpose). How fine a pasta you can make will depend on the strength / gluten content of the flour, as well as the sizes of the bran pieces. "How expensive is flour anyway - why not give it a try ?" is a motto that made a lot of difference to my pastry-making (I wish I could take the same attitude to butter !).

Kim, that all looks scrumptious. It looks like there's a separate, whiter layer on top of the cheesecake. My imagination ?

That's a thought, judiu, for sure.

A (n embarassingly) late breakfast yesterday - 50/50 high-gluten wholewheat breadmaker bread, lightly buttered; sliced parmesan (and the last of the mature cheddar, sliced, in one corner). Heap of mizuna aka water greens aka Japanese mustard, just rinsed. Supermarket safflower mayonnaise. Nice 'n easy with the narrow, narrow nozzle they put on it.

It's taken me time to get round to posting it, but I completed my onion confit, cooking it perhaps a little longer than I'd intended - it was getting thick & jam-like even before it cooled, and is that bit more bitter than ideal, on its own at least (but by no means offensive, even in a sandwich). I decided to freeze it in chunks, so I could put those in a ziplock. I discovered that even at even at my measured freezer temp of -22C, cooked down this far it doesn't freeze, it just gets thick, like heavy peanut butter or bean paste. Almost more convenient - today I used a whole cube in a pot roast, but it's easy to take out any quantity just with a teaspoon, like this, straight from the freezer:

To answer obtusely - the Apex Edgepro isn't cheap, but it's excellent How many knives are you talking about ? If you'd rather not incur expenses, bring them over and help defray mine. Otherwise generic reply - try Tokyu Hands. Of course I go there at the drop of a hat even when I've no particular requirements. I'd be really interested to hear what alternatives you have or discover. If I didn't have the Edgepro, I'd start with a google for local 刃物店 / hamono-ten / blade shops, though I'm sure that's not an idea you're short of.

Oops. I think I prefer this picture:

Picked up this fine-looking flatfish / karei (magarei) for a great price. It made a generous meal for one: gutted, skinned, pre-salted, left for 30 minutes; floured. black-peppered, shallow fried in peanut oil and served with fresh 50/50 wholewheat bread and a glass of Castillian white. It doesn't have the firmness of real tai (bream) or haddock, but the flavour is a clean, appetising, distinct seafood. Delicious - I even ate the crunchy fins.

Go for the naguri - useful for nuts of all sizes...

Emotion ? Hunger ? Time spent in the Essex's whaleboat ? Whitebait ! Premium whitebait, even. Nice thread, Peter.

If I had to bring something back, I'd definitely drop by Japan Sword in Toranomon (right in central Tokyo). The top page there is a little inaccessible, but there's lots of English explanation and description as you drill down. It's a shame you're not here between June 30th and July 6th, Japan Sword's also connected with the exhibition by modern swordsmith Miyairi Kozaemon-Yukihira at Takashimaya in Nihonbashi. At the budget end, I'd pick up something from this list http://www.japansword.co.jp/mcargoe/price-e.htm - say a Makie Matsutaka katana with a 71-cm blade: just like the tuna-cutters at Tsukiji, but fancier ! Then I'd get into your actual butchery of whole animals with it, and learn more about meat from the carcass stage to the primal cut. I might even try going out to hunt my own game - just when Bambi thought it was safe to go into the woods, bam ! At the high end, my own choice would be the 19.6cm Sadaichi Gassan Japanese-Navy-style tanken copy listed at #2 in the second modern sword list here. (I hope this works out, it's about 3/5 or 2/3 of the way down that whole page, in case the link takes you to the page top). Gassan was born the third son of swordsmith Sadakatsu Gassan in 1907, and created a living national treasure in 1971. I'd have something no-one else was cooking with, an excellent topic of conversation even for non-knife fans, and an instant get-out-of-jail-free card when I encountered a boring knife loony. Perfect. But then I'm a sailor - that knife might not speak to you. And you'll be richer - or less of a cheapskate, anyway - than I am. If you really want to push the boat out, there's really no limit to how exclusive a blade you can score there.