Blether

What strength of flour did you use, Anna N ?

Chicken pieces stewed in white wine, with shimeji mushrooms. Don't ask about the pictures.

Sounds dang good.

Ashen, did you grind up the burger yourself? What meat & grind size(s), and how was it ? I have this on my radar (I'll probably do lamb/mutton sausages first), but have no immediate experience to report from.

A soft-boiled 6-day-soy-pickled egg. It's the first time I've tried the soy pickle - I had a spare little bottle of soy that I bought for a picnic but that never got used. I planned it for four days, then went off gallivanting out to play on the water and it ended up 6. No 4-day benchmark to compare it with, but as far as salt level goes, it was just right. I loved the flavour of the yolk. The hint of mushiness in the top of the white was, uh, different; and the soy took 80% of the brownness off the outside of the egg - it was a patchy film that I wiped off with my thumb. Who knew ? It was after I filled my pickling tub with soy that I thought some ponzu would be a good addition, so there's that for next time. We've just had four days holidays here, that I turned into 5 by taking Friday off. So taken overall, this is a fridge meal. I've been making my taramasalata a lot this winter, for that fishy garlic hit in a hot snack that's ready in the time it takes the toaster to do its thing. Coming home last night, I mixed and baked a quick loaf either side of going out for dinner (oil-pickled Hiroshima oysters; duck in port sauce / mashed potatoes locally for 20 bucks, what's not to like ?). I force-rose it in the combo oven at the "ferment" setting that holds at 37C. "Baked doughniut" effect courtesy of slapdash slicing. The sarnie is Nisshin-world-deli salami getting past its best, chingensai/pak choy, tomato, aged Scottish cheddar also from Nisshin, and safflower mayo. Bidding for extra back-to-work slovenly points by using last night's toast-crumb-adorned crockery and eating on top of paperwork in front of the computer.

Plantes... was this kind of sour ?

In Japan they like to do a quick soy-sauce pickle (with a little mirin; 3-4 days; there's a video here too about separating yolks with an empty drink bottle, too). More soy-pickling pictures here.

Paul: blind taste test on that "evening out oven cycles" ? Stainless steel for me, every time: I can stop browning the onions without having to judge them way in advance. Goes into the fridge. Lets me build up a fond or saute and release, in other words lends itself to more uses than the LC. Doesn't need special care. Doesn't deteriorate over time. Mjx: who knows what their web site says now ?

When my big Le Creuset pot started to go the same way, I searched the web and found a recommendation at Le Creuset Australia, to make a paste of washing-up liquid and baking soda, and rub with that. I tried it. It damaged the enamel (scoured it matt). I wrote to Le Creuset Australia about it and they were not only unhelpful but insulting. Le Creuset's pretty when it's new. Stuff doesn't stick. Once that staining develops, stuff sticks easily. The uses in a modern kitchen that really leverage the characteristics of enamelled cast iron are quite limited: it turns a single hob ring into an oven; it keeps stuff hot while you hold it. It stays where it is because it's heavy. Otherwise, it's expensive, awkward to handle because of that weight, unresponsive and not an especially good cook surface. Take a few pieces and use them at the bottom end of a mooring for your boat, and buy some proper cookware.

Nice work. Did you guys already see Tim Hayward's take, here ?

I'll have a go at answering this. Of course you can get cheap & easy at KFC, and yet here we are on eGullet. Hey, you can get cheap & easy at my place, but that's a whole other story. Partly my answer's specific to where I am. I can't get a square 100% wholewheat loaf here in Japan. Years ago when I was commuting to a fancy office building, I was a regular enough customer at the bakery/bistro there that they were good enough to bake one especially for me. They sell a 100% wholewheat loaf that's a boule of about 5-6" diameter. They were willing to do a pan version to advance order if I bought three batch loaves at once, the length of their standard pan - maybe 18" in total ? Their rise was bigger than mine in the w/w loaf just upthread, and they charged me JPY420 per loaf, JPY1,260 total. I'm guessing they used around the same amount of flour as my smaller loaf does, about 1kg. That 1kg of flour costs me JPY380, so I'm at about 1/3 cost in ingredients, baking it myself. (In the winter, the oven heat cuts the gas heating bill. Summer, pay to heat the place up & to cool it down again). Next up, I can get good white breads here, if I go to a proper bakery. They're expensive, too, but it isn't about price. If I wanted to eat cheaply it's hard to beat the convenience store / supermarket standard CBP whipped-not-risen expanded-polystyrene foodstuff. These used to be JPY200-250, IIRC, but since the advent of the 100yen shop, you can get them all over the place now for about that much. Bread is the one thing that's most likely to force me out to go food shopping if I run out of it (next most likely is maybe milk). There are marginal and opportunity costs there, too - in the time I spend schlepping out to the store, I can make a loaf at home; and flour lasts forever, compared with fresh bread. Of course the time I need to be present at home for the baking is longer, and I need to co-ordinate the rising time. Most of all, I get really good bread, I'm not stuck with the 10am-7pm hours of the proper bakeries, and incidentally I beat them on cost. I like making food, same as I like sailing. I could just as well spend a day at the weekend standing at the dock for all the practical use it is. Nor can you put a price on filling your home with the smell of bread baking. Light white pan loaf: Yukichikara flour from Iwate prefecture, 11% gluten / 0.48% ash; single in-pan 6-hour rise at room temp of maybe 18-19C, baked at 190C for 40 minutes altogether. 400g of flour in a 2lb loaf tin; 71% hydration:

Here are some ideas from Hugh Fartily-Wittering. (Sorry, Hugh).

That's a handsome loaf of bread, John. As for photos, over a few years of changing cameras I've posted the different images as they are and the forum seems to have coped. i may be missing something, but there's always the edit function, and the "preview" option these days, too. I really liked the look of your oven, too. Do you use the steam function for your bread ? Any other special facilities that the oven has ? What's your approach to the rise ?

Hi, Kim. Yes, raw turnip. Shall I save some for you ?

Nice. What are the noodles dressed with ?

So I made the demerara lemon cake again (yes, repetitive, isn't it ?). I used a lighter flour and I made an effort to really whip the butter & sugar, and then to whip in the eggs. As the cake baked I watched the decorative lemon slices on the top sink without trace. The cake itself is significantly lighter. I made some lemon curd, too, and with that and a spoonful of yoghurt, it still looks fine and is ridiculously good:

Heh heh. Sorry about that, Anna. It does look good, though! Which of Del-bo's recipes is that? How is it different from your usual ? Hi, John. I'm using a National NE-J1. It's a microwave/electric oven combo, that is, it does both, not that I use both for bread. No convection. I bake the wholewheat (and my own white loaves) at 190C. Delia Smith has her "plain and simple white bread" online baking at 230C. There's some leeway there, isn't there? Have you baked much bread ? You can always protect the top with some baking paper if the colour develops too quickly. Ideally for the wholewheat, to my mind, you want flour that's still a little coarse and retains visible pieces of germ. I've made bread with Indian atta flour - whole wheat ground fine & uniformly - and it makes a good loaf but not as good.

Warm onion tart; smoked trout; white turnip dressed in a safflower oil/kombu-ponzu/soy/grated onion vinaigrette with a dab of doppio concentrato and fresh-ground black pepper:

I didn't phrase that very well. Should read "with vinegar in place of 100% of the water". It was malt vinegar, Heinz I think.

I'm sure you're right - I think it looks good this way, is all. The longer rise subdued it and what's left doesn't show from the angle of the photo - here's one of the previous versions.

I've done fish batter using 100% vinegar in place of water. That gave a good, vinegared flavour.

I buy that exact same Kikkoman sauce, though it's expensive compared to their ordinary stuff. It's "tokusen maru-daizu shoyu", i.e. "Special Select", made only from whole soy beans. It has a lot more flavour than the everyday varieties.

Three-bean chili; quick spicy brown salsa: ... and a piece of yon apple pie:

Come to think of it, I seem to remember it was Guinness ice-cream with a Mars Bar Ripple. We were in a raspberry-growing region and raspberry ripple was a big childhood favourite. Sorry, Unpopular Poet. That's a fine-looking piece of meat.

Now I'm trying to remember where it was I heard of Guinness and Mars Bar ice-cream. It's been intriguing me ever since.