Blether

My favourite breakfast: Bacon and tomato toast sandwich (shown open for clarity). Good green bacon, fresh tomato, fresh bread (breadmaker white in this case) toasted and buttered while hot. Accompanied by breakfast tea. Perfect. In this case, followed by some more buttered toast with home-made tawny natsumikan marmalade served on the same plate (and of course more tea): - all enjoyed beneath Japan's beautiful winter morning sunshine.

In Tokyo supermarkets the price of butter has come down in the last year or so, and now sits at JPY330-420 or so for 200g, that is about USD6.50-8.50 per pound. Before that, it pretty much sat at the JPY330 level for quite a long time, then there was a spike for nearly a year when it wasn't a given that there'd be any in the market and it was going to cost you JPY450 if there was. A few years ago there was a scandal when the biggest brand, Snow Brand / Yukijirushi was caught mixing dairy products other than fresh butter (was it skimmed milk powder or the like ?), into its butter. IIRC, Snow has government links and as far as I can make out, the bureaucrats in charge of dairy farming took a grand flounce and simply slashed the country's dairy herds. Sorry, I've not the time right now to go back and review the reports properly - anyone who knows better, please feel free to enlighten me. The Japanese dairy industry is also protected by significant tariffs on imports (butter: 30% plus JPY1200 per kg ?). Margarine... sorry, I haven't really looked at prices. I might care if I baked more.

Le Creuset is very pretty, and I have a few pieces bought up to about ten years ago. In the end I think it falls squarely into the 'waste of money' category. It's useless for saute because of the thermal inertia of all that cast iron - you can switch off the heat but it runs on and on. The enamel doesn't last more than a few years till it's scuffed and stained and everything sticks to it. It's too damn heavy. It makes sense if you're actually Dutch or don't have an oven for any other reason - it gives you an oven that runs on a stovetop. Otherwise, at those prices ? Forget it. A triumph of marketing over good sense.

Use them as a base for a stew or soup. Or give 'em to me and I will

Does "a poke o' chips" count ? We certainly used to use it, though I couldn't say if it's Scotland-specific, UK-wide or Commonwealth-common. Linguistically the same poke in which you might buy a pig.

Yes, that's it. His handle here is waaza or wazza, IIRC. I remember thinking, what a great thing to do and publish for everyone, but not agreeing with - which I think should read "for a given rate of heat input, the rate of water loss was constant". 87% water does seem about right for onions. No doubt it varies with type and with climate, but I'd guess roughly 80-90%, regardless.

You'll find holy basil as 'gra pow' / 'kra pao' (link) in Thai stores. Thai sweet basil is 'hora pa'.

For myself, I'm interested to hear of the baking soda idea. A new one on me, and not something that you'd come up with intuitively. A year or two ago, I remember someone posted in the Indian forum about an experiment he'd done measuring the temperature of the mixture as he brown-fried onions. It comes up to 100C, then stays there for a long time (10-15 minutes ?) as the water boils off, before slowly climbing towards a frying temperature. For any given recipe, there has to be a sweet spot in the oil/onion mix, somewhere between a single piece of onion in a pot of deep oil and a pot full of onions with just enough oil to coat them. I've been toying with the idea of deep-frying the onions for North Indian stuff, but not yet gotten round to trying it.

It's strange that you're getting different results than you have in the past. Also, to clarify, are you getting browning that's stuck to the pan surface rather than remaining on the onions, or really no browning at all ? My first reaction is to say, use more oil/butter (how much do you use ?), and/or go at least to medium-high heat. I agree that it might help to use a wider pan, then (deglaze and) transfer the onions to the soup pot once they're brown. I don't have much patience for it, so I brown-fry onions over a high heat, stirring quite actively (if you're looking for the onions to retain more body, you can brown more quickly by stirring less frequently). Don't be scared of having even 2 - 3 tbsp of fat per 3 or 4-inch onion. Again, if you use a separate pan you can always leave some behind.

Isn't a fifth, a fifth of a gill ? Or did I imagine it ?

Back in the day we would as a family have tea - pronounced differently, somehow ? we usually called our evening meal tea, anyway - that was a different way of having that meal. Yes, typically a bit earlier. Not focussed on a main meat-and-two-veg; not in a three-course format, but rather laid out on the table for us mostly to help ourselves. Bread. Butter & jams. Maybe some cold meats or cheese. Cake or cakes. Probably something cooked but simple - bowls of coup, or a piece of fish or a macaroni shared. Tea to drink. It's been a lot of years - maybe the memories will get clearer

I'm sorry to hear you're disappointed in it. I found that that finish isn't so hard - the knife blade goes through it and in a month or two I think you'll see it wear through in places. My guess is it's wood oil or similar - a more practical hand than me (or the maker) should be able to tell you how to remove it if you'd prefer. I can see why they finish it that way, for the general market, and I couldn't resist a big, inch-and-a-quarter hardwood butcher-block board for 30-odd bucks.

Like rlibkind said, but with chicken stock if you have it / stock from cube if not. You can mellow out the tartness with some milk or cream - then a little sugar if you need it; or sugar alone.

scubadoo97 is quite right - you're going to boil those bones for two hours or more, so they'll be very hygienic. As for safe in terms of making a good-flavoured stock, you're here anyway, why not defrost them, boil them up and see how they smell ?

Hi, Helen. I really did do a 'hit and run' on this thread, and so never saw your post till now I think they're about the same as I've seen in the supermarkets. They are finer, I believe, than what I remember from the UK, but quite a bit coarser than the atta flour I've had from Indian grocers, which is so finely ground as to be blended into a single colour. I honestly don't know about the straight weight-for-weight thing: I was cautious when I started doing it, but with the two particular flours (both Sikisai) that's how it worked out. I'm having trouble picturing the average Japanese housewife appreciating coarser flour, what with the national appetite for everything soft and "fuwa-fuwa" fluffy ! Strangely, I'm writing this having just last week received a first order of flours from Tomizawa, following your suggestions in a later conversation: I went for Canada 100%, no additive strong white flour, the same (IIRC) in wholewheat flour, and some Camelia strong for a lower-power white. So far I've successfully made a long-rise loaf with the Canadian white 100 (with a good bit more water than with Haruyutaka, and forming a browner crust more quickly), but haven't tried the others. I do like a coarse w/w flour loaf, so Kida Mills' is definitely on my list when I get through what I have. And I do like your idea for getting more flavour using the wee machine. I'll be trying that, but I'm thinking I'll do it with the yeast in from the start.

Did you get your board yet ?

good god! seriously! Too much sauce for you guys ?

Potatoes I usually mash (sometimes with chopped garlic browned in the butter). I agree gratin is good. I'm not keen on the French thing with chips, i.e. French Fries. I choose tenderloin steak more often than any other. I don't think its flavour stands up to strong things like green or red peppers. On the side I'll typically have sprouts or broccoli (cheap and plentiful, apart from anything else). With the steak itself, caramelised onions, or the same with a wine deglaze, or often a cream sauce (again deglazing). Mushrooms work with the cream. Salt, pepper and maybe some mustard. The best steak I've had recently was en croute, simply with seasoned caramelised onions. I tried Gordon Ramsay's mushroom-paste-and-prosciutto version and didn't think it was better. Here's one from New Year's Day. I'd no onions so I used some chopped leek: ETA: since the financial crash, the yen is strong and excellent tenderloin is 29-35 bucks a kilo. It's steak season.

What do you freeze the sorbet in ? Different freezers & different fridge/freezers have different ultimate freezing power, as well as thermostats to set the temperature. Of course in the same room, a sorbet that comes out of the freezer at -17 will stay frozen longer than one that comes out at -5.

The Scots Kitchen by F. Marian McNeill (first published 1929).

I'm sure Nakji knows this, but Marcella of course gives recipes for a number of tomato sauces, beginning roughly with: Tomato, garlic, basil & olive oil (well-flavoured, classic) Tomato, butter and onion (soothing, mellow, rich, moreish) Tomato with spring vegetables (& olive oil) (deliciously fresh and Spring-like) Of course that doesn't address clinging - seems to me there's a lot of water in tomatoes, the more you cook off the thicker and the sauce gets, and that's my first consideration. Though not to excess - those Hazan recipes run from a 25-minute simmer through a 45-minute one, IIRC.

It looks totally professional too. I'm impressed.

A great find, jackal10. Thank-you.

Microwaved leftovers

Jumbo gyoza