haresfur

Kevin Liu's book (see eG discussion here) has a great explanation on why salt is a good idea in sours (it's not really about tasting salt). However, rather than putting the salt in the tin I like a little grind of fancy-pants pink salt on the top of the glass. Just the slightest hint of salt before you taste the tequila then it morphs into a constant taste with the lime bitterness taken out. (btw, I consider this to be a must-have book).

Not a purchase but I friend sent me, according to the custom's declaration, a book and a bottle of cane juice.

Good points above regarding batching and slowing down the consumption - although everyone will want the first drink quickly. I'd suggest something shaken for the show and for the pace. You could shake several together at first and then slow down to singles. Need something accessible to the masses. I thought of French 75 at first, too but that might be a bad idea because everyone will drink them like champagne and get trashed more quickly and won't go well if there is a champagne toast later. I think a knickerbocker would be an interesting choice.

I realise that I break down a chicken quite differently from Thomas Keller's instructions in At Home. Recently I've been doing the whole process with kitchen shears which I find to be quite easy although a bit slower but the basic method is mostly the same with a knife. First I hold the bird up by a leg and start cutting the skin between the thigh and breast. It pretty much comes apart to the point you can cut through the hip joint and remove the leg. I then cut the thigh and drumstick meat apart until I can see the joint and cut through that. Do the same for the other leg. I then cut all the tendons at the end of the drumstick so the meat can relax as it cooks and end up more tender. The shears work well to remove the wings more or less the same way as the legs and to cut off the wing tips for the dog or for stock. I then cut between the back and breast on each side from the tail towards the neck. I never bother cutting out the wish bone. Do you? Then the breast is flipped inside-up and cut lengthwise through the bone into two pieces. I guess you could do 4 if you really wanted smaller pieces. The backs go to the dog or stock, too. The only finicky part is the leg tendons and if it weren't for aesthetics I'd probably just whack off the end of the drumstick. So how do you cut up chicken?

Congratulations on the award. Anyone been to Abla's?

Maybe I'm missing something but it looks like the maximum temperature on the Miele steam combo oven available here is only 225 C in conventional oven mode. That's lower than I would like.

I guess it is comforting that things change slowly in the fish & chip world. My last post is nearly the same as one from a year ago!

Correct. Or if you prefer, tempura with fish batter instead of panko.

I have taken to ripping small holes in the paper when I leave the shop. I'm not sure how to optimise the heat:crispiness ratio, though. We seem to be settling into a routine of 1 butterfish (EMP's preference), 1 hake or snapper, 2 pumpkin cakes (not quite cooked last time), and $2 chips. Malt vinegar, ketchup, and lemon at home.

What's a friand? This reminds me, I have heard that there is edible (maybe not in the treasure category) Indian food at the Giant Koala in Dadswells Bridge. When I stopped there they had just been flooded out and I just grabbed a coke, expressed my sympathy and got out of their way.

Take one for the team, Rotus. We need the report.

Are my new shopping bags food-related enough? Shadow and I can get most of the way to Aldi and IGA before we have to walk along a road.

Mid-December is green walnut time here in Victoria Oz so Chris Taylor and I decided to try our hand at nocino and green walnut pickles. I found a local grower who was willing to pick a couple of kilos for us. Our first problem was that Dan Murphy's had pulled their Polish neutral spirits from the shelves for a potential quality problem. Vodka above 40% isn't available here, probably to protect us from ourselves or some weird tax reason but we usually can get 95%, if you are willing to pay. So, after much discussion we decided to do a small batch in my remaining spirits, a batch in Wild Turkey 101 bourbon, and what the heck, a small batch in 40% reposado tequila. We put one clove one allspice berry and a bit of star anise in each batch. I think we may have packed the jars too tightly but Chris pointed out we can always dilute later. The nuts for the pickles were pierced with a fork (we ignored the one recipe that specified a silver fork) and are getting their first brine soak. Apparently hurry up and wait is the theme for using the green nuts.

On the prairies, windy winter days gave us "Snirt"

Welcome from an ex-Winnipeger.

Kyneton is supposed to have a very good Indian restaurant but I'm not sure of the name and couldn't find it one time I tried to drive through. Google found two of them. Pizza Verde on Piper St. has pretty good wood fired pizza. There is a Beechworth bakery shop in Bendigo but I wasn't impressed. Haven't been to the original one.

I have no problem with this method from a safety point of view, but wonder if this might lose some of the fresh oil flavour compared to the pressure cooker or (gasp!) low temperature method.

I have only had their pies once, and can't remember which kind but it was very good. The best meat pies in Bendigo are from Eaglehawk Bakery, IMO. No where near the variety, and we only think of ourselves as 'country' when it suits our convenience.

If you don't like salt rims, then you still may want to put a small grind on top of the drink when serving to round out the drink and still get a touch of that initial salt hit. That's what I tend to do with margaritas these days but mostly out of laziness. You can also just salt half the rim so you can control your dosage.

The "å" sound is like an English hard "o".

Any interesting finds away from the major cities? Doesn't have to be fancy, just good or different. To start, country bakeries often aren't anything special and can be very similar (It seems most of them have been awarded Australia's best vanilla slice). But if I'm travelling through Heathcote, I try to stop here: For these:

What, no lutefisk? I spent Christmas in Sweden when I was 7 years old and it was a magical time. I was too young to remember much about the food, though. Maybe we had reindeer. So I'm very excited to see this. Maybe if you give the Swedish words for things it will spark my memory. That reminds me I need to get my julbock out.

Nick, have you noticed any drift in any of your equipment calibration vs the reference thermometer?

Not a tradition anymore, but my father's secret to a moist turkey was putting a cloth diaper over the bird and basting frequently until it was time to brown the skin. No, he didn't use new ones but it was quite a few years before he used up the baby supplies. But goose for Christmas and lobster for New Years.

I would soak it then put it in a cold oven and heat to a really high temperature for about a half hour or hour. Turn off the oven and let it cool. That should burn off grease and kill any nasties. Never use soap.