haresfur

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.

I'm pretty sure that thermocouples like the thermapen probe are very linear in their temperature response. I checked my thermocouple in ice water and in boiling water and found it was very close to 0 and 100 degrees so I'm confident it is accurate in the 60 degree range. You might have to correct for elevation, depending on where you live. My SV controller is off by about 1.5 degrees so I will adjust to match the thermocouple now that I have found the instruction book.

Sounds like a good winter project, then.

I knew someone who always did spaghetti carbonara for Thanksgiving - to honour Columbus.

Cool. Are you going to drink them, sell them or pass them on to the next generation?

I use black-currant syrup instead of Cassis when making Kir because, well, I'm cheap. You might have to change the ratios for some things but the best thing to do is to try it and see.

I forgot to update that I asked my mussel man and he did suggest the life cycle factor but said he works around it by having a number of locations. He also turned up his nose at South Australia mussels, saying their water is too warm. Now if I can ever make a broth as good as I remember from when I first tried mussels at age 7 in Italy...

I know nothing about cake decorating but potters use some really heavy duty (duh) banding wheels and turntables that may interest

I'm not sure I'd dare use a full half oz of my rotgut Mezcal but I might have to do the research. I like the just-a-hint effect of the rinse and am pretty sure I've done it with Pechauld's bitters which worked out, too. BTW I my favourite tequila/mole bitters drink is (corrected from an old post):

I'm sure I or someone else has done something similar but a sort of Mexican Sazerac with anejo tequila, agave syrup, and a mezcal rinse for the glass. Oh, and I used a dash of Chris Taylor coffee, cinnamon, and cocoa-nib bitters. Much like a Brave Bull with a background smokiness and less sweet.

Well, that's good to know.

Interesting. I wonder if it would work to promote dissolving marmalade into drinks. Save a lot of shaking but maybe lose some mouth-feel?