nickrey

With a spending limit of $250 max, you should retitle this thread to "what is the best coffee that can be achieved on a budget." For the amount that you have, I'd be heading towards a great grinder and good coffee. Then buy yourself a French Press. Put the right amount of coffee in the press (one standard coffee scoop for each cup plus one for the pot if you are making more than three cups). Boil water. Let it come down from boiling slightly (I sometimes add a touch of cold water to take the boil off). Pour the appropriate amount of water (slightly more than you need for your cups as the beans keep some water). Stir the coffee with a spoon vigorously for 30 seconds or so. Press the plunger and pour. It won't get you the best coffee but realistically you cannot afford that. What it will get you is a lot better coffee than you will get in most places, particularly if you use fresh and good quality beans. If it doesn't work to your satisfaction the first time or even the second time, persevere. There is technique in coffee making that can only be gained through experimentation. But if you don't want to learn technique and experiment and want middle of the road, reliable, but better than a lot of coffee that you can get, buy yourself a Nespresso. This is probably in your price range. Then work out which pods work best for you.

Thanks for letting us know that this is out in the UK. I switched my Amazon US order for this book (and Ferran Adria's family meals book) to Amazon UK. It shipped today and I got free shipping to Australia. Can't wait for them to arrive.

I've been looking at the writings on salting food and cannot find any consensus. It seems there are two opposing views, one stating that you should salt well in advance, the other supporting salting just before cooking. This well-written article covers the topic in a relatively neutral fashion. The author tested the salt well before and salt just before methods with some friends as tasters. It is not a definitive study as it did not use double blind testing (where neither the experimenter nor the tasters know which sample is which) but did indicate that some meats benefit from salting well before while others were deemed to taste better when salted immediately before cooking. This finding gives a good indication of why people vary in their opinions.

First he smashes the bulb of garlic with his hand, separating it into cloves. He then inverts one of the two stainless steel bowls in which he has the garlic and puts it on top of the other, making a sort of stainless steel sphere. He then shakes it up and down vigorously, opens up the bowls and the garlic is peeled.

I recently read The Sorcerer's Apprentices. The author described the family meals at El Bulli and said it was a chance for the talented chefs to cook their own specialities within a set, limited, budget. Each recipe was carefully recorded. Can't wait to see the product, which is this book.

That is so cool.

Listen to the tone of his voice at around 30 to 40 seconds when he says "the beauty of this..." and "the most exciting thing about this." It falls. When people are excited their voice rises and gets louder. Love the irony at the end, he is so not into what he is saying. Still I suppose it's better than selling more restaurants to keep afloat.

You saved the best for last! Wonderful blog. I agree with kayb, glad I'm not following you.

Went to Quarter Twenty One for a quick lunch today. Thought I'd post a picture of my main (taken on i-phone, sorry about quality). Dish was a Fricassee of sweetbreads, yabbies & boudin noir, smoked apple, beetroot & freshwater bisque. Sweetbreads were served on buttered baby spinach, other greens are asparagus and scallion, cylinders were potatoes that were cooked sous vide I think and then fried on each end. Presentation was lovely. Each component was well seasoned, perfectly cooked, and complemented all other elements of the dish. I'm going back for more.

I've been looking avariciously at the Thermomix but couldn't justify the almost $2,000 price tag that we are slugged with in Australia. Today I came across the Natura ThermoChef, which has most of the features of the Thermomix at around $900. They are Spanish designed and made in China (along with much of the rest of the goods produced in the world these days). I've read a number of side by side comparisons and they seem to be similar in functionality to one of the older Thermomix models. Not quite as powerful and a few less bells and whistles but with a $1,000 price differential, there'd have to be significant differences for me to justify spending the extra amount on a product bound for domestic use. Has anyone had any experience using Thermochef? Any comments?

I learnt this through the Scotch obsessives at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, of which I'm a member. The society does its own cask-strength bottlings and does not chill filter anything. Haven't seen it written of in a book though.

That looks spectacular.

This could be related to chill filtering. If a Scotch is chill filtered and you add water, it stays clear. If it is non-chill filtered and water is added, it goes cloudy. I have been told this cloudiness comes from the interaction between the added water and oils, the latter being removed through the filtering process. Scotch purists say that removing the oil removes flavour. My understanding was that chill filtering was introduced to keep people happy by keeping the scotch clear, which although aesthetically pleasing actually removes taste. If you look at whiskies such as Laphroaig quarter-cask, they proudly label it as non-chill filtered. This attracts me more than clear spirits.

Pour a bit off into a separate small bottle and try it out. I'd suggest it probably won't make any difference. But do use pure water, not some chlorinated horror.

Great food, lovely produce. Looking forward to seeing some more of your food, which is every bit as good as what you have shown us from others.

What about buffalo mozzarella and basil? This is as traditional as it comes.

I deliberately buy more pizza than I can eat so there is some left over cold for breakfast. It's not just other kids who like it!

I heard Jim McEwan's (master distiller at Bruichladdich) response to someone who said they never add water to scotch. He was querulous because this is exactly what they do when they bottle it at less than cask strength (see David Goldfarb's response above). As such, if you like your whisky slightly diluted over bottled strength, it shouldn't matter whether you do this prior to or after pouring. The only reason I'd add it afterwards is if I wanted to taste compare the undiluted and diluted whiskies.

Try writing phonetically in an Australian accent trying to guess generic American pronunciation and see how far you get. That's why I included the link to actual pronunciations.

Staub = Shtob in German, Stoob in French. Listen here.

Here's a novel one. If you've been skiing and taken your boots, these make fantastic containers to protect bottles. We have the Austrian schnapps to prove it.

You won't even need teeth to chew that.

I only use my Staub cast iron for slow-cooked casseroles, for which it is perfect. For sauces, I always use my Mauviel copper pans because of their heat conductance.

Thanks, will check out sources. Seems there are a lot of differing opinions in this area and it will be good to look at facts.

Thanks for that. A fair number of us on this bulletin board are scientists, many with PhD qualifications, and well aware of sources for evidence. My interest was piqued when you appealed to "new scientists" to support your argument about when salt should be used. In many cases I have found that people use this as an apparently more sophisticated version of the stem "they say." Which scientists and scientific information were you referring to in support of your argument?