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Hi Shel If you fancy getting a new book then have a look at Yotam Ottolenghi's Jersualem (being discussed here: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/148712-cooking-from-jerusalem-a-cookbook/). Full of wonderful middle eastern food to use up some of your sumac on/in.

I love this book, it's up there with his first one, maybe even better - don't think I've made an Ottolenghi recipe I don't like yet. On Friday evening (in preparation for a very meat-heavy BBQ day on saturday) we had the fried tomatoes, the spiced fish kebabs and some tabouleh: I found a really nice (for the supermarket) fillet of cod so decided to do it as a whole piece rather than kebabs, and I'm glad I did. The spice paste is really flavourful and goes really well with simply grilled fish. The fried tomatoes are a big hit, very very easy to make - note for next time, when the book says 1.5cm thick slices, it really means it - I got a bit carried away and made some a lot slimmer than this, they just turned to mush in the pan. The tabouleh was great - though there was a bit more bulgar than I would normally like, will make sure I weigh the parsley properly next time.

I've had these Heston Blumenthal branded scales for a couple of months now and really rate them. They have a high capacity plate that measures in grams and a smaller one which does tenths of a gram. I was a bit sceptical about the auto power off function but ithas been fine (unlike other scales I've used which are wont to turn themselves off at just the wrong time) http://www.johnlewis.com/heston-blumenthal-by-salter-dual-precision-digital-scale-10kg/p618645?kpid=232200360&s_kenid=4e601c40-0225-6488-0a70-000048fb74c5&s_kwcid=129x75860&tmad=c&tmcampid=73&stop_mobi=yes

I believe there's quite a big difference between stainless and mild steel in terms of their ability to conduct heat (mild conducts heat a LOT better than stainless). The way you'd use this there's really no need to go for stainless - the small amounts of water that come into contact with the plate are dried off almost instantly due to the heat. The plate I posted on has been used every month or so since last september and is fine, it just sits in the cupboard between uses. I've not needed to re-oil it.

Sorry guys, the books look nice but it's all about the Evernote for me. I'm yet to find a better way of collecting recipes, notes, pictures, ideas - I'd be lost without it!

Sorry, just like tea strainers, muslin, etc that's too cumbersome - it annoys me enough that I can't just crack a lemon like I do an egg, there's no way I'm getting something else out of the drawer as well as a knife! cool, still not quite sure I understand though - the article says that parthenocarpic plants don't require the flowers to be pollenated to produce fruit... not sure why that means the fruit doesn't have seeds in it? How does a lime do the job of growing into another lime tree if it doesn't have seeds?

This is something that's bugged me for a while. Lemon seeds are a pain in the proverbial. All methods for dodging them have flaws - they're either unreliable (flicking seeds out first with a knife - always miss some, squeezing into my left hand to catch them, etc) or too cumbersome (digging out a tea strainer/sieve, muslin, etc). What I've never known is why limes never have seeds and lemons always do?

This post has just reminded me I was meant to be smoking some pastrami salmon to take down to family for christmas today... oops!

If I buy from inkling am I then able to install it on my iPad or do I have to buy it again from the app store?

@jmacnaughton, that is some great piping Made macarons this weekend for the first time, I followed the course on chefsteps which was great - it really explained the whole process well.

Cool, thanks for the reply. The only way I've seen tartaric acid before has been as rough dark crystals so these big, almost slimy pale lumps looked pretty different - they aren't crystalline for a start! The darker spots on the lumps in the picture are definitely more like what I've seen before, just haven't seen the white sludgy bits.

Here's a not very good iphone pic:

I've just taken delivery of a case of 2009 rosso di montalcino and it has a type of sediment I've not seen before. Being a bit eager to try it I didn't really give it any time upright before opening so a slug of sediment came out, almost in a single piece. Thing is it looks quite different to sediment I've seen before, it is a sort of greyish white, almost slimy texture, with a more normal looking dark crystaline sediment embedded in it. Is this normal??

Thanks will look it up. I eat pretty much anything so am open to any good suggestions, any decent seafood recommendations?

Going back to Dublin for the first time in about ten years in a couple of weeks, any suggestions for must-try restaurants? Anything interesting over there?

Lemon and poppyseed muffins this weekend. These are great muffins, really light and fluffy with a great balance between the sweetness and the lemon flavour. It's a pretty easy recipe, there's a bit of planning involved resting the batter overnight but it'll now be my go to recipe for muffins.

Made some real progress this weekend, tried the bâtards again, tweaked the recipe a little (leaving out about 20ml of water) and, due to circumstances, left the dough to ferment a bit longer. I'd have been happy if I'd bought these at a real baker - can't believe I made them! Really great texture, soft and light, the crust could have been a little crisper so that's the next thing to aim for but I'll be very happy if I can consistently make bread like this. This is a real revelation of a book for me

Mitch, no problems with the oil at all, I just did the same as I do for my cast iron skillet, put a tiny amount on and polish it off as much as possible then give it some heat. After an hour or so of pre-heating there was no smoke or smell at all from the steel. Michael, the IR works great, the steel is actually a fair bit darker now than in that shot (sort of blue/black colour) so it seems to cope with it fine.

I didn't manage to find the chain but I got some rocks from the garden, it works really well. Plus it gets you some really funny looks from your other half! It is four strands in the plait, we were just messing about with off cuts from squaring up the dough but I actually quite like them

Since getting Modernist Cuisine at Home I've been lusting after one of the baking steels they describe. Unfortunately shipping to the UK would have meant a large on would cost over $200, plus import duty. Ouch. After a bit of ebay trawling I managed to find a steel company locally who could do 12mm (1/2") thick mild steel plate in a variety of sizes. Got my order in and within a couple of days was the proud owner of a 25lb lump of slightly rusty metal! Thankfully I'd read a really helpful post over on pizzamaking.com about using vinegar to clean the residue off these sheets. 24 hours soaking in a tray of that and cleanup was a doddle, a quick scrape down with some wire wool and a good wash in hot soapy water and I was ready to go. I'd read differing opinions on seasoning but decided to do it as the bare metal was starting to show rust spots within just minutes of coming out of the water. For the first batch I used the "neapolitan" dough recipe from MCH, it's a very easy dough to make and seems to give pretty good results. Bake times were around 3:30 after preheating my steel for an hour or so and using the broiler on full whack. The steel was reading about 700-740F as the pizza went in. There's still a fair way to go in getting used to this setup and how to get the most out of it, but so far, these were the best tasting pizzas I've ever made The plate as it comes: After a good clean up: Raw: The end results:

So, my next adventures with this book were croissants and the plum tart. Both were really fun to make, I had to fudge the croissant recipe a bit as I made it too late last night to bake them before I went to bed. After shaping them I put them in the fridge then brought them out again for an hour this morning before baking. I don't think this was a good idea! they didn't really rise and although they had a great flavour they were far denser than they should have been. Should have known better than to go against what was in this book! The plum tart could probably have done with 5 minutes less in the oven as it's a bit darker than I would want. Overall though I'm happy with what I've learnt. Piping needs some work: Disappointing inside of the croissants:

To answer my own question, I found this place on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/290979602828?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 Got two (one's a present) 350mm square 12mm thick steel plates. They were pretty coated with a grubby rusty substance when they arrived but a 24 hour soak in normal vinegar got that off with no effort at all. A good wash in soapy water and an hour or so seasoning in the oven with a thin layer of oil and they were ready to go. Made my first batch of pizza yesterday and will be posting more about it when I get the pictures sorted, suffice to say they were the best I've ever made. Couldn't be happier with the steel. Especially as each one cost just over £30 delivered, compared to over $200 for the equivalent from bakingsteel.com.

I have silestone countertops (similar idea to caesarstone) and find that stuff like turmeric and coffee will stain if left for more than a few minutes. Was really upset by this at first and got the installers back to look at it, they just told me to ignore the instructions and use regular cream cleaner like Cif. I've been doing that for over five years now as it works a treat. Surface is as good as new and nothing stains it.

Not got round to trying it yet but this, from Ideas in Food, is on my Evernote list.

I've made pilaf a few times since reading this article. The advice about putting the pan into a couple of inches of cold water at the end of cooking has always worked perfectly with my stainless steel lined Al-Clad pan. It comes off in one nice piece and clean up is a doddle.