Amy D.

Turkish delight, coconut ice, chocolate dipped dried fruit, truffles, marshmallows

Victoria sponge with white chocolate ganache, I still tend to crave it when it comes to birthday time

Its is the same in the UK where the raw cashews are in fact heat treated but not roasted. They are usually much cheaper (and better quality) if bought from an Asian grocers than health food shops.

That's why I love this site, someone always manages to come up with a plausible answer - it hadn't occurred to me to wonder how the black layer is removed, but the stagnant water makes sense. I'll have try and source some quality white pepper to test the difference

I'm also always slightly miffed when I read that white pepper is just the inside of black as I too detest the smell and taste of white pepper (always reminds me of the smell of the rotting chicken) but adore black pepper. Thankfully I haven't (before now at least) noticed the use of white pepper in Chinese dishes, so perhaps the aroma I dislike is just easily overpowered by some flavours.

Have to agree with many of Michael Speleoto's comments. I think the op's choice is pretty spot on, it is the ultimate English comfort food. Yes fish and chips and chicken tikka are very popular, yet these are takeaway foods that are infrequently prepared at home, compared to the roast or 'sunday lunch' that is a mainstay in many households. I suspect that the majority of the population still consume a roast as often as once a week. The Yorkshire puds might be bought in and chicken is probably consumed in greater quantity this probably has a lot to do with the differing costs. The BSE crisis is certainly a distant memory, not that I was actually aware of many individuals being completely scared off all beef at the time (though tbh I was at school at the time so playground bravado may have also played a part in this). As to rarebit, aside from it being welsh, its hardly a commonly found or eaten dish amongst the general populous. Cheese on toast maybe but that is neither a rarebit nor anything more than a snack, if the London gastropubs are trying to suggest otherwise I would guess that has a lot to do with their profit margins. as to recipe it would depend on the ops aims. Whilst a on-the-bone rib of beef would be the dream joint but topside and silverside most common. The only consistent thing about a Yorkshire pud recipe tends to be the direction to preheat the pan. Personally I would insist that the recipe includes directions on making gravy using the pan juices and how to prepare the obligatory roast potatoes. oh Harters I'm afraid I have to disagree and state that England is still a country.

I've used this recipe before http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/516164 which isn't too different to the one above except that uses half the amount of lemon and only 24 hour infusion. The result is not much different to the bottle green variety except that mine was a little more floral and needed less cordial. I haven't compared it between stalked / unstalked versions though. Other considerations though are; were they defiantly elderflowers (not ground elder or cow parsley - some people have confused them), were they collected from an unpolluted area & not at animal height, and were they picked at their prime and used straight away - they need to be open and smelling very floral - gives some indication of the fragrance the cordial will have, try not to use them once they turn brown.

I tend to only eat meat/ fish a few times a month (mainly through choice - I prefer to eat less better quality meat, but also as I've lived with my vegetarian OH for the last 10 years and find its a whole lot easier just preparing the one meal at night). when I do cook meat I usually stick to either simple home comforts like a great roast chicken, perfectly cooked steak, bacon buttie - proper dry cured smoked bacon (rind on), or long braises where the rich meaty flavour could never be recreated from vegetables - a decent ragu, osso bucco, or a rich lamb curry. some decent sashimi or sauteed/grilled prawns and scallops wouldn't go amiss either.

wow this all sounds great. We're off to Japan on friday for three weeks, & it just so happens that our tokyo hotel is in shinjuku. can't wait!

I agree with harters on method (basically a thick pureed root vegetable soup) but as helenjp identidied it almost certainly will have had swede in it for that colour and it was after all consumed in scotland the home of 'neeps' (I doubt it will have had any peppers/tomatoes/pulses in it, but maybe potatoes to add thickness).

I tend to just what ever system the recipe's written in, I have a handy set of digital scales that does all the converting for me, and a cup measure for the few volume recipes I might use, and my thermometres switch between C and F, I just make sure I keep to the same scale throughout. But then, depending on the situation, I tend to think of things in a mixture of metric (measurements in mm's cm's and metres, petrol in litres) and imperial (distances in miles, height in feet, milk and beer in pints) and oven temperature in gas mark (that is the one thing I tend to need to convert).

Toliver beat me to it, I also found this tip in a restuarant some time last year and now always use lettuce leaves to line my steamer - haven't yet had any sticking issues.

great review harters! I have to say i'm a little surprised I've not mentioned this place on here before (having done so on other sites) as its probably my favourite eatery. when we lived in bradford we used to go about once a month and even now it's an hour-and-a-half away we still find reasons to head up there just to nip into prashad - I swear I start getting withdrawal symptoms if its been too long since I've had some of their lentil soup (try as I have I still can't quite recreate it!). The food and service is always consistently brilliant although we both have our favourite dishes that we tend gravitate towards - for him the special chatt followed by the masala paneer and for me the pethis (I've had good results making them from the recipe on their website but they're still nicer from the restaurant) and a masala dosa (everything about that dish is just perfect for me and has become my definition of comfort food!). I also love picking out some indian sweets and other snacks to devour after we've driving back home. though from the sounds of it we had best make sure we book before we head up next time.

I think the sneakily feeding is far more interesting - probably because I had to do this a lot over the years my other half was a fussy eater when I met him, he'd just turned vegetarian (which is fine because I tend to only have meat or fish once or twice a week myself) only he was one of those vegetarians who didn't like vegetables, being students when we met he was basically living off pizza and beer. I used to do a whole lot of chopping things up very finely or blending and not tell him what it was until after he ate it. Then I progressed on to being able to have large pieces of the vegetable in a sauce I know he liked. Broccoli was one of the big early successes (initially thanks to a cheese sauce), raw sliced tomatoes was a more recent addition (this time in a balsamic dressing). He is actually a relatively adventurous eater now and will try anything (vegetarian) at least once. Though he still has his moments - for example last Saturday whilst I was eating a bowl of yoghurt (and honey) he was pulling faces of disgust, I always find this one a bit odd because I tend to cook with yoghurt quite a lot, and sure enough the next day as the OH was thoroughly enjoying one of his favourite dishes of Chatt (in this case a spicy chickpea and potato dish topped with yoghurt) and he surprised me by remarking "I don't know why I don't eat yoghurt more often I actually quite like it".

oh that could be good as long as the cooking and copious amounts of sugar reduce the astringent quality of the sloes! Incidentally I just remembered that Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures has a rosehip jam recipe that sounded good, but very time consuming as it requires separating all the itching powder innards from the pulp of the hips, if you have more that you want to play around with.

I actually found the time to indulge in some foraging the other week, came back with a bag-full each of Rosehips, blackberries, sloes, hazelnuts and apples. What I hadn't thought about was whether I actually had time to process all the goodies - typically I was just too busy so now I have a freezer full of rosehips, blackberries and sloes waiting for me! I'm also thinking of making rosehip cordial, plus a bramble jelly and anything other than sloe gin with the sloes!

ok this may sound stupid - but do you not have electric rapid boil kettles in the US? Using my kettle to boil water for the pasta (takes about three minutes) means I can have a quick pasta dinner done in ten minutes (if using fresh pasta). Whilst the water's boiling I defrost (in the microwave) the pasta sauce I previously batch cooked and froze in portions, when the water's boiled I add it to the pan & whilst the pasta's cooking I prepare a quick salad. It's not the most sophisticated dinner but it's a speedy back-up. Like others when I'm making something more time consuming at the weekend I tend to cook more and freeze it in portions for later meals. Also deliberately cooking more of an item than needed can save on cooking time later on in the week, with the leftovers transformed into a different dish to give variety (I tend to do this most often with boiled potatoes).

If I've gone and made the spoon dirty I'm more than likely going to lick it, why waste good food even if it is just a tiny amount clinging to the spoon? though I’ll go out of my way to get a spoonful of many things including condensed milk, jam, nutella, honey ...basically anything to satisfy that sugar craving

I've never noticed any ice or freezer burn problems with my frost-free freezer - even with ice cream that's been in there for a couple of months. Again perhaps this is more because I keep every thing in well sealed containers or freezer bags. I would never go back to the messy non-defrosting type

Thanks nick, though I do find it amusing that the tasting note mentions hospital bandages - describes it perfectly but just doesn't sound all that appetising. So I guess I love the smokey flavours, and am now developing a love for peaty ones!

I love Jura superstition one of my favorite winter time tipples, the Jura single malt is good too but superstition really delivers the smokiness I tend to enjoy from a whiskey, although Talisker also hits the spot. I was really shocked when I first tried laphroaig I was expecting the peaty flavours described on the bottle but instead ended up with the medicinal qualities of TCP, I wasn't a fan but having bought the bottle I persevered and have actually acquired the taste for it - though I still prefer the Jura's. I wasn't that keen on ardbeg, but perhaps that also needs more drinking. Glenmorangie is fine but very light in comparison - not what I'm looking for in a sipper.

After playing around with the site this afternoon I've seen so many benefits to it. Probably most importantly for me is the fact that I'll probably be using my cookbook collection more often, something i've been doing less of in the last couple of years as I've found that it just easier to check on the net to check for ideas for e.g. aubergine than trawl through all the books whereas now I can quickly see I have 83 aubergine recipes in my collection (& thats with only a quarter of the books from my as yet incomplete bookshelf being indexed).

we really enjoyed our visit to riga (in freezing march) a couple of years ago great buildings & friendly people. As JMT said the central market is great for a wander. However generally there wasn't much particularly memorable foodwise - but this view is probably greatly influenced by the fact that I was travelling with my vegetarian boyfriend which limited our restaurant choices dramatcally! the boyfriend ended up at Čili Pica more than once. We visited the LIDO atpūtas centrs which was an interesting experience (lavian themed buffet), but can't say i'd go back although there was a nice selection of smoked fish (for me). The other half also dragged us to the medieval themed restaurant (Rozengrāls) and suprisingly the food was quite tasty, or maybe it was just the affect of the beer? One place we found cheap and tasty was a pancake shop although I have no idea what it was called I remember it had some form of advertising statue outside (possibly man with pan). if you drink then you should try some black balsam, although i'm sure the only reason they manage to sell the stuff is because it comes in a nice ceramic bottle!

Most recipes for me are more for guidance, unless it's when i'm learning a new regional cuisine where it helps to learn to understand how the particular ingredients are combined to create the essential flavours and textures even then I can never follow a recipe to the letter - I virtualy always need to increase garlic & adjust for flavour balance. In baking I tend to follow the recipe but adjust flavoring amounts for example I always need more cinamon and vanilla. I use salted butter for baking/cooking simply because If I want butter on bread it has to be salted. The only times I buy unsalted is for the rare recipes I don't want any salt in the only two I can think of are lemon curd and light fruity buttercream fillings for chocolates (if using white chocolate).

I definately choose celery over carrots. I love that savory taste raw or cooked