Keith_W

That's right, it is the swim bladder.

Don't bake them. Deep fry them in hot oil. You know Heston's triple cooked chips? Well, these fries are also triple cooked. First they are parboiled, then cut, then fried, then frozen. When you deep fry them, you supply the third cooking step. I used to go through a lot of effort to make triple cooked chips. But when I discovered that deep frying frozen fries produces a result which is close to, or superior to the Heston method, I gave it up.

I have never tried cooking octopus in a pressure cooker, but I am aware that it is tender, then goes rubbery, then goes tender again. If you overcook the hell out of it, what happens? Does it go rubbery, or does it disintegrate?

Welcome to Melbourne! Where are you moving here from? My favourite casual lunch place in St Kilda would have to be Golden Fields. Andrew McConnell owns this place - same chef/owner of Cutler and Cumulus. As you would expect, the food focuses on great produce, simply cooked, with sometimes unusual and innovative combinations. It is a little pricey, and there are no reservations. So it is really not good for a family of 4 with young kids unless you turn up at an off-peak time - say Monday lunchtime. If you try to go in the evenings, the place is usually rocking and is definitely NOT kid friendly. There's also Republica. It is at the St. Kilda Sea Baths, i.e. right by the beach. In summer you can enjoy the view of girls in bikinis walking past as well as . The food is a little on the pricey side but worth it. Nothing innovative here, just well executed food.You could also go to Barney Allen's, which belongs to Iain Hewitson - the fat, wheezing "Huey" TV chef who appears on morning TV and suggests you open tins of canned fruit to make dessert. Yes, that guy. I was a little skeptical but the food in this place is not bad. The place is more of a pub, so try to go at off peak times. Cafe Vue is a little further up the road. It is Shannon Bennett's cafe venture. The bread, and especially the brioche is magnificent. Also try the pies and the other pastries. The place is absolutely packed every time I go. Lau's Family Kitchen is in the "unfashionable" end of Acland St. Yes it's Chinese food, but the owner is the son of the former owner of Flower Drum - which was consistently rated the best Chinese restaurant in Melbourne. The aim of this restaurant is far more modest - serving good Chinese food at lower prices. The food is VERY good, but unfortunately it is usually VERY packed. I believe that Philippa Sibley (the dessert queen) has reopened a new restaurant in St. Kilda, but i'm not sure where it is. When we ate at her old restaurant, the savoury dishes were a little "meh" but the desserts were to die for. Really complicated desserts that you would expect to see in a high end restaurant, and not some cafe in St. Kilda. If you picture the menu - quiche, or hamburgers for your dinner - followed by dessert which might be a deconstructed snickers bar with salted caramel parfait, candied peanuts, chocolate ice-cream, etc and you might see why the restaurant didn't do too well.

Yes I have tried it. It does not work for me - the skin seems to burn (i.e. CATCH FIRE!) instead of caramelize. Pretty bad fail!

I for one, AM very excited about this new book. Much as I loved MC, it is virtually impossible to obtain all the toys and ingredients as a serious hobbyist. I will never own a centrifuge, nor will I dare to handle liquid nitrogen at home, and so on. I understand that MC was meant as a treatise for the ultimate in food preparation and was never aimed at hobbyists, but I enjoyed reading it, much the same as I enjoy reading about cars I can't afford in car magazines. So good on you for spotting the hole in the market and preparing a book which most of us can aspire to use. I can't wait to get my copy and start cooking from it. By the way Nathan - I hope you are preparing another MC for desserts and pastry. The introduction of MC hints at another book to cover this. We are waiting

I am not clear how heating up lactic acid produces CO2. My understanding is that lactic acid needs to be converted to Pyruvate, then enter the Krebs cycle (which consumes energy in the form of ATP) before it is converted to bicarbonate, and then dissociate to form H2O + CO2. In other words, you need a living organism with functioning Krebs cycle enzymes and an energy supply in the form of ATP to do it. Sorry for the biochemistry - doctor here. As for the thickness of your brine, I should point out that bacterial action produces glycoprotein, which is a type of hydrocolloid. I am not saying that this is necessarily what happened to your meat, but it might be wise to test a very small piece on yourself before you feed it to anyone with an immune deficiency, or the elderly, or children. And nathanm ... nice to see you back on here

How do they compare to Perigord - IMO they are just as good. Having said that, I have never tasted them side by side.

"Stomaco! Cosa vuoi da mangiare?" Hmm, i'm not getting it

A friend of mine who owns a patisserie told me that duck eggs should be substituted for hens eggs whenever possible. For example - egg tarts made from duck eggs have a richer, deeper flavour and will still look fresh hours after they are out from the oven. If you are selling egg tarts in a Yum Cha restaurant, this does not matter - because the tarts will be consumed soon after they are out of the oven. But if you are a patissiere - your tarts will be sitting on the shelf for hours afterwards. You need to make them with duck eggs.

Thank you for a lovely blog, Franci. I have enjoyed every entry. I have always been curious about Monaco, and to have a blog about my favourite subject by someone who lives there is a real treat. I will second the request of having a picture of yourself in a Ferrari convertible with a pair of sunglasses and a long scarf!

Here are some numbers for you. All given in terms of weight (i.e. 10% salinity = 10gm NaCl in 100gm H2O): 0.07% - Concentration of salt in unsalted meat 0.9% - Concentration of salt in blood (the difference between blood and meat is maintained by a sodium pump) 1.2% - Concentration of salt in cows milk 1.5% - Concentration of salt in food which tastes "excessively salty" 3.4% - Concentration of salt in Vegemite (an Australian breakfast spread) 3.5% - Concentration of salt in seawater Maximum recommended Sodium intake = 2.3gm per day Furthermore the perception of saltiness varies according to how it is distributed. If the salt is distributed evenly through the food, it tastes seasoned. If it is sitting on the surface, it tastes salted. You can get away with using less salt if you only salt the surface of the food. Proteins can bind up salt and reduce the apparent saltiness, which is why the same concentration of salt in a burger mince and dissolved in water tastes different. You can calculate how salty your mince is going to be by using the above guide. I personally would not go much above 0.8 % - i.e. 0.8gm salt for every 100gm of mince. This makes it taste "just seasoned".

I think the above which I quoted more or less puts paid to the idea of using an induction cooker for SV. If the magnetic field induces a current in the thermometer probe, then you will never get accurate temperatures.

ChrisZ, great post. You have given me many ideas. When I get around to making my Coquilles using your suggestions, I will make a post here to say "thank you".

Actually I do have some sympathy with that point of view. Very few of us would use our boutique salts in any situation that calls for the salt to be dissolved. My "nice" salts are only used to finish a dish. If I want to season, I use cheap salt. Furthermore, some of the "contaminants" in boutique salts might be volatile - such as truffle salt or smoked salt. Dissolve it into water at 15C and you probably won't taste the truffle. But "activate" the salt by throwing it on some hot food and the truffle aroma will be released.

If we wanted to take texture out of the equation when comparing salts in a taste test, perhaps a better way would be to blitz all of them into a fine powder in a spice grinder.

This article on foraging for food appeared in The Age today, so I thought I would post it here as a handy reference.

The cheapest and easiest way would be to use a coffee filter. The disadvantage is that these filters clog quickly - especially if your stock has a lot of gelatine in it. Otherwise, try agar filtration as suggested above.

Make small Scotch eggs? I have a recipe somewhere which is essentially a croquette with bacalao and a soft cooked quails egg inside. Since you have MC you could also try the beetroot tea egg recipe.

I have tried this. What happens is that the rubbery skin contracts and tears apart. It won't work. I would love to know the solution also. I have tried wet brining, dry brining, leaving it uncovered in the fridge to dry the skin, etc etc. The only method which seems to work is to ladle hot oil onto it after it has finished cooking.

One reason to move down to the big smoke Buttermilk has a slightly sour taste. I don't think it is a simple mix of milk and cream?

mm84321, if you don't mind me asking - what camera and lens are you using to shoot your food? Your food and your photography is artistry on a plate! Looking at your asparagus with cheese and egg yolk (something I have served dozens of times) made me wonder why I didn't think of presenting it like that?

We have a thread on steakhouses in KL and nobody has mentioned The Coliseum in Jln Tunku Abdul Rahman yet? My dad ate there when he was a kid, I ate there when I was a kid, and my old man assures me it has not changed one bit. It's really old fashioned in a colonial kind of way. Worth a look.

pilori, it is posts like yours that keep me coming to this thread! Superb effort! I would be proud to serve a beautiful meal like that.

Thanks chris for having us over. It was also great to meet some other eG'ers at that dinner party. The food was sensational, with special mention to the pastries that Nich brought along. dcarch I am pretty intrigued ... how did you get those shapes for your ravioli? Did you actually cut them with scissors, or do you have a special cutter? And how did you cook your rice? Did you wrap it up in lotus leaves and then steam it?