lesliec

Spare a thought for we hemispherically-challenged Southerners. This is as good as our tomatoes get at this time of year, but we're looking forward to January/February: These little beauties will be enormous, ugly, delicious Spanish Montserrats when they grow up. Wonderful things. In the meantime we're keeping them warm and happy in the lounge.

Tell me more ...

I rather like falernum instead of lime juice. One each of two rums, half each of falernum, orgeat and curaçao. With a float of Smoke & Oakum Gunpowder Rum, which is a luxury I'm aware most of you won't be able to share.

I had a dinner party recently where I served food to people. I've been doing it for years without realising I was doing anything wrong. How shocking! Of course they didn't pay me, so obviously the food safety was that much greater.

Haven't we moved on from hanging peasants? Oh, pHeasants ... sorry, eyes are tired again.

It certainly has. I have to hold out for another month or so until they have a 220-240v version, but I think I'm in. Maybe Anova could give eG a small contribution for sales made through here (á la Amazon).

DH needs a good talking to, I think. Not liking fruit cake? What's wrong with the man?? Must be something in his raisin'. Maybe he was swept up in a currant as a child. Now he just can't see the appeel. Sorry; I'll stop now ... Fruit cake + cheese is a long-established tradition in Yorkshire and probably other parts of the UK. There's a particular very soggy, tea-flavoured cake called Yorkshire Brack that's eaten with Wensleydale cheese. Cracking, Gromit. And as James Herriott pointed out, the traditional drink to wash this down is good whisk(e)y... Who knew? Since you mention it, the Yorkshire Brack recipe I have suggests soaking the fruit in whisk(e)y or rum instead of tea.

A few years ago in Spain (sorry - Catalunya. They're NOT the same thing ...) we got ourselves addicted to pa amb tomaquet; literally 'bread with tomato', but everybody's got their own version and all the others are wrong. Our own variant, which we don't have anything like often enough, is slices (not too thick) of good bread, dizzled with olive oil, covered in thin slices of the tastiest tomato you can get, sprinkled of salt and black pepper, then slices of Manchego cheese. Top the lot with an anchovy then pop under a hot grill until they're nicely browned and bubbling. Eat carefully, unless you have no pain receptors in your lips. (Try to find good juicy anchovies; not the bloody awful things your local pizza place calls anchovies, which have probably put you off them for life.)

I hope you had ice cream for dessert, Jo! We went to a different supermarket to our usual one last weekend, just for a change. They had a lovely bit of beef rib in the butchery department so we brought two nice ribs home from it. I usually use my Sous Vide Magic for steak but again, just for a change, I decided to use the Ducasse flip-often method. It certainly gives a great colour/flavour/crust, but I'm still not as happy overall as I am with SV steaks. (The triple-cooked chips were, as always, magnificent. Thanks, Heston.) I think I might be happiest with a combination approach - SV to start then finish off in butter rather than the screamingly hot oil I'd normally use. I'll have to get some more lovely ribs to try. Oh dear ...

DH needs a good talking to, I think. Not liking fruit cake? What's wrong with the man?? Must be something in his raisin'. Maybe he was swept up in a currant as a child. Now he just can't see the appeel. Sorry; I'll stop now ... Fruit cake + cheese is a long-established tradition in Yorkshire and probably other parts of the UK. There's a particular very soggy, tea-flavoured cake called Yorkshire Brack that's eaten with Wensleydale cheese. Cracking, Gromit.

I'm not generally one to use fashionable, social media-type TLAs, but darch - OMG! Those shots are amazing. Can you provide a little more detail? Is the magnifying glass hard against the phone/camera lens, or do you need to build in some space? Sony has recently announced a new phone in their Xperia line (Z1, I think it's called) which, along with a staggering number of megapixels, seems to have a reasonably decent lens anyway PLUS the ability to attach external Zeiss lenses. That might be worth looking out for. I think I read the external lenses will fit on other phones as well. Edited to add bit about other phones.

That's obscene! I want some ... David Liebowitz has some pretty good ones that aren't strictly speaking iced, although they do have 'stuff' dribbled over them. I'm thinking particularly of his absinthe cake (which I've made very successfully with black sambuca. Blue cake - yum!). We also have a family tradition of a Black Forest cherry cake for birthdays (mine next month, woo hoo) but I suppose, with its filling of cream, cherry jam, cherries and kirsch it's not exactly unadorned. Only has a sprinkle of icing sugar on top, though - very restrained.

This thread has reminded me I'm well overdue for a session with my EdgePro. I give my knives (mostly Sabatier) regular tickles with a steel and that works pretty well, but it's probably close to two years since I did a 'proper' job on them. I like the Edgepro, but I need much more practice to get good with it.

Surprising how many recipes get that wrong

Hard to beat a good old fruit cake, unadorned. I've been making one from my mother's old recipe book called Mock Wedding Cake. It's a big recipe - I make two cakes with it and freeze one - but not as rich as a 'real' wedding cake would be.

This is a lovely thread, Elizabeth - thanks. Your market looks amazing; much bigger than anything I've seen here. Last week there was quite a bit of activity around Wellington in protest against the sharkfin industry, which is said typically to cut the fins off the sharks it catches and throw the rest overboard (still alive, apparently). It's good to see in your post #4 above that the Ecuadorian industry may be a bit more responsible.

A cup of tea, with a few black olives on the side. Can't remember how we came to try it, but they go really well!

I find making croissants an excellent activity for an otherwise-idle Sunday afternoon, so here's how today's batch shaped up. As I mentioned up in post #4, the recipe I like is from The French Market (Joanne Harris and Fran Warde). At first the dough is very fluffy and you think there's no way it's ever going to come together into a ball. But after half an hour in the fridge it's a bit more obliging: First roll and fold: Rolled again. Some butter bleeding through, but it doesn't seem to matter: Folded again: Ready to go into plastic wrap and into the fridge to meditate: When it comes out it's risen a bit: Repeat until you lose count (I do, pretty much every time). Final roll; the dough has become a bit smoother since the first couple of photos: Roll to a square (well, something vaguely like a square), cut into triangles, roll and place on baking tray while the oven heats up: Time to go into the oven. Again, note the amount of rise. The recipe says I should brush them with beaten egg at this point, but I don't like the taste and they get quite brown enough for me: And 20 or so minutes later: This isn't a finicky recipe. I don't stress over the number of roll/fold cycles or the time the dough sits in the fridge after each one (things like lunch sometimes get in the way). Nor to I worry that most of the little beasts inevitably seem to 'un-crescent' themselves. They may look rustic, but they taste wonderful and I think that may kinda be the point. Into the freezer now and that's a few nice breakfasts sorted out ... Edit: missed a bit

Bacon. Contains meat. Who'da thought?

Nice, Keith. I'd been thinking along similar, lighten-the-mood lines. From the 'lost in translation' files, here's a sign near my local supermarket. Thing is, I know exactly what they mean ...

As Kleinebre noted, to get rid of moisture. The method I've been using has them sitting in the fridge for as long as possible (24 hours isn't too long) for the same reason. I'm very interested to try the microwave technique.

It is... um... squirrelier. Rougher edges, more tops and tails, I'd imagine. Better for mixing in nearly everything save things like a Vieux Carré, where you want the uber-smooth cognac. But in a Brandy Cocktail, or a Mississippi Punch, or nearly everything I usually make, it's the beans. Whenever I see a bottle of Fundador I grab it.Cocktails with squirrels? Who remembers the Monty Python cocktail sketch? A squeeze of lemming, anyone? Chris, I can't claim huge experience with cognac but we find (some) Spanish brandies are smoother, or at least more approachable. Esplendido, our current favourite, is very drinkable on its own; it's possibly even a bit understated for mixing. But I do anyway, such as in the Man Comes Around (post 516, above). But with names like Esplendido and Fabuloso, it's almost worth seeking these things out for the names alone!

My life's motto. Now then, people - spare a thought for those of us who actually like making our own stuff! There's plenty of gin in bottles but it's a helluva kick opening a bottle of one's own. Likewise things like orgeat and falernum, where I haven't had a commercial product that's anything like as good (to my taste) as mine. But I digress ... Wifey and I are forming a very bad habit. For the second Sunday evening in a row we took ourselves to the marvellous Hawthorn Lounge. Last night Gian was in charge and having a pretty busy time of it, but he was in fine form when it came to creating good things to drink. We had three different things between us and all three were off the cuff, recipe-less creations. Also nameless, but that may change. And delicious. First, this one: This introduced us to a new gin, from Western Australia. West Winds makes two gins; The Sabre is 40% and this one, The Cutlass, is 50%. They use local botanicals, as one must, including wattle seed and Australian bush tomato (no, I don't know which one). The recipe for the drink was 45ml of the gin, 20ml crème de cacao and 15 ml Cynar, with a good spray of orange oil over the top. It was lovely; seemingly quite light in spite of the stronger gin, with the chocolate a very subtle background note. Next, some spectacle: Yep, that's a real Blazer right there. El Dorado rum, Angostura bitters, 2:1 syrup (Demerara, I suspect) and Luxardo apricot brandy. Hot, sweet, fabulous. Finally, this one: I spotted some Cachaça on the shelf and asked for an introduction to it. Gian gave the matter considerable thought before coming up with an Old Fashioned, with New Orleans coffee bitters (probably Bittermens, but I didn't notice), Angostura and palm sugar. He warned beforehand it might be rough, but it wasn't. In fact, it was so good Wifey ordered one for herself. I'm starting to enjoy Sunday nights ...

I agree something to restrain the precious cargo is a good idea (especially if you're in an earthquake-prone area, as I am). The baskets look great, but something like clothesline strung tightly about one third of a bottle height up from the bottom of each shelf is a cheap option. And particle board/plywood shelf bottoms also seems like a good idea, to help prevent the domino effect.

I stumbled upon something tasty last night. But first, some background ... Joiy (previously known at Ritzling) is a low-alcohol, Riesling-based, mildly lemon-flavoured, slightly sparkling local product, although its creator Chris Archer's aim is, I quote, 'world domination'. Joiy is certainly available in Australia as well as here, and I believe at least some has found its way to Hong Kong and the US. It's generally sold in packs of four 250ml bottles and on its own is a pleasant 'sitting under a tree in summer' kind of drink. Wifey and I have been experimenting with Joiy as a cocktail ingredient for several months. It's a surprisingly troublesome little beast to get to play nicely with other components; its slight lemon taste immediately suggested gin, but we've had great difficulty getting that combination to work. A couple of weeks ago, as part of the annual Wellington on a Plate festival, we entered two of our creations in a Mixing with Joiy cocktail competition. Modesty forbids. Oh, all right; we came second and third. At some point I'll start a dedicated Joiy topic on eG, but to return to last night's creation ... Inspired by getting started in Kindred Cocktails and loading my cocktail book with a bunch of the classics, I tried a French 75 variant, henceforth to be known as the Wellington 75. In a Champagne flute: 30ml gin, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice (I'm not keen on sour in my cocktails; you might like more lemon) and 15ml simple syrup, topped up with Joiy. Very simple, and amazingly delicious. I did another one with brandy instead of gin; different but also delicious. Sorry, no photos - the drinks went down too fast! For those of you who can find Joiy, give this a try. I'd recommend a fairly 'floral' gin if you can manage it - I cheated and used my own.