lesliec

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Seems to me beef cheeks might reward sous vide treatment. Anybody tried? Recipe suggestions?

My Sous Vide Magic controller arrived on Christmas Eve, causing me to rush out for a rice cooker. Since then, I've been discovering the delights of vacuum-packed goodies - the fridge is accumulating a quantity of interesting plastic bags. Aside from how the food tastes/feels (best-ever steak last night, in the cooker for 24 hours at 55°C), I commend sous vide as a possible solution for the 'buy nice stuff then throw it out a couple of weeks later' syndrome noted in other posts above. For example (I'm thinking of you singles here), if you find a nice chicken, say, you can break it down into meal-sized portions in individual bags with a bit of butter and/or whatever you fancy as soon as you get it home, then freeze the bags. A couple of hours in the water bath and your meal is ready. Is it obvious I'm a convert ... ? Even if you're not going all the way with sous vide, a vacuum sealer might be worth adding to your wishlist to extend the life of things like Shamanjoe's red peppers. More specifically on-topic, this year I can see I'm going to be cooking more of the cheaper meat cuts. Sous vide, of course.

This is completely off the top of my head but, since we seem to agree that higher alcohol = less inclination to freeze, how about burning the alcohol off some of your gin before you put it in? Might give some interesting, different flavours. Haven't tried sorbet, but I've been playing with G&T jellies of late. They really sparkle in the baby martini glasses I found a few weeks ago - I made some coloured/flavoured with grenadine and Midori (separately) for Christmas dinner (the old red/green theme) which went down very well. Good luck with your experiments. Let us know the results.

Hi, Ronaldoebt. I can't help you with Paris, but in Barcelona have you tried Sole Graells in calle Princep Jordi (near Plaza Espana)? They have some interesting toys. I want another Superbag ... Good luck, Leslie

Here's another variant eGulleters may like to try: My wife and I have a loose agreement with another couple that, when one couple invites the other for dinner, the host/ess will include at least one thing on the menu they've never attempted before. We originally started this to level the playing field - I was starting to overwhelm them with my forays into Adria, Blumenthal et al (I was doing it because I wanted to try the food - it was never intended to be a competition). This way, each of us has an equal chance of stunning success or total failure . Thus far, not too many of the latter. But there's always a lot of new recipes out there ...

Down here in the Antipodes our understanding of cider vs. juice would match Dougal's: cider = alcoholic, juice = not. I can't think of a local cider which isn't sparkling. In northern Spain - Asturias, Galicia - the cider (alcoholic) isn't particularly fizzy but is often poured from a height into the glass to give the impression of bubbles. I haven't had many French ciders, but my memory is of them always being fizzy. Actually, my best French cider memory is from a Normandy-style créperie/galetterie in Dijon, where the cider was served in what were essentially tea cups. We were told that was how it's done in Normandy. The galettes were good too ...

Horchata in Spain earlier in the year. Really good after a hot wander around Barcelona, and non-alcoholic to boot (but I bet I could come up with an interesting cocktail based on it ...). Confit turkey legs as part of Christmas dinner (this recipe - the brined breast was good too). 'Fake peanuts' (cacahuetes mimeticos) at elBulli. The menu (and service) had a few misses, but these were a major hit. I'm working at my second attempt at making them as we speak, but the *#$%^ won't freeze hard enough to come out of their moulds. And on Christmas Eve my Sous Vide Magic controller arrived, just in time for me to rush out and get a rice cooker. Much experimentation follows ... Have a tasty 2010, people.

Just a thought about the candied kiwifruit - how about not peeling them at all? Over here in the Land of the Long Green Kiwifruit many people eat skin and all. I admit I'm not one of them, but the varieties available now are nowhere near as hairy as when I was a kid. I'd think that any slight hairiness would be well covered by the candying process.

Um. Presumably it's in there as a preservative, or maybe a colour enhancer (I seem to recall it stops such things going greyish), or perhaps both. As long as the meat's thoroughly cooked I can't seem much harm in leaving it out. Others may disagree with my theories about what it's in there for. I'm quite happy to be corrected. When I was at school you could get it from garden supply shops, but it got more difficult when more people got interested in making gunpowder with it. You might still be able to talk to a pharmacy about getting small quantities. Potassium nitrate is its other name. Good luck, Leslie

You may also enjoy www.foodpairing.be and/or www.flavornet.org. I suspect the latter may be the one you were looking for - it definitely looks like a science project! Good luck ...

I'm not greatly fond of lime - it's a bit savage for my palate - but a dribble of my wife's lemon cordial is great. And I third the elderflower suggestions above. The G&T/Curacao cubes look fabulous!

If butter from a 'health' food store wasn't yellow, I'd be wondering what they added to make it white! I make my own cultured butter from buttermilk and cream and nothing else, and it's always distinctly yellow (gets more so over the next week in the fridge, and the taste also develops. Yum!). Maybe our cows are just happier. (Edited because I can't spell 'distinctly')

Robert, some of us don't know about dupes and shoemakers! Can you provide a translation for the uninitiated?

I read the article and, suitably inspired, constructed Martinis according to the author's recommendations (5:1 gin:vermouth, stirred, not shaken) last night. Verdict: very good. We now have a good incentive to try some different vermouths (we tend to get the extra-dry Martini [brand] because it's there, but I know there are others available at my favourite shops). I happened to have some El Bulli-style spherified olives lying around and dropped one in each glass. Now THAT was a taste at the end, once they'd been soaking up the drink for a while!

Ow!! The best first treatment is just what you did; get it under cold running water (don't use ice - it'll only give you a cold burn!). Now, put some plastic kitchen wrap on it. I'm not kidding. Not sure where in the world you are, but it's called GladWrap down here; it might be Saran where you are. Keeping it on will be tricky, since it's presumably the palm of your hand that's affected, but see what you can do. My wife had an argument with our fireplace a while ago (it won) and the plastic wrap was magic.

Not specifically on this topic, but since these are the recipes I'm using right now I'll ask it here ... The instructions (in this book and elsewhere) always say something along the lines of 'put a dish in the bottom of the oven. Just before you put the bread dough in, pour a cupful of hot water into the dish.' Why? Why not put water (any temperature, even cold) into the dish before you put it in the oven? As the oven heats so does the water, and is nicely steaming by the time the oven is ready for the bread. Being inherently lazy, that's how I do mine and it seems to work perfectly well. I think I may have tried the 'approved' method once and couldn't see any difference. Is there any particular reason all the recipes specify the 'hot water just before dough' technique? For clarification: I'm not asking the reason we add the water/steam, just the timing of adding the water. I welcome theories from other eGulleters.

Cellulose is also completely indigestible (to humans). We should therefore stop eating vegetables. Always knew them suckers wuz dangerous ...

Tried the brioche recipe this weekend. Put the water, yeast, salt, butter and honey in a container as specified, the mixed in the flour. THEN noticed the beaten eggs sitting waiting to be put in BEFORE the flour ... I managed to recover, but I got a really wet dough which absolutely refused to be shaped in any way, even after a rest in the fridge. I cooked it anyway (much longer than the recipe said) and it tasted more or less OK, but I'm sure it should be better. It gets one more try, this time with the ingredients added in the right order. But I do so love the results of the master recipe. <Sigh> - it's lunchtime.

Same. I use a Tupperware-type container and my dough very happily lasts two weeks (unless I make bread from it, in which case it lasts no time at all ...). I would even recommend leaving some dough behind (a cup or so - whatever's left) from Batch A when making Batch B, and so on (this is an extension of the book's suggestion not to wash the container). Over the next few weeks I get a lovely sourdough effect - smells wonderful. Dough from the Deli Rye variant smells kind of like beer if treated the same way.

Too slow, Gary - I made my Christmas pudding last weekend (this weekend it will probably get its first drink of rum ...). I don't usually do a Christmas cake, but I've found an elderly recipe I might try this year. That's the next job. What's a snickerdoodle?

All of the people who ate potatoes in 1862 are now dead! There's a lesson there ...

I'm with the two previous replies - cut the stalk end off, leave the 'tail' on (Jamie Oliver says it's cute ...) and don't bother cutting smaller. Nice, simple recipe: drop prepared beans into briskly boiling, salted water for a minute or so, then into cold (preferably iced) water to stop them cooking. Melt some butter in a suitably-sized pan, drop the drained beans in, add salt and pepper to taste and stir occasionally for maybe another two-three minutes. Half a minute or so before the end of cooking, add a clove or two of finely-chopped garlic. Perfection is when the beans are hot but still crunchy. OK, THAT'S what I'm doing tonight.

Just for your general edification, here's our kitchen: History: the kitchen used to be on the right of the drawing. It was a fairly normal 70s kitchen with minimal bench (sorry, counter) space and was a fetching shade of pink. The bench ran across most of the end wall, with a sink under the window and the stove by the door (into the hall) at the bottom of the drawing. The fridge fitted in the space at the top right (it's a brick house, and for some reason was built with an 'alcove' sticking into the house from the back door, hence the funny shape). There was a small dining area taking up maybe the leftmost third of the area represented by the drawing and our lounge, with lovely sea views, extends beyond the left of the drawing. We decided, since cooking was becoming an increasingly important part of our lives, to move the kitchen to centre stage. We removed a sliding glass door in a partial wall which divided the old kitchen and dining area (about where the little man walking to the right is), which was an interesting episode in itself - the beam holding the roof up wasn't, essentially! Our small dining table now sits under the window on the right, and we have a fake antique 'cocktail bar' under the window at top left. As you'll see, we've avoided corner units entirely. The island is a symphony in black granite, three metres of the stuff and, on the side away from the work area, has glass shelves behind translucent glass doors where our glassware lives. There are lights inside which make it beautiful, but we rarely use them. There are two fluorescent tube fittings above the island (modern fluoros, not the old flickery horrible things). There are three halogens built into the rangehood over the (gas) hob which provide heaps of light there - we actually bought two other fittings for that area but once the hood was wired in decided we didn't need them, so they're still in their boxes! There's a smallish cupboard above the fridge with a tilting door, and two similar ones above the wall oven at bottom left. These hold things like recipe books (well, some of them ...), microwave and tea and coffee accoutrements. There is a selection of drawers of various sizes on the 'working' side of the island and under the hob, plus another small one under the oven for roasting pans and such. As previously noted, the double pantry is on the 'other' side of the island, which works just fine. The measurements are different, of course - from top to bottom we've got something like 13 feet (I don't really speak feet any more!), where you've got about 10 - but possibly something like this design could fit in your space. A few more ideas, if nothing else. Enough wasting time creative effort at work - I'm off home to cook dinner (lamb roast, since you ask).

Why do I have to go first?