antdad

I still rely on basic timings together with the look and size of the dough for my cue to start baking, trouble is I'm also reliant on the temperature of my domestic kitchen which can vary considerably. If I poke or prod, what exactly should I be looking for from the behaviour of the dough just prior to baking? Thanks in advance.

Fresh tomato basil soup is one of the best things on earth. Besides, they're garden tomatoes, not holy relics. The perfect use for them is to satisfy whatever fresh tomato craving the recipient has. Your friend could do a LOT worse than tomato soup. Let me explain further, of course I wouldn't have minded if it was a soup or any other fresh tomato recipe but it wasn't it was a cooked ragu and they were added as a filler together with meat, sofrito, tinned tomatos and puree and I didn't feel it was the best use of them. The ragu was perfectly fine but it wasn't really enhanced by their addition because they weren't that suitable for cooking. If my friend said he'd enjoyed them as pane e pomodoro, tomato salad or even a sandwich that would have been more pleasing to me, that's just how I felt about it at the time. Was I a little too precious about them? Certainly, but that's because the summers here in the UK last about 3 weeks and seem to start and end in March.

Doesn't have to be in Italy. In my case he used them to bulk out a sauce which to me wasn't the best use of a small number of fruit at there absolute best, if I'd given him a bucket load of over ripe San Marzano's I wouldn't have cared.

I've found tinned snails in Italian deli's, Harrods and F&M will be fail safe option I'm sure.

I like to dine alone a least once or twice a month. Time permitting I'll purposely go without booking and the least busy time for them, usually I take some reading material with me for when the restaurant becomes busy and or the staff aren't in the mood to engage. No problem, I usually get to know the chef/proprietor/head waiter by asking them to recommend what's good today, once that happens and I've demonstrated trust in their judgement things usually go swimmingly. When I see others dinning alone or on the odd occasion visit the cinema alone I think good for you, you have the strength of purpose to enjoy an activity for it's own sake without the need, desire or expectation to share the experience. Of course that last statement is false, lone dinners or cinema goers are rarely alone.

The gentrification of BM seems inevitable, last time I went I could hardly move for tourists and food snappers so I don't think I'll be going again by choice however there are now some really good value food markets popping up all over London.

Some really fine looking breads in this thread...another Jim Lahey "no knead" fan here. Recipe here...http://greatbread.blogspot.com

Joliver can be seem a little bit too worthy at times but here in the UK he certainly has more influence and was able to affect some change in the way school food was delivered in some schools. In essence it meant cajoling the then government in committing to a few extra pence per meal per child per day and training dinner ladies to to cook form scratch rather than reheat and serve which takes more time and therefore costs more overall. That's just what happens when you outsource food provision to the cheapest bidder you don't often get the cheapest food but you quite often get the poorest quality. If you have kids in school this is a wagon worth keeping an eye on if not jumping on, I've only seen a bit of the US series but the chocolate milk looks like a commercial stitch up, fortunately vending and drinks machines were banned from UK schools quite recently.

My dualit isn't a bad toast maker as the timer even allows for a little cooling but when I can be bothered the best toast I make is under the gas grill or on the griddle. As for UK toast, the pre sliced mass produced bread in the UK is particularly poor and damp so actually it becomes more than suitable for toasting. Crisp on the outside soft and chewy on the inside, if you don't allow sufficient cooling the butter just makes it soggy hence the use of toast racks.

I lambasted a friend who used my precious home grown's in a soup, he didn't understand nor did he receive any again. We are still friends, barely.

Hi,I think I've tried many of the own branded premium range sausages from nearly all of the supermarkets but mainly Waitrose, Tesco & Sainsbury's (phew) and personally I found the Sainsbury's TTD range outdoor chipolata/sausage (not cumberland)to be my favorite. It has the highest % of meat content I've ever found in a mass produced banger and for me it has just the right level of seasoning and flavouring. It's high meat and negligible rusk composition means it's quite easy to overcook and dry out, other than that it's my perfect banger and I go back to it time after time. The Toulouse in this range variety is too shabby either, it's not real Toulouse of course so they call it "Toulouse inspired" but again it's easy to dry out this meaty garlicky specimen. http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-price-comparison/Sausages_And_Burgers/Sainsburys_Taste_the_Difference_Outdoor_Bred_Pork_Chipolata_12_per_pack_400g.html http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-price-comparison/Sausages_And_Burgers/Sainsburys_Taste_the_Difference_Outdoor_Bred_Pork_Sausages_6_per_pack_400g.html I will have to try the butcher department.