A Scottish Chef

Here's one you might enjoy, too. I sell this in my takeaway. Ingredients - 4 onions medium diced Gram flour Water Heaped tablespoon of finely chopped coriander - use stem only for a more intense result 2 tablespoon of lemon juice teaspoon of salt teaspoon of cumin powder teaspoon of turmeric teaspoon of dhania powder (coriander) teaspoon of garam masala oil for deep frying Method Mix all of the ingredients except the gram and water in a bowl. Squeezing the mix together with your hands works best. Add a good handfull of gram flour and continue to squeeze into the onion mix. Add water, whilst continuing to squeeze the mix together, until you have a thick, gloopy mix. Much thicker than Simon's yorkshire pudding suggestion. Drop a generously heaped tablespoon of the mix into hot oil and fry for 2 minutes. Remove the bhajee, drain and flatten out into a patty shape. Place back into the oil and fry until dark, golden brown. Great served with tandoori raita and raw onions in lemon juice with chopped coriander leaves.

I love your modesty

And the obvious answer is to enable one to make things with gram flour. Nothing silly about it, Simon, I buy a 6 x 1Kg case of this regularly. TRS brand is king in my kitchen. I sell it to customers in 1Kg bags and was once memorably asked, "Why is that called Gram? It look a lot heavier than that."

It's a cream soup. It's oulined in the Répertiore as follows; Freneuse. - Turnip and potato pureé. Cream and butter. I like to add a 1/6th of a bar of creamed coconut whilst softening the potato and turnip in butter and finish the soup with some creme fraiche and a dash of malibu. Creme Freneuse is glorious

My first cookbook of any kind was Louis Saulnier's, 'Le Répetoire de la cuisine'. I still refer to it fairly regularly and having just flicked through it, I'm going to make Creme Freneuse for my family this evening

And the reason I changed the signature is the fact I no longer kill things with the grill. I've finally gotten used to CateringCo style kitchen layout whereby the grill is located 30 yards around a corner from the main cooking range. It's less than ideal for cooking attentively, but is fantastic for personal fitness.

It's a chiding/piss take comment used by Chefs at CaterinCo to suggest you might want to rush and check on an item being cooked. Chef A, "Whats black and live under the grill?" Chef B, "Fuck!" Chef B hastily moves to grill to discover whether the bread/bacon/steak/sausage/burger/oats/etc are charred to death or the piss taking Chef A has saved the day for him. Others I have heard include, Q. "Whats red and black and lives on the stove?" A. Burnt plum tomatoes. Q. "Whats yellow and green and lives in the steamer.?" A. Those damned scrambled eggs I asked about initially. I had read here, or either from a link here or after searching for something after reading a post here, that the reason the eggs may have turned green could be from too long an exposure to stainless steel. The eggs scrambled in the steamer are cooked in stainless steel gastronorm pans. I suggested this to my colleagues and they rounded on me to tell me they were simply overcooked. Now I knew about the reaction that Holly described, but I was/am unsure this would be applicable to eggs beaten to be scrambled. I'm thinking I may have come across the information after searching for the McChef wannabe Ferran Adria or in a link to the Fat Duck site. I can't find the site where I read it now!

Probably my favourite recipe and certainly the one I turn to twice a week or more. Ingredients. One half bottle of fine whisky. Antiquary a current favourite. 4/6 bottles of Staropramen. One Scottish Chef One Kitchen. Method. Add whisky and lager to Scottish Chef Let result loose in Kitchen. My recipe for cream of haggis soup will be with eGullet by May.

I'm sure I read something on eGullet recently about how exposing eggs to stainless steel for too long turned them green. I'm not absolutely certain however, but, in any event, I'd like to know if this is indeed the case. If it is so, why does this happen and how best can it be avoided?

How wrong can one Angerlander be? Scotland is awash with class A Indian restaurants. None more famous than the fantastic Cafe India in Glasgow. Creme de la Creme has the distinction of being Europes largest Indian restaurant and I'm of the opinion that no restaurent could be this successful, on such a grand scale, if it seved up bog standard slop. On the occasions I have been to either the food has been fabulous. I'm going to feast myself at the highly rated Mother India this wednesday and I expect nothing less than a sensational dining experience. I'll be making a point of asking to talk with the Chefs and offer them a chance to reject your assertion that they offer nothing particular to Scotland. I'm betting that the first known/recorded curry dish in Britain from 1791 is pretty particular to Scotland.

Clearly there are different types of Tawa, then. I have two. One is round and flat and is used by me for making chapati, the other is long, rectangluar and flat that I once (unsuccessfully) tried to use to make naan's with. One major difference between a chinese wok and the karahi is weight. I wouldn't fancy trying to toss food in a karahi as I can in a wok.

It's very necessary if you want deep fried popadoms

For what it's worth, Bri, I too have erroneously tried to skimp here and shave costs there in my own business. At least the errors were in the areas I chose to cut costs initially. Result? Lost sales which is bad. Badder result was lost customers who clearly thought I was taking the rip over such trivial matters as charging £0.99 for a side-salad that was previously free. Another example of this was an offer I had where customers buying two curries recieved free popadoms and half price naans. I decided it was so popular that I could get away with charging full price for the naan. The outcome was many lost sales with the net result of lower profitability. I re-instated all the good stuff I idiotically removed and now make my savings elsewhere. I let my suppliers know I am constantly checking their price against competitors and that I will always do so. I don't take stupid risks by alienating my suppliers, but I do expect them to price match provided the qaulity of goods is always similar. Now I have cheaper gas and cheaper electricity. I buy cleaning materials in bulk and save that way. I invested in better oils that last longer and so cost less in the long run and so on. I got my savings, my customers got the 'free' salads. Penny wise dollar foolish is spot on - I saved pennies for a few weeks, but lost plenty in disappeared sales for many more weeks.

Thats not such an easy question to answer. I've tried many, many varieties not all of them good. I currently use a brand simply called Madras which cost about £3.50 for 300. I have found the morse expensive the popadom the better the result. But, really, I haven't found any that cost more than £4 for 200. They were good, but no better than the Madras ones I currently use.

Just perfect.

I think that's the worst thing I've read here yet. Actually, that wasn't too bad. They were good hotdogs and the stilton was excellent. I also know Haggis soup will become a great dish. I'll get it perfected sooner rather than later.

What is this?

Was the dipping chocolate bitter or sweet?

Mr Ramsay is a Scot alright, but clearly he has suffered from a terrible problem facing most Scots living south of the border. The problem being that the English think we talk too fast. I know, of course, that the real problem is the ubiquitous English slow listening defect. Some Scots, Mr Ramsay included, make allowances and work diligently to speak slower for Englands benefit. Tragically it often results in a voice so devoid of character that the good peoples of the world are no longer certain they are hearing the authentic Scottish brogue. In Mr Ramsays defence it should be noted that he supports the mighty Rangers and that he also invented Chicken Tikka Masala. In time I fully expect my lager soup to attain similar success on a global scale.

There, then, are those mitigating circumstances I talked of.

I'd love to tell you these terrible concoctions are a terrible memory from the dark, distant past. Really I would. But, at least half of them have been created/consumed this year. The Lager, bran flake and baked bean soup as recent an experience as last week. In my defence, there are mitigating circmstances.

Eh, well. Cough, cough, cough... Haggis soup. Yes: tinned haggis with water, seasoning and cornflour to thicken it. Haggis soup with branston pickle. Haggis soup with baked beans and creme fraiche. Easily the worst of the three. Bran flakes, a tin of tomato soup, cheddar and pickled onions with a little milk for creaminess (?!) all blended then nuked. Hot dog and stilton omelette. Soy flour deep fried pancakes (can't think of what else to call them) served with smoked sausage and HP sauce. Corned beef and mushy pea stew and a chow mein pot noodle. Toasted Panettone with bacon, onion and edam and curry sauce. Pilau rice, onion bhajee and mushy peas. Bran flakes, baked beans and lager. Again, thickened with cornflour. I could go on.

Suvir, it's great to see you in such high spirits. Considering the circumstance of your life at this time, I find your generosity of spirit utterly refreshing. As we say hearabouts: Lang may yer lum reek!

I find the food and the culture surrounding it's creation absolutely fascinating. I love talking with the Chefs I know from Pakistan and India about their food as, amongst other benefits, it highlights over and over the breathtaking diversity of food offered from the region. I also love to hear those pakistani and Indian Chefs argue passionately about who created what and who makes the best or most creative use of all the ingredients at their disposal. I've yet to taste an indian dish I did not at least like. Some I absoutely adore. Like dopiaza, bhuna, tandoori naan, popadoms, mushroom bhajjee, chicken pakora, chicken tikka and probably my favourite dish of all time: the peerless burryani. Truly a dish fit for the Gods. I love the colours (yes, even the alarming reds), the aromas, the contrast of both flavour and textures in many dishes. Have you ever seen how gorgeous an Indian feast can look? Such a beautiful riot of colour and flavours is impossible for me to resist. And it need not be always complex. It doesn't get much simpler than a snack of fresh Popadom with a mint raita, but the crisp, nutty, still warm Popadom is a marvel to taste when dipped in the smooth, cool raita. It's great fun to eat into the bargain. I'll always prefer the relaxed, casual meal where people tear naans and use them to scoop up sauce to devour over formal restaurants where all too often the procession of dishes is stuffily regimented - starter, main dish, dessert. Yawn. Sit at an indian feast and help yourself with hands, breads and mouth to whatever takes your fancy. Want to dip a piece of vegetable pakora into the Kashmiri sauce? Go right ahead. It tastes great, too. I find the whole eating experience with Indian cuisine to be extraordinarily tactile. Another aspect I love about the culture and the cusine is the enthusiam of Chefs from Scotland as to how to cook the dishes well. Glasgow, reputedly, has more Indian restaurants per head of capita than anywhere one earth barring Bombay itself. It's great to speak daily with Chefs with an enthusiam for learning about a cuisine that is far and away Scotland's most popular food. I could talk for hours about why I love Indian food, but it's near one am and I have to rise in five hours to work. I'm treating myself to haldi chicken dopiaza for lunch simply because I can

I have had trouble on occasion with too much oil residue on the finished popadoms as well. The things I noticed that were creating the problem were as follows. 1. Not using completely fresh oil. With fresh oil you can see the popadom almost instantly dry seconds after removal from the wok. Conversly, pre-used oil almost always sees the popadom leave the wok with an unwelcome sheen of oil. 2. The oil not being hot enough. This will be a persistant problem with oils with a low smoking point. 3. The oil being too hot - as the oil burns and breaks down you can get quite terrible results. It's very important to be fast whilst making the popadoms as they reduce the heat of the oil slightly when dropped in. Ensuring you have all the popdooms you intend to make to hand will help you produce them quickly enough to control the oil temp by swift, repetitive slight cooling of the oil. If you aren't fast enough, you need to try and control the oil temp by adjusting the heat being applied to the wok. Predictably, this usually means the oil is persistantly not quite hot enough. 4. Not standing the popadoms in a basket/container so they were upright thus allowing any excess oil to run off the popadom. 5. Variable qaulity of the popadoms - the poorer ones have tended to retain excess oil on their surface in my experience. However, it's not the easiest trick to know what is going to produce poorer results just by looking at them. Ideally, placing the popadom upright in absorbant paper should only be required to collect tiny amounts of residue. There should be no need to try and wipe the popadom or anything like that. I hope this helps.