Denadar

Sofra is quite near http://www.sofra.co.uk/sofra_coventgarden.htm and if you like Turkish mezze it would be good for you and your friends to share.

I have the Flavour thesaurus http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flavour-Thesaurus-Niki-Segnit/dp/0747599777/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372099610&sr=1-1&keywords=the+flavour+thesaurus which is quite good, but according to the reviews I read it was the bees knees. It isn't as comprehensive as I would have liked. I use it mostly for checking on something I might have in the cupboard/fridge and want different ideas of how to use it,.

I like leg of lamb cooked in the oven and still pink on the inside. I think one of my favourites is making incisions in the meat and inserting slivers of garlic with some rosemary and anchovies - It is really delicious. Another favourite is to coat with a shawarma spice mix as Yotam Ottolenghi recommends in his book "Jerusalem".

I love beets but have always cooked them before using but I made raw pickled beets (a bit like the Middle Eastern pickled turnips) for the first time a few days ago to go with a salmon starter. Can't stop eating them they are so delicious I love the cooked ones with smoked salmon and creme fraiche with a smidgeon of horseradish. I think the are good as a "dauphinoise" too. Sweat some finely chopped onions with garlic and put in the bottom of an oven proof dish, layer with beets, then cream, season as you go, and as many layers of this as you want. Bake in a medium oven for about 45 - 50 mins. Lovely. So many good recipes.

Here in the U.K.they are called "Underground restaurants" and although not strictly legal, there are sme quite fsmous "hosts" and "blogs". http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/10/underground-restaurants-london

That's good to know Ninagluck, we thought it was too much thyme - your comment gives me the impetus to make it now. His recipes do taste amazing don't they, well the ones I have made do. I keep meaning to blanch the garlic clove in milk as he suggests, but I don't often have milk around, maybe one day.

I have Ottolenghi's "Plenty" which has some really good recipes which even my son, a confirmed omnivore,(think he'd be a carnivore if he could!), really likes.

Hi Honkman, yes I do have a list and was going to paste it here, but read the rider at the bottom and I think I would be going into a copyright situation, so will paraphrase. The ones that were going to be corrected in the next edition were the lemon tart (above) and the other was the chocolate ganache (page 332) the amounts should be halved and the ramekins should be 7cm wide and the ring cutter (for the ganache) should be 3cm wide. I found the replies from the Fat Duck team rather offhand and curt, almost to the point of being rude. As if we should not have dared to query anything. I also queried the mushroom cream recipe (but the recipe was right) but said it would have been helpful to have known the size of the glass. I was told a Pousse cafe glass, which I'm afraid didn't really help me. By the way, it was really delicious and my guests were really impressed. Took a long time to make though and although really delicious I'm not sure I would do it again. We also queried the amount of thyme in the parfait alcohol reduction (page 103) as the recipe stated '15g sprigs of thyme'. The person who was making it said she had just gone into into the garden and cut a handful of sprigs of thyme and counted and weighed them. 15 sprigs weighed 3 grams, 75 sprigs of thyme would have to be used to arrive at 15g and it did seem rather an overkill of thyme - we were told it was the right amount and that supermarkets sold 20g packets of thyme for about a £1.00. (Yeah right, people who buy this book don't know you can buy herbs!!!!) We also queried the amount of Bois Boudron (page 267) and were told Heston had said in the intro that it was good for the BBQing and could be halved. I think after the tone of the reply we just gave each other tips. Everything that we made though was fantastic and I am still glad I have the book and will continue to try the recipes. Have decided that when I make the mushroom parfait though I won't add all the thyme at first. it will be a taste as you go recipe.

I am also a member of a couple of U.K. food forums and and we had a running topic on Cooking with Heston at Home. We found some of the amounts and sizes were wrong so contacted the Publishers "Bloomsbury" who were great and contacted Heston and his team. The problems were sorted out for us. Bloomsbury also said that the next edition would have these changed. I wonder if anyone on here had the same problems, one of which was for the lemon tart (page 310 in my copy) - here's my query - (5) The lemon tart on page 310, which serves 10-12 didn't work with a 20cm x 2cm deep tin. Maybe a larger one should be specified? Their reply - A bigger tin should be used – 26cm wide x 2.5cm deep.

I only have about 350 but I have just bought another two. Think I'll have to buy another bookcase! (Or a bigger house)

I like Lady Grey winter and summer, but on a really cold day chai is wonderful.