fvandrog

I just got the Manresa cookbook -- it looks great indeed. Many original ideas for garden produce. Curiously the first recipe starts of with green tomatoes, due to the season I have quite a few of them now. This weekend will give me the opportunity to experiment a bit!

Please note I added "to me" to that statement. I have worked in labs on the East coast as well as on the West coast and without an exception all protocols and SOPs are in metric; all publications in peer reviewed journals are in metric and I am pretty sure scientists would be extremely surprised if data at a scientific meeting are presented with imperial units. I still shudder when I think back to the electric oven we had on one apartment we lived in when in San Diego -- I don't remember whether it was off by 35 degrees F or C, but using it to bake presented a very steep learning curve. F.

I bought the electronic version a while ago, since the title and the approach appealed to me. Whereas the overall theme and subjects tackled is indeed interesting and nice, and the photography very high quality I am overall very disappointed. To me, the title implies a scientific approach. Using Fahrenheit, ounces and quarts is decisively unscientific to me -- but I can imagine the commercial interest in gearing for the US market and can understand that. However, cups of lightly packed brown sugar, teaspoons of salt and any other volumetric measurement for dry ingredients is as far ways from a real Food lab as you can get. For me, it is a missed chance and I wouldn't recommend this book in general and certainly not to the crowd here. F.

I'd argue that the positive effects are additive. Induction provides fast heating in any case, but the presence of hot spots depends on the size and the distribution of the coils in the hob as well as the thermal conduction characteristics of the pan. I am convinced that a good cook gets much better results using cheap pans on a bad electric hob than a lousy cook with the best copper pans on a great induction hob That said, I am happy to exploit the advantage using copper on induction might bring.

That's exactly the one I bought. Very solid with 2 mm copper (well, I guess 1.8 mm copper and 0.2 mm stainless steel -- and the additional magnetic steel at the bottom for induction) but not unwieldy or exceedingly heavy. I have looked at the Siemens, the Miele and the Gaggenheim ones. Between 3000 and 4500 Euro are the prices I have seen. That's down 1000 bucks compared to a year and a half ago. We'd like to have a new by the years end ideally, so I don't have the time to wait for prices to descend further. The good thing is that these seem to be the second generation free zone cook-tops; I have nothing against being an early adapter but am not too keen on running into the quirks of brand new electronics in a kitchen bought for 10+ years.

Well, I paid 323 Euros for it in France (Beaune) -- but bought in a real shop where I could hold a whole lot of copper and other cookware in my hands and compare. Certainly, the Prima Matera line is top quality. We're changing our kitchen, but I am still undecided what induction hob to go for. I am strongly tempted by a free-zone one, but they are still on the expensive side, thou prices have been coming down. On the other hand, considering what I invest in cookware the price of the hob is of course reasonable

Yes I have... so I bought one this weekend. I decided to go for the 24 cm rounded saute pan since that has the size and volume I tend to use most. Of course I have only used it briefly so far and can't give an extensive review. However, it is not to heavy to handle even when filled to the rim, and the stainless steel handle does not get to hot to handle -- which is a definitive advantage over my cast iron cookware. So far the cooking characteristics are great -- but there's a range of things I haven't tried including high heat

Now that that's out of the way — did anybody have a look at "Plenty More" by Ottolenghi?

I downloaded it as ordered to do The first chapter I read in detail, the rest I just glanced through, so my impressions are mainly based on that first part, though the rest of the book appeared to uphold the same standards. As with all McLagan's books, it is both very well researched and written with many facts, anecdotes and personal experiences interspersing the recipes. The photography is great, it manages to make raw produce look appetizing — which asks much more craftsmanship than making plated dishes look good. The first chapter is about bitter greens, and provides a number of different recipes for endives, chicory, dandelions and radicchio (it is the right time of the year for a number of those,and i actually still have some chicory in my garden!). Some of the recipes are the old and trusted familiars (Belgian endives with ham), some are new but sound doable, even for a family with kids (chicory with anchovy dressing) whereas others seem outright adventurous (a chicory & blood orange combination). For the crew here, the difficulty level should not be an issue at all, and a multitude of recipes lend themselves for elaboration. Yesterday we made as a variant on a one of the recipes chicory with a warm gorgonzola sauce, which the adults liked and the facial expression of the kids were more or less kept in check while eating (at times to be considered a major success!). The only peeve I have with Bitter is that it appears to be rather US/American centered (surprisingly, as written by an Aussie living in Canada!). Some of the 'hard to find', 'uncommon' and 'new on the market here' produce was prepared way back then by my mom, who is far from an adventurous cook. That being said, the second chapter starts of with a number of beer based recipes and I am very much looking forward to having a very close look at them tonight. All in all I can heartily recommend Bitter by McLagan, especially at the rather modest price piont.

To my embarrassment I have admit that I purchased the ebook, but haven't even downloaded it. Will do so tonight!

But then, why do we hear so many complaints here about customers that tip badly? I'd say bad tippers are part of the system, you can't have your cake and eat it too....

Apart from the ubiquitous rhubarb compote, which occurs very frequently on our table during spring time, I made some rhubarb-ginger marmalade earlier this year. It goes especially well on crepes, a combination that's an all time favorite with our children. I also made a rhubarb-strawberry sorbet, which was appropriately refreshing.

Uch, a 2009 Castello di Bibbione (Chianti Classico) which is outright horrible. An, if I recall correctly, I paid the equivalent of $18 for the bottle.

I guess it never hurts to be ambitious, especially if you are Myhrvold. Personally, I'd be already happy with a somewhat intelligent oven using temperature probes for the dish that regulate the oven output.

That's truly impressive!! Though they might have been cut too thin, it looks wonderful.