Jump to content

Plantes Vertes

participating member
  • Posts

    895
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Plantes Vertes

  1. Yeux Carrés One to sip in front of the TV.
  2. £35 = $59US You people don't know you're born.
  3. I also vote for peppers, but would roast them first.
  4. Based on this I thought it might be how you write Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao post-Hallelujah, although I see that doesn't make much sense from the KC recipe...
  5. Are these changes deliberate huiray? If so, what are your reasons?
  6. Two days ago I attended the RAW Artisan Wine Fair in London. I would really recommend it if anyone can get to the one in Vienna starting June 15 2014 as it was a very informative event. The first thing I did was hear a talk by Isabelle Legeron, a natural wine advocate and the author of Natural Wine. It included a blind tasting of two Pouilly-Fumé samples produced from grapes from the same plot and in the same year, one natural and one conventional. The difference was really amazing; the conventional wine was highly acid and rather monotonous, with (what is often described as) a cat's pee flavour, and lacked the complex grass/vegetal notes that are appreciated in Sauvignon Blanc. It was very pale in colour. The natural example was a rich gold and much thicker in texture and had an exciting, varied aroma. It tasted beautifully of grapes, rather than gooseberries or apples, of leaves and also of cream and almonds, which are not flavours I normally expect from this grape. Unfortunately I was not able to hear the name of the producers. At this point I was ready to become a disciple, but several audience members spoke eloquently during the Q+A on their reasons for doubting the natural wine movement. These included the fact that lack of stabilising ingredients and standardised practices can lead to some very idiosyncratic wines, not all of which express the character of the grape very well in their view. In this light I managed to reserve judgement until I had actually tasted more than one wine... In fact I was a little disappointed. (This should be qualified by noting that I am not at all knowledgeable about wine and went to the fair to learn; it is very possible that I did not understand some of the wines and would have appreciated them more with a better understanding.) I tasted Central European and Balkan whites and French reds, as an arbitrary way of narrowing down the gigantic number of wines available. Among the whites I noted several with a very disconcerting aroma and flavour of cabbage; this confused me because I would have associated this element with sulphur, which is only minimally present in natural wines. Perhaps these were higher-sulphur wines within the group and stood out especially because of the generally low sulphur presence. On the other hand, the variety of the white wines was very impressive and I suppose that was the result of the more variable production methods and of the element of hazard involved in natural fermentation. I particularly noticed some extremely dry whites that also had quite low acidity, and the presence of very pronounced forest flavours of mushrooms, nuts and earth, neither of which I was used to from (cheap ) conventional wine. That was especially true of the wines from Georgia. The reds were generally rather sour, which I did not enjoy very much. There are no acidity regulators in natural wine, so perhaps that's the reason. I tasted fewer of these as I was getting less able to taste properly by that point. The first wine I tasted out in the hall, Stag Beetle Earthbarell Sauvignon Blanc-Chardonnay from Weingut Andreas Tscheppe, was however spectacular. I will try to get around to posting some detailed comments on it and some other wines I tasted when I get home and have my notes on hand. Apart from my opinion of individual bottles, I was very much impressed by the producers that I encountered at the fair. It was not at all my impression that natural wine is a marketing strategy for them; indeed several of them expressed their values with respect to care for nature, tradition and heritage, organic methods and so on with great feeling and it was apparent that they make extensive and profound sacrifices in terms of profit and production scale in service of these and I was absolutely convinced of their sincerity.
  7. You clearly have an acute regard to taxonomy in domestic storage. This was in the box of Very Important Things
  8. I like the local angle Missy. Welcome to eGullet!
  9. I can only get this wine as part of a case, so will join in the next one.
  10. Brined fish makes me think of Russian food. I would serve it dressed with onions and vinegar with a potato and a cucumber salad. There's also a dish called 'fish in furs' which is brined fish layered with sliced potatoes, eggs and beetroot and dressed with mayonnaise. You could mix it with butter, horseradish, lemon juice and creme fraiche in a food processor to make a pate and serve it on toast or little pancakes with cucumber pickles. There's a kimchi and mackerel stew as well called godeungeo kimchi jorim. My housemate loves canned mackerel with onion and chilli in tomato sauce, for pasta.
  11. Yasai yaki soba is stir-fried vegetables (carrot, beansprouts, cabbage) and eggs with soba. Shred and stir-fry the veg starting with the firmest, boil the noodles until slightly under-done and drain. Beat the eggs and add to the veg, stir more then add the noodles, take off the heat and cover to steam for a few minutes. Dress with a sauce of 4:2:2:1:1 by volume of mirin, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, grated ginger. Garnish with pickled ginger, black sesame seeds and chopped scallions. Toshikoshi soba (New Year's noodle soup) is cooked soba added to a dashi broth flavoured with mirin, soy sauce and a bit of sugar and garnished with chopped scallions, nanami spice mix and other stuff like spinach, seaweed, fishcakes, cooked vegetables depending on taste and region.
  12. How many friends do you have??
  13. It looks like you could have fruit salad or compote, or smoothies for breakfast. Then there are always eggs/omelet. The sort of vegetables permitted looks like it could make some good stir fries. You could also do roasted Mediterranean vegetables or squash as a side dish. Consider browning your vegetables as a way of concentrating flavour without onions. Check out Jain cooking - Jains forbid onion and garlic on religious grounds. Also bear in mind that your palate will adapt quickly and you will probably not miss these ingredients so strongly for long. Other flavours will become more pronounced instead. Increase the herbs and spices in recipes that would usually use aliums. If scallion greens are allowed maybe chives or ramp leaves will be too; I'm not sure whether citrus zest is although I see that fruit juice is not. Other sources of flavour include pickles, olives, capers, tapenade and pesto, cured meat and fish like anchovies, wine, nuts and seeds, mustard, infused oils and the oils of various nuts and seeds eg sesame oil, flavoured vinegars like tarragon vinegar or balsamic vinegar. You can get gluten-free flour that will typically be a blend of the following grains; you might consider buying a bread maker as purchasing wheat-free bread is not cheap. The gluten-free grains are apparently amaranth, buckwheat, corn, oats, millet, quinoa, rice and wild rice, sorghum and teff. A rice cooker will come in handy if you want to eat a lot of these grains. Rinse them before cooking. Teff flour is traditional in East African pancakes (injera) but it is a bit difficult to handle and also to get hold of so perhaps not the most accessible place to start; there are threads about it on this site though if you are interested. Amaranth is very rich in protein; its seeds can be made into a flour which would probably be present in gluten-free flour mixes. The whole seeds can be popped in a hot pan and used instead of breadcrumbs for crunch or as a breakfast cereal with milk. Simmer 20mins in 5 times the volume of water, then drain, for a starch side dish. It sort of crunches/bursts when chewed so is quite interesting to eat. Here are quite a few recipes (scroll down). Oats obviously make porridge and muesli. They can also be used to coat fried fish and you can use them to top a vegetable crumble along with seeds or to make oat crackers (here with some other uses). Buckwheat (toasted it is called kasha) can be cooked 20mins in 2 times the volume of water as the starch element of a meal. Soba are Japanese buckwheat noodles; here are some recipes. Refrigerate or freeze the grain to prevent spoiling. Buckwheat galettes are savoury French pancakes filled with ham and cheese or whatever you like. Again they are a bit tricky to make without adding normal wheat flour but there are threads on it on this site and you might be able to buy them premade. Here's a recipe. Corn (aka polenta, masa, mais, grits, maize, melie-meal, cornmeal) is used in cornbread, corn tortillas, polenta (porridge, baked or fried), grits as breakfast cereal or a starch with a meal. Shrimp and grits is a popular dish. Also use cornflour to thicken sauces. Corn flakes could be an alternative to oatmeal. Ground millet porridge can be served for breakfast and the whole grain served as a side dish (simmer in 2 1/2 times the volume of water for 20mins). You can make millet croquettes (omit aliums, increase spices) and a millet bake. Quinoa is also very high in protein and it is also a possibility for breakfast. Cook it in 2 times the volume of water for 20mins. For a morning meal you can add dried fruit, cinnamon and grated carrot or apple pieces. Use it to make a substantial salad or as a stuffing for vegetables (omit onion); cook in broth and add herbs and spices for more flavour. Rice can come as risotto, fried rice, arroz caldo (increase scallions, omit other aliums) arroz verde (use scallions instead of onion), pilaf/pulau/pilow/plov/pulaw/palaw, congee/jook, rice pudding, rice noodles, sushi... you could still make it alongside a stir-fry or curried meat or permitted vegetables. Appam is a rice pancake from India (use nut milk). You could have puffed rice cereal for breakfast. Sorghum flour can be substituted for wheat flour; scroll down for ideas for baked goods, pastry and noodles.
  14. Worship Street seems a strange suggestion in that case... it's in a cellar with no windows and rather twee Prohibition decor and costumes. It is popular but not what it sounds like you're after. Grain Store comes to mind as offering a similar aesthetic and progressive menu, with the provisos that it's ludicrously uncomfortable to sit there unless you're a giant, and that it's more of a daytime bar to my mind. The Hide Bar also looks like it could be similar to Pouring Ribbons in terms of drinks list and layout, but I haven't been yet. Generally big and/or airy means hotel or restaurant bar (Artesian in the Langham, Booking Office in the St Pancras Renaissance or Bassoon in the Corinthia - cost a limb, stuffy atmosphere, dressy; Mark's Bar at HIX Soho, Oscar's at Dabbous or Hawksmoor Spitalfields - somewhat more reasonable and excellent for meat lovers* but all in basements); livelier atmosphere means small dark hole in the ground (or big dark hole or small dark attic) (Purl, ECC, Milk & Honey, the Blind Pig, Happiness Forgets, Knowhere Special). I will try and think of some more constructive tips that actually accord with what you wanted... *Not a euphemism
  15. I wonder whether Parmesan, egg and bacon on toast couldn't do the same job without the kale, though
  16. I can't believe you guys are hugging without me.
  17. The United States Military is here to help! Recipes serve 100.
  18. There should be a hotline to report this sort of thing
  19. I would try combining the meat juices with oil and cooking some shallots, then adding port, sugar and balsamic vinegar and reducing, and finally adding the berries and some thyme and seasoning and simmering for a few minutes, then finishing with butter off the heat.
  20. I think it might eventually contain a great deal of oxalic acid, which could make it quite unpleasant and unhealthy for consumption.
  21. This is more or less my normal method of buying wine so it would seem churlish not to play along...
  22. Me! I live in the UK so will perhaps not have access to the same wines as most here. I'll join in when possible though.
  23. Thanks for the explanation. Egg shopping habits in the UK have thankfully changed massively over the last ten or so years. Free range overtook battery farm eggs in 2012 and several supermarkets only stock free range. Tesco is the biggest supermarket over here; they have said that consumer choice is their priority so still sell eggs from caged hens.
×
×
  • Create New...