Plantes Vertes

Is it too Dante of me to wish that the Purgatory sip should be bitter and the back of the swallow ambrosially sweet? ET spell right

The temperance movement in the UK produced a variety of herbal health tonics and cordials, like dandelion and burdock or sarsaparilla. That's the angle I would pursue. Not the non-alcoholic angle. No.

As I understand it, it has to do with the action of enzymes on the vegetable. Brief boiling will kill the enzymes, which would otherwise continue active in the freezer and destroy the flavour and texture of the food. As far as I know it's the case with all home freezing, but I wonder whether rapid commercial freezing at lower temps would be enough to kill the enzymes without blanching.

Yes, no problem with either vegetable; cut, blanch 2mins, cool and lay on baking sheets to freeze, then transfer to a ziplock. Do not freeze the veggies from raw as they will discolour and go mushy when defrosted.

My brother visited from Tunisia so we ate... Indian food. Made rajma (kidney bean and tomato curry), palak anda (spinach and egg curry) raita (cucumber and yogurt sauce) and basmati. Drank a Gruner Veltliner with it. It is so sweet to have dinner with my family!

David, I think your heart knows the ham he desires! Don't settle for second best.

I will preface my remarks by saying that I have not made a study of this, but I hope my impressions might be useful... If you added infinite veggies, could you reduce the cooking time to zero? No; there must be a certain amount of time required to cook the vegetable to the point of giving up its flavour, and this will be constant no matter how many veggies you cook at once. If you cook a large quantity of vegetables in a small amount of water, the flavour will be more concentrated, but for a conventional simmer you will always need a volume of water relative to veggies that is adequate to submerge them. You can further concentrate the flavour by reducing the stock once the veggies are out. Maybe pressure cooking would be the solution to reduce cooking time? The most closely related thread title is here, although there are other discussions on pressure cooking that mention stock, and on pressure cooking stock in the Modernist Cuisine thread, to be found here. Good luck with your experiments!

Smithy, sorry, I wasn't very clear there - you put the egg into the container with the flavouring while it's still raw and in the shell, then once the flavours have penetrated (after a few days) you can cook it however you like; shirred would be perfect. I just mentioned SV as the OP was already thinking of using that technique.

If you put the egg in a sealed container with something very aromatic, like saffron, garlic, turmeric, truffles or whatever it is you like with eggs, the egg will absorb the flavour somewhat. Then you can have a nice SV egg with just a little accent in the taste.

You prefer to keep your mouth shut, I see...

This is why I have clung resolutely to my amateur status despite strong pressure to go pro.

Hey Joe. Citrus fruit (and I would guess figs too although I've never tried that) - 2-3 weeks Herbs and peppers - couple of days. Don't worry about the fruit going off; it's long past that.

Not surprised you were thinking slowly!

And you make it back up off the floor how on a Wednesday?

I emailed an acquaintance whom I thought might be able to help. It might take him some time to reply as he is very busy, but I'll let you know if I hear back.

That sauce sounds pretty special!

Norm, do you think that the cider and the fat would combine successfully throughout cooking, and how do you think adding alcohol would affect the confiting process? Or maybe you were thinking of marinating the pork before cooking?

Well this could avoid the fruit mush difficulty, but I would still have doubts about the possibility of flavouring the meat. There are two questions in my mind; first, is apple (or apple peel) really a strong enough flavour to impart its taste to the very large quantity of fat required for confit and then transmit it to the cooking pork? Second, is oily fruit actually a desirable flavour anyway? I haven't eaten meat in years so I'm obviously no expert here, but in my stomach's imagination the nice thing about pairing pork and fruit is that the refreshing sweetness and acidity contrast with and remain independent from the fat and savoury aspects of the meat. I'm not sure that wedding the fat and the fruit would be a success. I wouldn't knock the idea though, by all means the OP should give it a go and see what happens - maybe it'll be delicious!

If you cook an apple it goes to puree within a few minutes, so I could see the fruit just becoming dispersed in a gigantic amount of fat and becoming inedible/irretrievable while also ruining the fat for future use. I wonder also whether the relatively mild flavour of an apple could really penetrate the meat in the same way garlic or herbs could. If you wanted to try that I would probably go for a small test sample in the first instance.

When I make a drink I congratulate myself on saving money because I did not buy it in a bar. It would take a lot of limes to persuade me against this pleasant way of lying to myself.

Dejah, this soup would be my death row meal, for sure. I love it too. I like the broth with more stuff in as well, like beansprouts, mushrooms, mange tout... I didn't use a recipe but I can remember what I put in I think. I made 3 1/2 pt of soup using 1 can of coconut milk and vegetable broth for the rest of the liquid. First I fried 5 spring onions, 3 huge cloves of garlic and a deseeded red chilli, finely chopped, in oil until soft. Then I added the liquids plus juice of 1 1/2 limes, zest of 1/2, a grated 3/4 inch of ginger, a bashed stalk of lemongrass still in one piece, salt and pepper and I'd say two very generous handfuls of chopped coriander leaves. Simmered about 15mins. So good.

What a beautiful and enticing paeon to breakfast in an enchanted country. Bravo Btissame!

In France there's quite a trend for savoury cakes; salmon, olives, ham, lardons, herbs, dried tomatoes, cheese, onion... it's a firm, loaf-style cake that can be sliced. If the idea appeals let me know what sort of flavouring ingredients you prefer and I will happily translate a recipe or two (or if you speak French, just Google recette cake salé, or do so then use Google Translate). Pinwheels could also go down well. ,

Coconut soup with coriander, ginger, lime juice and zest, spring onions, chillies, lemongrass and garlic.

Mushroom and leek risotto