Carlovski

Doesn't using that marinade overnight do strange things to the texture of the chicken? I thought pineapple contained evily powerful enzymes.

To make szechuan style chilli oil put about 50 - 75g of crushed chilles into a bottle or preserving jar. If you have whole dried chillies fry them briefly to crisp them up, and crush yourself. Preferably using 'Facing Heaven' style chillies (tricky to source, the Cool Chile company in the UK sell them), or failing that the long red ones you can get in chinese supermarkets, best not to use the tiny thai ones - they are a bit too hot. Pour in about a litre of hot neutral oil - groundnut or sunflower oil will do, not too hot - you don't want to burn them. It should fiz up a bit, and then the chillis will slowy sink down. It's best after a few days resting. For a hotter taste, use a bit of the sediment as well as the oil. You can play with the basic recipe, add some ginger and maybe a star anise for a more fragrant version. Again though, any decent restaurant should be have some in stock if you really want to add more heat, or make dishes hotter for you anyway.

Bring on the Meatini!

Dear Francesca by Mary Contini has a great description of how to prepare all'oglio pasta dishes with several variations. Good read too.

Variations on this are pretty much a staple for me - I often add Broccoli (Purple sprouting when it's in season - must have had it about 10 times in April) and sometimes a few anchovy fillets. One slight variation I urge people to try is to add the the zest of a decent sized lemon, parsley and a small squeeze of the lemon juice. I usually make it with linguini. A good tip is to slightly underdo the pasta, then add the the oil in the pan with a bit of the water, then add the lemon juice. Allow to cook further in the sauce - for longer than usual so the pasta ends up slightly fried with the lemon zest and parsely clinging to the strands, even slightly browned and crispy in places. You may want a final slug of well flavoured oil. No cheese with this one, but a handful of crisp breadrumbs (Maybe with a hint of rosemary?) are good.

As far as I am aware, it is only really a problem with cheap battery chickens. The poor diet and rapid growth means the bones are not properly calcified before they are slaughtered. Hend the redness at the bones - Quite oftern no amount of cooking can completely remove it. It causes a bit of a double whammy, intensively reared tasteless chicken which gets overcooked to dryness.

May I also suggest the addition of a little smoked mackerel (Idea nicked from Nigel Slater). Complete meal with a green salad. Might need to make a bigger one though!

I never understand people who say they can't be bothered to cook when it is just for themselves, personally I cook for myself 90% of the time. Portion control can be awkward, especially when cooking from recipes, and wastage on prepacked ingredients can be annoying (Or even not packaged - case in point, celery. If I want a stick to dice for a mirepoix I have to by a whole head. And I am not going to eat it raw - see my sig!). But the advantage of cooking what you like, how you like it far outweigh the disadvantages.

I may be slighty out of date, and my knowlege is more around the lower end - I was a student in Durham! The Court Inn does fairly decent pub food - might be alright for lunch (Gets busy though - be warned) The Coq au Brie (Basically a chicken, brie and bacon toasty in eggy bread heavy but tasty) always used to be a favourite. Bimbis does good fish and chips (Go the the one near the Market square, not the one near the bus station) There are lots of pizza/pasta places (With cheap student deals). La Spaghettata is probably the pick, although De Medicis is nice in a checked tablecloth/chianti bottle candles kind of way! Durham is a lovely place by the way. Try popping in the Shakespeare pub for a bit of interest (If it is still open!)

The name!

CAn I also add recommendations for a good lancashire (Mrs Kirkhams is usually a good bet) and blue shropshire? And don't forget, the sign of a good cheese shop is when you walk out with something you have never heard of before.

Anyone seen that report where computer keyboard contain 10 times more bugs than toilet seats? As long as you don't do anything obviously stupid I don't think it's worth getting too worried about it in your own home (Young kids or elderely/infirm relatives etc, then maybe a bit more careful) There was a program on in the UK to find the countries worst cook. Didn't see it, but apparently there was a scene where one woman was attempting to defrost chicken by running it under warm water, then use the same water to wash the salad

I likes Bolsts too, but it can be quite hard to track down

I liked the 'Place the F***ing onions' myself. Seems odd that if they were struggling making money that they didn't decide to open weekends. shortage of mullet could have been a limiting factor

I liked the 'Place the F***ing onions' myself. Seems odd that if they were struggling making money that they didn't decide to open weekends.

Scared, she was terrifying! To be fair, people always come across a bit over the top on those sort of programs (I'd imagine there was a fair amount of editing going on as well) I thought that dish with the salad 'Tree' rising a foot high in the middle looked a bit over the top. Pigs head looked good though.

Farfalle with purple sprouting broccoli and dolcelatte (And a hefty wedge of butter!)

I'd agree, unless you get it super young and fresh, even the innermost leaves are still pretty tough!

Probably the same reason he writes a TV column, but doesn't make tv programmes. Basically, he gets paid because he likes moaning, eating and watching telly. Are you sure we aren't just jealous?

Dale De Groff mixes a couple of spirits and is a genius. But mix a couple of different wines, and you are a philistine? What is the difference?

And don't forget Oh Margey you came and you found me a turkey On my vacation away from workey (To the tune of 'Mandy')

Obviously very tongue in cheek. I imaging what he trying to say in #5 is that just because it is Chardonnay (Normally seen as the 'Vanilla' of the wine world. Sometimes literally!), doesn't mean it is bad, and just because it is riesling or viognier (Hyped as the thinking mans choice) that it is good. Basically a sideswipe at the reverse wine snobbery which is going round. And #19, old vines may make a difference, but having it on the label doesn't necessary mean anything.

Thought I'd ressurect this one. I wanted something quick and easy last night, so knocked up a frittata/bastardised tortilla. I was going to make a spanish tortilla, but had a few bits and bobs to use up, and wanted something a bit more substantial, so did the usual tortilla technique of frying lots of onions, and sliced potato in copious amounts of olive oil, and added a few cloves of crushed garlic for a change as well. When they were almost done, I also added about 10/12 spears of purple sprouting broccoli (About all that can cheer me up in dull miserable march) and some strips of bacon that I had previously fried till crispy. Added beaten, seasoned eggs (Only had six, really needed about 8 I think) and cooked on low heat till it started to firm up. I then did the 'flip on a plate' trick to cook the top, and for once didn't lose half of it on the floor. I should have let it cool really, but was hungry and ate half right away. I cut a wedge out later when it was just warm, and it was much better at that temperature. Needed the extra eggs really, there were lots of bits sticking out (Which is no bad thing, as they caught the pan and crisped up nicely), but it wasn't really thick enough, so didn't stay as moist in the centre as I would like. I'm having the rest for my lunch at work, so must remember to take it out of the fridge about an hour before. Good new one to add to my things to do with purple sprouting list though (And it didn't really need the bacon). BTW Anyone lese really dissapointed how it loses the purple colour as soon as you cook it? Is there any way too keep it?

Most chinese cooking techniques go to great lengths to remove 'Raw' or 'Rank' meat tastes and aromas, initially blanching in boiling water and adding ingredients to counteract the taste are very common (Ginger, rice wine in particular)

Kale is great. I love all greens, but apart from some of the oriental ones, I think Kale is my favourite. It ususally is a good idea to remove the tough stalky bit (Although I tend not to bother in soups). Its great shredded and put into Mashed potato too, with lots and lots of butter. Simply lighty boiled, and then quickly fried with oil and garlic (And maybe a bit of chilli too) it is a great veggie dish.