jackal10

Hmm..maybe I need to discuss investments with your bank...although I must say my current (private) bank does give good lunches when it wants something from me...no such thing as a free lunch! Mushroom omelettes for supper, with an avocado, which was about the only green thing to hand The dough is rising nicely: it has now had three hours and three turns, an about doubled. In an hour or so I'll portion and shape it, then put it into bannetons overnight in the fridge Edited to add we drank an Anjou Village, 1999, Domaine Des Forges. Claims it won a gold medal in Paris in 2001. £6.40 from Alex Riley Wines.

A culinary Al chait? For the sin wherein we have sinned of using pre-processed foods For the sin wherein we have sinned of burning the pan For the sin wherein we have sinned of over-salting For the sin wherein we have sinned of using non-organic or GM food For the sin wherein we have sinned of using chicken stock in vegetarian dishes For all these forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.. Add you own...

Corporate lunches are indeed the same, except perhaps in France. Depressingly so. Worse, at least in my field, its often the same people, or at least the same recognisable types that attend them...The French are more serious, and are rightly insulted if offered only sandwiches Folded the dough, like making a turn when making flaky laminated pastry. Turn though 90 degrees and do the same, then back in the bowl to rest for another hour.

Salt added. Now the dough ferments for four hours, being folded sides to midle (which stretches the gas cells gently) every hour or so. It alread feels much more like dough. The hydration of the gluten is time, not mechanical work. Converted 1Kg of the white sourdough into Comfort Me's famous double chocolate, adding 1/2 cup of cocoa, an egg, some butter and 12oz/350g of dark chocolate (Green and Black 72% organic cooking chocolate). It was a bit sloppy as I added some more flour. Seems an awful lot of chocolate, and the chumks will make braiding it interesting...

We kick off on Sunday officially at noon (BST), although people will be around all day. Yes I do eat trayf, and so fo I think all of the expected guests. This is not a kosher home.. (Od story: "Why do you have five refrigerators? Nu, that one is milchig, the other is fleishig, the two over there are pesachtika milchig and pesachtika fleishig, and this one we use most is treyf!") Don't be discouraged GG, your time will come... Lunch today was coporate sandwiches during a meeting. Indifferent bread cut too thick, and skinny fillings of indeterminate nature. Mixed up two 3Kg batches of wholmeal, Decided not to do rye as well and one of white. This will turn into onion and raisin bread, etc. They are currently autolysing, the pause to allow the enzymes in the yeast to degrade the starch into simple sugars. In half an hour I'll add the salt (2% or 60g per batch). I'll do the baguettes tomorrow, since they are better baked the same day, and also make the pizza doughs

8 am Friday Overclouded and grey. Looks like we will get some rain, but the forecast is OK for Sunday. Need more coffee Many thanks Carrot Top for the tourte recipe, just what I had in mind. I think that is on for tomorrow! Raspberries come in two sorts. The summer fruiting varieties, which fruit on last years wood, so you remove the old canes that have fruited, leaving the new canes (grown this year) for next years crop. Autun fruiting varieties fruit on new wood, so you cut them down to six inches above ground level in the winter when they are dormant. Raspberries are fairly shallow rooted, greedy feeders, and need lots of water but dislike waterlogging. The sourdough starter has woken up overnight I'll feed it again, and probably make dough this afternoon. It has the consistency of a very thick cream. I can't remember if this is a "poolish" or a "biga", I'll just describe it as a sponge... Lets see. Around 100 people. Say 10Kg (20lbs) of bread, or 12Kg/25lbs of dough. or about 7.5Kg of flour at 66% hydration - two and a half bags. I think mostly wholmeal boule or cut rolls (say two bags) and then some baguettes, some onion and rasin bread for cheese, and I want to try a sourdough version of Comfort Me's chocolate chocolate challa - thanks for the recipe! I need to go to my office for a meeting this morning, so I'll pick up some flour and stuff then.

We have a better class of graffiti, according to today's news: BBC News item There was a famous graffiti on the exit of the pure maths departmet "Beware: You are now entering reality!". Also one night in the 1960's an ornamental lampost in the middle of one the the green spaces (Parker's Piece, originally a market garden) that had been painted corporation green, was revealed carefully and beautifully painted in full psychedelic colours with the words "Reality Checkpoint" stencilled on it. After much public outcry, the council relented and let the decoration (and name) stay. If you look carefully at the statue of Henry VIII above the Great Gate of Trinity College you will see that holds an orb in one hand, and a chair leg in place of a sceptre in the other. Originally, of course, he held a sceptre, but some students climbed up and swapped it sometime last century; the authorities replaced it with another sceptre, but next night it was again a chair leg. Soon the College realised that chair legs were more plentiful than carved sceptres, and it has remained a chairl leg to this day. Back to tonights supper, in which it will be seen that while my intentions are good, my presentation is awful Golden Borscht (the gold beets were in an earlier entry) Shred the beets, and simmer with onion in chicken (or duck) stock; add vinegar and sugar, correct seasoning. Brisket tzimmes, with prunes and honey for a sweet year, and slices of carrot representing coins I forgot to take the filo pastry out of the freezer in time, so strudel is postponed. We had berries and honey cake instead. The yellow raspberries taste just like the red ones. The variety is All Gold, which is a sport of the autumn fruiting Autumn Bliss. They are unusual in that they fruit on this years wood, around this time, while most raspberries fruit on last years wood, in early summer. I do like the visual contrast with the blackberries We also had some "Mara du Bois", cultivated wood strawberries. Financiers, so called because they are meant to resemble gold bars. This is really just an excuse to show off my fancy flexible silicone silform mini-financier mould. Some with berries, but I was distracted and they are rather overcooked, and overfilled. We drank an Orb Rose 2003 (Vin du Pays Haute Vallee de l'Orb; Cave de Roquerrun) since our guest dislikes red wines...

Either. For parties with a dip - horseradish or sweet Thai chili sauce. For lunch, maybe with just a nice salad Carrot Top: I've not got a particular recipe. Do you? Apples seem appropriate. Probably do this on Sat.

The brisket is doing nicely. In 4 hours or so I'll add potao, carrots, prunes and honey. I added no liquid to start - its made it itself. The oven is at about 180F/90C. Innoculated the sourdough starter: 1 cup flour, 1.5 cups water, and a spoon of the mother starter. This will sit on the side of the stove, at 85F for about 8 hours, when I will triple the volume with more flour and water, and then agin tomorrow, ready to make lots of dough for bread on Saturday and Pizza on Sunday. Those on a diet should skip the rest of this entry. Other families has gefillte fish. We had fish balls, as sort of cross between an English fish cake and and fried gefillte fish. Take equal quantities of fish, chopped onion and potato, and a good bunch of parsley. The fish here is boneless and skinless cod loin (mea culpa - I feel guilty about using cod as the stocks are rapidly depleting, but it was the cheapest and looked nice, and it was dead anyway). Any white fish works, and its good with salmon, or even crab. Increase the proportion of potato if you are feeling mean or ruuning a restaurant. You can use these components to make a fish pie, and then turn the left-overs into fishcakes or fish balls - two meals for the price of one. Par-cook the fish (2 minutes in a microwave), chop the parsley, sweat the onions to golden brown, peel and boil the potatoes. Put it in the food processor, add an egg or two and enough Matso meal or flour to make it firm and mouldable. Season well with salt and pepper. Whizz or mash together, but so that you can still distinguish individual components. Form into balls, roll in Matzo meal, or panko or breadcrumbs or whatever is your favourite coating and deep fry until they float and are deep gold. Good hot or cold. Small ones are good for amuse or party food; larger ones for a meal. Dissapear fast at parties, and evaporate if not in a tightly sealed container in the fridge.

Soba: A torte blette is a sweet tart from Provence made from swiss chard (can substitute spinach) GG: The jar is indeed not quite full - there wasn't quite enough jelly. If the seal is good, the jars well sterilised, and the jam hot when bottled, then there is no reason why they should mold. Turn the jar upside down for a few minutes after filling so the and the lid heats and sterilises helps. SOme people put a layer of candle wax, or paper dipped in brandy on top of their jam when cold, but I prefer a properly sealed sterile jar.

Thanks! Financier batter, made with honey. Needs to rest in the fridge Added sugar (500g) and lemon juice, boiled and bottled the grape jelly, Note the thermometer probe - 221F is setting point

Stroll round the garden to see what looks ready to eat Gold raspberries and Rainbow chard. Maybe a tourte blette at the weekend. Pulled some golden beets Browned the brisket and put into the lowest (plate warming) oven to murmer away all day to itself. Put the pate components to marinate. Of course the ultimate dish from chicken liver is chopped liver, but this is just as good but different. Its a recipe adapted from Michel Guerard's Cuisine Gourmande, with the insight being that sausage meat provides a good fatty pork base to the terrine. All the booze and garlic make it strong stuff, but delicious and easy. 1lb/500g chicken livers (frozen is fine) 12 oz/400g good sausage meat, or the insides of frying sausages 7 tablespoons brandy or armagnac or rum 6 tablespoons port or maderia (or both) 2 tsp chopped garlic big bunch of parsley 4 sprigs thyme 4 bay leaves pinch nutmeg tsp sugar 2 tsp salt lots of pepper Mix together and marinate in the fridge overnight. Next day whizz together in a food processor or with a hand blender. Keep it quite course, or even dont belnd at all. . Pour into a greased loaf tin (you can line with bacon if you like, or decorate the base, which will be the top, with sprigs of thyme and bay leaves), Bake in a bain amrie in a hot oven (220C/425F) for hours. Cool to room temperature then refigerate overnight, weighted. Serve either with a salad a pickles as a first course, or spread onto good bread...

Thanks for the suggestions! Keep them coming... Bit early for Brussel Sprouts, and this is basically finger food, or things on bread I will do some chicken, maybe wings or drumsticks Also I plan a chicken liver pate Susan: I don't make my own sausage - its hard to do in small quantities, and the local butchers make at least as good as I can. I've tried it once or twice, just as an experiment, and I would if we raised our own meat, but for everyday its not worth it. Naturally Yours is a local organic and rare breeed meat producer that makes excellent ones, and they deliver weekly. As today is Rosh Hashona, although the orthodox won't read this today, L'Shona Tova. Happy New Year, and may you be inscribed in the book of life for a sweet year. Pray for peace in these troubled times. Last night we went to friends for dinner to celebrate another friends birthday. Lovely old timber framed house dating back to the 17th century, about 45 minutes from here. No pics, but imagine the dark polished oak table, old silver cutlery gleaming in the candlelight...12 sat down for dinner. Haddon Hall china. We had Indian nibbles (various bhajis); Champagne (en Magnum) Poached Salmon, Hollandaise sauce; Poilly Fuisse (but I did not get the year) Roast Beef, Green Beans, Broccoli, Roasted Veg (parsnips, carrots, potatoes, jus, leeks); Ch. Valandraud (St Emilion, Grand Cru Classe) 1995, en Magnum Raspberry fool (Raspberries muddled with cream: like Eton Mess, but with Raspberries) Coffee. Birthday Cake (orange and chocolate), a 1975 Barsac (drying somewhat) and Port ( 1977 Warre) Moving a little slowly this morning...need more coffee. Today we have a friend visiting. Supper is I guess Rosh Hashonah foods: traditionally honey sweet (for a sweet new year) with ronds of carrots symbolising coins for prosperity. Polish food was often quite sweet. I wonder why this does not extend to say Financiers, which are so-called since they are meant to represent gold bars... Golden Borscht Beef Tzimmes Maybe a blackberry and apple strudel, Financiers, perhaps Also finish the grape jelly, and maybe start the pate

Grape jelly progress: Simmer 30 mins Strain and pass through muslin: The colour is, like many biological colours, an indicator. It goes from red when acid to blue when alkaline. No reply yet to requests or suggestions for things to make... Out to supper. Not sure if they will apreciate pictures being taken.... l'shona Tova

I'm making grape jelly over on my foodblog... Heat the grapes in a pan I've added apples for the pectin...

Nope, firecrackers look like this. I'm second from the right wearing a "Kimbolton Fireworks" sweatshirt and a leather jacket, holding a pair of double cylinder shells.. This was setting up the fireworks for the local Millenium celebration. The large spherical shell in the middle is 12 inch

Rusk is dried bread; also used for teething babies to chew on. Lunch is Peanut butter and Jelly...with marmite and salad cream The jam is home made wild strawberry, but what this really needs is grape jelly...hmmm On the wall next to the Jacuzzi is a grape vine and a fig tree. The fig is Brown Turkey and it produces lots of immature fruit, and a few ripe figs. The grape is Tiomphe d'Alsace, now unfashionable, but good autumn colour. It produces smell seedy grapes, but true black, and with good sugar level. Not a big harvest - the birds get there first, but 500g or so. I'm adapting the recipe from "Mes Confitures" of Christine Ferber: 500g grapes, 400g apples, 400g water; simmer, pass through jelly bag, let settle overnight before decanting and then boil with 500g sugar and the juice of a lemon until setting point. Simmering now.

Wednesday morning, slowly adsorbing a mug of Java. I have one on the go most of the time, and I guess I drink a couple of pints of coffee over the day. Doesn't seem to affect sleeping patterns, fortunately. Snarfed a couple of the small sausages left over from last night, They were at the front of the fridge, when I opened it for the milk for the coffee. We are out to supper tonight, and I need to do some errands in town today, We live about 5 miles west of Cambridge. Cambridge is University and high tech, a town of about 100,000, with the University about 10,000. In the 60's, and still to some extent today, the planning policy was to restrict the growth of the city, but build or expand a series of village developoments as a "necklace", with about another 100,000 living there. Oxford is much bigger, and has real industry like car plants. Cambridge is primarily agricultural, untl the growth of spin-out knowledge, high tech and bio-tech industries, mostly small - 20 people or so. There are, however, over 1000 of them, and a few such as ARM (that is a Cambridge ARM designed microprocessor that you have in your mobile phone) that have broken the billion dollar barrier. ARM is typical - they are knowledge based, in that they don't manufacture themseleves, they just design and then licence the design and take a royalty, but even so there are more ARM processors then INTEL processors shipped. The result is that the town is affluent, and has survived the recession well. Traffic is awful, and house prices high. There is a surprising lack of serious restaurants (but lots of tourist ones), perhaps becasue the colleges compete to some extent on the quality of their food and drink, and academics, and hanger-ons like me, who might otherwise go to high end restaurants eat in College instead. We'll talk more about the University next week. Suffice to say its a collegiate University. There are 31 colleges, of which two are post-graduate only. Most people have a dual appointment, both as a member of a University faculty and of a College. The University faculty or department are where the main lectures, research and labs are, while the colleges provide living accomodation, meals and individual or small group tuition. I teach at the Department of Computer Science, and also at the Judge Institute of Management and I am also by-fellow of Emmanuel College. The "by" bit means I have no formal dutues, but also I don't get paid, but I do get dining rights - I can eat in college at College's expense four times a week. Colleges actively promote networking, and spread their influence by keeping a good table and encouraging people to bring interesting guests. The colleges are independant, and I guess the closest equivalent are fraternity/soriety houses. Back to food. Last weekend I made the honey cake from the recipe refenced in the Rosh Hasonah thread. Improved I think by having a non-traditional glass of rum poured over it. What should we cook for the apple pressing party? Need to start to think about shopping and prep. About 75 adults and 25 kids. Current plan is pizzas. What else do I need for toppings? Currently I plan build-it yourself from: Tomato sauce Tomatoes Onions Garlic Peppers Hot peppers Salami Cheeses (Mozarella, cheddar, gruyere) Sweetcorn Pineapple Anchovies Olives and of course, apples, butter, sugar Also plan various breads (suggestions for type - currently wholemeal boule, white baguette, foccacio, maybe onion and raisin with things to go on or in them: Cheeses (whole Brie, Cheddar, maybe stilton) Roast beef (I have two ribs joints ageing) Whole planked salmon Garden salad Chutneys etc Other things from the wood fired oven: Maybe a tart flambee , various fruit tarts, some baked potatoes Suggestions welcome. What would you like me to cook?

My Mothers Kipper Pate Take a kipper and fry it in plenty of good butter in the usual way. When cooked remove the back bone as as many boses as possible. Add a can of tomatoes, and some pepper. Mush up with a fork. Kepp cooking and turning until the liquid has evaporated and the thing is a consistent whole

Yes, there will be apple Pizzas... For the onion gravy, for two of us, I sliced a couple of onions and fried them over medium heat with a bit of butter until golden. Then I added a cup of chicken stock, some Maderia wine and some soy, checked seasoning and cooked them slowly in the open frying pan until the liquid had nearly evaporated, but still enough for a jus, which I poured them over the mashed potato and sausages.

Thanks for the kind words. Pan, Reseek, if you are in striking distance of Cambridge, come and say Hallo. If you can make it this Sunday come and join in the apple pressing! Soba, I'm not sure there are many regional specialities left in these days of Supermarkets. There are traditional English dishes, like Spotted Dick (I refuse to call it Richard), or steak and Kidney Pie, but those are fairly universal. Dorothy Hartley "Food in England" is one source. My dear friend Henrietta Green does good work among the small producers and farmers markets. Her guide book is essential for any long journey. She has a good website Food Lovers Britain Food Lovers Britain" bloviatrix. We have about five acres here, about half of which is wild: wood, pond and rough meadow. Teasels and seed heads I'm a lazy gardener, and don't get enough time or energy, so we grow a lot of weeds. Outside the study, in the angle between the study and the kitchen is the herb garden, which is in the foreground in the view in the first entry in this blog. At the top of the garden is are two vegetable patches mostly fenced against rabbits, and a fruit cage. I try and grow things that are either much better straight from the garden, or are hard to buy. I also try and practice a four break rotation. Its mostly organic, but sometimes I break down and use glyphosate (roundup) weedkiller on very persistant weeds like bindweed (columbine). This year in the frst patch are potatoes (Purple(now finished), Arran Pilot, Pink Fir Apple), the beans, and some other things: Garlic, Shallots, leeks, golden beetroot, rainbow chard, cardoons, rocket, horseradish, miserable sweetcorn. In the second patch are sweet peas for cutting, tomatos mostly Gardeners Delight and Sungold, plus some heritage varieties. This year has not been a good one for tomatoes, and a lot have rotted or been eaten by pigeons or squirrels. Then come jerusalem artichokes. then come what were meant to be differnt sweetcorn, but turn out to be strawberry popping corn, then courgettes, gherkins, pumpjins and other squashes. then the compost bins. In the fruit cage are strawberries ('Mara des Bois' - cultivated wood strawberries; Raspberries (Fall Gold, which are yellow, and three red varieites); red currants, gooseberries, loganberries, cultivated blackberries and also various things sheltering from the pigeons and other wildlife: purple sprouting broccoli for next year, chrysanths, and I grew purple peas, and fava beans (now over), sa well as some more bulk herbs: parsley, sorrell, dill. There are two greenhouses. The one at the top of the garden has tomatoes and some experimental Molokia. Soon I will take out the tomatoes, and overwinter some of the pot plants like geraniums there. The one nearest the house has hot peppers, old fashioned Malmaison florists pinks, early strawberries, cucumbers, a melon, and an orange tree.

Tonight's subject, and supper is Sausages. Not just any sausage, but the British Banger. No other sausage in the world is quite like it, or quite as good. Not your hot dog, or weisswurst, or touluse, or chorizo, but a BANGER. Firstly it must be pork, with a resonable fat content. Beef sausages are known, but are an abonimation. Secondly it must not be all meat, but about 20% rusk to adsorb that fat and give texture. Seasoning is delicate, predominantly ginger, mace and white pepper; some like sage Thirdly it must be shallow fried, not grilled, boiled or deepfried or roast. They get a wonderful brown stripe. They were originally called bangers because if the skins wer not pricked, the stem inside would cause them to explode. However technology has fixed that, and now the advise is not to prick them so as to keep the juices inside. Food for the Gods, and a weekday standby. Small craft butchers make sausages of very good quality if the butcher is good; the major manufacturers, such as Walls make them bland and inoffensive. However the supermarket's premium range are often very acceptable. That is what we have tonight - basic food. These are from Tesco. On the left are skinless - formed then part cooked to hold their shape, but good for snacking. On the right are Pork and Leek, with fresh leek added. Mash is mashed potato which offsets the banger perfectly. The definitive mash recipe is given in the http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=31701]eGCI Potato Primer Also shown is onion gravy/confit, and the green runner beans, sliced lenghtways and briefly boiled. We drank Ch. Morgues du Gres 2000 Terre d'Argence, Costieres de Nimes

Picked some runner beans and dug some potatoes for supper. The beans are Painted Lady, and old variety that has very decorative pink and red bi-colour flowers. The spuds are Arran Pilot, another heritage variety that are really a first early new pototo with an exceptional flavour, but mature nicely into larger potatoes if the sligs let them. The rabbits enjoying the windfalls for supper. Some are now so tame they come when called.

Snowangel: Thanks for your marvellous blog last week, and you wonderful descriptions of the cabin... All theapples are all old varieties. Let me paraphrase Joan Morgan's description pf Allington Pippin: UK; raised before 1884 by Thomas Laxton, Lincs King of the Pippins x Cox's Orange Pippin Originally named South Lincoln Pippin, renamed 1894 by George Bunyard after his nursery at Maidstone, Kent. Introduced in 1896, RHS FCC 1893 as Brown's South Lincoln Beauty Mellows to an intense fruit drop or pineapple taste, although still fairly sharp by Christmas, but needs a good year. Sharp and bittersweet in Nov, but cooks well and keeps shape with good flavour, sweet, not bland. Widely planted commercially and in gardens in the early 1900s, but proved "cold and sour" in the Midlands; suffered storage problems and in decline by the 1930s, but sill found in gardens. Pick early October, Store Nov-Dec. It does well here, on our heavy alkaline clay soil, and its position in the garden means it tends to be the apple used for scrumping. Not quite as perfumed as the Laxtons, keeps and cooks better. When cooked, the slices will hold their shape, say in a tart, or if cooked long will go to apple sauce.

The rabbits are off-limits, and Jill doesn't like cooked rabbit anyway. At the moment they are hiding since the weather has turned rough. The Orleans Reinette have slightly yellow flesh, but not really yeelow enough to notice. Here is one with an Allington Pippin to compare, and a hunk of aged farmhouse chedder (Butlers) for lunch. The added complication this week is that we have the builders in, adding a new double height entrance, that will eventually hold a staircase to a new upper storey. We are also adding another toilet this end of the house, doing some rationalisation, and adding some more ventilation for the kitchen. One thing leads to another, and this meant that we had to renew the drains and the septic tank (we are in the middle of the country). Fortunately most of this is on the other side of the house to where the apple pressing will happen.