jackal10

Good; surprisingly filling. However its not soul food for me... We just had pita bread with it, stewed plums to follow.

Maybe this should be in the "Dinner" thread, since I made Molokheya for dinner, having grown the stuff. The recipe (Claudia Roden) called for 1Kg/2lb of fresh molokheya to 4 pts/2lt of stock. That is a lot. I picked most of what I had grown, pictured here, and it was 8oz/250gm, so I used half quantities, and the soup was still pretty thick. The texture was interesting - slighly mucus, but more a gentle thickening. The taste (and smell) was fresh and green, like crushed spring tree leaves or maybe parsley, with a faintly bitter edge

Not sure about any of those books - very mixed. Depends on the sort of bread you wnat to make... I think you need more serious semi-professional books. Reinhart "The Bread Bake's Apprentice" is often reccomended Dan Lepard's "Baking with Passion", and he is publishing a new book "Hand made bread" this autumn Joe Ortiz "Village Baker" Massari/Zoia "The art of Levened Dough for Pannetone and other italian sweet bread Then the is the eGCI sourdough course http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=27634 There is only so much you can learn from books, The best way is to jesy keep practicing - bake every week for a year, and you will be getting there, or go and work a stage or two at a bake shop...

Not sure that the hip clientele is in the the city centre anymore with the demographic shift. It used to be the centre of cities has high affluent population and good transport, so supported a rich infrastructure. Nowdays they are mainly offices, but dead and lonely at night; in some places aare dangerous even, except in a few entertainment districts.There are brief periods where previously poor districts are rejuvenated with lofts etc for urban living, but these tend not to last. The wealth is in the suburbs or even in country areas with good transport, and that is where you are likely to find the cutting edge restaurants, for example in converted country houses.

Isn't this part of a much older dichotomy between "court food" - sophisticated dishes orginally served at royal courts or other high-status occaisions, and hence by people aspiring to them, and "peasant food", home cooking often based on local produce, and making the most of available cheap (but usually fresh) ingredients. Thus elbaorately plated dishes, designed to appeal to jaded appetities are urban and edgy, while down-home food, such as BBQ, or fish and chips, or even a plain boiled egg, are suburban...

I give here a treacle tart recipe without breadcrumbs: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=692256 Use as a substitute for corn syrup; good with stewed fruits instead of sugar. The tin, with green and gold art deco artwork, a sleeping lion and the motto "Out of the strong came forth sweetness" is a classic.

Although not from the south, or even the US, I discuss Red Eye Gravy in my eGCI non-stock sauces unit: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=29574 I've heard two theories about why its called "red eye". One is that you need the cafffine to counteract the earliness of the morning... The other is that when you stir the pan you get a "red eye" in the centre when the gravy is ready.

According to their blog, they have postponed the project for a year or two, since Emily has been acepted onto a masters degree at NYU.

Walk down to Chinatown, and eat Dim Sum at the New World. This was my preferred option when I had an office in Covent Garden. Rock and Sole Plaice in Endell St for fish and Chips Wagamama Tavistock St and you are not that far from The Ivy, Lindsay House and so on.

Blackberry and Apple jelly and/or sieved jam. Blackberries are very low in pectin and need some additional pectin to set. If you don't want to use commercial pectin, then windfall apples or even better crab apples make a good alternative. Stew the fruit and then sieve it for a thick jam or drip though a jelly bag/coffee filter/muslin/tights for clear elegance..If you are feeling mean you can do both - drip and make jelly with the clear juice, then reboil the paste in the jelly bag with a little water and sieve for a thicker jam as a second batch.

I have four pots like these two, plus some I transplanted into 2 or 3 plants to the pot. I was worried they were overcrowded, but they seem OK. I haven't a clue how to proceed, but have looked at some recipes, and in particular the one in Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food. I guess stip the leaves and shred them. Make a chicken stew, flavoured with cardomon, and bay, and add the shredded leaves just before serving, simmering for 3-5 minutes.Finish with coriander and lots of garlic stirred in hot oil (taqliya)

Not unless global warming continues. They need it continuously hot, apparently, and do not tolerate cool conditions, so are hard to grow in California where the nights can bee quite cool. I'm growing them in a greenhouse with tomatos, and they seem to be OK.

Balsam? I thought they were Jews's Mallow. No, I've not tried them yet. They are still only about a foot high. Want any?

My plants in the greenhoouse:

Stew with sugar, no additional water is needed. How much sugar depends on our taste, and the plums, but maybe a cup to a saucepan of plums. Eat hot or cold with cream or custard..mmm...plums and custard... You can add discrete spices - cloves, or mace or nutmeg, but I prefer just the taste of the plums. You can put the the plums with sugar in apie dish, and cover wwth pastry for a plum pie. Little Jack Horner Sat in the corner, Eating a Christmas pie; He put in his thumb, And pulled out a plum, And said, What a good boy am I! The plums in this pie would have been dried plums or prunes. You can preserve the plums by drying them slowly in the sun or in a very low oven. Richard Whiting the last Abbot of Glastonbury, at the time of dissolution hoping to appease Henry VIII sent his steward Jack Horner to London with a Christmas gift, a pie, hidden in the pie were deeds of twelve manors Hiding objects in pies was a common practice in those days. On his way to the king, Jack popped open the pie and stole the deed to the Manor of Mells, a real plum of an estate. To this day the Horner family resides there. The family disputes this, and says the Manor was properly purchased. Mells Manor is in the village of Mells 15 miles N.E of Glastonbury in Somerset, True or not, Thomas Horner took up residence at the manor shortly after dissolution and one of his descendants was still living there in 1975

I'll swap some of my sourdough starter for your vinegar mother - PM me if interested...

Crackling or not? If no crackling (skin). Season all over (salt and pepper) Sear all round in a hot pan Either: Seal in a sous vide bag and put in a water bath or put in a roasting pan (foil lined makes cleanup easier) and put in the the lowest possible oven (55C/130F) for anything from 6 to 24 hours. A heavy casserole over the pilot light might even maintain that temperature. A remote reading digital thermomoter inserted into the meat helps a lot If crackling don't brown initially, but rub with salt and olive oil. When cooked, as above, take out the bag (if its in one), dry, and then put in the hottest possible oven, or use a blowtorch for maybe 15 mins so the crackling puffs. Serve with apple sauce, sage and onion forcemeat good gravy..

Jelly (as in jam) Crab apples are rich in pectin

Slightly unripe plums are great to stew or jam. The don't fall apart as readily as fully ripe ones.

The aforementioned Yahoo group (excellent, busy) is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brick-oven/ There are pictures of my oven on http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=27634

I know what meshuganner means...never heard " meshuganner frum." What's that mean? meshuganer = crazy frum = religious observance ; meshuganer frum = obsessive religous observance beyond the point of normal sanity, or at least from the point of view of the speaker. Since it is Yiddish I suppose it only refers to Askenazic Judism; within that are various sects and schisms, of which one of the more observant are the Lubavitcher, followers of the Lubavitch Rebbe, they of the black clothes and wide hats, although individuals may or may not be meshuganer. Since Judism is a disorganised religion in that it has no formal authority structure (Rabbi mean a teacher and is appointed by the community, not the organised religion - ther is no equivalent of the Pope), observance is between the individual and their conscience and individual interpretation of the rather obscure biblical commandments, which leaves a lot of options and family traditions. The term "glatt", meaning smooth or clean, is sometimes used. For the extra orthodox kosher meat must appear and be certified "glatt", hence the expression "glatt kosher" meaning really kosher, and the usage has been extended beyond meat to mean extra observant, as in "glatt Lubavitcher".

well..IMHO the Mayo adds lubrication. Other things add flavour or texture to what is basically boring...

a) buy Alan Scott and Dan Wing's book " The Bread Builders" and.or Tom Jains's "Building a Wood Fired Oven" b) Mine came from http://www.fourgrandmere.com

Its called Applejack, and it is still illegal without paying excise. Do a google search for appljeack and freezing The yield is very low, and you may need a couple of freezing steps to get any reasonable concentration. As the mash cools the water freezes out first, and you can filter off thre ice. Its the same process as "ice filtered" beer. It needs to freeze slowly, or go through freeze thaw cycles, otherwise the alcohol can get trapped in the ice. Make cider (about 10% ABV). Put it in a deep freeze in a plastic container. Wait until its is solid, then invert it over a bucket and drain off the liquid - maybe 10% by volume, and about 17% ABV. Freeze the resulting liquid, and repeat for greater concentration. A normal deep freeze is about -20C, where the equilibrium point is about 25% ABV alcohol.

If you have some dietary restrictions, then its part of the invitation negotiation.I'm always careful to ask about dietary restrictions, or warn people what we are likely to eat when I invite people. If you have strong food issues, like vegetarian, it means I either have to cook seperately for you, or invite you on your own, and the evening becomes centred around you. I wonder if some people do it just for the attention. Certainly it is often said with a sense of holier-than-thou ("I'm special. I only eat xxx. I'll go to heaven/live forever/ while you rot in hell"), when it is in fact a handicap, often self-imposed, and should be pitied. On the whole I'd prefer to socialise by not inviting special eaters for a meal, but some other activity, unless the evening is entirely in their honour. I recently did a dinner where half were strict vegetarian, and the others were on Atkins. A challenge. Fortunately they all ate eggs. We had soup, salad, souffle, sorbet, roulade and three deserts. The worst are people who arrive and then say "Oh, by the way I'm vegetarian/don't eat carbs/shellfish/foie gras", when you just cooked that for them. . My niece, for example, who is meshuganer frum , won't even drink a glass of water in my house. I find that strange, but its her problem, in that it restricts our social interaction.