jackal10

Knew I had seen it somewhere. a la cuiller Found the reference: Elizabeth David, in French Provincial Cooking, in her recipe for Boeuf a la Mode (cold beef in jelly) says " It should in fact be tender enough to cut with a spoon, hence the alternative name of boeuf a la cuiller. Lady finger biscuits are called Biscuit a la cuiller However my big french dictionary doesn't give either usage.

I think this is a terrible attempt at dictatorship by zealots and fanatics. I have seen awful consequences of this attitude being adopted by our local synagogue, especially for the now ceased communal and pot-luck dinners, which were happily middle-of-the-road, and now has been taken over by the fanatics, who have driven away most of the congregation ("You are not proper Jews unless you...") . Other examples are certain mosques, where the extremists take over, and which can then act as recruiting grounds... If someone is religous, or has other dietary fads or hang-ups, be it Atkins or the belief that eating chocolate will damn them for all time, then let them not eat at my table. I don't expect them to prepare special food for me when I eat with them. so why should they expect me? Maybe I should suddenly develop a belief that requires red meat at each meal, and regards vegetables as tools of the devil, full of poisons. After all, plants can't run away, so they use poison as a defence mechanism. Come to visit by all means, but eat what I eat, or don't stay to supper.

Chicken consomme Ballotine of chicken (boned, stuffed) Greengage tart

I thought it was something to do with "to be able to cut with a spoon" ( cuiller)

Abra's blog confession of a penut butter snack inspires me to ask about the ultimate peanut butter sandwich. Mine (in order of assembly): Sourdough bread, lightly toasted Smear of Marmite (adds umani, salt, depth) Peanut butter, spread thick. Chunky not smooth Homemade grape jelly Heinz Sandwich Spread (OK, I'll allow Heinz Salad Cream, or a well flavoured, fairly vineagary mayo, but not Hellmans - too bland) No top bread eat over sink

That inspires me to start an ultimate peanut butter sandwich thread...

Based on this thread, I have a few pots growing in my greenhouse. Seems to grow like a weed, but is very thirsty. I bought the seed on the web. Its about a foot high with leaves a inch or two long. Apparently Jute is in the same family. When should I pick it?

Campden tablets are sodium or potassium metabisulphite and are used for sterilising. The active agent is converted to sulpher dioxide (S02) in solution. Add one campden tablet to a gallon of wine to give about 50ppm S02. Alternatively use powdered sodium metabisulphite. Make up a stock solution of 2 oz per 1 gallon of water. Use direct as a sanitiser. For bactericide - use 2/3 teaspoon to 5 gallons of wine. Dissolve sulphite in warm water before adding. They would not have had them in medieval times. Instead burning brimstone or sulpher candles were used to fumigate barrels etc, or they used boiling water, The lack of cleanliness and understanding of micro-biology made brewing and wine making a much more hit-and-miss affair, with success or failure often attributed to divine or supernatural intervention

Lots of options: Notting Hill, near the Portabello market Covent Garden, handy for Neals Yard, Rock Sole Plaice etc Near Borough Market, as you mentioned

From "The Closet of Siir Kenelm Digby Opened" 1669. My copy is a reprint by Prospect Books. Many recipes for meads and metheglins HYDROMEL AS I MADE IT WEAK FOR THE QUEEEN MOTHER Take 18 quarts of spring water and one quart of honey; when the water is warm put honey into it. When it boileth up, skim it well and continue skimming it as long as any scum will rise. Then put in one Race (root) of Ginger, sliced in thin slices, four cloves and a little sprig of green Rosemary. Let these boil in the liquor so long till it will have boiled one hour. Then set it to cool, till it be blood warm; and then put to it a spoonful of Ale-yest. When it is worked up put it into a vessel of fit size, after two or three days bottle it up. You may drink it after six weeks or two months. This was the hydromel I gave the Queen, which was exceedingly liked by everybody. (Normal proportions for mead are 4 water:1 honey. They range 3 to 6 water to 1 honey by volume; boiled "until it will bear an egg", and "a good great handful" of herbs etc. I guess the honey was somewhat impure as in some recipes the liquor is cleared with white of egg, like clarifying a stock before adding the herbs and spices, instead of the skimming above. The short fermentation times efore bottling make me wonder if it was not often slightly sparkling, like beer.

Mead is honey fermented like wine Spiced or herbed mead is Metheglin, sometimes medicinal Mead made with honey and fruits is Melomel (and delicious) Wine made from grape fermented with added honey, often spiced is a Hippocras A Pyment is spiced wine sweetened with honey

Grilled Salmon (or other whole fish) Take whole salmon (gutted, but leave the skin on) Armfuls of fresh herbs from the garden - soft green ones are best rather then rosemary or bay. Roesmary is beter used by stripping most of the leaves and using the stem as a kebab skewer, Last night I used Lemon Balm, Borage, Dill, Oregano. Put the herbs on the grill. Lay the salmon on the herbs. Foil over the top or close the lid. Leave 10 mins. More herbs and turn the fish over. Leave another 10 mins or until 45C/110F on the digital thermometer. The salmon basically cooks in the steam and smoke from theherbs. The herbs and the skin will char, but that is OK, as you peel them off.

Decapitate the bottle with a sword, as is traditional with Champagne. When I try, however likely as not the bottle will smash. Does anyone know the trick to this?

What are electric bagpipes?? An electric blower for a comventional set? A chanter with a microphone and electronic drones? I an't even begin to imagine what one might look like, or where to get a set...

and it has to cheap, clear fizzy lemonade. Using fancy lemonade, or even fresh lemon juice and syrup and fizzy water is just not the same

I always understood the origin of baked beans was from sailors: food that could be prepared from ingredients that could be stored on ship. Also they can be cooked well in tins, or cooked in a bread oven after the bread has been baked. I have a recipe adapted from a leaflet from Durgin Park in Boston. Its quite a shock to those used to the tinned tomato sauce version: 2 lbs beans 1 lb salt pork 8 tbs sugar (too sweet for me, more like 2tbs) 2/3rds cup molasses 2 tsp dry mustard 4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1 onion Soak beans ovenight. Next day parboil for 10 mins with a tsp of baking soda. Run cold water through and drain. Dice salt pork and rind in inch squares. Put in pot with the onion. Put beans on top. Mix other ingredients with hot water. Pour over beans. Cover. Put in 300F oven for 6 hours. Add water to keep beans moist as required.

Fake Pimms

1 Pimms to 5 of fizzy white lemonade, lots of ice garnished with borage flowers, mint, slices of orange and lemon abd cucumber peel in a large glass jug, then strained into the glass Is there any other way?

Bonny Doon make a Rhone style called Le Cigare Volant , which is french for flying saucer. Apparently there is a local ordinance prohibiting flying saucers from landing...

We stayed at the Hotel Montalembert in the Rue Montalembert inthe 7th, next door to Atelier Joel Robochen...

Simpsons

I flew Singapore Airlines to Singapore last year, and the food (at leas in Business class) was really good, except that their idea of Atkins was grilled chicken salad followed by ...err... grilled chicken. To be fair they let me pick from the rest of the menu and sea urchin followed by filet steak was good. The thing that I always find disappointing on long haul flights is that they only serve one main meal, and then a snack 8 hours later. That is not enough for a bored person for 12 hours. The inflight grazing is usually just something a stale cheese sandwich and a packet of snackfood or a bar of chocolate. That is where you need to supplement it with one's own resources.

http://www.bme.freeq.com

No Spanish roots, so far as I know - Ashkenazi, not Sephardi. Direct line is from Alsace, although there is apparently some distant relationship with the great Rabbi RASHI (1040 to 1105), may he be remembered for good, via the WAHL and KATZENELLENBOGEN families and so, following the mystical claims of Rabbinical Geneology* descent from King David and hence Adam. Family food that was slightly unusual (although out of the pages of Florence Greenberg's Jewish Chronicle Cookery Book) included my mothers's version of fried gefillte fish, and "Stuffed Monkey", a cinnamon pastry tart filled with ground almonds and dried fruit. *Rosenstein, Neil The Unbroken Chain : Biographical Sketches and the Genealogy of Illustrious Jewish Families from the 15th-20th Century New York: Shengold Publishers, 1976 First edition. 716 pp. ISBN: 0884000435

Oops The attribution got left out. Yes, its from the Forme of Cury, about 1390. My copy is a 1975 reprint.