jackal10

Heston Blumenthal in his Q&A http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=12012 gave a list: Strawberry and coriander Snails and Beetroot (the flavour molecule that contributes to the earthiness in each of these is the same. It also exists in spinach and baby corn) Chocolate and pink peppercorn Carrot and violet (ionone is the main pairing molecule here) Carrot and coriander Mango and violet Pineapple and blue cheese (careful as the cheese needs a certain ketone level) Caraway and lavender are surprisingly interchangeable Cauliflower (caramelised) and cocoa Liver and Jasmine (similar sulphur compounds) Cooked cheese (like parmesan and gruyere) and honey (with a slightly chestnut character) Banana and parsley Harissa (chilli paste) and dried apricot He discovered these, like his famous Caviar and Chocolate, by searching chemical analysises for similar flavour molecules. You can also find antagonists with no flavours in common, such as Coffee and Basil - horrid!

or strawberries...

Corian and the like is for looking at, not for a working kitchen. Its for poseurs. It cuts, burns and melts at hot pan temperatures, and is not inherently anti-bacterial, unlike wood. Use a wooden chopping or pastry board on top of corian

As always, I planted too many courgette/zucchini plants, and so I am over-run with them, even picking them small. What can I do with them for a vegetable side dish? My standards are: Fried (sliced in rounds, or grated) Deep fried Steamed Pureed With tomato sauce; ratatouille Souffle I exclude horrors like boats. or watery quiche. This is for a side dish to go with a roast chicken, for example Probably put them straight on the compost heap is the right answer.

Does anyone know where I can find a Tilia Foodsaver or similar domestic sous-vide machine in the UK? The usual suppliers (Nisbets, Lakeland etc) don't seem to have them, and its rather over the top to get a full commercial machine for occaisional use...

The sauteuse is solid copper, tinned on the inside. Very heavy (my partner dislikes using it since its tough to lift) but ideal for Tarte Tatin. Diameter 200mm/10inch, wall thickness 3mm/ one eighth inch I bought it about 20 years agao from a french kitchen suppliers. You can get something similar from http://www.meilleurduchef.com/cgi/mdc/l/en...auter_cuiv.html but the price will make you wince. These are high maintenance items. Don't even think about trying to keep te outside clean and shiny if you use it for cooking, rather than just varnishing and hanging on the wall for decoration. The inside will need re-tinning every few years, and treat it like non-stick - don't use rough or abrasive cleaners, or metal tools inside. However they cook like a dream because of the large heat diffusion. Stainless lined copper is not the same. The very best (but hard to find and clean) are solid copper with a silver plating inside, sometimes used for restaurant service.

Ovens vary. Mine has a floor of 1 metre (3 foot diameter), which means it can bake about 12 loaves at once. Its also very well insulated. Nothings happens quickly. On is own, with the door shut it drops about 10C/20F per hour, so it stays at working temperature for several hours. For a pizza you leave a small fire in, as the cooking is partly from radiated heat. It takes about 4 hours to heat up 30 mins to stabilises asfter taking the fire out and swabbing down 4 hours bread baking (3 or 4 batches) Two days to cool. Traditionally you cook various things as the oven cools Pizza with the fire still in Tarts (very hot) Bread (500F) Roast meat, veg etc(400F) Cakes (300F) Casseroles and stews (overnight) Meringues Dried herbs, fruit etc Drying wood All this on one firing - obout half a barrowload of wood, so the efficiency is high. There are good books on the subject "Bread Builders" already referred to, and Ton Jaine "Building a wood fired oven". I built it instead of a barbeque. Tend to only fire it on party days and holidays - you need lots of people for all that food.

Its a great project. I did it, so can you. I used a pre-formed shell from http://www.fourgrandmere.com/ Base, with a poured slab of insulating concrete (concrete with vermiculite) Pre-formed shell on base Rest of the brick outer skin and springing the roof. The void is filled with a foot of insulation (more vermiculite) First fire, and my brother loading the dough First loaves - temperature control needs practice

beetroot leaves radish, nasturtium seed pods chicken feet pork or ham rind Ears, snout, tail salmon skin (fried crispy) soft cheese rind rose petals and other flowers (chive, marigold,nasturtiam etc) tangerine rind (dried as flavouring) Citrus rind (marmelade) Peach and apricot stone (kernals)

Basically they are carriers and extenders, fairly watery. The flavour comes from other things - the cheese, the spices etc. Its rather like the old Larousse recipe for crow. Do whatever you were going to do without the crow, then throw the crow away

Personally all I think they are fit for is the manure heap. However if you must Soup in shot glasses Depends how big they are. Baby ones can be marinated Larger ones cubed or sliced. Treat a bit like eggplant. Cubes marinate then grill, slices brown on grill, and serve with tomato concasse, cream fraiche etc or use as a base for other things or build a tower etc

Escoffier has recipies, especially for Turtle Soup. He starts with a 120lb live turtle. He is particular about flavourings "Turtle Herbs": For 35 quarts: 1oz salt per 5 quarts 12 carrots bunch of leeks (10 leeks bound with a head of celery) 1lb parsley stalks 8 onions stuck with 10 cloves each 2lbs shallots 1 head garlic Set to boil for 8 hours. 1 hour before straining add 4 strips lemon peel "A bunch of herbs for turtle" comprising Sweet Basil, Sweet Marjoram, Sage, Rosemary, Savory and Thyme, and a bag containing 4 oz coriander seed and 2 oz peppercorns.. You might be able to include some suggestion of the traditional "Turtle herbs" in your presentation. Editied to add that Turtle soup was a delicacy in earlier times - essentially a very strong consomme with pieces of turtle and the flavouring above. It is occasisonally available canned, famously from John Lusty. Mock Turtle (beef consomme with the above flavourings) features in Alice in Wonderland The old kitchens of Trinity College Cambrige are (or were) decorated with turtle shells, each emblazoned with the arms of the college and the date of the feast they were served at.

Simpsons or the Ivy, or a better gastro-pub. Jellied eels better admired than eaten. See the thread. Rock and Sole Plaice, or Upper St Fish Shop Neals Yard for sure, or Paxton and Whitfield, or the cheese counter at one of the larger food halls such as harrods, Havey Nicks or Fortnums. Yes, you can usually ask for samples, but don't expect to make a meal from them. St John Bread and Wine or Baker and Spice. Good list on Dan Lepard's site http://www.danlepard.com/best.htm Simpsons. Some of the pubs near the markets. Better Hotels.

When were you here? Browns! I can't stand the noise level there. Also the building used to be the VD clinic for the neighboring Addenbrokes hospital, now the Judge Institute of management. Loch Fyne is a better choice, and does fish pie.. The Free Press pub serves good pies. For fish pie a good fish restaurant: the Pinneys at Orford, for example. The Ivy is reputed to serve good sheperds pie (Sheperds pie is lamb, cottage pie is beef. Sheppards pie has mashed potato forked like thatch, cottage has potato rounds like tiles).

The phrase "Molecular Gastronomy" was, I believe originated by Prof Nicholas Kurti, and developed by Herve This. Although Ferran Adria is innovative and influential, so are many other chefs around the world developng this style.

Stuffings and forcemeats are a good and traditional use. Also as extenders for sausagemeats.

The supermarkets themselves do this big-time. That is the major reason for store loyalty cards, so that they can build up customer profiles. Various purchases are usec as lifestyle markers for "affinity marketing". You sign over your rights to this data and privacy when you accept a store card. For example buy baby-food once or twice, and you will get offers for nappies.

Escoffier

It's Jew's Mallow, since it was used for a chicken dish by the Jews of Alexandria since ancient times. Still popular in Egypt. Hard to grow elsewhere, but sometimes available dried, or better, frozen

About 45 mins. 2 tsp sugar and a glug of balsamic in a hot oven to roast. Can do them on a stovetop..

Made Red Onion Tarte Tatin for lunch. Red onions, butter, seasoning, balsamic; rough puff pastry (I was in a hurry); parmesan and thyme sprigs

The positively worst hangover I've had (this was student days) was a mixture of scrumpy (rough hard cider) and sweet sherry.. Most revolting drink is lager and tomato juice. Looks like vomit and tastes much the same Guiness and blackcurrant cordial is curious. Doesn't do anything for the Guiness, but tints the foam pink

I've built one - non-edible - as a theatrical prop (don't ask). Base was inch marine ply, with castors underneath. On top was a cylinder made from a sheet of hardboard (fibreboard) and some wood. On top of that was a pair of hinged D shaped flaps for the top. The actress got in from the top, and crouched down. The whole, including the top, was finished in theatrical plaster resembling icing, but on a large scale. This was meant to be seen on stage from a distance, not close-up. For the edible bit I'd cheat and build drawers or cupboards in and around the lower half, into which you can put cake portions. Cake for 2000 is going to be heavy - 500lbs maybe, so you need to figure that into the construction of the base and the castors. The whole thing will weigh about 1000lbs, so not very manoeverable. Might be better to just have a token amount of cake in a hidden drawer, or maybe the girl can take out and present a beautiful real cake, and feed the other 1990 people with cake portions from the kitchen. That way the whole thing weighs only say 250lbs and can be pushed around by a couple of waiters.

The only proper toast is that made on the hot plate of an Aga, using the curious tennis-bat-like toasting device http://www.cookcraft.com/epages/Cookcraft....duct/View/A1843 They even do one that leaves star patterns on the toast. The toast is contact grilled between the hot plate and its cover. Doesn't matter how thick it is. Because of the very high temperature the toast comes out crispy on the outside, while soft within. For toasted sandwiches use the simmering plate, so the inside heats (and the cheese or whatever melts) before the outside chars.

I think the product in the recipe you saw was the cherries, rather than the flavoured brandy. In that case you would want to try and preserve the fruit, rather than maximise the extraction. In my case I want the maximum flavour in the liquid, and don't mind if the fruit gets bruised a bit. Lots of work, for example by the people making Glace fruit, show that for best results you need to agitate, otherwise the liquid next to the fruit gets dilute from the osmosis. Whether you need to keep it in the fridge depends on the dilution. Bugs won't grow if the alcohol/sugar level is high enough, If you are making brandied cherries for consumption its normal have quite dilute brandy; to cut the brandy by at least an equal amount of water (plus the water in the fruit etc), otherwise they blow your head off. In that case you probably need to sterilize and either can or keep refrigerated. In my case I was using export strength gin (40%), and as the recipe says "keeps for a year in the bottle if allowed to do so"