jackal10

Don't give up! Strangest potato soup recipe I've seen in a while. OK lets try and figure what went wrong, and how to fix. The variety of potato won't effect it much. Yukon gold is low starch anyway, and a good variety to choose. I'd say you've much too much potato; 8oz would be more than enough for a quart - see recipes for Bonne Femme or Vichyssoise. You've got more like 3lbs in there Basically you've much too much starch. I guess the baked potato is only really added as a garnish, but you've added it early and its broken down. You may have over-pureed the potato first as well - I make my potato soup from chunks of potato (and leek), than then lightly puree when cooked. What to do? You need to dilute by a five parts or so Take a quarter of the soup (a cup full) and dilute it with 5 cups of ideally milk, or otherwise stock or water. You will also need quite a lot of salt and pepper - taste as you go. Reheat, but don't boil if you can avoid it. Then continue as in the original recipe. Personally I'd put the cheese on a croûton of toast, and melt that under a grill separately. Easier to handle.

I think that there are remnants of French courtly and monastic cooking - for example Gefillte fish might be derived from quenelle de brochette (pike), which was a way of making the bony fish edible; pike were raised in monastic fish ponds as a cheap protein source. In the UK in the 50s Olive oil was something you got from the chemist in small quantities for medicinal use, not as a Major food or cooking medium; my Mother never enjoyed garlic, so did not cook with it. These were not uniquely Jewish or even Ashkenazic. I'm sure garlic and olive oil did not feature in many American homes of the time - maybe on Pizza and Italian American households, but not otherwise.

In the Diaspora, the migration out from the Middle East, Askenazi Jews went north, through Easter Europe, Germany, Lithuania, Poland etc and acquired or adapted foods such as gefillte fish, lox, bagels etc, and the Germanic Yiddish language, while Sephardi Jews went south, through Egypt, North Africa, and particularly Spain and Portugal, acquiring and adapting foods and language from those areas. Observance varies between individuals and families: in the Jewish tradition it is up to the individual conscience and personal interpretation of the law, unlike the more authoritarian Christian tradition of appointed priests. A Rabbi (Rabbi means"Teacher") is appointed by the local community. Their authority is only a personal one of their scholarship and personality. I think taboo foods are very local customs. Also what is regarded as Kosher varies dramatically from one community to another. For example I can remember when (according to the mainstream UK Ashkenazi) Turbot has been sometimes Kosher and sometimes not, depending on the interpretation of whether it has vestigial scales or not (fish must have scales and fins). Of course the strict would avoid it in case there was doubt. My family kept kosher (although I do not). We always ate white bread, and mayonnaise, for example together in a salmon or egg sandwich. In fact I can't think of anything we could have eaten, that tasted good, that we did not. It was more that, coming from an Ashkenazi tradition, and growing up in the 1950s, we ate northern European food, based on dill, schmaltz, fried onion range of flavours, rather than garlic, olive oil, tomato, herb-rich Mediterranean tradition. In this we were no different to our northern European Christian neighbors. Edit: I see Marlena has already said it better than I have.

The no bubbles is the key, and indicates that at some point the cork dried out and leaked, probably because the bottle had been stored upright. If the CO2 could get out, the oxygen could get in. You were fortunate no other bugs gt in as well. Otherwise champagne ages like any other white wine; it will get toastier and dryer, and eventually end up as vinegar.

In yesterday's "The Information" section of the The Independent, the "50 Best" feature was on Gastropubs. Doesn't seem to be online though

My french is not much better but I think it says Thinly sliced marinated wild salmon, with minted quinoa (tabbouleh style) and a salad of sprouted grains. Scallops, salad of jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) with trufffles (from Richerenches), creamy risotto Pheasant breast stuffed with foie gras with stewed dried fruit and mango, meat gravy with port Molten chocolate cake <Guanaja>, whie chocolate mousse, blood orange sorbet, spiced wine sauce

This week he deep fries and liquidises the ingredients (he quotes quail) first.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,...1146720,00.html Liquidising I understand, except for anything bigger than quail I find it gives too much "bone-taint" falvour. Deep frying I'm more doubtful about. HB says it doesn't lose so much flavour as roasting/deglazing, but I would have thought the flavour just dissolved in the oil instead. However, he is a three-star chef and I am not.

I'd seriously like to do some egCI units using a webcam.... or maybe with an interactive chatroom The problem is that much cooking is waiting about, compared to TV shows ("here is one I prepared earlier")...FIve hour leg of lamb is pretty dull for 4 3/4 hours...

The Gomes Lecture and Dinner in honour of The Revd Professor John Gomes DD, a greatly admired figure in both the Cambridges. The dinner followed the lecture given in College by The Rt Hon Sir Edward George, an old member and former Governor of the Bank of England. He spoke on "Reflections of a Central Banker". In Hall Potage de moules epice au safran (Velote of mussels and saffron) Trio de champignons sauvage (WIld mushrooms three ways: crostini, mousse and stuffed) Magret de canard roti infuse de gingembre et rhubarbe (roast duck breast with ginger and rhubarb; chateau potatoes, braised fennel and pureed cauliflower (!)) Tarte aux amadines avac abricots poche aux cognac et une creme glacee aux amandes roties (Almond tart on apricots poaches in cognac, with a roast almond icecream) Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses 1995 Nuits St Georges Domaine de L'Arlot 1995 Kreuznacher St Martin Riesling Berenauselese 1989 In the long gallery Desert (famhouse cheeses, fruit, petit four, chocolate truffels) Coffee Grahams 1977 Ch. de l'Angludet 1990 Moulin Touchas 1985

Splendid work! You have made an important contribution to the world's knowledge and chicken soup induced happiness! Overnight in the oven wins! Especially if you boil it down by half...

Any LBV - Late bottled Vintage. The chocolate will kill it anyway.

Hot lemon and honey - strong Add plenty of rum or brandy or whisky... Saintsbury (Notes on a Cellar Book) says: Serve as hot as possible in a rummer, as an ordinary tumbler will be too hot to hold. Drink in bed, preferably with a sympathetic attendant/companion.

Roumieu-Lacoste is a good Cru Bourgeois from Barsac (not Sauterne) and offers light and fruity sweet wines. 1999 should be about $25/ 75cl bottle, maybe $15 for halves Plenty on offer on the web if you do a quick google

I'd stay with Simpsons..but only for the beef

Does the long-time low temperature method worked for poached eggs as well? Might be the answer for quail eggs, that I can never manage to soft poach

The all-time classic hard-boiled egg film sequence has to be the egg-eating contest from Cool Hand Luke

Great lesson! Eggs Benedict is only one of a large number of classic variations on a theme. Andy has kindly put up my The Big Egg List on the Wit and Wisdom thread. Try some - you may like them...

A few days in the fridge. They won't freeze: freezing punctures the cells. You can dry them, however - that is how dried mashed potato is made, but you will lose some taste as the volatiles escape and they oxidise slightly. The dry product has a long life.

Err..each other? Make a range of finger food, and retire...

I use a pressure cooker for stock when I'm in a hurry. My Tefal pans have a pressure cooker lid option, so I can cook about 6 litres at a time. Its OK, but somehow different to a traditional stock: maybe fresher and more aromatic, but thinner and less unctious. I guess that indeed theere is less conversion of the collagen. You do get quite a lot of volatiles escaping via the vent. I've never just chucked in a couple of leaves of gelatine, but I don't see why not..

All the advise comes to much the same. Funding something as insanely high risk and poor return as a retaurant takes either some non-economic love, or a very high return to compensate for the risk I doubt if you would get a loan without collateral, usurious interest rates and personal gurantees. The problem with a loan is that you end up with the debt, reagradless of how well or badly the restaurant does. At least with equity you can walk away.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,...1141521,00.html

Pot roast is something quite different, and refers to roasting in a pot, rather than something that is "potted", that is put and stored in a pot... When cooking was mostly done on an open fire, roasts were either spit-roast, or cooked in a a large enclosed pot buried in the ashes, hence pot roast..

Keep the raw and the peeled shallots under water to keep the eye-watering down. The chemical in onions and shallots that brings tears to the eyes dissolves easily in water, including the water in your eye, so keeping everything wet, and having a tap running nearby helps...

I must defend potted meats. They were (and are) delicious. They were a key way of tenderising and preserving before refrigeration, sealing the cooked (and shredded or pounded) meat under fat. Think of confits, or rilletes, or potted shrimp, or meat sandwich pastes. I have an original copy John Farley's London Art of Cookery (about 1783) and there is an excellent Elizabeth David pamphlet. Potted roast beef is a favourite, and a great way of using up the trimmings and leftovers. Spread on hot toast... Very easy with modern food processers; just whizz up the the beef, including some of the best crispy outside fat with an equal quantity of warm melted butter, and some seasoning - salt, lots of pepper, a little nutmeg and a dash of cayenne maybe. Put the paste into ramekins, and cover with more melted (ideally clarified) butter, and leave to get cold and set in a refrigerator. Use as pate, serving in the ramekin slightly warm (but not melted) and first removing half the lid of solidified butter so people can dig into the luciousness beneath...