jackal10

They make a good pickle. Like dill cucumbers, but with more sugar and a few cloves

Liver and BACON Can just fry together; keep the liver rare, so add it it when the pieces are nearly done. Good also cut into small pieces, added to fried bacon and onions (also in small pieces) and stirred into hot cooked rice, with some soyor worcester sauce

You describe a 3 layer drink: "Sex with an Alligator" I've heard of 7 layer "Pousse cafe" Do you have a recipe that tastes halfway decent? And what has it to do with coffee?

In this NY Time article (registration required it says "The mysterious element in the first bath was calcium chloride, which reacts with alginate, a kelp extract, in the puree." The product is then washed in a water bath,

I have it. I did not have any particular problems getting it. However it looks like it is being reprinted, and a paperback version is due in February 2004. It is what it says, mostly devoted to cooking for or with the family. I think his Guardian newspaper articles (available on the web) are much more interesting. I wish he would publish a collection of those.

I think quenelle are more flexible than gnocchi, and in some ways easier to make. They also have the advantage of being low-carb, for those of us who ave to worry about such things. Spinach quenelles are traditional for green; as are pea puree. Adding parmesan sounds delicious. I'd be slightly careful with the nuts because of the texture; it should be smooth rather than gritty. On the other hand roughly chopped nuts, so that the pieces were identifiable might be a interesting addition.

I have to ask for the recipe, ever since seeing the film, I’ve been trying to find a good one. Egg or no egg? Cornmeal, polenta, breadcrumbs, crushed cornflakes(!) Matzo meal(!!), oatmeal, panko, flour or nothing? Bacon grease or oil, if so which oil? Cream added at the end to the pan for sauce or plain? How much salt, pepper? Other spices like a little nutmeg? Some chilli or red pepper flakes? The combinations are endless as is the green tomato supply from the garden. I tend to the cornmeal and bacon grease traditional version, myself, but as these are not soul food for me I'm ignorant of the one true version. Enlighten me.

Elizabeth David's courgette souffle is very good, easy and spectacular. I migh even make it for supper. My adaption. I omitted the bechamel. 1lb courgettes/zuchinni 4 eggs 1/2 cup grated strong cheese (Gruyere or cheddar for preference) 1 oz butter. Wash but do not peel the zukes. Trim the ends. Slice thinly and put in a colendar, sprinkled with salt. Cover and leave for an hour to drain. Wash off the excess salt. Put in a pan with the lump of butter and stew over a gentle heat until soft (you can add herbs and eat them just as they are if you like). Whizz them in a food processor or with a hand blender. ED sieves them, but I don't. Let them cool a bit, and add the egg yolks, salt and pepper and the cheese. Whisk the whites fairly firm.Pre-heat the oven 350F/175C Butter and ideally coat with grated parmesan or breadcrumbs 6 ramekins or 1 big soufle dish (1.5 pt capacity) Blend the whites and the zuke mixture together gently - its OK to still have flecks of white. Fill the ramekins or the dish. Level the top, and run your thumb round the top edge to clean it off. Bake immediately at 350F/175C for 23 minutes for the ramekins or 40 to 45 minutes for the big souffle.

Amazon.co.uk has it for £75 including delivery, but the date is not shown

Compost? By this stage of the season we are begining to look like zuchinni as we have eaten so many. I always enthusiastically pick them. They then moulder in the fridge until they are eventually thrown out. Nowdays I skip the intermediate step and throw the excess directly on the compost heap. Much easier. Its slightly better if you just eat the flowers, and pick them when they are little finger size. They will still beat you, however.

OOOh Where did you get the Kasseri from? I've been trying to find some outside Greece for ages

The Wine Society is good, solid, middle of the road stuff. It is long established, reasonably efficient, and trustworthy. However the wines it offers reflects to some extent ithe average taste of its membership profile. The membership is interesting - you buy a share in the society, So don't expect miracles, on the other hand you won't go far wrong, or be ripped off, and occaisionally you will get very nice wines.

Another trick with rhubarb is to take thin slices lengthways (a potato peeler works) dust in icing sugar and put on a silpat or baking paper, then caramalise in a slow oven. Use for decoration

Crumble has the advantage that the topping will adsorb a lot of the juice, especially if some of it is mixed with the fruit. Tart depends what effect you want. For a pie, I don't pre-cook. For an open tart I tend to cook the rhubarb and the base seperately and assemble together cold or warm, unless there is something like frangipane to mop up the liquid. I make a rather nice rhubarb and strawberry tart where I puree the rhubarb for the base, and top with sliced strawberries. Variations are to add custard (OK, creme anglais) to the rhubarb puree, or even set it with some gelatine.

Rhubarb will cook very quickly, and release a lot of liquid. You really don't want to cook it beforehand, and you will also need to cool the crumble quickly as soon as the topping is done.

I would not think that adding the raft as the stock cooked would work. The stock ingredients would overwhelm the raft. I'm not sure it is that time consuming of itself. Certainly less time consuming than making demi-glace from stock. The time consuming step is making the decent stock in the first place, and in a high end restaurant that is a necessary process anyway, besides being a use for trimmings etc. For a home cook making and reducing stock is more like a once every few months activity, using trimmings etc that have accumulated and been frozen, and then freezing the concentrated result. From a stock base, making consomme is not a long or complex process, and mostly unattended. Whizzing chicken and egg whites, and then belnding with the stock is at most a few minutes. The stock then sits unattended for half an hour to an hour, and the is filtered - say ten minutes, so the actual work is not more than 15mins or so, Furthermore it can be done well in advance, or even a day or two before. For a restaurant it is an easy dish, since all it needs is reheating and the pre-made garnishes put in the plates. For a home cook for a dinner-party it can be done in advance, and it is one less dish to worry about. That said, it is transparent in flavour as well as visually and has to be done carefully as it will show up any faults in the ingredients or stock making. I agree with fifi. I don't know why it is not a more popular high-end restaurant dish. It fits into a restaurant regime well. It is economical. It shows off the kitchen's skills, very versatile, and it is light and suitable for Atkins and low fat diets. A seperate wine (such as a good fino sherry, or a sercial Maidera can be sold with it). More Consomme!

Let me recommend, for a first attempt to keep the garnishes and flavourings simple - maybe just add a glass of Maderia, Port or Sweet sherry if one is to hand. If you tell the kids its got booze in it ("sherry soup") soup, I bet they will go for it... Let us know how you get on

Hmm...Turkey is really just a big chicken, so we are trying to get the internal temperature to 65C/150F-70C/160F. Problem is to get the legs cooked and the skin brown and crisp without over-cooking the breast meat. Much easier if you seperate cooking and browning into two different steps. Cook first, then brown the skin. For real crispness flash it (blow torch or 10 mins in a very hot oven) after cooking . 5 to 8 hours in a 90C/190F oven should cook it. Much lower than noramlly suggested, but hot enough to kill bugs. Low temperature cooking is much less time critical as well. Alternatively if your oven doesn't go low enough, and in the spirit of Thomson, make a huff paste (flour and water dough), and cover the turkey and pan with that. Put it in a slow oven, and when cooked discard the now dry crust. Use a themometer! If you monitor the internal temperature you can roast it much more accurately. Don't forget it will go on cooking when you take it out of the oven, so take it out at about 60C/140F. Dryness is solely the result of overcooking. For extra moistness roast breast-side down for most of the cooking. Turn it breast-side up to flash to browness, and for presentation. You can stuff the body cavity, for example with the Thomson stuffing, but that takes a long time to conduct the heat and cook through. Much better to cook the stuffing outside, and add the extra flavour by putting a flavoured butter between the skin and the breast meat. For extra luxury add slices of truffle, as recommneded by Brillat- Savarin, known in classical cookery as "demi deuile"(half mourning). Use a good turkey (free-range black or bronze). Poor turkey leads to poor results. Food hygine suggest eating within two hours of cooking, and kept at 50C/130F or more. After that cool as rapidly as you can rapidly (put in the fridge, covered with tinfoil). You want to minimise the length of time at the temperatures bugs will grow rapidly (around 35C/90F).

1. Beef is certainly traditional for beef clarification of beef stock. The difficulty is to get fat-free beef. Fat is the enemy of clarity, as I said. I find it much easier to use skinless and boneless chicken breast which is easily available and cheaper, and if the stock is well made you can't tell the difference in meaty flavour. Many add vegetables to the reduction, but I follow Escoffier and prefer to add the vegetables when making the stock. The table of names gives additons to the clarification for particular consommes - tomato paste for colour for Consomme Carmen, for example. 2. A tall narrow stewpan is traditionally used for clarification but I don't think it makes that much difference. You don't want too much surface area to minimise evaporation. 3. Ooops. For the Royale I should have said just mix it all together before straining it into the mould. Having whizzed the chicken, I just bung in the eggs and the cream, blitz briefly and strain out the lumps... You can make a pure cream Royale (Deslignac, used in Consomme Deslignac), The proportions are 1 whole egg and 6 yolks to 1 pint cream: enough for about 12 servings

Pierre Koffman?

Why is the pig not wearing a baseball cap and dark glasses? I thought these items were essential...

now you must tell the tale or we will never know Stone Soup story

Is stone curry an Indian version of the old tale of stone soup?

The best in the world are Fitzbillies Chelsea buns and they will send them by post!

You are right. However for small home quantities this amount can be significant, What I meant was only the remaining crust, after you had ladled out everything you can. Treat the result seperately, and if its clear enough combine he two.