jackal10

Claret means red Bordeaux, but wines in Bordeaux are not usually made from pinot noir. The main grape varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and some Petit Verdot. Depends where you are in the world, but prices can range (in the UK including tax) from £3/bottle for generic claret to £60 a bottle for a classic wines to thousands for old special investment vintages of first growths. Robert Parker provides a widely used wine buyers guide, and online sites like WIne Spectator provide a rating service. In the UK, surprisingly, the supermarket chain Tesco has some very good offers in their stores at the moment. If you can say where you are and your budget I'm sure gulleters can advise.

The old rhyme for a punch or cup has it: One of Sour Two of Sweet Three of strong Four of weak Thus One of lime juice Two of sugar syrup Three of rum Four of hot water (or cold Champagne), or shake with ice

It ought to be the Savoy, where omelette arnold bennet was invented, but they may have fancified the menu ...

Oil-seed rape, in the bud is good, like a sweet flowering broccoli. It is a brassica, after al.

Traditionally dishes with carrot are called Crecy after the battle of Crecy which took place in a carrot field on 26th August 1346, . The Black Prince, a boy of sixteen won his spurs, and took the crest and motto of the slain Bohemien king - three ostrich feathers and the motto "Ich Dien", which they have to this day. It follows that on the 26th August the Prince of Wales is invariably served carrot soup, aka Potage Crecy.

Aren't they a bit woody? Mine tend to be.. Radish pods, though, are delicious

I also cannot find it in any of the classic texts, or even more obscure ones such as Andre Simons "Dictionary of Gastronomy" or Cracknall and Nobis "New Catering Reportoire". Looking at the description, with flavours of coriander, ginger and carrot I would think it has quite a modern origin. I can't think of any classic sauce which features ginger or coriander, except curry or sweet ginger sauce. Also it is cream based which puts it before the nouvelle cuisine, but after flour-based sauces, so I guess it is from the 60's - think of all those carrot and coriander soups. If that were so, then the might the Jacqueline be Jacqueline Kennedy (Onassis)?

The Tandoor Site describes a person who built his own round a liner, and recommends TANDOORI CLAY OVEN CO. LTD 164A DUKES RD LONDON W3 0SL clayoven@lineone.net Tel: +44 (0) 208 896 2696 Fax: +44 (0) 208 896 2686 I find a french bread/pizza oven better and more versatile. I bought mine from WOOD FIRED PIZZA OVENS Co MR Mc DONALD Ian and Grant 72 Ladbrooke Drive Potters Bar Hertfordshire ENG - 1 QW ENGLAND Tel : (0044)-1707-85-28-53 Fax : (0044)-1707-64-78-02 Four Grandmere[

Not really about cornbread, but its in the article; What is the other use that you might reserve the kale stems for? Short of compost, or feeding to pigs, I can't think of any, but you never know what those Southerners might get up to...

I have overproduced plants. If you can figure out a way to collect them from Cambridge UK, then free to a good home: Red Brussel sprouts Purple Sprouting Broccoli Cavallo Nero Kale Savoy cabbage Tomato "Fireworks II" Leek starters Nature is wonderful. I saw in the garden an Orange Tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines) which I had never seen before. I also noticed that the row of seedling Chinese Mustard had been devastated, which is apparantly this butterfly's favourite food plant. I'm sure that this is the only chinese mustard for miles around - we are surrounded by agricultural fields. How did the butterfly find it?

For these purposes you can substitite any good edible oil, such as olive oil for the mustard oil. You may want to infuse some mustard seeed in it for flavour, but not essential for the coating purpose. Jaggery is sugar and any sugar, but preferably a brown sugar will substitute. I would not use molasses syrup, since you don't know the concentration, Its the same principle as seasoning a cast iron pan: essentially you are laquering the inside with the dried on oil. You need to keep the fire low enough so the oil doesn't catch fire before it permeates the clay and dries.

I think you are exactly correct here. The issue is that of information flow. I wonder how that has changed with boards like this. I expect it to speed up a lot compared to paper media, like guide books. If so, that will have a de-stabilising effect, since one bad meal at Restaurant X, and every restaurant has bad days will be reported round the world in hours, just as an outstanding meal, or celeb sighting at Restaurant Y. Guide books may take a year or two to tell that this restaurant is not good or the chef has moved ( I'm assuming you are far away and don't have access to the newspaper reviews). Reputational value is a whole interesting area of economics in itself, and for example is possibly what drives the Free Software movement, such as the software this Board is implemented with. I teach and research this stuff at the University of Cambridge. Restaurants have high barriers to entry. It can easily cost £1m to set up a new high-end restaurant. The marginal cost of an extra cover is low. Consolidation doesn't work because the high value chef has limited capacity. Successful chefs opening second restaurants almost always fail, since the standard in both restaurants drop as they take their eye off the ball.

Joy Larcom's revision of the Royal Horticultural Society's "The Vegetable Garden Displayed" "The Salad Garden" from the same author is good as well. Other than that the golden oldies: Hilliers "Manual of Trees and Shrubs", and Sutton's "The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers" (1926)

Firstly use the right varity of corn. You need a "supersweet" variety. Secondly time from picking really does matter. Seconds are vital. Build the BBQ next to the corn patch, or run from the garden to the kitchen, where the pan is already boiling or the grill hot. If you can't get them picked within minutes, frozen is the best substitute, since the better ones are, like peas, blast frozen as soon as picked. I prefer to cook them in the cobs, since this steams them and I don't like the parched corn effect, YMMV.

I'm not sure about your analysis of restaurants as "Winner take all" market. Reatuarants are certainly capital intensive, labour intensive, top-end limited (you can get only so many bums on the seats) and fickle. The capacity limitation means there will be several winners, but the ones at the margin will suffer first in a recession. However "Winner take all" markets are usually those where the switching costs are high, so it is easier for the incumbent to keep customers than for a new entrant to gain them, such as where there is some network externality. For restaurants the switching costs are low - where there is competition its easy for a customer to change aligence. Few restaurants run loyalty schemes, other than being recognised by the Maitre'd. Restaurants are more akin to a fashion business, which does have some element of the network effect: everyone, when they hear about it, wants to go to the fashionable place, forsaking the previous fashion, so in that sense it is winner takes all, and the network is that of the spread of news of the fashion. Some restaurants have even tried to simulate that by making it very hard to get in, but the policy can backfire. . However I suspect fashion only applies to the early adopters. To buld a long-term business you need to appeal to more than just the fashionistas, and like any other business, that means long term consistency and excellence, and features like location and value. Remember it can take 2 years to get into the guides. Where there may be an element of lock-in is in the external activities: TV appearances, cookery books, newspaper columns, product endorsements etc. These help drive customers to the restaurant, and I suspect generate more money for the successful chef than the market limited by the restaurant's capacity.

I like the ravioli idea Alternatively I'd saute some potatoes in the fat then add the shredded meat, and maybe some cabbage and serve with a tomato chutney... Or make version of cassoulet with the meat, garlic sausage, beans, and a tomato sauce Or serve whole, with creamy mashed potato and a tomato based sauce So tomato sauce seems to be the answer

Yes, the wrong butter can ruin a recipe. Many of the butter substitutes use thickeners and emulsifiers. These don't behave the same way as butter under heat, or even under shear like being stirred into a mixture. They melt at different temperatures. The taste of the butter (or other fat) is often reflected in the final taste. If you use crap butter it tastes crap. If you want your dish to taste of EVOO use EVOO. Besides salted and unsalted (why use salted? Its much easier to control the salt in a recipe using unsalted) the major difference is in the lactic acid content. Some european "cultured" butters are allowed to ferment to develop flavour, as opposed to sweet butter. There are other variants such as whipped butter, and of course Ghee and other clarified butter products.

Doesn't last long round here. It gets used. Main use is roasting or frying potatoes...

Soupe du jour is soup of the day in menu Franglais. Actually if you go back to the original Escoffier, rather than the later Grand Hotel Cuisine, his recipes are remarkably fresh and modern. More often than not the sauces are relevant and often reductions, the garnishes apropriate.

Our local Coton Orchard used to make a quite acceptable light lunch wine. Unfortunately they have been taken over, and once the new accountants calculated the true cost, the vinyard has been grubbed up.

Well done Adam. May have been too obvious...

Green Tea and Lime Sour Risotto of Smoked Bacon, Parsley Ice Cream Sweet Basil Soufflé, Tomato Sauce (UK, but not in London or Bray)

The Ivy

October should be fairly young. Did you hang them before plucking and freezing? If not too late now. They are, however much better eaten in season. If they are young treat them in a traditional fashion: Roast fairly plainly Treat like a small chicken (especially if you did not hang them). . Put bacon over the breast to stop it drying out. Traditional accompaniments are bread sauce, redcurrant jelly, game chips, gravy. You'll need roast potatoes and some member of the cabage family as well. Old birds braise, casserole or make a game pie. Long low wet cooking. The flesh stuffed into the middle of a cabbage makes a good dish.

They aren't waxed here! Parsnips are delicious. Roast: Parboil first, then roast like potatos, but not as long, and in quite a lot of fat. The high sugar content causes them to burn quickly. You want the caramalised, but not burnt. Pureed, or pureed with potato Soup: Lightly curried parsnip is good hot or cold, as is "nip and nip" parsnip and turnip Parsnip crisps Blumenthal and others do a version of "corn flakes and milk" but with parsnip crisps and parsnip infused milk. Maybe it was the pan handle burning...