jackal10

You may think that, but I could not possiby comment.

For all its faults, Michelin is still the one guide that chefs will fight to get stars. It means something. It has a dramatic affect on bookings. You may disagree with it, but the opnions seem honest and not the resut of bribery or advertising.

When I buy fresh organic ravioli in the supermarket, it keeps for a week, even if |Iopen the packet. When I make it keeps for a day or so before going grey and unappetising. How do they do it?

Pardon my sensitivities, or are you being sarcastic? Where I come from, "How's it hanging?", referring as it often does to the male member, is considered vulgar. Usual reply is "To the left thankyou"

Touching as part of the work "I'm behind you with a hot pan" is quite different from touching so you think better of me. Another habit I hate as a European is people wishing me "Have a nice day". What sort of day I have is no business of theirs. On the other hand in Bristol a normal turn of phrase is "my lover" which can be quite disconcerting the first time you hear it. Roughly equivalent to "dear". "Would you like some more potatoes, my lover?"

When is the best time of year to make it, or can it be made anytime? I noiced the original post was in June, so I guess some sun is needed. You don't say how much water is in the brine,

If you don't cuss how do you releive the tension?

A little sugar or honey

Should I touch the waiter?

Would bother me greatly. I would be deeply offended, and find it a sexual gesture. I want my wait person to take my order and bring food, not make love or try to set up a personal relationship.

Ham and leek roly poly or pudding (suet pastry, filled with ham and leeks, maybe a few mushrooms) Split pea soup, of course (London Peculiar) Ham Souffle

Milk chocolate digestives are the spawn of the devil. Dark chocolate digestives are served in heaven. As for white chocolate, orange or mint milk chocolate digestives, words fail me as to their peversity.

Err...if its powerful enough to kill bugs, its not going to do you, or the surfaces it touches any good. I guess it contains an ozone generator (elctrical discharge or srong UV light) pus some system to dissolve it in water. What you effectively are making is dilute hydrogen peroxide, plus probably some nitrous contaminants since the machine is making it from air. Why not just use hydrogen peroxide?

Inspired by this thread, and having rainbow chard in the garden I made a Torta Pasqualina for supper Served it with a simple tomato salad. Very satisfactory.

For baguettes, and otherwise baking at home my list is a little different: Large bowl or dump bin Snapwrap or damp linen towels to cover same Decent working surface, at least a large pastry board but wood is also good Digital scale Digital thermometer Graduated mixing jug A warm (27C) place For baguettes make or improvise a couche (folded floured linen) For miche and other large loaves make or improvise a banneton to give support during proof Refrigerator wtih enough space to retard your loaves For baguettes a flipping board, the length of your oven plus a handle For other loaves a peel For baguettes a pizza stone to give bottom heat For other loaves a large cast iron casserole with lid or equivalent cooling racks Lame or craft knife to score Pastry brush Squirt bottle A copy of Dan Lepard's "Hand Made Loaf"

Try searching for "English Wine" "British Wine" was made from imported grapes tyoically for the very low cost market. Think Buckfast Tonic wine and the like http://www.buckfast.org.uk/site.php?use=tonic Its still quite far north to grow grapes, but there is some very nice wine made here, mostly white or sparkling such as Nyetimber or Ridgeview, and there is a long tradition of fruit wines.

As discussed on the sous vide thread, an accurate temperature controlled slow cooker. ITs now possible with, for example the combination of a PID controller (SousVIdeMagic/Auber Instruments) and a rice cooker or even better a steam table. You can do something similar with a controlled steam injection oven for vapour cooking. Low energy consumption and eco friendly...

Yes its heresy. . Many commercial so called sourdoughs are made like this. Typically they make a strongly flavoured sourdough sponge, then mix it into a dough with lots of bakers yeast, which then has the short rise and proof times of a yeast bread for conventional processing. What they are making is sourdough flavoured yeast bread, but in your conditions I suspect you are wasting the baker's yeast C.Cerevisiae, the main component of Baker's yeast is acid sensitive, and is killed over time by the acid in sourdough, but until then gives a quick fizz and competes with the lactobacilli for food, in particular maltose. Bakers yeast and sourdough cultures have different time/temperature requirements, effectively you either have the conditions for a yeast bread or for a sourdough one. I suspect your 1/4 teaspoon had little effect, and was killed by the acid of the ssourdough over the comparatively long rise and proof.

IF you are a bakery or restaurant or other commercial production where you use a volume of starter everyday then you do indeed need to refresh everyday. However for home baking this is too much. Thre are those who clim a difference in activity, but I've never noticed a difference from keeping the mother in the fridge, and using a sponge method, and I think keeping the mother cold gives better flavour and more consistency. I use a 50% hydration preferment (biga) and mother, as I think it gives better flavour, although slightly more work to mix and knead. You do need to regenerate the culture from a small amount (say 10g mother to 200g flour and 100g water, fermented 12 -24 hours at 27C) both when making the sponge and occaisionally to refresh the mother so as to prevent the build up of by-products in the culture medium. Other than as a professional operation I can't imagine what I would do with 300g of starter daily...

For heavens sake, leave the mother starter in the fridge between bakes. So long as you use a sponge it will become active just fine, otherwise just refresh it the day before. I guess I only refresh the mother once a month or so when the jar in the fridge is looking a bit empty.

My sympathy. From George Saintsbury's "Notes on a Cellar Book", 1923 "Everybody knows that hot rum and water is sovereign for a cold, but perhaps everybody does not know how the remedy should be applied. This is the probatum. You must take it in bed; premature consumption merely wastes the good creature. It should be made, in a large rummer-glass, as hot as you can drink it (hence the advice of the rummer - for a mere tumbler may burn your hands), not too sweet, but so strong that you sink back at once on the the pillow, resigning the glass to the ready hands of a sympathising bedside attendant, preferably feminine. If you do not wake the next morning, possibly with a slight headache but otherwise restored, there must be something really the matter with you" ..... "The recipe intended for real punch is as follows:- three parts rum, two of brandy, one of lemon juice and six of hot water, the quantity of sugar {I use honey} being quite a matter of taste. I never knew this mixture found fault with by respectable persons of any age, sex or condition, from undergraduates to old ladies, at any hour between sunset and sunrise"

Curry, risotto and paella are different and have different cooking requirements. The key to meat curry is cooking the protein, for which sous vide works well. I would put it raw in the bag with a well made curry sauce, and cook at say 63C (for chicken) for 12 hours. The long slow cooking will dissolve the collagen, while not toughening the meat fibres. I would suggest it would also replace the marination. Risotto's key is the release controlled gelatanisation of the starch, for which I'm doubt if the long cooking of sous-vide helps. Temperature would need to be above the gelatanisation point, around 80C Paella is different again, and my impression is that the process is various cooked meats and shellfish together with rice. Sous vide will help with the proteins, cooked seperately, but not really with the rice, except for convenience of handling, like boil-in-the-bag rice

scrambled eggs

I cook rhubarb with more precision, 75C for half an hour.

Its more complex than that. Surprisingly for this forum, most people don't go to a restaurant, especially an "upscale fine dining" restaurant for the food. They go because its the best in town and they want to show off. They go for a celebration, or to take the boss out, or to discuss their engagement or divorce. Most don't have your palate or culinary experience. I bet not even 1% could tell between say fresh house prepared stock and demi glaze and Maggi packet, or between say fresh and frozen fish in a finished dish. Only a tiny proportion, maybe 10% actually go for the food, and those are not, in the main, big spenders, compared to someone impressing their girlfriend or their boss. If you are aiming for the culinary heights and building a trade from food lovers, that is a long and difficult haul - maybe 5 years to get into the guides and stars, and then fickle as a few poor meals or rouge service kills your hard earned reputation. Even then you will never please the couple discussing their upcoming divorce. Providing the food doesn't poison them, and looks nice, it may be better to stay with the familiar. Most feel comfortable with steak followed by something with chocolate, so give them it, and save your energy and fresh foods for perhaps a small gourmet daily menu for those who truly appreciate it. That way you can maybe educate the palate of your regulars.