jackal10

I take it back. Its the guvermint wot done it: The Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1998/19980141.htm spedifies minimum levels for calcium, iron, Thiamine, nicotinic acid. I guess the niacin, riboflavin and Folic acid (important in pregnancy) are specified somewhere else. May be just what is in the commercial flour they are using - most labels don't bother to mention it.

I do have the book but I don't like it. Many of her recipes don't work for me, and some (like the starter) are just wrong.

The local Tesco Extra is stocking La Brea bread. I bought a "Country white Sourdough Oval". Not bad at all. Good grigne, good crust,nice open crumb texture. Bread actually tastes of something with a mild sourdough tang. The crust has the little bubbles that comes from being a retarded dough. One of the bakers told me that they get the dough and then bake it off in store. The packet has a web site: http://www.labreabakery.com/ and an address in Uxbridge and in Dublin. Here the plot thickens, since the web site has a refereence to http://www.iaws.ie/default.asp also based in Dublin "IAWS GROUP plc is a major food and agri-business group with operations in Ireland, Great Britain, continental Europe, Canada and the United States." and it turns out that LaBrea is a group company, along with Delice de France, Cuisine de France and other brands. Under La Brea it says " The breads are baked 80% then flash frozen and shipped to retailers and restaurants... where the baking process is finished off." Looking at the table of ingredients there are a few surprises. Flour (contains wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, Reduced Iron,Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavine,Folic Acid), Water, Sourdough (6.84%), Salt, Wheat Germ, Semolina. The malted barley is a souce of an enzyme to help convert starch to sugars. Perfectly respectable. Wheat Germ is I guess added for flavour, and also enzmes. The sourdough (same sub-list of ingredients) looks like an old dough addition, rather than a seperate ferment, but I'm guessing. Semolina is widely used to stop the dough sticking. Nothing wrong there, and nice of them to declare it, since its in such a small amount. The thing that has me puzzled are the vitamins etc. Looks like they are added to the flour as nutrition supplements. Is this a US requirement? I don't think its needed for the bread. Nothing in the marketing says "Multivitamins added" or the like. Indeed the front of the package claims "No artificial additives".

I was asked to bring some wine along... A couple of cases of Champagne to start For the meal: Alsace 1991 Gewurztraminer Zind Humbrecht Domaine Heimbourg One of the best plots of the one of the best producers in a good year. Delicious with Chinese food with its lychee notes and slight sweetness. Rhone 1996 Cornas A Clappe. Stand up to anything Canada 2000 Paradise Ranch Merlot Icewine Sweet sticky for pud Brandy in the study afterwards...

Fundamental cookbooks? For me Escoffier "A guide to Modern Cookery" is the true answer, and the one I reach for if I need to know how something really should be done. McGee if I want to know why. However, I can see The Cooks hook as up there and replacing Joy of Cooking as a standard gift to young folks...who could resist learning to make pastry from Pierre Herme?

I've just posted a review to Amazon UK of "The Cook's Book" (Jill Norman ed) ISBN 1-4053-0337-9. I said Stellar. This is a must-have book for any serious cook or chef. Top chefs demonstrating their signature dishes. Ferran Adria on foams, Dan Lepard on Bread, Pierre Herme on deserts, the list goes on and on, soup to nuts. 24 chapters each by the master in their field, lavishly illustrated, not just food porn but working pictures of each stage in the process. A book to cook from, not just leave on the coffee table, although it looks good there as well. A book I will keep returning to. My only criticism so far is that the large glossy format is awkward in the kitchen. I wish the publishers would publish it also in electronic form, or have included a DVD so that one can print out just the recipes in use to take into the kitchen.

Simpsons

Calling a fortified sweet red wine port regardless or origin is imprecise or ignorant, and reflects badly on those who do so. For example it could well be interpreted tomean that your chocolate was mixed with cheap sacremental wine, which must be lagest amount of that style wine produced. Why not give the exact wine name if the wine is a feature?

Potato stuffing is traditional. In fact I'm doing it this weekend, My version is dry mashed potato, onion, salt and pepper, but also some peeled and chopped apple and a little sage. Can add the liver. Not fat since there will be plenty from the goose.

Roast tomatoes and oil: store them under oilive oil, together with the roasting oil in the fridge. A squeeze of lemon if you are paranoid...

Flavoured bechamel...

Nun's farts (Pets des soeurs) Venus's Nipples Peach Melba Airline chicken (a corruption of aileron de volaille) SLightly off-topic are poetic Chinese or Japanese name for firework effects: Dragon (comet-like trail of sparks) Pearl (single star), so for example "dragon chasing pearl" means a coloured star with a tail of sparks Kamuro "haircut" trailing sparks like a japanese childs bowl haircut Chrysthantemum: spherical burst shape Dahlia: cone burst shape (stars ejected fro a canister) Fish: stars that "swim"; Bees; Hummers etc etc

Never seen green tea or apple - must be developed for the Japan market.

You can get rather nice disposable wooden loaf forms. I think they are very thin birch. You bake in them, then sell the loaf in the form. SFBI used to carry them, but their website seems down.

They are biscuits also with the McVities brand. If McV is selling in Japan these treats maybe on the way... Hobnobs are coarser textured. Jaffa cakes are a sponge, a dollop of orange jelly and a top layer of chocolate. They are so light they seem to evaporate if the top is left off the box. There was a big court case with the tax authorities a couple of years ago as to whether they were cakes or biscuits, as they attract different rates of sales tax that was settled in favour of the company, I'm glad to say.

Not quite the same but I'm pleased with my flexible silicone loaf tin, made by LeCreuset I think. Bright orange.

OOOH! Proper McVities dark chocolate biscuits. The milk ones are an aberration. I thought they only were available in the UK. The packaging is different - in the uK they are in a tube or a round pack. The plain not-chocolate-covered are great with strong cheeses, or for dunking in coffee. Do you get Hobnobs or Jaffa cakes as well?

Can I enter the ones I made earlier? http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=915380

Make stock Skim. Let get cold and remove fat. Clarify if you want. Reduce mightly to demi-glace or even glace. Put up in ice cube trays. Leave to set. The stuff has so much salt etc in it it will keep forever int he fridge in a plastic bag. To make soup take out a cube and disoolve in hot water, add garnishes. Also handy for enriching a stew, or gravy

Bradenham ham from Fortnums Paxton and Whitfield Harris (one of the original producers) From Henrietta Green's http://www.foodloversbritain.com/ In spite of the stories you may have heard about how York hams were smoked over oak chippings while the Minister was being built, do not believe a word. York ham is a green (unsmoked) ham. Traditionally it is dry-cured in salt, saltpetre and brown sugar for about a month, then hung to mature. Harris-Leeming Bar, Leases Road, Leeming Bar, Northallerton Dl7 9AW tel 01677 422661 fax 01677424986 age their for about 4 months for a mild, moist version; they also produce the black-skinned Bradenham ham which is dry-cured for 2 weeks. Also http://www.sandridgefarmhousebacon.co.uk/m...r/mailorder.doc Cheshire Snokehouses Ltd Vost Farm Morley Green Wilmslow SK9 5NU Phone: 01625 548499 Fax: 01625 548606

Peeles Norfolk Black Turkeys Selling own turkeys xmas only. Contact: James Graham Address: Rookery Farm Thuxton Norwich Norfolk NR9 4QJ Phone: 01953 860294 Fax: 01362 850237 and get in line...I just ordered mine this morning

Amen! Especially unfortunate is "Port style sacramental wine", such as branded Carmel or Kedem.. Sweet fortified wine made is California or Israel is not Port, anymore than blue cheese made in California is Stilton. That said California should be able to make fine fortified red wines, especially from the pre-phyloxera vines. Just don't call it Port. So far as I know there is only one quinta in Portugal, the Quinta de Noval Nacional, that has the Touriga Nacional pre-phyloxera grape. The port is amazing, if you are so lucky as to be able to find it.

You grow them, or know someone who does. If you grow a few tomato plants you will have green tomatos at then send of the season! I expect a farmers market or a specialist restaurant supply house would have them in season.

Refreshment: 1. Take 100gm/4oz of starter add to 100gm/4 oz of flour and 100gm/4 oz water. 2. Ferment for 8-12 hours at 30C/85F temp 3. Repeat (100gm is about 1/3rd of the starter mix) etc. The starter can be held in the fridge almost indefinately between baking sessions (say up to a couple of months). It will seperate into two layers. When you want to bake take a tablespoon of the bottom layer and mix with 100gm of water and 100gm of flour, and incubate at 30C/85F for 8-12 hours to form the starter sponge. When the jar in the fridge is looking a bit empty make a double batch (200gm of flour and 200gm of water) and top the jar up with the surplus starter.

At each refreshment you multiply the amount of starter by 3, since this gives optimum conditions for the the bugs to grow, while still being the dominant population. If you don't throw some away you will pretty soon be drowning in the stuff. Let see. If you start with 100gms, after 10 refreshments you will have 5000 litres, and be adding 2000kg of flour and a swimming bath full of water at the next refreshment.