Tere

Ah right. I used to have a lemony pepper rub from somewhere (Sainsbury's I think) that was great on roast chicken! Discontinued now, sadly.

Wut. No. Just no. No!!!!!!

Put the veggie plot and the cutting garden to bed for the winter today - harvested the last of the cornflowers and cosmos, and took the seed heads off the nigella to open later. Found a last rogue courgette and picked some autumn raspberries. Made parsley pesto last week and ravaged the plants but decided not to dig the roots up just yet. Sure enough I have baby parsley leaves! The chard and the spinach beet are still pretty happy, even after my depredations to pick chard stems for pickling. We had our first frost last week and it doesn't seem to have harmed them so I will see how far I can stretch them! The oka looks like I should look up when I am supposed to lift the things Now to look at the seed catalogue and decide whether it's worth planting any of the seeds I have to overwinter!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myoga ?

Yes, please update us when you are able to! I can't help feel that Channel 4 have been sold a pup. They have basically spent an awful lot of money on a tent. But we shall see. I like Paul Hollywood, so at least they have him to carry over. They should get someone like Delia or Nigella in.

Koffman's underneath the Berkeley is great. I don't know how much of their business comes from the hotel.

Along the same lines, quite a lot of the UK libraries use Zinio. I am not a major magazine reader, but there's pretty decent choice. And it's free! Here's an example page: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/leisure/Pages/eMagazines.aspx Might be worth investigating elsewhere too?

Rutabaga = swede correct? I love cheesy swede casserole with haggis. Boiled mashed swede layered with cheese, lots of salt and pepper. Some butter if I am feeling extra naughty. Delicious.

plenty of salt I hope?

No pictures because it was essentially brown on brown but I adapted this recipe https://www.cooked.com/uk/Anjum-Anand/Quadrille-Publishing/Indian-Food-Made-Easy/Meat/Easy-all-in-one-lamb-curry-recipe for slow cooked hogget neck steaks - just chopped them up and simmered until done (about 4 hours). Really tasty, would do again. Only change apart from the timings were nigella seeds in place of poppy seeds and I took out the chili half way through as hubby was bitching about the heat. Served with simple mint and cucumber raita, a thrown together spinach curry sauteed with various whole seeds toasted and some left over passata, and some home made paratha, easily my favourite Indian bread. Just eaten leftovers which were equally yummy Would cook again!

I've stuck it on my wishlist as I am sure my mother will love buying this for me and I am the world's hardest person to buy for. I guess I will get over the cups

I think it's a sweet thing since they look like a giant fruit pastille. Candied Chinese hawthorn?

By rice she said a cup of rice, but this wouldn't be American cup measurements. This is probably half a mug of whatever thing she was measuring from in the cupboard. I'd probably start with half an American cup and go from there. I might pin her down and get her to make it. Possibly

I was binge watching a Chef's Life and got to the episode where she makes chicken and rice with her mum. And then I thought about a recipe my Mum called "Chicken Lyonnaise" - we were pretty broke as a kid and Dad was out of work a lot but I remembered this as being a thing she made with the legs and wings from a cheap chicken she roasted. This or coq au vin from a packet. I got curious and asked her. She also did an excellent lamb kidney dish which consisted of frying up onions, adding the gravy from Sunday roast, cooking the kidneys, serving with rice. Clearly very tasty since I can still remember it. Also below. Anyway. Have the recipe. "Although we talked about Chicken Lyonnaise, I’ve only just got round to reading the email. Ingredients Chicken legs, Bacon, Onions, Carrots, Mushrooms, Campbell’s condensed Mushroom Soup and Rice with a bay leaf and mixed herbs as required Fry everything to brown. Leave onions in pan and add rice, cook until translucent and add soup. Pour over other ingredients and cook for an hour until the soup has gone into the rice. Don’t let dry out. Kidneys and rice is simply fry kidneys until cooked and brown, add some thick gravy and cook together to get juices combined. Cook rice in normal way. Pour /place kidneys on top. See you soon. Love Mum xx" Haven't tried it yet as still slightly boggled there seems to be no additional liquid in the soup. But will see how it goes! Mum is a big believer in bacon in anything savoury

Nice to see you cooking!

I'm pleased to witness this discussion because I bought marjoram, lemon balm, curry plant and oregano this year for the herb hedge in the assumption they would fail and clearly they shouldn't. My next door neighbour gifted me with about 3 kilo / 6 lb of home picked damsons in the week and our cooking apple tree is heaving. So I will be making a LARGE quantity of this at the weekend http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/british/spiced-damson-chutney?utm_source=rd&utm_medium=d&utm_campaign=otn&utm_content=recipes/type-of-dish/chutney/spiced-damson-chutney.html . I have made this before, it's heartily recommended - great base. Up the spices a little if you are unsure once you taste - it does improve with keeping and keeps well but it's an old recipe from one of her original books and less spicy than she would do now I would think. Very delicious though. I was about to go out to forage for damsons in my hedges so he turned up at the perfect time. Given I also need to pickle the last of my cornichons, pickle all our swiss chard stems, and process the rest of the chard leaves / spinach beet, I see a good day of work ahead on Sunday. Green tomatoes next week probably.

I just find cups such a pain in the behind to deal with - I would so much rather weigh out some dry ingredients than suffer the dip / bang or pour / shake conga.... (I might be prejudiced by as an exchange student dealing with a conventional American spoon measure for the first time and being so boggled by the size of the teaspoon I doubled the salt in the peanut butter cookies I was making - then had silent rage when my host mother (who is the worst cook I ever have known and I escaped and ate vegetables for two months because I was so sick of just boiled spaghetti and bought pasta sauce) was sooo patronising about the poor little British girl who wouldn't cook. Consider the mote in your eye...

I was amazed when gifted a couple of the Thomas Keller books and they were cuptastic. I've added it to my Amazon wishlist anyway. I reckon it's a Christmas present my mum will enjoy buying for me and I'm at about 14 things on there, lol. Reminds me to actually measure the cup measurements we have and work out if they are British or US. Ditto the spoon measurements. Hubby didn't know (they are both his when we combined houses as I wasn't anywhere near as interested in cooking at that time) and I've been using them regardless with no major ill effects. But would be good to know for sure.

Does she include weights or is it the dreaded cup recipes?

@Chris Ward when you are next shopping a series of pictures of what you can readily get in France would be lovely.

For sure. If you look at the website you will get an idea. It was all plated beautifully, and, which is a tricky thing, plated meanly enough that a 13 course menu will leave you full but not satiated. It's a really difficult line. I honestly want to schedule in a visit a quarter, it was that good, but will be back for the end of March for my birthday for sure!

The other nice thing about it was the line chefs came out, described their dishes and finished them at the table. I really enjoyed that. I am looking forward to booking the chef's table, taking a notebook and really putting these guys through their paces

More info - actually it was £85 for us a head since we had a B and B deal (the very generous pours of the wine flight were £65 and I think a very good deal). The chef's table is £130 a head, unclear as to what deal you can get with an overnight stay. Tonight I would have said 5 of the 8 rooms were booked - 4 couples were eating in and I saw another couple at breakfast. No chef's table (unless they were the other couple - there's a back route to some of the rooms from the kitchen I think). Rooms themselves were very plush. Great mattresses. We stayed in Vermeer which was pre warned as might be noisy as it's right over the kitchen - kitchen staff were super professional though and actually quite quiet given that - the odd thump and bump but otherwise good. View was crap. Would probably ask for another room to try out the next time but it was nice. Living room area was lovely and comfy and had a lot of serious cookbooks to browse - original Fat Duck, El Bulli, Noma, Sat Bains, several modern pickling books. Could have turned up early and hung out there for hours. Now to the food. I'll try to describe as much as I can. 1. Not french onion soup - lightly cooked onion in a dashi - can't remember much more but very tasty - start of flight rose Moet. 2. Bread - a standout course - they prove their sourdough for 7 days then char in a hot oven. I need to know more - the bread was great. Served with homemade butter whipped with white miso and a cube of the "wagyu" beef dripping. The "wagyu" beef referenced comes from http://www.iforswelshwagyu.co.uk/contact.html who we'd encountered at a foodie event at Glansevern hall - judging by the taste while not real wagyu he is worth his money. The dripping was amazing - one of the nicest things I've eaten in ages. The miso butter was outstanding too. Nice to see a humble side showcased like that. Loved it. 3. We all I guess know mackerel with gooseberry. This was a slice of very lightly cooked mackerel, with a sour bramble compote, very light, and a scratching of the hard wagyu backfat. With good sake. Great. 4. The pork belly was cooked for 3 days (waterbath I have to assume) then blowtorched. With a quite acidic Riesling and large cherries, lightly pickled. The referenced bacon was on top I think. Very good but not the standout dish. Great crunch though. 5. Pollock was doused in ash and cooked quickly. Served on tongs. The pollock was so good I have forgotten what else was there. I know it was also good. Riesling matched this well. 6. I think at this point we got some classic Chardonnay from Burgundy. The rib was salted but had been cooked for a long time. Decent crunch. The shiitake was partly in crunchy chips but also in a shiitake soy glaze. It worked well, better than I thought. 7.Caesar was one of the stand out dishes for me. Lettuce puree, sliced lettuce, crumb of bacon and anchovy, buttermilk cream. 2 week old sugar and salt cured egg grated on top with excellent quality parmesan. I want to learn how to cure egg that well, it was like @rarerollingobject's but completely solid. Worked well with the Burgundy. Amazing. 8. Grouse was another stand out dish. Served with a hardcore Barolo (1997) and the age really helped. Grouse was waterbathed then seared, then served with elderberries 3 ways - elderberry compote, raw pickled elderberries (which were good enough I demanded the recipe) and pickled elderflower. Finished with 100% chocolate. Amazing. 9. Welsh lamb came 2 ways, with a jammier wine that was good but I have forgotten. First up, short rib waterbath, seared with shiso (perilla) until crunch. Ate greedily. Second course, pan fried but with discs of mint kombucha and preserved onion on top. I thought the accompaniments overwhelmed the lamb. A dish of two parts. 10. Bread no 2 was caramelised onions, gravy and some of the excellent sourdough with some more of the amazing wagyu fat. Nothing there to not like. I think this was the point we got served a Trappist ale. 11. We diverted for cheese, and were surprised to be served an aged Auslese, but the aged Tunworth had been very lightly whipped and served with some herbs and a pickled cherry tomato or two. The tomato and the overall flavour profile was really ideal for the Auslese. It looked weird enough I actually called the sommelier back and queried him, but it really worked well. The best pairing of the night and I told him so. He was a definite addition to the meal - worked out we were serious wine geeks and very happy to geek with us 12. Lager and lime isn't my favourite flavour and I kind of zoned out here. I know they drizzled lager and there was a lime puree but sorry, it was not for me. 13. Fruit and nut was more my style. It was served with an amazing ice cider from Devon and I nerded at them for a bit (I make applejack). It's a spoiler recipe so I probably shouldn't but I will just say I enjoyed it, one of the best dishes for me. I have a really savoury tooth and appreciated that the sweet dishes were either not overly sweet and / or were not too big. Overall I was very happy with the size of the plating and thought it was very well judged. 14. Tiramisu was deconstructed and very good. I think at this point we had got to the Tokajii and it was excellent. I would have actually put this as the finale if it were me as the blueberry/yogurt/syrup desert I thought lovely but my hubby thought too tart. Great match with the syrup though. The extra was going through to the kitchen and getting lemon and eucalyptus foam from liquid nitrogen. Loved the showing off of the kitchen and the technique - eucalyptus was a bit overpowering for me. Loved the ambition though. Overall, loved the Japanese touches, loved the food in general - at least 95% I thought was great. Some really good thoughtful service - for example, I am left handed and it's the kind of table service where they give you one implement at a time. It took two dishes for the server to realise I was left handed and present the dish accordingly. That's good. But what blew me away was they had remembered it and I got my yogurt presented the next day the same way too. That is attention to detail. I'll be back. I'll take pictures next time

Ooh - shows promise! I really need to up my freezer game, currently it's full of bags of mystery and I need to get more organised.

This was one of the best meals I have had in the 6 years I have been back in the UK and anyone in the UK should run, not walk there before it gets its second star. Wonderful display of fun, innovation, and great cooking - reminiscent of L'enclume and Story but with strong Japanese influences and a big kitchen garden full of interesting stuff. Plus foraging <3 I need to write this up properly so bully me mercilessly please. I also need to actually book Sat Bains. I debated chef's table this time and didn't. Next time I would. They change their menu every quarter and I can see this being a regular haunt. It's an hour and 20 away from us but I said I'd happily be designated driver, it's that good - the wine flight was fantastic as well! http://www.ynyshirhall.co.uk/dining/?gclid=CNbUqNHrvM8CFRM6Gwod0fAB-Q (No food pics as hubby was embarrassed and it was his birthday present so I behaved ) I have the recipe for the pickled elderberries