carswell

Like other correspondents, I usually have several books going at once. Cookbooks: David Thomson's Thai Food Frédy Girardet's Émotions gourmandes La grande cuisine italienne de Antonio et Nadia Santini Cliff Wright's A Mediterranean Feast (an onging project; after 18 months, I'm about halfway through) Food-related: Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything (somewhat entertaining, occasionally enlightening, but I find myself wondering what all the fuss is about; his is a fun job, though) Other: David Thompson's The New Biographical Dictionary of Film The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th ed. Wolff's J.S. Bach: The Learned Musician Le Livre des Ruses : La stratégie politique des Arabes (kind of an Arab The Prince, written a century before Machiavelli's work) Recently completed: Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate (the second time; what a great novel, er, poem, er, piece of fiction!) Michael Nava's Rag and Bone Lush Life (bio of Billy Strayhorn) Patrick Leigh Fermor's Between the Woods and the Water (The second volume -- the first being A Time of Gifts -- of PLF's promised three volume recounting of his "hike" from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933-34. Earlier in this thread, someone called Byron's The Road to Oxiana the best travel book ever; I would perhaps have agreed -- with Chatwin's In Patagonia and Seth's From Heaven Lake also in the running -- until I read these two volumes.) Pierre-Jean Remy's Callas, une vie Isacoff's Temperament : How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization In the queue: Fernandez-Armesto's Near a Thousand Tables : A History of Food Wayson Choy's The Jade Peony Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy Some Austen (prolly Mansfield Park)

Have made cashew and other nut butters in the food processor. Works fine. Sometimes it helps to add a bit of oil (I usually go with peanut but any neutral oil should do; untoasted sesame oil is good for tahini). For chunky butters, chop a couple of handfuls of nuts in the food processor first, set them aside, make your butter and mix in the chopped nuts at the very end. Edit: The nuts should be lightly toasted before grinding.

Greek style: salted and peppered inside and out, grilled or broiled (skin on), skinned and fileted at table, served with a drizzle of olive oil and a squirt of lemon. Roasted on a bed of artichokes or fennel. A great Marcella Hazan recipe. Through the gutting slit in the belly, remove the entire backbone (your fishmonger can do this) from a 3-3½ lb. striped bass. Cover a baking dish with two very large sheets of aluminum foil. Combine 12 freshly cooked mussels, 6 raw shrimp (shelled and deveined), 6 raw oysters (shucked), the shellfish juices, chopped parsley, crushed garlic cloves, olive oil, bread crumbs, thinly sliced onion, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Spoon some of the liquid from the shellfish mix on the bottom of the foil and place the fish on it. Stuff the fish with the shellfish mixture. Coat the outside of the fish with any remaining liquid. Seal the foil tightly. Bake for c. 40 minutes at 475°F. Let rest out of the oven for 10 minutes. Transfer to a platter, cut the foil with scissors, swoon over the delicious aroma, slice like a roast and serve.

Lovage is related to celery. In fact, the celery seeds in our spice racks are actually lovage seeds (or so I have been told). Young leaves and blanched stalks can be added to salads. Larousse Gastro says the raw or cooked roots can be, too, and that the stalks can be candied like angelica. Lovage is also good added to soups, braised vegetable dishes (potatoes!) and stews. It combines well with fish and seafood, eggs (omelets and frittatas), veal and beef and is good in stuffings (fish, poultry). Be aware, though, that a little goes a long way. Lovage salt: In a jar, layer finely chopped lovage with sprinklings of sea salt until the jar is full. Refrigerate. Use in cooking. Searches of sites like epicurious.com will turn up a few interesting recipes. Or google lovage and the ingredient of your choice (e.g. recipe lovage "sea bass").

Heading off in another direction altogether... Brochettes of Salmon Marinated in Yogurt and Indian Spices About 1 pound skinless salmon filet, cut into 1½-inch chunks (you should have around 16 chunks) Scant 1/2 teaspoon anise seeds 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds 8 green cardamon seeds, hulled 1 clove 10 black peppercorns 1 cup whole-milk yogurt 1–2 chilies, seeded and minced Fresh ginger, a piece about the size of the first joint of your thumb 2 green peppers, cored and cut into 1½-inch squares 1–2 medium onions, preferably red, peeled and cut into 1½-inch squares Sea salt Place the spices in a small skillet and fry over medium-high heat until they are toasted. Transfer to a mortar or grinder and grind to a coarse powder. In a nonreactive bowl, combine the spices, chilies, yogurt and ginger, either squeezed through a garlic press or finely minced. Add the salmon, cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour. When ready to cook the fish, take a skewer and on it thread a piece of pepper, a piece of onion and a piece of fish (the fish should be only lightly coated with yogurt). Repeat three times so that the skewer contains four pieces of salmon. Repeat for the other skewers. Grill the brochettes over a medium fire or broil them close to a hot broiler 2-3 minutes a side, around 10 minutes in all. Season with salt and serve. Two servings

As solutions to your banana problem haven't been legion in this thread, here are a couple of ideas (neither of which I've tried, btw; like Katherine, I've only eaten them out of hand). Caramelized Red Banana Tartlets (from Chez Panisse Fruits). On the bottoms of small (4") prebaked pâté sucrée tartlet shells, drizzle caramel in thin threads to form a sticky, nest-like web. Arrange 3 overlapping 1/4-inch banana slices on each web. Fill each shell with 1/4 cup rum-spiked pastry cream. Top with 6 banana slices. Drizzle with more caramel. Red Banana Splits (from a friend): Your classic banana split but using Haagen Dazz Rum and Raisin and Dulce de Leche ice creams. Drizzle with chocolate sauce and top with whipped cream. I'm sure they'd also make fine banana fritters. Unlike yellow bananas, colour isn't necessarily an indication of ripeness. They're ready when they give slightly when squeezed.

More often than not, wok-fried scrambled eggs, chopped scallions and sea salt. Less is more.

Do NOT pour boiling or very hot water in the crock to sterilize it. I did that many years ago and broke a very fine old crock. Weak bleach solution? That's what I used to do when homebrewing. That'll do ya. Just be sure to rinse well. Sodium metabisulfite is another, slightly less effective possibility.

Don't have the book so can't comment on the recommended procedure. Have always made sauerkraut in a big glazed earthenware crock. Whichever fermenting vessel you use, be sure to sterilize it before putting in the cabbage. We "seal" the vessel with a layer of plastic wrap topped with a heavy-duty garbage bag filled with about a gallon of water, which effectively blocks airborne contamination while letting the gas escape. The type and amount of salt you use can be a determining factor. Coarse kosher salt works for me. The amount should be based on the weight, not the volume, of the cabbage. Use only mature, new crop cabbages; mature because they're higher in sugar, new crop because they're higher in sugar and give a crisper kraut. Savoy-type cabbages work but the resulting kraut isn't as crisp as that made from smooth-leaved varieties. Temperature is another success factor. The ideal is in the 65-70°F range. Extended periods above 75° can lead to spoilage. Lower temperatures slow down the fermentation. The results are well worth the effort and occasional disgusting failure. Fresh sauerkraut is sweeter, less acidic and crunchier than the commercial stuff -- good enough to eat straight from the crock or jar. Be sure to use some in a choucroute: you will be amazed.

Tuesday was a holiday (St-Jean-Baptiste Day), so dinner was a bit fancier than usual for a weekday. With the temperature well into the 90s, indoor cooking was kept to a minimum. Cold salad of cellophane noodles, watercress, pickled ginger, cilantro, soy sauce and toasted sesame seeds topped with sashimi tuna Slanted Door grilled lamb chops (marinade of fish sauce, sugar, lemon grass, ginger, garlic, bird's tongue chilies) Grilled bok choy Grilled eggplant First local strawberries of the season with crème fraîche Aveleda Vinho Verde (the 2000 I believe) as an aperitif and with the salad. 1999 Quail's Gate Old Vines Maréchal Foch with the lamb. The Foch, my first ever, was surprisingly good -- not particularly complex but a complete wine. I served it double-blind and was delighted when the wine-geekiest guest pegged it as the 2000 Pesquera.

Is there any way of letting us know which wines are available to you? Does the BC liquor board have a website? Can you obtain special imports? Also, how much do you plan to spend per bottle? There are lots of great wines and wine bargins coming out of the Rhone and southern France these days, so reccos won't be a problem once we have an idea what you have access to. Carema has given you some good general suggestions. One idea off the top of my head: how about featuring the red, white and pink line-up from a single estate? Coudoulet de Beaucastel's RW&P Côtes-du-Rhônes are widely available, generally affordable (unlike their big brothers, alas) and, most importantly, delicious. They'd also go well with your menu.

This is a fine workaround provided what you're grilling doesn't require more than half the grill. When cooking for four or more adults, I usually need the Weber's entire surface. Also, I often find it necessary to remove the entire grill to bank/rebank and add new fuel (and, yes, my top grill has those nifty flip-up wings). It'd be a lot easier if you could just raise or lower the thing.

Sunday supper: Homemade whole-wheat and sesame crackers topped with smoked salmon and crème fraîche whipped with wasabi and a dash of mirin. We polished off the tail end of a bottle of '92 Weinbach Riesling "Cuvée Théo" left over from Saturday (good but a bit too sweet). Steamed local asparagus, chilled, dressed with a light soy sauce, sherry vinegar, olive oil and toasted sesame oil vinaigrette, garnished with chopped hard-boiled egg and chive flowers. Washed down with a bottle of Harp. Dessert was a warm-from-the-oven cherry and rhubarb clafoutis. Do I ever love early summer!

I've had the 22½" Platinum charcoal grill for three years now (similar to yours except less stainless steel and no propane ignition system). Weber grills are well made. Protected only by a vinyl cover, mine sits on a deck exposed year-round to the rigours of a northern climate and is hardly worse for the wear. Fit and finish are first rate. However nice a frill, the ignition system is just that, a frill; for briquettes, Weber's optional starter chimney works as well. The ash catcher works exactly as advertised, a Good Thing. Although the lid holder is a fine idea, the lid still gets in the way; I often just remove it. The rotisserie set should be on your to-buy list. My issues with Weber grills are twofold. First, they're designed to be used with briquettes, and I strongly prefer charcoal or wood. This means, among other things, that the side baskets for indirect cooking are nearly useless. Second, and by far the bigger problem, the grill height is fixed. If you have too hot a fire going or are grillng a particularly flammable piece of meat (duck, say), you can't raise the grill. If your coals are dying and your meat has another ten minutes to go, you can't move the grill closer to the heat source. There are work-arounds, of course: in the first case, move the coals to the side and/or spray them with water from a plant mister (a great way to tame flare-ups); in the second case, finish the cooking in the oven. By the way, Weber claims the fixed-height grill is a feature, not a bug, and prescribes adopting the unorthhodox approach of always keeping the lid on except when turning or basting: "Keep a lid on it! Your Weber grill was designed to cook foods with the lid down. Keeping the lid on allows heat to circulate, cooking food evenly and without flare-ups" (www.weber.com). I beg to differ. The Weber approach works fine for a thick steak. But I like to fuss over what's grilling, to see what's happening, to deal with flare-ups as soon as they occur. Also, I often grill things that require constant attention (bread, vegetables, seafood), and for those the Weber approach is impractical. So, the next time around I probably won't buy a Weber. However, given the quality of construction of my current kettle, I don't expect the next time around to roll around for another decade or so...

Marcella Hazan's first volume, The Classic Italian Cookbook: the binding is cracked, the pages splattered and the cover torn. My copy of Santa Marcella's second volume, More Classic Italian Cooking, is in bad shape, too. I have Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, the one-volume update of the two, but hang on to the old books for sentimental reasons (they were the books I first learned to cook from), because they contain a few great recipes that didn't make it into Essentials (long-cooked broccoli!) and, above all, because nearly every recipe in them comes with detailed menu suggestions while Essentials has none. I think I learned more about the aesthetics and structure of an Italian meal from reading those suggestions than from all other sources combined. And, yes, many recent North American cookbooks, even hardbacks, fall apart after three or four years of moderate use. Maybe they aren't intended to be used even moderately?

Looks like your wish has been granted. Check out the Mazzer Mini-E: Photo of Mazzer Mini-E Grinder-doser MINI ELECTRONIC Stepless micrometrical grinding adjustment Electronic device to select the dose. It grinds on demand. Every dose of coffee is fresh. Single and double dose with independent adjustment Power 250 Watt Grinding blades (ref.189D) Ø 64 mm (2½ inches) Grinding blade speed 1400 rpm (50 Hz) 1600 rpm (60 Hz) Coffee-bean container capacity 0.6 kg (1.3 lbs) Dose adjustment 4-16 g (0.14-0.56 oz) Net weight 9 kg (20 lbs) Options Support for tamping / Magnet with ring It's not exactly doserless but has an adjustable doser that, unfortunately for you, tops out at 16 g. Still, 2 times 8.5 g would give you the magic number. As far as I know, it's not yet sold in North America, though it has been shown at a couple of coffee expos. No idea what it'll retail for. All Mini prices are forecast to rise soon, however, due to the shrinking dollar and the company's decision to stop producing the switch model, which runs about $200 less than the timer model.

An easy menu I've long considered as typifying the genius of French cooking is a meal served by Tante Paulette at her eponymous restaurant (now closed, unfortunately) and described by Patricia Wells in her Bistro Cooking book: Salade à l'ail chez Tante Paulette Mixed greens, lardons and fresh crutons fried alongside the lardons, dressed with a thick, mustardy vinaigrette and showered with finely minced garlic Bouillabaisse de poulet Saffron-, thyme- and Pernod-scented chicken stew with fennel and potatoes Saint-Marcellin The tangy, creamy, hockey puck-sized cheese from the Dauphiné Omelette aux poires Sweet omelet filled with caramelized pears and flambéed with Poire Williams and/or Cognac. Start with a glass of white wine and pop the cork on an old Bandol or one of the better Beaujolais for the bouillabaisse and cheese. You'll swear you've been spirited to Lyon!