J Acord

All I can say is... Good God! I started reading from page 1, and about an hour and a half later I am still here! Not sure whether I should put my towpenneths worth in or just leave it.....

It's fat. You also get them in anchovies packed in oil when the oil becomes too cold. They do cause you to stop and think for a second though

Was up in Edinburgh over the weekend, visiting friends. Had a dinner party for eight on saturday night where someone had a digital camera, so I thought I would unleash some pictures of the food on the unsuspecting members of this board! Starter: Salad of Scallop and Jerusalem artichoke served with sauteed corals and a hazelnut oil vinaigrette. Main: Pigeon breast and leg with a red-onion tarte tatin, creamed spinach and braised leeks, a red wine sauce and side dishes of carrots and french beans with toasted almonds and lemon butter. Dessert: Gianduja (hazelnut flavoured chocolate) mousse with caramalised bananas and rum and kahlua chocolate sponge filling, banana caramel sauce and raspberry coulis, garnish of sharp red fruits and caramel coated hazelnut.

Regarding historic recipes. I wonder if anyone can point me in the direction of any cook books containing recipes by Careme? Since my french is below-par, it would be more helpful if the books were english translations. It has always been a desire of mine to try and recreate some of his artistic pastry masterpieces. Thanks John

After doing potatos in both goose fat and lard (not at the same time though), I think I have to say that the goose fat wins. Though said goose fat had also been used to confit rabbit, so there may have been some taste carry over which gave it an unfair advantage

Last night, peppered steak, butternut squash and maple syrup mash, and some red onion marmalade (because I really fancied making it).

Beans on toast (english style) with a slice of processed cheese on top, put under the grill for a couple of mins so the plastic cheese melts and goes all wrinkly. Mmmm cheesy beans

Hey guys, Just thought I should add a microbiologists view to this thread. Commercially raised chickens are usually given a large number of antibiotics which kill many of the bacteria in the chicken. The problem with this being that the presence of such bacteria inhibit the growth of pathogens such as salmonella spp.. However, there are very few antibiotics that have been approved for ducks or geese, and consequently they are not routinely used. This means (perversely) that ducks and geese are better able to withstand salmonella infection than chickens. Also, ducks or geese that are infected and must be treated with drugs must wait a number of days between when the drug was administered and when it is legal to slaughter the bird. While, the argument isn't quite as clear cut as this (it also has to do with processing of the carcasses and also the fact that more chicken is consumed than duck (i.e. increasing the population density of chicken farms, and the risk of bacterial contamination of a flock)) I feel it is a point that has been missed out so far.

Risotto (is tuesday Risotto night in the UK?) with morels and lardons. Topped with crispy prosciutto. The risotto wasn't quite right though, I think the cheese dominated a bit too much, ah well you live and learn... oh and about 1/2 of a bottle of a not particularly remarkable wine.

Regarding this whole atkins diet thing, is it only meant to be for a short amount of time or is it a change people make for the long term? While I am sure it might help you to lose weight I have a friend who has been on it for far too long IMHO and now looks positively skeletal. There is obviously some whole eating disorder thing going on there as well but I wonder what other dmage he might be doing to himself.

Nah, I really couldn't be bothered with fermenting all those fish guts (I didn't want every cat in the neighbourhood hanging around outside the house) so I just used ca com or thai fish sauce instead. Sorry to disappoint

Sunday, after a busy day watching the recreation of a roman gladiatorial games (and getting slightly sunburnt and getting a sore throat from all the shouting ) I decided to go for a roman dinner. This involved a lamb stew cooked with onions, cumin, coriander, fish sauce and plenty-much wine, a roast chicken stuufed with dill, coriander and leek, again with the fish sauce and then roasted ( a sweet sauce was poured over it just before serving), butter beans cooked with coriander, cumin seed, leek and again the obligatory fish sauce, and lots of foccacia to mop it all up with. The dessert was dates stuffed with pine nuts, stewed in red wine and honey, fresh figs and melon and a pear patina (kind of pear custard, though wasn't sure if it turned out correct, mine was quite runny like a very thick custard, but I wonder if it was meant to set?). All in all a very pleasant experience.

Sushi really ain't all that hard. Maybe people want you to think it is difficult, that way they can justify charging the enormous amounts of money for what is actually quite a basic dish (or is it only expensive in the UK?) Now the thing I have trouble with is creme caramel. I tried making it once, many years ago, and it split (curdled), and I was so traumatised by the experience that I haven't tried again since

Well, I've only eaten there once, and it was only on the ground floor for a sandwich (steak and parmesan with rocket) but I thought it was pretty good. Was there on a saturday afternoon, it wasn't too busy or noisy and you got a lot for your money. Just right after spending a hard morning doing nothing. And besides, the bathrooms were worth seeing, if nothing else!

Hey blue, I like the idea of pre cooking the potatos (with the other method sometimes the rosti is brown on the outside, but hardly cooked at all on the inside.) My only question is, how easy is it to grate an already cooked potato? Is it only slightly par-boiled or what? John

Regarding the drying of grated potato for rosti: I tend to put the grated veg into a tea-towel (muslin would probably be preferable, but I hardly every have it lying around the kitchen) gather up the four corners and twist. This squeezes all the water out of the veg leaving you with a dry, compact ball of grated potato, which I then put into a bowl, separate and season. Simple (apart from having a very starchy cloth which requires washing... ah how we pay for our art.)