Susanwusan

And what about the sauce, should it be tomatoey or gravy? And is there a typical carbohydrate and vegetable accompaniment?

I was watching something and the Italian chefs were nonplussed as to why others thought lots of garlic went into Italian food. According to them, it was used rarely and then most often with a light touch.

I know about all the variations, I wondered if there might be a specific point or points that would be common to all?

Hi, I made meatballs in tomato sauce and was then told I should make "Italian" meatballs... What defines an Italian meatball and should they be in gravy, or what? Getting meat from Italy is out of the question.

I plumped for cherry flavour jelly and made chocolate and cherry trifle.

Is there a difference between schnitzel and escalope? Is one beaten first and the other not before breading?

I know what you mean, they'll be really artificial. I might do it differently.

Hi. I'd like to make a chocolate jelly using cocoa powder and already-flavoured jelly crystals or blocks instead of gelatine powder. What sort of flavour would compliment the cocoa, or be disguised by it? Mostly available flavours are strawberry, raspberry, orange. Other possible flavours would be lemon, lime, blackcurrant, cherry.

Can thinned yoghurt be used as a buttermilk substitute?

If the point of paella rice is that it stays separate and cooks without having to be covered, and arborio rice is meant to turn out creamy, how can arborio rice be a suitable substitute for a paella rice? Sainsb's have a "paella rice" but it doesn't specify what rice it is on the website - does anyone know?

Paella pan would be the common term. Paellera is probably what you're thinking of.

Bangers and mash with gravy - yum! Perhaps taxi driver's background wasn't English? Anyway, we even had a cartoon called Bangers and Mash, back in the 80s.

I sometimes want to change the flavour in a simple way and also add to nutritional value. I use the drained milk in the soup. Spot on with the scorching... I'll try heating the milk first in microwave and then pouring onto potatoes and simmering. UK milk top codes (whether foil or plastic tops). Blue = full fat Green = semi-skimmed Red = skimmed Gold top is from Jersey cows that give higher fat milk and I have seen in recent years a purple top milk in the supermarket, but I don't know what that's about.

I've tried plain boiling peeled and cut potatoes, salted and unsalted, in normal blue top milk. Each time, the milk curdled. Will it always curdle because of the potato or is there a way to do it without the curdling?

Thank you.

Crusting buttercream. Is that what they call an oxymoron? I'll have a look into those, thanks. I take it the sugar in those icings would keep the product from going off too soon?

Hi, what is a good recipe for icing that can be spread or piped and kept at room temperature for a few hours? A buttercream icing would be most suitable but I can try anything else.

There's really nothing to scrub off - it's perfectly smooth. I rang the company, Chef Set, and they're only open two days a week! I expect it is a very low quality product. I would like to know though if anything is likely to leach into water or food if I use it again so I'll give them another ring on Monday.

The potatoes and water went in first. Anyway, it is stainless steel - should that happen? I've had stainless steel pans before for a long time without that

Hi, I bought this 14cm stainless steel pan the other day, put a few small potatoes in it to boil. When it came to washing-up, we saw these stains on it. What are they and is the pan safe to use?

Both are Chef Set brand, which doesn't sound inspiring, but as they are both from a catering supplier, shouldn't they all be professional quality? p.s. I have a question about babkas, if anyone wants to tootle along to the Regional Cuisine section. The pan will be used mainly for boiling eggs, but it will have to do double, treble duty with other things, which I why I wanted to make sure I bought the right one. lol. I know.

I don't think either of them is clad aluminium. I'll have to choose the stainless steel one because it will end up going through the dishwasher and when I scrub them, dark grey stuff comes off. I don't suppose the height/ width thing makes a difference to anything really.

The Bidfooddirect website doesn't have all that information on the products.

96102 and 95822 are the ones.

It's Bidfood, I can't copy the link without being logged in and other info showing.