well i'm sorry that I expected more than Recombinant Cuisine tips from Chowhound - a site generally dedicated to more gourmet tastes.

I've never heard of Rao's before. I wasn't objecting to the tomatoes. I was objecting to using a ready made sauce like "marinara" in place of straight tomatoes.

Its like a recipe that involves a can of cream of mushroom soup.

I also find this USA naming of a non-seafood sauce "Marinara" extremely strange.
- crazy Americans misnaming italian dishes.

you must be kidding?
"Rao’s Marinara Sauce" in Ful Medames?

- I don't do "recombinant cooking"

- and secondly you realise that that sauce has PORK in it?
http://www.raos.com/marinara-sauce-re...

which makes it seem especially out of place in ful medames.

I have some Split Fava Beans that I was thinking of trying to cook Ful Medames with.

a) If I use Split beans I guess its going to end up quite mushy / paste like - Is that bad?

b) This Guardian recipe includes a full can of Tomato Passata that seems very wrong to me.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyl...

c) A lot of the other recipes I've seen include red lentils. Is that correct?

I bought some plain Tempeh the other day that I need to cook but its proving difficult to find any interesting "proper" recipes beyond the usual westernized vegan hippie things. (ie I don't want to just make Tempeh Burgers or some meat substitiue thing.)

How is it traditionally eaten in Indonesia? The pics are from Wikipedia. Something like that Stir-fry looks ok.

Including both Roast Chicken and Roast Turkey is absurd - I would replace by Roast Fowl as I find all birds can be cooked in much the same ways.

Remove:
Mac and Cheese, - it comes in a packet - its not cooking.
Artichokes, just don't belong in the top 20.
Cookies, - Cake would be more useful here.
Meatloaf - who cares about meatloaf seriously I've never even eaten it.,
Pesto doesn't involve cooking!,
Vinagrette also doesn't involve cooking.
Hamburgers. - there is nothing very tricky about Hamburgers and they are not something one ever bothers to make at home.

Missing:

RICE ?!?! absorption method rice. half the world eats rice every day and its not in the top 20?
Soup - a basic vegetable / meat and vegetable soup.
Risotto - classic and actually very easy
Wine based stew of red meat. Beouf Bourginon or lamb shanks or Osso Bucco type dish.
Basic Indian-Style Curry

I prefer to brown the meat while it is cold and on a high heat. That way you can get some dark colouration on the outside without it cooking on the inside.

And I do it in smaller batches then I used to think necessary.

Does anyone have suggestions for recipes based around Jerusalem Artichokes where they are the "star" so to speak?

i.e. along the lines of:

- Jerusalem Artichoke Risotto, (which is an old favourite)
- Jerusalem Artichoke Soup.

I haven't had one for quite a while. 5-6 years.. or more. geez I can't remember.

It would be handy for reheating certain things - but that doesn't really seem a good enough reason to buy one.

I suppose you need to plan more if you use frozen meat.

Thinking of John Dory for this weeks fish cooking lesson / adventure. They come whole (but cleaned) from where I buy.

Can I cook them whole or would I need to filet them?

What would be a standard way of cooking them?

BBC website suggests pairing it with something more strongly flavoured:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/john_dory

It may just be Italy and Germany but its shocking how much more expensive it is in the UK.

Italy and Germany you will often pay less than €1 euro per scoop of good gelato whereas in the
UK its more like £1.80 - £2 or more for the equivalent. Which is more than twice the price.

Is it simply that Italians and Germans are bigger Gelato eaters and hence there is a more Competitive Market for gelato there?

Is there some mysterious gelato cartel in the UK artificially pushing up prices?
The OEGC ?

Yeah I'm in the UK.

I thought that traditionally Icelanders ate quite a bit of Horse but I can't find much info on that.

A friend is coming over from Cologne and I thought I might try and convince him to bring me a chunk of Horse Meat. (Can you take raw meat on flights? - maybe frozen would work?)

I cooked a traditional Sauerbraten with Horse last time I was in Germany. Are there any other classic preparations of Horse? They eat it quite a bit in Iceland also I think. Perhaps there are traditional Icelandic Dishes?

The British used to eat Horse didn't they? I'm not sure if you can get it these days though. I had some Horse Salami in Calais once but I"m not sure if it makes it across the channel often.

ha! disappointed by an about.com recipe...I wonder why. That site is such rubbish.

Find a better recipe. And the flavour in that is mostly going to be from the Sofrito so you need a good sofrito recipe.

I thought the season just ended? When are they in Season? (well ended in the UK)

We are venturing more and more into Offal territory at home, as seems to be the trend of late, and perhaps its time to tackle "Liver" at home. But where do you start?

Calf's Liver seems to be one obvious choice as I hear its a bit milder. Is that true? and How to cook it?

But what about Lamb Liver, Ox Liver, Chicken Liver, Duck Liver, Goose Liver, Foie Gras, Pig Liver - how would you rate each? And what are classic preparations?

Whats your favourite liver and preparation?

Well ok before I write it off completely I'll try and taste some next time I'm in the USA. Actually might be in Michigan next Summer - but I guess that might not help as it seems more a southern thing.

Can one get good BBQ on Lake Huron - Michigan ?

Bought some of this Vignotte from waitrose on a whim today - Holy Cream!

Total indulgence. soft, creamy and slightly lemony. Does anyone know what region of France it is traditionally from?

This suggests: Champagne-Ardenne
http://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Vignotte_cheese

but this says: Basse- Normandie
http://www.thefrenchdelicatessen.co.uk/vignotte.html

and this in French suggests: Champagne-Ardenne
http://www.aci-multimedia.net/gastron...

I have eaten at http://www.bodeansbbq.com/ and I've had American Style BBQ ribs and some things at Food Markets in the UK coked by American Expats.

The gist of it seems to be cook some meat and then slather it with some noxious sweet sour BBQ sauce. The meat seems to function merely as a vessel for funnelling that sauce down your throat.

I find it lacks depth - its more the sauce I find disgusting.

The usage in Australia and the UK is quite different to what I've heard from USA TV and Movies.

In the USA It seems it possible in the to use "barbeque" as an uncountable noun like "milk" which is not allowed in UK or Australian English.

ie US: "We ate barbeque."

However this usage sounds nonsensical in Australia where its usage is more limited to:

- Verb "to barbeque" : the act of cooking outside over high heat on a grill or even flat metal surface
- Noun 1. "a Barbeque" : an event, like a party where you cook things in the above method, "We had a BBQ on the weekend".

- Noun 2. "a Barbeque": the thing you cook on which can use coals, wood, or even gas to generate heat.

- Adjective: "barbequed chicken" which is actually a whole chicken cooked on a Rotisserie.

So yeah that USA usage where you mean some meat (pork) cooked slowly and then covered in some disgusting sauce is unheard of in Australia. Thank god! its horrible anyway.

I was just looking at this old Beef Cuts Chart and noticed that they have 3 different notes for meat to
Stew,
Braise or
Pot-Roast

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/mea...

Which seemed odd to me. Whats going on with that chart?

Isn't "To Braise" more a method.

To Braise - being to cook slowly in a liquid that becomes the sauce and reduces while cooking.
(as opposed to Poaching, where you cook in a liquid that is not really part of the dish. - although it could be reduced later to make a sauce).

Then both a Stew and a Pot-Roast (US only) are different types of braised dishes - the distinction being based on whether you cut up the meat before or after cooking.

Although what do we call a Pot Roast in the UK? Do people even make Pot Roasts in the UK often?

Doesn't seem like I"ll have much luck on this in London. Oh well.

radicchio di Gorizia

looks almost like a giant rose.

Radicchio Variegato di Castelfranco IGP
Variegated Radicchio from Castelfranco (Veneto)

Radicchio Rosso di Treviso Precoce IGP

Radicchio di Castelfranco on the left

Radicchio di Tardivo

looks pretty cool.

So apparently the widely available "Radicchio" in the UK is actually Radicchio di Chioggia.

So I'm just curious what are the other ones like?

- radicchio di Treviso,
- radicchio di Tardivo
- radicchio di Castelfranco,
- radicchio Gorizia (also known as "cicoria zuccherina")
- radicchio di Trieste

Radicchio di Chioggia.

I thought it was more of a technical reason: Salty water has a slightly higher boiling point that non-salty water. So the water will be slightly hotter.

I also will add Olive oil for spaghetti and fettuccine to try and stop it sticking together. - although I've also been told that avoiding fulling draining the pasta - leaving a slight amount of water in the bottom stops it getting sticky.

I will often buy a Pinot Grigio to use / drink with dinner if I"m making Risotto and it works well as it has a very light flavour.

But otherwise I usually just use whatever is in the fridge. I wouldn't worry about it too much. But it should be dry and not too fruity and not oaked.