Bingo! - That is the missing step; geez, I should have thought of that! Thanks Arashall! Chopping the bones releases the flavour, whilst reducing the cooking time so the coconut doesn't curdle during the time it takes to cook the meat near the bones! Duh!

It is probably a combination of things, beginning first and foremost on the farm. I'm no expert by ANY stretch, but if beef is like, say, flowers like sweetpeas and apples, many growers gravitate to hybrids, not the old-fashioned varieties. I suspect the same might be true with beef: they use breeds that produce the maximum amount of beef quickly and cheaply. Steriods, antibiotics, feed, and "happiness" of the cattle come into play as well - not to mention aging (dry vs. wet vs. little aging at all). Most supermarkets don't hang their meat for very long at all.

We are extremely fortunate to live in an area that raises old English breeds, free to roam and eat meadow grass, fresh hay and lots of treats from the villagers (apples, carrots, and the such). They aren't taken miles away before slaughter (no stress) and hung for a minimum of 6-8 weeks.

I also suspect the fresh produce used to prepare dishes our mums and dads used things that were in seaon and local. Try a home-grown late summer tomato vs store-bought in the middle of winter and you'll see what I mean; it makes a huge difference.

Finally, recipes with a zillion ingredients might be to suit the modern notion that more is better; the cook is putting more effort into the dish to make it more "special", etc. It helps sell cookbooks.

I don't know if it would make a difference, but last week I made chicken and dumplings for the first time, and the receipe called for WHOLE milk (1/4 cup to 4 1/2 cups homemade stock + 1/4 cup dry sherry). I'd never had chick'dumps before, but it was amazing and the soup had a lovely "mouth feel".

I began making another dish using skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs when the group called in, all of whom decided they had a hankering for a Thai curry. Doesn't matter if it's Panang, Red or Green - I've got everything to hand and aim to please and now that the thought is in my head - I quite fancy it, too!

I've already browned the thighs and removed the skin, and was thinking of proceeding from there. The only thing is, I seem to recall the last time I tried using bone-in chicken, I did it slowly in the oven (covered) and the coconut milk coddled -- and, no - it didn't boil that I can remember.

Does anyone have advice? Should I do it on the stove top, bang it in a crock pot, or finish cooking the thighs in broth (poached) to be added to the sauce later? (The latter kinda seems a shame since it seems the bones would enrich the sauce with a deep chicken flavour.) Alternatively, go ahead with the original Chicken Tetrazzni and be dammed-LOL!

Cheers,
Christine

Hubby has asked me to give a go at making lamb madras, which I've never done before and am confused about the vastly different ingredients used in two recipes I've found on the web. In addition to spices, one uses tomatoes and tamarind, and the other doesn't.. I realise everyone has their own recipes, but would have thought there would be more in common! Both claim to be "authentic", whatever that means!

Recipe 1: coriander, peppercorn, fennel, fenugreek, clove, red chillies, onion, ginger, garlic, fresh tomatoes, coconut, cilantro/coriander to garnish. This one has a sauce that clings to the meat.

Recipe 2: coriander seeds, cumin seeds, red chillies, fresh curry leaves, garlic, ginger, ground tumeric, ghee, onion, coconut milk, fennel seeds, cardamon pods, cinnamon, garam masala, tamarind. This one looks like it will be a bit saucier than the first.

I've never had it, but the husband - who loves it - can't recall the overall taste, but thinks it has tomatoes or was otherwise a deep red, so not much help!

Does anyone have any opinions? I'm one of these who end up with bland curries (despite using fresh whole herbs, etc.) and really don't want to end up with yet another dish that fails to "wow".

* A cookbook produced by organisations or companies in your area. For example, my collection of books includes one by the Nashua (NH) Telegraph, which compiled the best recipes submitted by its readers, and another by Richland Washington Allied Arts Association, and a few gathered over the years from B&Bs.

* If your hosts are into genealogy, a gift certificate covering the cost of research at a local library or historical society.

* A locally-produced food item. Farmer's markets, small resturants, and smaller gourmet shops are good for finding unique items. (A local wine or beer from a micro-brewery, BBQ sauce, chutney/jam, herb or spice mix, etc.) My US friends always get a kick out of the unique flavours of crips/potato chips we get in the UK, just to live you an idea.

* Locally-produced soaps, lotions, etc.

* If they like antiques, maybe you could find a commerative paperweight or some other interesting item featuring the name or photo of your area.

* A CD by a local musician.

* Something made by a local craftsman or artist.

Donald Russell (UK) sells Yellow Loue Chicken, which is supposed to taste "like chicken used to taste" and has no added water. At £8.67/kilo, a 1.5kg bird costs £13, which is rather steep. We normally buy free range corn fed chicken at the grocery store or butcher at around £4.99/kg and it's very, but I don't know if water has been added (though its probable).

Has anyone tried Loue chicken, and is it worth the price?

My mum made THE best potato salad, and while I'm sure there are others who made it like her, I've yet to see it.

Her "secret" ingredient was the addition of ketchup/catsup.

After boiling the potatoes (peeled), while still very hot she cut them into large chunks and marinated them in a mixture of mayo, ketchup, mustard, celery seed, vinegar, salt, pepper and a little bit of sugar. Taste as go until you get a ratio that pleases you. Mom's dressing was always a pleasant orange-pink colour, not too light but not too dark.

When cool, more of the mayo/ketchup sauce was added to make them creamy, and then she added chopped hard boiled eggs, onion, celery and green bell pepper.

Many thanks to everyone for your critique and suggestions. Our friends came over last night and I went with the panna cotta, brownie (without icing), and a stack made with shortbread, cream and strawberries. Everyone loved it, but I didn't actually care for the orange panna cotta. It seemed a wee bit bitter to me. Didn't think I caught the orange pithe when I grated the peel, but that's the only reason I can think would account for the bitterness. As I was the only one who thought that, maybe I just don't like orange panna cotta! Oh yeah...I didn't do the onion tart, at Jules' suggestion. Thanks again everyone!

I've never done a trio before, but what do you all think of these combinations:

* Orange panna cotta --OR-- orange posset (with a little cardamon shortbread on the side?)
* Chocolate brownie with chocolate ganache frosting
* Strawberry tart (uses marcapone and almonds)

OR
* Lemon posset (with a little cardamon shortbread on the side?)
* Rasberry sorbet OR strawberry sorbet
* Poppyseed cake OR cardamon cake

Please feel free to mix the two up for a different combination, or add something different altogether. The only requirement is that everything can be made hours or a full day before and fairly easy.

My main menu is:
* Appetiser: Individual onion tarts with greens (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe')
* Parmasan-crusted swordfish on a bed of home made linguine (sauce has white wine, lemon, capers, parsley)
* steamed sugarsnaps and asparagus

Everyone here always has such great advise, I'm looking forward to hearing your advice and recommendations!

Many thanks for your recipes and tips, Tom. Ya know, I have that huge 12-qt. pasta All-Clad pot and insert given as a birthday present years ago. It's so big it's sat in the garage because I rarely have occasion to use it, so your tip to use it for stock will breathe new life into it.

Finding beef bones of any sort is proving to be more difficult than anticipated. Our local Tesco doesn't sell sirloin on the bone and all three butchers in our area don't stock marrow bones, beef ribs or any type of bones! Fortunately, one of them has kindly agreed to save any off-cut bones he can gather over the course of the week, so hopefully he'll have enough by Saturday. Can't wait to get started!

That "wineyness" taste is one of the things I didn't care for the other times I've tried this dish (with a non-JC recipe). Before even tasting it, you could see how the meat and gravy was a deep wine-red, rather than a rich mahogany colour, which I believe a well-made BB should have. The addition of jam sounds quite nice, but wouldn't it add a tart-sweet note to the dish that shouldn't actually be there?

Thanks for the advice on the meat, Mateo. I don't have enough of either the beef shin or ox cheeks and, after checking the packages, one takes 2½-3 hours, the other 2-2½ hours. I'm assuming, rather than cooking separately, I could add the shin first, then the cheeks after ½ hour, yes?

If using rump, would that be top rump silverside or a top side rump, or just a plain rump? (As you might guess, I'm not knowledgeable about beef cuts. Compounded with the fact I'm an American in England, I'm still trying to come to grips with English/UK cuts and the different terminology!

Hi Tom and all. We don't have Trader Joe's in the UK, but I actually don't mind peeling little onions. For other recipes, I usually blanch them in chicken stock, peel, then saute in a little butter to brown them, so might do that with this dish as well.

I like the idea of making my own stock and would appreciate your recipe. If you use marrow bones, any recommendations for substitutes would be nice as it's really difficult to get them where I am; oxtail is a LITTLE easier to find, and veal bones are near to impossible.

One dish that is very successful in a crock pot is lamb shanks. I also use a timer if I'm going to be away for longer than 4 hours, and often have it start during the night. When I wake up, I uncover and let it cool and pop it into the fridge. It's then easy to skim off any fat, and then reheat with added carrots or potatoes, etc. before eating.

I tried making Thai Massaman Curry in a slow cooker, thinking the lamb would benefit from a long, slow simmer. The coconut split and, while the lamb was nice and tender, we felt the dish was pretty much ruined.

A stickler for presentation and cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients when others are around, left on my own I make up a batch of frozen mashed potatoes, some sweet corn and a pan of Bisto gravy granules (any flavour). Mix the lot together and then....blush...eat right out of the pan to save on washing up!

When my brothers and I were kids (under 10 I think), mom used to mix a tin of tuna with Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and tinned peas, served bubbly hot on top of toast with crumbled potato chips on top, then some melted Velvetta or cheese curds. Sometimes she's throw in leftover Kielbasa or hotdogs, in which case we'd add catsup. It was yummy! However, when I recalled it after an absence of something like 30 years and made it myself, it was awful!

Supermarkets cater to their local clientel. We live in a very rural village and the nearest place to shop is a working-class market town where the local store devotes practically an entire isle to tinned beans in tomato sauce and carries lots of ready-made sauces and the like, but try to find a staple like polenta or even mustard seed and you're plumb out of luck! Go a few miles away to a more "up-market" town and the choice increases greatly, but still depends on the make-up of the population, i.e. ethic diversity, culture, etc. So, product availability depends on the client base served by the shops and what people cook (or don't). Shops carry what sells and has a good turnover. Speciality shops, markets and good-ol' mail order help us fill the many gaps...and it pays to plan ahead and be flexible!

Silly me, Cantkick! Guess I'll have to drink more wine-LOL!

Jay, why frozen onions? Surely you mean the frozen kind, which are chopped, for the braising part, and not the small white ones that go in later, yes?

Gordon Ramsay does scallops over a bed of culiflower puree with a dressing of white raisins
and capers, which we really like. Serve with just wilted spinach done Indian style with toasted almonds. Ramsay's recipe is here: http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles...

A late bloomer, I just saw the movie "Julie & Julia" on the telly. Although I've made Beef Bourguignon before, I've always found it too "winey", but that could be because I used the wrong/cheap wine or didn't cook it well or long enough. It's been okay, but nothing to write home about.

Inspired by the movie to give it another go -- in the hope of making something that will knock the socks off my hubby -- I did an internet search for Julia's recipe and was amazed to see so many recipes adapted from her original. This may be a silly question, but as the original goddess of French cooking, isn't Julia's version perfect as-is? Also, as it is called Beef Bourguignon, why does the receipe call for Beujolias, Côtes du Rhône, Bordeau- Saint-Émilion, Chianti **OR**Burgundy?

I have also seen comments from on-line posters who say they found the original recipe bland, and recommend using Pinot Noir and substituting dark chicken stock in lieu of brown beef stock.

Speaking of brown beef stock, short of making it from scratch (marrow bones are hard to come by), is fresh beef stock from the grocery store okay and/or would a bit of More Than Gourmet demi-glace give a better finish?

In case it matters, I'll be using a combination of aged beef shin and beef cheeks for the meat.

Any thoughts, hints and tips will be most welcome!

Many thanks, Monavano and Lisavf. I'm so glad they can be made in advance as it will take lots of pressure off an already crammed cooking schedule!

Hubby and I have never had anything cooked by this method before, so didn't know what to expect when we the recipe at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJQQPKLMwAg for "Chef John's" duck. It was easy and delicious with his peach sweet and sour sauce (http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2011/0...).

I'm not certain how or if the sous vide had anything to do with it, but that was the first time we (hubby and I) were ever able to get the skin so incredibly crispy, even though we've always scored the skin before when frying in a cast iron pan.

I want to include loaded potato skins on a party menu but would like to do as much in advance as possible. I've thought about baking the potatoes and scooping them out a day in advance, but worry the skins might get soft and floppy during storage in (or out?) of the fridge.

Does anyone have any experience and some tips for doing them in advance?

Many thanks,
Christine

Update. Well, I made the Hoy Jor recipes found on the internet, (http://www.ezythaicooking.com/free_recipes/hoy-jor.html and http://en.petitchef.com/recipes/deep-...), using bits from both and substituting with what I had to hand. The final product used pork mince, shredded suet, tinned shreaded crab, hens egg, cornflour/starch, a bit of dried shrimp, Chinese dried mushroom, spring onion/scallion, cilantro/coriander, Chinese cooking wine, white pepper, and soy. Would not use the suet again. I served them with a sweet and sour sauce and a salad of bean sprouts, carrots, seseme oil and soy. See picture. The Hoy Jor is sitting on bamboo leaves used to line the steamer.

They turned out pretty tasty but weren't what I'd hoped for or remembered from so long ago. Shrimp would have been better in my humble opinion, perhaps with a 60/40 ratio to the pork, which me thinks would be better using hand-chopped pork vs mince. Duck egg may have produced a richer finish. I cut back on the recipe's recommended garlic, which may have been a mistake as well.

All things considered, they were nice all things considered, but not memorable. Next time, maybe following a recipe would be a good idea! I'm using the left-over mixture for wontons tonight with some added prawn/shrimp and ginger for wonton soup.

As for the dried tofu skin, they were much thinner than I had expected looking at the package: How on earth do they do that! Extremely fragile, they reminded me of pork cull, like you use for faggots/sausage. I see endless possibilities!

Many thanks to alkapal and everyone who responded. Hoy Jor is indeed what I was looking for - yipee! I think the ones I had so long ago were made with shrimp, which is what I'm going to try first, and replace the plum sauce with a lighter sweet chilie sauce as we have a bumper crop of chilies in the garden now.

The only thing I'm unsure about is the wheat flour, which I don't normally have on hand. The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons, and it seems a waste to have to buy a large bag just for this as it goes stale so quickly. As it is used as a binder, do you think a bit of cornflour/starch, arrowroot or white flour would be the best substitute? (I'm thinking cornflour/starch would be the way to go.

Can't wait to give it a go. Again, cheers to all who came to my rescue!

The other day I picked up a package of thin dried tofu sheets and went about hunting for recipes using it when I came across this unidentified photo on the internet.

It instantly reminded me of an appetiser I had at a Thai restaurant about 20 years (!!!) ago. (It obviously left a strong impression!) I seem to recall it had ground pork and maybe a bit of minced shrimp/prawn with very silky texture with a slightly crispy shell. The dipping sauce was slightly sweet and sour, just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

The picture looks similar to what I remember of the dish, and like it might have been steamed and then fried. I’ve never used tofu skin before and don’t know what it looks like cooked, but in the photothe casing looks like it might be too thin to be tofu skin.

Does anyone know what this is, and do you have a recipe? It’s driving me crazy!

Coincidently enough, I held a Japanese dinner party for six a little over a month ago. Japanese is our favourite! Following is my menu, along with a few options. It’s all very doable BUT prep work and organisation are critical, along with a helper. Much of the prep can be done in advance. I planned and laid out all the pans and little serving dishes ahead of time, labelled so my helper (husband) and I didn’t get confused. A microwave is handy for gently reheating sauces. Drinks; warm sake, Japanese beer, white wine (nothing too oaky).

This menu, as you can see, is served Japanese banquet-style, with each dish served alone and in little bites. Most recipes are from “Practical Japanese Cooking” by Shizuo Tsuji et al, though some are my own. If anything sounds good let me know and I’d be pleased to provide the recipes and pictures.

Appetizer (amuse-bouche): Jellied shrimp. A single steamed shrimp and 2 green peas suspended in a deep golden cube of jelly made with bonito stock, dark soy, sake, mirin. Make 1 day ahead.

2nd course: Sashimi or sushi. If making sushi, make rice ahead and cover with a damp towel. Don’t make the kind with the nori wrapper because the nori gets limp; some veg can be cut ahead..

3rd course: Vegetable tempura. Mushroom, sweet potato, green pepper, squid, etc. and mint leaves. Cut veg and make dipping sauce ahead.

4th course: Chawan-mushi (savory custard). A loose steamed egg custard with chicken, shiitake mushroom, spinach and ginkgo nuts. Can be prepared in morning; steams for 20-30 minutes**OR** Clear Soup with Chicken Balls and Cucumber. Make in advance, adding cucumber before serving.

5th course: Grilled Salmon or Sea Bass. Serve with lemon and sake, garnished with a few fine beans. Only takes a few minutes.

6th course: Shrimp Boats. Shrimp puree spread onto green pepper, steamed and drizzled with toasted sesame oil. **OR** Stuffed potato buns (mashed potato with shrimp, crab, beef or pork in a golden ginger sauce with green garnish. Unusual and very good, can be made ahead but steaming process must be carefully watched) **OR** Stuffed Cabbage (Chinese cabbage, ground chicken, ginger)

7th course: Something a bit acidic like Spinach Rolls, Marinated Watercress, or Simmered Bamboo Shoot with Wakame Seaweed.

8th (Main and most substantial) course: Tofu “hamburger. Tofu mixed with cloud ear mushroom, white miso, carrot, potato and scallion, lightly fried. Served on a pool of a red sauce made with onion, served with a little baby potato, steamed carrot and watercress garnish. **OR** Soba Noodles with Duck **OR** Chicken and Egg on Rice (Donburi) **OR** Pork and Egg on Rice (Katsudon).

9th course: Plain boiled rice served with pickled vegetables and miso soup. This combination is always served at the end of the meal. If serving the Donburi or Katsudon, you might wish it move it up the menu order of service so you don’t have two rice dishes served one after the other.

Other options:
* Iceburg lettuce with carrot-ginger dressing a’la Benihana.
* Tofu sandwiches. Multiple layers of tofu and shrimp simmered, served with spinach towers and a scattering of peas. (Really pretty!)
* Rolled beef and asparagus
* Shrimp and Leeks with Mustard-Miso Sauce
* Mushrooms Skewered With Pine Needs, served with Deep-fried Sardine Rafts
* Cold buckwheat (“Fox”) Noodles, served with spinach rolls and rolled omlet. Very good, but September is a little late as this is very much a summer dish. If you’d like a menu centred on this, let me know.