So what have you cooked lately? (Year three!)

Can you provide more detail on this? I don't want to let my imagination run away with itself.

http://www.recipezaar.com/162127

The marvellous (though somewhat scary) Heston Blumenthal roasted his for four hours at 60C. N.B I am not suggesting you do this as he had to deep fry the damn thing to crisp the skin up afterward which is somewhat impractical, though you could brown it off in a pan. A couple of hours at a lowish heat, then a blast (He also brined it, boiled and refreshed the whole thing twice before roasting, this strikes me as being too much like hard work, and somewhat the antithesis of the whole idea of a roast i.e. lovely straightforward comfort eating). I find a salt/marjoram mix brings the skin up a treat (as nobly suggested by Paul upthread).

p.s. - i am in love w/ silver spoon.

Judy Rodgers may be trendy but she's got a lot on the ball. Salting instead of brining works amazingly in many many meat situations.

I served the confit on a bed of annatto and coconut-milk arborio, with a fennel-kabocha soup I got from the Sundays at Lucques cookbook.

On the side I made an arranged, sunset-colored salad from grilled Meyer lemons, roasted heirloom beets, roasted red carrots (they're all the rage at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market) blood orange supremes, and a little fresh mint. I made a plain-jane vinaigrette with a splash of rose water (weird, but good, like something I had at Al Forno about 10 years ago) and served the whole thingy with some extra-crappy chardonnay.

For desert I made madelines and orange-blossom turkish delight. The cookies were great, the turkish delight had all sorts of little crunchy sugar-bits in them. I don't understand why: I used a thick pan, heated evenly, stirred constantly to interrupt the sugar crystallization, added cream of tartar to inhibit crystallization, and kept the cooling temp. well regulated. Thoughts?

I actually like my fudge a bit crystalline. Mr. Jaq is in the creamy fudge camp.

Nath: my grandad used to sell fruit & veg. He'd cut up whole pumpkins with this HUGE cleaver type knife you had to learn how to bascially THWACK into the pumpkin. We were never allowed near that knife as kids, it was deadly sharp.

I'm still trying to figure out why that bread recipe didn't call for salt. That was madness. You really can't add salt to bread at the last minute. Even though "last" and "salt" are anagrams.

Also good with a dash of cumin or garam masala added.

I made the rhum-raisin bread (I mentioned in the Substituting thread) and it's DELICIOUS. It's not dark coloured as in the book (as I didn't use dark rhum) but it's so fluffily yummy! I had to *paint* honey on top of it, so now it's all sticky which makes it hard to put in a bag.

This evening I will make chicken tikka masala again. myum myum

I made a stir-fry last night. Simple thing. Some beef strips, some onions + garlic, a completely random sauce/marinade of oil, hot chili paste, soy, orange juice & ginger. Served over leftover rice.

Was fine, but a bit overdone. Wanted to let the sauce cook down and stick to things, but by that time the meat was quite tough. Any suggestions on how to keep stir-fry meat somewhat tender?

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Oh, and I made a carrot + parsley + potato soup the other day.

Basic mirepoix (carrot, onion, celery) baked to a deepish brown in a cast-iron pan, low oven. Then I boiled those vegs for 45 minutes or so w/ standard soup herbs to make a stock. Later, I sauteed potatoes in butter w/ vermouth, added this to the stock, along w/ carrots, LOTS of parsley & more herbs. A bit of fresh parsley, some black pepper and a good dollop of heavy cream at the end.

Really damn good.