Afternoon high tea is served in the drawing room.

Afternoon high tea is served in the drawing room.
Your table awaits you Padraig Ó Raghaill  ;)
#3pm  

Originally shared by Jon “the chef” Hole

The Whisky Afternoon Tea at Cameron House may put hairs on your chest !

Cameron House and their rather more butch take on the afternoon tea. Their concept includes a
Chest-beating combo of Glengoyne whisky;
Beef and mustard sarnies’
A black pudding Scotch egg;
A mini burger;
A haggis sausage roll and a mug (no pinkies held out here) of tea.

Rather than a three-tiered cake stand, it is all served on a rugged slate.
Find here http://blog.5pm.co.uk/2011/07/afternoon-tea-mans-up/

#afternoontea   #21stcenturydigitalfood

Chefs secrets Spice my go to knowledge base.

Chefs secrets Spice my go to knowledge base.
According the Austrian Food Law, the term spice refers to plants or parts of plants (possibly dried) that are used to enhance the flavour or taste of human food.

Spices must not be technically modified or mixed with any other components (the law applies special names to such mixtures).

It will be seen that this definition is rather narrow: Many ingredients serving exactly the same purpose as spices, like beef extract, dried fish, fish sauce, shrimp paste, soybean sauce or fermented wheat, are excluded. This is probably because, with the exception of beef extract,

Of course, also salt is not considered a spice.

It will also be noted that this definition does not make any distinction between herbs and spices, as seems to be common in English language.

Thence, the meaning of herb will refer to a subset of the meaning of spice in all documents on this site, or, put the other way, the meaning of spice will include tropic plants with aromatic fruits or barks (traditionally called spices) and plants of temperate climate featuring aromatic leaves (traditionally called herbs).

You might call that bad and idiomatically incorrect English, and you’ll be right with this critique; still, that’s the price native English speakers have to pay for the advantage of reading the Internet in their mother tongue (please let me make perfectly clear that this is no private war against English language, but simply a statement about the dynamics of living languages).

Although at most forty different spice plants are of global importance (economically and culinarily), many more are used as condiments locally, in the region of their natural occurrence.

Some of these are traded in small quantities and used in ethnic restaurants or by emigrants who do not forsake their cooking traditions, other have some use as medicine and are therefore available in western pharmacies.

Many spices that have been used extensively in past centuries in Europe have now become obsolete and are now not even known to the Western public – mostly because other spices with similar sensory quality became cheaper and were preferred.
It is my interest to gather information about well-known and well-researched spices as well as about those exotics. Gernot Katzer

#Spice  of life
http://gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com/engl/index.html#top

Delphic spice

Delphic spice
A mix of Allspice,
Chili pepper,
Cloves,
Cinnamon, 
Onion,
Nutmeg,
Thyme,
Garlic,
Black pepper and salt.         
Spice mix rubbed into steak. Pan-fried nice and rare for me Remove steak keep warm and rest
Delphi sauce made from chopped onion browned with a sprinkle more of spices splash of white wine or beer.Table spoon of brown sauce and tomato ketchup.Reduce, season to taste and serve.
#Delphi

Black Velvet is a beer cocktail made from stout (often Guinness) and sparkling wine, traditionally champagne.

Black Velvet is a beer cocktail made from stout (often Guinness) and sparkling wine, traditionally champagne.
The drink was first created by the bartender of Brooks's Club in London in 1861, to mourn the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Prince Consort.
It is supposed to symbolise the black or purple cloth armbands worn by mourners.

Mmmm slange ;)
#BlackVelvet

Would you care to have an antejentacular coffee with me ?

Would you care to have an antejentacular coffee with me ?
Hat tip Charles Strebor for the word

Originally shared by Jon “the chef” Hole

Coffee Time
The Penny University.( Like Google+ )
Instead of paying for drinks, people in the eighteenth century were charged a mere penny to enter a coffee house.
Once inside, the patron had access to coffee,
the company of other customers, pamphlets, bulletins, newspapers, and news ‘reporters.
These reporters were called "runners" and they went around the coffee houses announcing the latest news, like we might hear on the radio today.
Before television advertisements and bulletin boards, people visited coffee houses to hear about the newest developments and business ideas. ( Bit like Google+ )

One of the most unusual aspects of this environment was the eclectic groups of people that ran into each other at a coffee house.
In a society that placed such importance on class and economical status, the coffee houses were unique because the patrons were people of all levels.
For example, a merchant could converse with a prominent businessman.
Anyone with a penny could come inside. Students from the university’s also frequented coffee houses, often spending more time at the shops then at school
It is easy to imagine the wide range of ideas that were produced as a result of this intermingling of people.
The term “Penny University” is often used in reference to the eighteenth century coffee houses because of this reason.
 
Coffee houses encouraged open thought and gathering of community. This environment, which was so conducive to intellectual discovery, could almost be called a school of social learning.
To some people this was probably more of a school then rigid classrooms where people could not step out of a particular social role.

Picture Vintage Arabic coffee making contraptions like this one (photographed at a coffee shop on the corner of Al Gumhoria and Mohammed Sabry Abu Alam streets, near Al Abdin Palace) remain in operation. Credit @ http://goo.gl/yBXvFR

#coffee   #googleplus   #coffeetime

Wok time

Wok time
The wok can be used in a large number of cooking methods.
Before the introduction of western cookware it was often used for all cooking techniques including:
Boiling: For boiling water, soups, dumplings, or rice. 

Braising: Braised dishes are commonly made using woks.
 
Deep frying: This is usually accomplished with larger woks to reduce splashing, but for deep frying of less food or small food items, small woks are also used.

Pan frying: Food that is fried using a small amount of oil in the bottom of a pan

Roasting: Food may be cooked with dry heat in an enclosed pan with lid.
Whole chestnuts are dry roasted by tossing them in a dry wok with several pounds of small stones.

Searing: Food is browned on its outer surfaces through the application of high heat

Smoking: Food can be hot smoked by putting the smoking material in the bottom of the wok while food is placed on a rack above.

Steaming: Done using a dedicated wok for boiling water in combination with steaming baskets

Stewing: Woks are sometimes used for stewing though it is more common in Chinese cuisine to use either stoneware or porcelain for such purposes, especially when longer stewing times are required. Small woks are for hot pot, particularly in Hainan cuisine. These are served at the table over a  flame.

Stir frying: Frying food quickly in a small amount of oil over high heat while stirring continuously.

Get #Wok  ing

Originally shared by Jon “the chef” Hole

Wok 鑊 cooking with Prawns 

A round bottom wok enables the traditional round spatula or ladle to pick all the food up at the bottom of the wok and toss it around easily; this is difficult with a flat bottom.
  
With a gas hob, or traditional pit stove, the bottom of a round wok can get hotter than a flat wok and so is better for stir frying.

Cast-iron woks form a more stable carbonized layer of seasoning which makes it less prone to food sticking on the pan.
While cast-iron woks are superior to carbon steel woks in heat retention and uniform heat distribution, 

#cooking   #wok

Baking Bad at #TangleHa

Baking Bad at #TangleHa  
An amazing rocket stove heater.
Get baking ! 

Originally shared by Jon “the chef” Hole

Proofing the Bread
Also called proving or more rarely blooming.
The process of making yeast-leavened bread involves a series of alternating work and rest periods.
Heat by a Rocket stove mass heater at #TangleHa  

Is the final dough-rise step before baking, and refers to a specific rest period within the more generalized process known as fermentation.
Fermentation is a step in creating yeast breads and baked goods where the yeast is allowed to leaven the dough.

Fermentation rest periods are not often explicitly named, and normally appear in recipes as "Allow dough to rise."

Overproofing occurs when a fermenting dough has rested too long. Its bubbles have grown so large that they have popped and tunneled, and dough baked at this point would result in a bread with poor structure.
Length of rest periods, including proofing, can be determined by time at specific temperatures or by characteristics.
Often the poke method is used to determine if a dough has risen long enough.
If the dough, when poked, springs back immediately it is underproofed and needs more time.

Retarding may occur at any time during fermentation and is accomplished by placing the dough into a dough retarder, refrigerator, or other cold environment to slow the activity of the yeast.

The retarding stage is often used in sourdough bread recipes to allow the bread to develop its characteristic flavor.
A cold fermentation stage is sometimes used to develop flavor in other artisan breads, with a part of the dough ("pre-ferment") before the final mixing, with the entire dough during bulk fermentation, or in the final fermentation stages after shaping.
#Bread   #BakingBad   #RocketStoveMassHeater  

Groans of pleasure were all that broke the concentrated silence amid the clattering of spoons against glass as...

Groans of pleasure were all that broke the concentrated silence amid the clattering of spoons against glass as mouthfuls of smooth, silky Panna Cotta were scooped up
#PannaCotta   #Recipe   

Originally shared by Jamie SCHLER
http://www.lifesafeast.net/vanilla-rum-panna-cotta-with-rum-roasted-cherries/

Get the #Oven On

Get the #Oven   On
#Tansy  

Originally shared by Jon “the chef” Hole

To make a Plain Tansy
A New and Easy Method of Cookery by Elizabeth Cleland (1755)

TAKE a fine stale Penny Loaf, and cut the Crumb in thin Shaves;
Put it in a Bowl,
Then boil a Mutchkin of Cream and when boiled, pour it over the Bread
Then cover the Bowl with a Plate and let it lay a Quarter of an Hour

Then mix it with eight Eggs well beaten
Two Gills of the Juice of Spinage,
Two Spoonfuls of the Juice of Tansy

Sweeten it with Sugar, Nutmeg, and a little Brandy

Rub your Pan with Butter, and put it in it; then keep it stirring on the Fire till it is pretty thick
Then put it in a buttered Dish ,you may either bake it, or do it in the Dripping-Pan under roasted Meat

Notes on Tansy : The scent is similar to that of camphor with hints of rosemary.
The leaves and flowers are toxic if consumed in large quantities
The volatile oil contains toxic compounds including thujone, which can cause convulsions and liver and brain damage.

Some insects, notably the tansy beetle Chrysolina graminis, have resistance to the toxins and subsist almost exclusively on the plant.

In the 15th century, Christians began serving tansy with Lenten meals to commemorate the bitter herbs eaten by the Israelites.

Tansy was thought to have the added Lenten benefits of controlling flatulence brought on by days of eating fish and pulses and of preventing the intestinal worms believed to be caused by eating fish during Lent.

Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard University was buried wearing a tansy wreath in a coffin packed with tansy; when “God’s Acre” was moved in 1846 the tansy had maintained its shape and fragrance, helping to identify the president’s remains.

By the 19th century, tansy was used so much at New England funerals that people began to disdain it for its morbid association with death.

During the American colonial period, meat was frequently rubbed with or packed in tansy leaves to repel insects and delay spoilage

Tansy was frequently worn at that time in shoes to prevent malaria and other fevers.

During the Restoration, a "tansy" was a sweet omelette flavoured with tansy juice.

In the BBC documentary "The Supersizers go ... Restoration" 
Allegra McEvedy described the flavour as "fruity, sharpness to it and then there's a sort of explosion of cool heat a bit like peppermint

However, the programme's presenter Sue Perkins experienced tansy toxicity.

According to liquor historian A. J. Baime, in the 19th century Tennessee whiskey magnate Jack Daniel enjoyed drinking his own whiskey with sugar and crushed tansy leaf.

Ps My kind of oven in the picture.

#Tansy

Champagne with foaming whirls as white as Cleopatra's melted pearls Lord Byron

Champagne with foaming whirls as white as Cleopatra's melted pearls   Lord Byron
#Champagne   #Oysters  

Originally shared by Jon “the chef” Hole

Coffee time fcuk the coffee
Champagne and Oysters break the fast time.
Champagne with foaming whirls as white as Cleopatra's melted pearls
Lord Byron

Oyster Eating
"Australopithecus, one of our ancient pre-human ancestors, ate oysters.
A shoreline diet of nutrient-rich oysters and other shellfish was one of the most significant opportunities in history that allowed our cranially challenged ancestors to grow big, juicy brains.

It wasn’t man who ate the first oyster; it was oysters that caused Australopithecus to become man.
As we climbed the evolutionary ladder, we brought the oyster along with us.
All over the planet, archaeologists have discovered man-made middens, massive garbage dumps heaped with thousands of oyster shells, which have been well-preserved thanks to the alkaline properties of oysters.
Careful excavation offers clues to the past in food scraps, human waste and other nifty tidbits.
More importantly, it shows we came up as social, nomadic creatures who liked to eat lots of oysters at big get-togethers.

As our nomadic social ancestors settled into a civilized society, they built up walls and we became enclosed like oysters.

The trouble with landlocking ourselves too far inland is that we cut out iodine-rich shellfish.
This caused iodine deficiency, resulting in fatigue and preventable mental retardation.
Today, many countries are legally obligated to add iodine to table salt to avoid the serious consequences of iodine deficiency.

It took some serious adapting to make civilizations work.
The clever inland civilizations made thoughtful efforts to acquire shellfish.
The Romans farmed oysters in the Mediterranean.
But they really made the grade when hydraulic engineer Sergius Orata figured out how to transport live oysters from the abundant coasts of Britain and France."
Credit  Pierre Lamielle
@ http://www.avenuecalgary.com/November-2013/All-There-is-to-Know-About-Oysters/

Swallow or Chew ? 
The myth is that true connoisseurs don't chew oysters – they tip them straight down their throats.
I suspect this one was made up to help oyster virgins get the whole experience over with as quickly as possible because, as well as breaking food down, chewing helps us to appreciate its flavour more fully.
Swallowing oysters whole, therefore, is surely akin to dousing them in Tabasco – it means you don't have to taste them.

The swallow-only camp, however, argues that oysters are a sensual experience that's more about the 'mouthfeel' than flavour

Swallow or chew ? 

Madame de Pompadour once said, Champagne is the only drink that leaves a woman still beautiful after drinking it

#Oysters   #Champagne