Posts by: chocolate_monster

It depends how much your gonna use the knives, how much your willing to spend etc. Something to bare in mind that with cheap blocks your spending money on knives you might not use as you tend to only use 3 knives, a small paring, a large chef knive and a medium size chef knife- unless you want to fillet your fish and bone meat- i would suggest spend alittle bit more on those 3 knives then a big block- you can always buy an empty block and build your own collection. Also with cheap knives they blunt very quickly and more likely to chip, where as a more exspensive knive will last you easily 10 years if not more if looked after well. I would check out www.kitchenercookware.com as they have full blocks, empty blocks and knife rolls and quite a few ranges of knives of differnt standards and prices, and they are very helpful- when i emailed them. Hope that helps!

Hey their called rosti or food rings and come in diffent depths and sizes depending on what you want to use them for- great for individaul puds or veg stacks and like you said great for mash. You can get them from www.kitchenercookware.com hope this helps

T&G are brilliant mills espically the ones with the ceramic grinders- they can take 200kg of salt and pepper before wearing out. The Peugout ones aswell are great- see the ones on offer at www.kitchenercookware.com hope that helps

Instead of plaiting the bread you can get a tin that has the plait impressions so you just have to put the dough in the tin to get the same effect. You can order them from www.kitchenercookware.com hope this helps

Look no further than the microplane graters they are more exspensive than a normal box grater but because the holes are lasered rather than punched it grates the food rather than riping the food. So its a more delicate way and is fantastic for zest. you can get them on www.kitchenercookware.com hope this helps and save u from ur increasing collection of dud graters!

hey got the email for kitcheners as i went in the other day its - www.kitchenercookware.com hope this helps

Try Cheltenham kitcheners their the oldest cookware shop in the uk, they're in the middle of doing a website u can buy mini springform tins from them over the phone an their post them to you and their not as exspensive as lakeland and cheap poastage!

Hey well amazon.com have a range of retro dinner books which are quite good for that era but if u want britis then the natitional trust do a range of books like tudors, roman etc. Let me know if u find a shop or sumthing!

A simple ganache which is tasty and quick that the head of pastries at the London Ritz hotel told me that they do is- 600ml whipping cream to 300gr of dark chocolate and simply melt the choc then mix into the cold cream as boiling the cream destroys the flavour of the cream- mix quickly but gently. this will give u about 100 chcocs depend on the size u want- this recipe works for me but theres thousands of recipes for a ganache! enjoy experimenting!!

le Creuset alao do their own brand of enamel cleaner- most department stores that stock the cookware normally stock it but if they dont try an indepent cookware shop in cheltenham called cheltenham kitcheners who stock it and they'll send it to you. They're also the oldest and first cookware shop in the uk. The cleaner is very effective!!

Hey I believe you can get small amounts of them from lakeland limited - think their dont as patterned but are small and large panettone papers. The link you added is a fab site have u ordere from them at all?

Try cheltenham Kitcheners who was the first indepent cook shop in the uk, really help staff and they do over the phone and if they dont have them they will order them and post them to you. They were a great help when I was tracking down sum equitment.

DON'T BOTHER WITH THE KENWOOD!!!!! I have had my kitchenaid for a year and love it so much. I used the kenwood at school they weren't as strong or as versitile as the kitchenaid and alot noiser and lets face it less sexy!! If ur gonna spend the money you dont want sum thing ur gonna have 2 put in a cabinet cos it doesn't look nice. The kitchenaid is far spreme. I worked in a kitchen shop last year and we sold no kenwoods cos of the quality and the lack of power and cos everyone just wanted a kitchenaid due 2 the fact their better. We also sold many to local chefs. Do the right thing buy a kitchenaid u wont regret it!

KEEP IT!!!!

Hey i'm off to thailand for a month then austrillia for 3 weeks ( along the east coast) the san fran for a few days does again one no any where great in any of these places?? From one jammy foodie!!

How fantastic!! I'll do some scouting for the best place for the wedding as long as i can come and do your food!!!

Cheers for that! Did you try some of the churros and hot chocolate???

The book everyone should read is Bad food Britian it came out last year and is a fantastic book which covers alot of todays issues. If you love food get your copy today!!!!

But there are parents who like yourself take an interest in their childs education.. there are new children cookery courses - but the only a particular type of parent is going to pay for their child to go to these. But it is the other children who won't know the main ingredient in chips like 17% of children aged 7-9 nowadays do. On your point of the parents teaching the child you can then argue that maths or science could and should be taught at home aswell. But i think it's going to take years before anything is improved.

Hey i'm off to Seville at the end of April for the festival and was wondering if anyone knew a good place for some tapas/grub??

Sylvia- 328 Lenox Ave Harlem, on sunday they have a live gospel choir.

Zabar deli - not sure of the address but it's in most guides- a fantastic jewish deli with 300 different types of cheeses and just amazing place to visit eat in the dinner attachted to the deli. Have an amazing time and don't in bubba gump resturant in time square as i got exteme food poisoning from the place!!!

Try the bar grill in the basement of Macys brill burgers and the asian chicken salad is so good!

Enjoy and just follow your nose there's plenty of brilliant resturants in new york!!!

i personally feel that a food subject such as home economic or cookery should be taught from a young age, rather than reducing the amount of lessons available to children. At my old school i have found out that GCSE design and technology (including food) is now not compulsery, i don't understand why the government doesn't add lessons to the time table for children to learn basic recipes, a subject that they don't need to take an exam in, just so they learn basic life skills like feeding themselves and not depending on low nutritous ready meals. Surely it's a soulution to the obesity rate in young children and the government isn't going wake up to this before it's too late. they should be teaching nutrtion from the age of 5.

Thats my rant over! interested to see if any one else feels the same!!

Her chinese plum sauce and cola ham glazed with the chinese plum sauce! And her baci ice cream that uses a shed load of nutella - mmmmmm (insert a nigella noise!!!)

Cheers fudgie! I know what daughter no.2 means, i know it's silly but i miss ny!! Took me a few days to realise where i actually was then when it came to leave i really wanted to stay longer!!! i loved the people, the food and the noise at night of the taxis and traffic. I know now where my dream wedding reception would be held - top of the rockafella centre so much nicer than the empire state building!!! I'll keep that in mind fudgie!!!

MERRY XMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Hope you had a good one and the feast went to plan and the cake, walnuts and all goodies were yummy!! We had a very nice beef wellington.
I had a lovely time in New York cheers Fudgie i only went for a week but could of stay for much much longer! The people were so nice and the streets were so clean compared to London, i didn't feel threatened once. Brilliant!!
Early december i went to cologne for 3 nights for the xmas markets which was nice and we went to a chocolate museum which was joint with Lindt factory - yummy samples!! And had a shop that sold 600 differnt types of chocolate! Of course i was in heaven!!
In April i'm off to seville for a week for the easter flamanco festival so looking forward to lots of lovely tapas!!
Then the end of june i'm off to Thailand for a month with my brother and his girlfriend visiting singapore and vitenam, then flying to sidney for 3 weeks before i'm off to uni!!! I'm trying to not spend too much money at work with all those lovely kitchen gadgets so i can have lot's of lovely meals and can report back to you!!!
My course at uni recently got chancelled so i'm now doind Food science and technology.

before i go last bit of news - I was a runner up in the Nestle Amateur pudding chef awards 2006 and apparently i was one of four runner ups and the youngest!!! So watch out for the chocolate toffe truffle and raspberry sauce on the tins of condensed milk!!!!

Hope you are well and still baking lots of lovely treats!!!
Rach