What’s New This Week

What’s new by me?  Funny you should ask: 7th Week, 9th Entry (but who’s counting?),  03/18/10 St Patrick’s Day been and gone.  Time for the left overs. Corned Beef Hash:  Wow!  I thought the subject would be nicely covered in about 350 words. If you’ve been following along, you know I try to cover a [...]

corned beef hash

  We had corned beef for dinner the 15th of March.  For dinner on St. Patrick’s day, the 17th, we had this hash.  Hash is a very good thing, but because the techniques are so simple, almost to the level of boiling water, and because there are any number of good recipes available on the [...]

Fish and chips

The best fish and chips I’ve ever had came from the King’s Head, a theme British style pub which was owned by a couple of Aussies in Santa Monica.  The Aussies are gone, the King’s Head remains.  The fish is wonderful.  So are the chips. As a result of their training, I prefer the coating [...]

“Philosophies” of Sharpening

I’m not sure how you conceptualize sharpening. Some people look at it as a series of progressive shapings and polishings; starting on the coarsest stones, and just doing the same thing only doing it finer as they move up the grits.  Deburring is an incidental nuisance, a consequence of a burr which occurs when “bevels [...]

What’s New This Week

What’s new by me?  Funny you should ask: 8th Entry (but who’s counting?)  03/08/10 Looking forward to Saint Patrick’s Day?  I know I am.  Here are a couple of recipes to start the week out. Irish Soda Bread: Plus ca change, plus c’es la meme chose (the more things change, the more they stay the [...]

Irish soda bread

  This is an authentically Irish version of soda bread.  There are a few twists here, but they’re more for conforming American ingredients than for altering taste or texture. Soda bread’s texture and loft depends on the interaction of buttermilk and baking soda and on the strength (percentage of glutens) of the flour.  Irish buttermilk [...]