h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, I still do, but this morning I bought star anise for the first time

When I was a kid I always preferred aniseed rock to peppermint rock, and I loved aniseed balls. Then, when I started making sweets, at least for the two years I spent in Lancashire, I was in heaven because we made all kinds of aniseed sweets as well as putting it in the flavouring mixture for the cough drops.

There were ordinary aniseeds on the shelf this morning too, and I like their hints of liquorice-ness (if you're making any kind of liquorice sweet at a drop of oil of aniseed - it really brings out the flavour), but the difference between those and star anise is like Guinness and a Russian Imperial Stout. No contest.

"at a drop"? Add a drop.

You know, I honestly think teh interwebz is dumbing us all down, and not just because of the plethora of awful, awful content and deluded Beliebers clogging up Twitter. I don't know if it's something as simple as the fact that I don't touch type so I can't see the words as they appear on the screen, and if I don't proofread the post like a pro I miss mistakes like that, or if DARPA added something to it before they let it out into the wild, like a Stuxnet for wetware, turning all our branes to mush (I did that one on purpose btw).

Either way, I wouldn't have made a mistake like typing 'at a drop' in the first place.

I'll take your word for it, on the aniseed. My tastes have changed several times over the years (every seven years if one is to believe my mom, 7 year itch and all that). Many things I didn't like as a kid, like green olives, horseradish, et alia, I love now.

But one thing that hasn't is licorice, anise, Jaegermeister, etc. still is unpalatable to me.


As to the typos... I've gotten significantly more dyslexic lately...

I actually typed the "word" girht the other day, as in, "I made a girht hand turn at the second stop gilht".

And it wasn't an isolated mistake. I've often interchanged adjacent letters but now I'm switching letters farther apart.

Jaegermeister is unpalatable to me too That stuff's extremely unpleasant.

Increasing dyslexia is a problem for me too. I often trasnpose the letters just like you did there, in fact I've just done it now and I'll leave it be. I swear I didn't do that on purpose. That's a fairly mild example.

The thing is, ever since I learned to read and right and do sums, words and letters have been my friends, not so numbers, and it pains me to lose that friendship. Look, I've done something else. Read and right? Again, I promise I didn't do that on purpose, it just happened.

This sort of thing never used to happen to me. Until recently. I even let go an "it's" not long ago. Kill me now, please

oh I love Jägermeister (hmmm not sure if the a-umlaut worked there) but I don't like star anise. Even though it is so pretty to look at.

But, puts it in dark-meat stews and bolognese sauce (and some other tomato based sauces) and it is - a taste sensation.

Vanilla is ok as long as there isn't too much of it. (my custard tart had just the right amount at the weekend). But my favourite of all is cardomom.

And this christmas we'll be making cardomom shortbread again
(rare use of the smiley by me for food tather than manly totty)

If you make aniseed sweets could you move back here and live with me please?

not tried using half of those... caraway seeds work well on/in baguettes, and things IMO theyr'e sort of a simular flavour I guess I used to be into pernod and simular, in a major way, in my mid-teens, but just kind of forgot about it, or my tastes changed, not sure which

Oh Mina If it means living in Essex then yes

I used caraway seeds recently to make a seed cake. It didn't taste that great and I just ended up with seeds between my teeth every time I ate it. Which is what happens every time I make a coconut cake but I love the taste of coconut

Ooh, cardamom. I've started putting cardamom pods in my rice (and tapioca, and sago) pudding now. I might try just a bit of star anise too next time... like today

Last year the price of vanilla went up a lot due to a failure of the crop somewhere. You may be interested to know that they make artificial vanilla flavouring from an excretion from the anal glands of a beaver.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, boys an girls (and those awaiting the committee's decision) is why it's best to use vanilla pods or pure vanilla extract.

Was it Madagascar? I believe that's where the best vanilla beans come from but I don't know where the island stands in terms of global production.

we only buy vanilla pods, having a who can't get his head round the artificial stuff can get expensive. We stock up just before Christmas when Aldi get all the christmas baking stuff in. Vanilla and Star Anise plus all sorts of rice paper circles, candied peel etc etc.

There was a great program, a while ago now, on BBC radio Four.... probably the Food program, all about vanilla pods Don't think I've ever used them, as I don't tend to cook much sweet stuff

Dang, I really should keep up with things like The Food Programme. Every once in a while they do something about beer and I hear about it from the Twitter I use for work, but apart from that I pretty much ignore it, and I do glance over the Radio 4 schedules each week. I believe, for instance, In Our Time came back this week after its summer break.

I don't know who designed the BBC's various websites and search engine but they should be hung drawn and quartered, and whipped and boiled, then chopped up into little bits, and the little bits jumped up and down on etc etc because it's one of the most annoying of all the websites I use on a daily basis - slow, over-engineered, labyrinthine and with pointless features that get in the way of most things useful. But that's for another time.

At least you get a year to listen to old Food Programme episodes as opposed to the usual week for most other things, and I just found this in the back catalogue http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038x4wx

Yes, I think I'm going to have to listen to some of those old episodes.

By the way, the sago pudding with cardamom was delicious. Still is - I've got enough to last three or four days

I agree completely about the BBC website.

Cardamom is one of those odd flavours which are nothing special on their own, but really bring something special out when combined with other flavours.

I love cardamon in rice... useually combined with some other stuff, including cumin and casier bark (I find casier more to my palette than cinnamon for some reason),

Only another three hours to go, and then my slow cooker chilli oughta be done... I didn't go wild with glavourings in that though... a tad of cumin, about twice as much chilli powder as I thought wise, plus a bit of wostershire sauce, beef stock, and just the tomatos... oh, and about three LB chunk/diced beef/steak (Never done it before using diced meat, only done it with minced, sorry, ground, beef before) I hope it tastes as good as its smelling at the moment There's about 2.5 to 3 KG of it, by my reconing, once its reduced down a bit... I may be needing the freezer tubs I bought Saturday...

It's been a long, long time since I made a chilli. I must do something about that. People in this part of the world can get a tad obsessive about chilli, and Texas chilli bears little resemblance to the British kind.

So, what's in a Texas chilli? The only kinds I've ever really had are with minced (ground) beef, kidney beans etc.... I went with pinto beans as I had to use em up (yeh, I did finally remember to soak em, a couple days back; drained em, hard boiled em for ten mins, and threw into the slow cooker last night, then browned the meat, and fried off th eonions and garlic, and spices, and stuff, and threw it all in with the tomatos, to sit overnight until I woke this morning, when I turned it on)
I'm still getting used to the slow cooker, this is the second meal I've used it to make and chilly isn't something I've ever cooked much anyhow, for, err no reason I can think of really
Oo, and I put some oragano into it too, along with the chilli powder etc...

I've opened the slow cooker now, sauce looking a bit thin (to what I'm used too), so leaving it open, on high, see if it thickens a bit in hte next forty two minutes or so (getting hungry now)... Rice must go on soon ish I guess
I had actually meant to buy ground beef, but ended up with the diced stuff one assumes because I sort of asked for it, without realising Hoping I put enough chilli powder, but not too* much in it... It must have been a long* while since I last used chilli powder, as I didn't have any, and had to go buy it from al amine (our local, well, nearly next to the butchers, Indian supermarket) sod it... think I'll go put some rice on, I'm getting marvin

Baron Grim can probably enlighten you more than me, but Texas chili (one l) has no beans, tomato or onions. It's just meat plus flavourful meat liquids and spices. Chopped raw onion and grated cheese can be sprinkled on top.

They're all really variations on a theme... Whereever in the world they are, meat, plus spices, plus whatever else one wants, or has... Ethiopian stew... Indian Currys, Uk/Irish/ETc stews, chillis, Polish stews with all manners of meats in the same stew, etc., etc.,

This is why I never normally bother with recipies, and just make stuff out of what I have in, and what I happen to spot, or just takes my fancy, when I'm out Mind... the really odd thing... it useually works and tastes alright, but, simularly I can't ever repeat half the stuff I make as the ingredients and amounts of htem, is just sort of pretty much random really

Well... the chilli smells 'right', (well to me anyhow) ... rice cooking I've done enough rice for two meals... but given how starvin I appear to be, I expect I'll jsut eat the lot