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How do I get honey off a spoon?

Richard Cornish
Richard Cornish

Oh bother: How to make honey run freely?
Oh bother: How to make honey run freely?Julian Kingma

How do I get honey off a spoon? B. Ellen

Heat your spoon in hot water before dipping into the honey pot. The heat will make the honey run freely off the spoon.

My grandmother was always talking about her parties in the '70s and the vol-au-vents she served. What are they? K. Lawrence

Parties in the 1970s were events where attendees were obliged to wear man-made fibres and drink their body weight in Dr Lindeman's claret before thrusting about on the shagpile to the grunts and groans of Neil Diamond.

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At more elaborate events DNA was randomly distributed about the suburbs following the casual passing around of a lilac glass bowl filled with car keys.

A vol-au-vent is a hollow, circular pastry case that translates from the French as "flying on the wind" to describe their lightness. They are filled with myriad ingredients, such as sweetbreads and morels in stock thickened with roux. In the 1970s a popular filling was bechamel flavoured with cheese and Edgell cut asparagus.

They can be prepared by laying three circles of puff pastry, one on top of the other, with a little melted butter brushed between each layer. The top layer has a circular lid scored in it before being brushed with egg wash. The pastry is baked on a tray in an oven preheated to 200C for 30 minutes or until brown and the pastry risen.

The vol au vents are removed from the oven, allowed to cool for a few minutes, then the lid is removed and discarded and most of the pastry removed using a small teaspoon.

The hollow vol-au-vents are returned to the oven for 10 minutes at 150C to dry and stiffen.

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A friend gave me a bag of what she called limes but they are very yellow. I thought all limes were green. S. Allen

Yes, in a world set dressed by Hollywood art directors, all limes are green. Otherwise you might mistake them for small, round, thin-skinned lemons.

In the world we actually live in, both Tahitian and West Indian limes turn yellow when allowed to ripen on the tree in cold weather.

Use lime juice to "cook" fish in a ceviche recipe, dress a coleslaw of red cabbage to retain that deep-red colour or add to crushed ice, plenty of white rum and sugar syrup for a reality-beating daiquiri.

Where can I find epazote? M. Diaz

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Epazote is herb common in Mexican cooking, often found in quesadillas, and is one of the 40 or so ingredients used to make a traditional mole.

It has an aroma that is a cross between mint, tarragon and old creosote posts, and that adds a wonderful fresh, high note to Mexican food. You can buy it online at spice retailers such as fireworksfoods.com.au.

For live plants search nurseries online for "Mexican tea" or use its botanic name, Chenopodium ambrosioides.

Despite epazote being quite difficult to find fresh in food stores it grows as a declared noxious weed in regional NSW.

Recently a Sydney-based US emigre wrote in the University of California food journal Gastronomica that he found epazote growing in gardens next to Central Station, Sydney.

Send your vexing culinary conundrums to brainfood@richardcornish.com.au or tweet to @Foodcornish

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Richard CornishRichard Cornish writes about food, drinks and producers for Good Food.

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