Brain Food: What's the best piece of equipment to deep fry in?

What's the best piece of equipment to deep fry in? K. Lane

A lot of my chef mates deep fry in their wok. It heats quickly. It is very easy to scoop out extraneous pieces of darkened food. There is less chance of a bubble-over and less chance of ensuing fire as the bubbles spread out across the flared rim. It is easy to keep food moving around in the oil. The flared edge also catches droplets of fat flying out from the oil. The big drawback is the relatively small base of the wok that, without a wok burner, makes it less stable than a broad based pan.

I am going away on holiday. Can I freeze my sourdough mother? P. Fens

I know a baker who smuggled a San Francisco sourdough starter in through Australian customs by soaking his jocks in the liquid sourdough. He dried his undies and packed them in his luggage. (That is what he told his wife.) He then rehydrated the mother by soaking his Reg Grundies – like invisible Sea Monkies. The yeasts and bacteria that go to work when sourdough is fermenting are tough little buggers. They can survive drying, as our baker proved. Try this other less underpants-dependent method. Make your starter as if you are about to bake with it, then spread some of it finely across baking paper laid out on trays. Allow the mother to dry out indoors, out of direct sunlight, until crisp and thoroughly dry. Break into pieces and store in a jar in a cool, dark cupboard. Crush and rehydrate in water and then feed as per normal. You can freeze sourdough in a domestic fridge but it does take a week or so to come back to feeling 100 per cent. Remember Han Solo being defrosted after being encased in carbonite? It took a few scenes for his eyesight to return.

My butcher refuses to take cash. He only takes credit card. Is this legal? P. McLeish

I interviewed The Vegetarian Butcher in The Hague last year. I then bought a really good vegan burger and offered the shop assistant some euros. She said they didn't take cash on grounds of hygiene. I paid with MasterCard. Little did they know what I had done with it the night before in Amsterdam! According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, "If a provider of goods or services specifies other means of payment (other than cash) prior to the contract, then there is usually no obligation for legal tender to be accepted as payment". Yes it's legal. Still bloody annoying.

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