Adzuki bean. Small, red and shiny, slightly square beans with a white scar or hilum on the side. They are good in salads, mixed with other vegetables and also useful with other ingredients for stuffing because of their size. They are often used in sweet dishes as they have more natural sweetness than other beans. They are the basis of the red bean paste used in dim sum and of Japanese an, and are used a great deal in Chinese and Japanese cuisine, particularly for making sweet pastes. The flour is used in confections and puddings in China and Japan.
Rum baba. A rum baba is a spongy yeast cake containing raisins and steeped, while still warm, in rum or kirsch, said to have been discovered by the Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński when he dipped a kougelhopf in rum. His pastry chef, Sthorer, later perfected a dish of brioche dipped in rum. Although ‘baba’ seems to mean ‘old woman’ it is also said to be named after Ali Baba of the 1001 Nights. It is cooked in a special fluted, cylindrical mould resulting in a cake the shape of a long, gathered skirt. The baba also has a long association with Naples. If the raisins are omitted it is technically known as a small savarin.
Rum baba. A rum baba is a spongy yeast cake containing raisins and steeped, while still warm, in rum or kirsch, said to have been discovered by the Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński when he dipped a kougelhopf in rum. His pastry chef, Sthorer, later perfected a dish of brioche dipped in rum. Although ‘baba’ seems to mean ‘old woman’ it is also said to be named after Ali Baba of the 1001 Nights. It is cooked in a special fluted, cylindrical mould resulting in a cake the shape of a long, gathered skirt. The baba also has a long association with Naples. If the raisins are omitted it is technically known as a small savarin.
A baby version of Bonbel, the brand name for Saint-Paulin cheese, a large, round, smooth, mild, semihard, yellow cow's milk cheese with an orange wax rind. It is made from pasteurised milk throughout France especially in Maine, Anjou and Brittany. Port-Salut is a well-known variety.
A brine bath used for freezing the neck of a Champagne bottle in preparation for dégorgement, the removal of sediment from the bottle. This immediately precedes "dosage" in the méthode champenoise. Dosage, or liqueur d'expedition, is the addition of a mixture of wine and sugar which determines the eventual sweetness of the contents of the bottle, which is then corked.
Samphire (US: sea bean). A fleshy plant which grows on rocks near the sea. Can be used as a salad green or as a cooked vegetable. It has a short season and is not a cultivated crop, so it is quite uncommon. It may be pickled in white wine vinegar with a little sugar.
