Letters Page: Dear John and Sally

Dear John and Sally

I am wondering if you could tell me where I can get various 'unusual' baking supplies in Dublin. I am an avid breadmaker, and it seems to be impossible to get things like granary flour, malted flour, kibbled wheat, and even fresh yeast. In every supermarket all I can find is the usual Odlums, not that their stuff is bad, but it's just limited. I've seen on the internet that there are literally hundreds of flour producers in the UK, and they make all kinds of enticing products. I wonder if any of them are available here. Any help would be most appreciated. PS Most of the things I mentioned are mentioned in the Ballymaloe Bread Book, so I reckon they must be available somewhere. I did actually check the health food shop in Blackrock, but they didn't have much either. - Jonathan, Dublin
* We make bread at home as well - thanks to our wonderful new Panasonic bread baking machine, without which we would be helpless. The flour we use all of the time is Dove's Farm Organic Flour. Their range includes a large number of different types of grain flour. As for fresh yeast - supermarkets are often the best place to buy this product. We have a distant memory of being told that fresh yeast is used in the making of poteen, which is why it's relatively easy to find in rural Ireland, though harder in the cities! As far as we can see the world divides into two types of healthfood shop - those that specialise in selling food, and those who sell mostly remedies - you want the former, for in our experience most food-selling health food shops would carry pretty much all the products you mention.

Dear John & Sally

Do you know where I can buy a Kitchen Aid Mixer in Ireland? - Paul, Feakle, Co Clare
* Brown Thomas in Dublin and Cork sell them in a choice of chrome, red or green - but closer to home you will also find one in Meadows & Byrne in Bunratty, Co Clare, just outside Limerick city.

Dear John and Sally

In response to Peggy Wilson's request for information about a recipe for Hamburger Stroganoff, I "googled" with peg+bracken+hamburger+stroganoff and came up with this website. The book is called "I Hate to Cook Book" (ISBN Number 0449208125) and seems to be available from Amazon. See Customer Review #3, but there's no indication if this recipe is included in the book. I hope this is of some help to Peggy. - Gerry, Dublin

*Thank you Gerry that was very kind of you. Sounds like an intruiging cookbook!

Dear John and Sally

I'd like to wish the two of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I love the newsletter, it's been a very interesting read everytime! Keep up the good work I'm looking forward to next year's newsletters already :) Thanks Marcia

*We received this letter just after publishing the last issue of Megabytes, and it made our day! Thanks Marcia