I am quite inspired with my new copy of Plenty and wonder if you can help with some unfamiliar ingredients to me. Where should I begin my searching? Is Barkat the place for this?

1. Dried Iranian Lime -- he suggests grinding one's own, but I would be happy with the ground powder. He suggests getting this from Middle Eastern and North African shops.

2. Pomegranate Molasses -- from google, i think this is the same as pomegranate syrup, and this comes from Middle Eastern places too?

3. Nigella Seeds -- google confuses me with what these is but recommends something called Kalonji - black onion seeds from that Asian spice brand TRS. Any advice is welcome.

4. Date Syrup - he recommends a health food store??

5. Mirin -- I have purchased Mirin at an Asian grocery store but was recently reading up on this and discovered that the ingredients should not be simply water and sugar. Do you know where I can get real Mirin?

6. Muslin cloth, or cheese cloth-- Can I get this from the Migros/Coop? Where might it be located? I have searched in the past and ended up with something from the band-aid section -- like gauze for an injury. Instead I am trying to strain yogurt and make ricotta. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your suggestions!

I am also a big fan of yotam otholenghi, but the kilometric lists of ingredients sometimes just get into my nerves. Now I just go through the recipe and if the ingredient is not key to dish, I just skip it or replace it by something similar. If it is something basic, I try either Jelmoli, Globus or an Asian store. The good news are that most times his dishes are worthwhile the effort...

Never tried to find it even. Normally it is something he just adds at the end, for extra deepness of flavor. Either I put lime zest, drops of lime juice or forget about it.

Correct, you should be able to find it in Middle Eastern places. Maybe even in Jelmoli or Coop (never looked for it, but it sounds like the sort of ingredient they might have). If you can get your hands on pomegranate juice is relatively easy to do. Just mix some sugar to the pomegranate juice and let it simmer until you have the consistency.

I am a bit confused with this question... Mirin is mirin, i.e. rice wine with a low content of alcohol (and about 50% sugar). What does the label on the one you have says? I got mine on Globus, and it tastes like mirin (not that I am a mirin expert....).

Muslin is a type of fabric that indeed looks like something you could use on a band-aid.... it is a cheap lose white fabric with large openings (designers use it for doing the prototypes and check the fit of their creations before they starting cutting the expensive fabric). In lieu of muslim, I just use a tea towel with large openings - IKEA used to have some that were really nice for this. Also, you have those blue and white clothes in the supermarket, which can also do the trick. But, if you want to be very precise, you will have to venture into a fabric store and ask for muslim (there is one very close to Paddy Reilly's pub in Zurich).

Hope this helps,

Lucy

PS And please let us know how did the dish turned out :-)

Hi there,

Nigella/Kalonji is available at Aggarwals shop. It is black onion seeds and a common Indian ingredient. I just bought some last weekend.
Nigella ... now she is one fine woman, wouldn't mind her cooking for me

Lucky me, I brought muslin with me from home.

You can find muslim cloths on the baby aisle in most big supermarkets.

Iranian lime? Would that be lime leaves? In which case I'm pretty sure it won't really mater what country they come from.

Hey there,

No it's not the same thing:

Dried Limes: Limu-omani, Persian limes (a low-acid variety) that are salted then dried, are sold whole and powdered, and are used to add a deep, musky, slightly sweet note to stews.
http://www.chow.com/food-news/54099/...es-rose-water/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_lime

How to make your own:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5608388_dry-persian-limes.html

I'm certainly not an expert in Persian cuisine but I substitute Sumac for Iranian lime as I haven't found any in Switzerland. It's a different product but at least it provides that exotic tartness.

I found two online shops specialised on persian food.
www.persisch.ch
www.irantariff.ch

You might find there what you are looking for

Very helpful, thanks Simplon.

Both sites seems to have the dried lime and pomegranate molasses amongst other products:

Persisch - Dried whole Lime - 50gms for 4 francs
Pomegranate - 250ml for 10 francs

Irantariff: Dried whole Lime - 100gms for 4.50 francs
Pomegranate - 400ml for 11.50 francs

thanks all for the feedback. To my surprise, I happily found dried limes and pomegranate molasses at a Persian stand at the Burkliplatz market on Friday morning. The dried limes had an intense flavour and i was delighted to find and try them but i also thought the lime zest would have been a fine substitute.

The date syrup i found in a reformhaus in oerlikon beside the oerlikon market and a I picked up new Mirin at Jelmoli. I used just regular house hold paper towel and a fine strainer but I am glad to try the baby aisle for cheesecloth. I hadn't thought of that!

Now I just need to get the Nigella seeds. Thanks for all of your input!

Nigella seeds are called "Schwarzkümmel" in German, or look for the Latin name "Nigella sativa".
I'm sure you will find them in a reformhaus as well.

Janie, just out of curiosity: have cooked it yet? What dish were you thinking about?

Oh, Good stuff - I'd written off trying to find those until my next trip to London.

For most other stuff, my Zurich axis of Barkat, Asia Store & a nearby Turkish shops have covered most other things.

Brilliant book, Plenty - it's been open in my kitchen pretty much continually for the past 5 months.

There is a great Iranian food shop in Seebach, the name is Global something or International something, it doesn't look like much from the outside and it is near the tram station. Sorry can't remember more details!

There is a WONDERFUL Japanese shop on Schaffhauserstrasse (tram stop Guggachstrasse) called Nishi's. Best mirin (plus mochi, miso etc etc) to be found here.

Nigella seed I found in the Reformhaus called Egli in Stauffacher (inside the Coop building), I also wanted it for Yotam! This fabulous shop also sells a lot of Japanese ingredients such as mirin, tamari etc and would be my first guess for Date Syrup as well.

Muslin is Musselin in German and funnily enough, I am using the leftover bits from pre-made curtains from Ikea which we had to trim, only 19CHF for 2 curtains! A thin tea towel also works well.

Am also a huge fan of both Ottolenghi cookbooks and can thoroughly recommend Nopi in London too, next time you are there! Good luck with the cooking.

Another ingredient I can't find in Zurich: broad beans (should be 'Ackerbohnen', 'Saubohnen' or 'Dicke Bohnen' in German, 'Breitbohnen' that are sold in e.g. Coop are something different) - fresh or frozen. In the Netherlands, where I'm from, these 'Tuinbonen' are found in every supermarket and even in conserves, but I haven't seen them anywhere here...any tips?

Edit: there was a thread already a while ago on this forum but replies came from Romandie mostly...

I wouldn't use baby muslim cloths as a substitute for culinary muslim cloths, they are not constructed with the same weave or cotton and you may well get some fibre shedding and will probably find they don't strain as well. (i know this from experience).

A good alternative is a pair of ladies tights or pop socks, with a low denier. Obviously clean and unworn. And before you laugh i was given this tip at Chef school many years ago by a culinary master and it works.

Regarding the tights.....not suitable for hot oil.