Food for Fort: On gas lighters, slippery canapés and gluten-free cakes

I've ruined my treasured gas lighter - where can I get a replacement? Plus I'd love to use my best china plates, but finger food slides all over the place on them – help!
Blini with salmon caviare
Blinis make for great canapés that don't slip and slide. Photograph: Alamy

I've had a wonderful Probe kitchen gas lighter for years that I've accidentally damaged almost beyond repair. The maker was PZ Products Ltd of Thorpe Close, Banbury, but they don't seem to exist any more. Where can I get a new one?

I know the one you mean, and they do seem to have vanished off the face of the globe. The nearest thing I can find that doesn't depend on batteries and/or gas is the Piezoelectric Gas Lighter 110504. It isn't as long as the old Probe, but it is convenient and reliable. Cheap, too, between £5.70 and £6.50. Even cheaper is the Piezo Gas Electronic Lighter at £1.90; try or And if a Piezo doesn't suit you, try the Spark Lighter, which is 27cm long with a 9cm neck, around £4, .

My canapés slide around on smooth plates. How can I stop that and still use my favourite glass and china serving platters?

Ah, the problem of the cascading canapé. I consulted my friend, Jane Lewis of Lewis & Grant, caterers to the gentry and herself Queen of the Canapé. She was characteristically brisk: "Put slippery canapés on a plate with a lip. You can cover flat platters with, say, rocket or banana leaves, but that rather spoils the point of using your best glass and china. Or just make canapés that won't slip, such as blinis with smoked salmon, mini chicken kebabs or duck spring rolls." That seems to cover that.

My two-year-old grandson has multiple food allergies. I have been scouring gluten-free, egg-free cookbooks for possible recipes so he can have a cake, or at least a sweet dessert, for his third birthday. I was delighted to find a book with several possibilities, Gluten-Free French Desserts And Baked Goods, by Valerie Cupillard, but I've been unable to find two ingredients central to several recipes in the book, namely millet semolina and rice semolina.

I am not acquainted with Cupillard's book, but seeing as it is French, I'd assume she uses the word "semolina" in its European context, to denote fine flour (from the Latin simila), rather than the English one, which refers to a coarser grain. So you can use ground rice or millet flour in place of the millet and rice semolinas. These are readily available in healthfood shops. Or use fine polenta, though that will give a grainier texture.

Do you wash herbs before or after chopping? I find them harder to chop wet, but, if I chop first and wash after, some flavour seems to be lost.

If you have to wash your herbs, do so before chopping them, and always just before you use them. Then wave them around vigorously to get rid of the surplus water, or wrap them gently in a tea towel or a layer or two of kitchen towel and pat them dry, or whirl them in your salad spinner. Now they should be ready for chopping.

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