Chris Amirault

The silence is deafening! Meanwhile, I had a great conversation with John Hogan, president of I. M. Gan, who has promised me that he's going to be picking up Fee Brother's peach and orange bitters as well as some pisco. This bodes very, very well....

As most know, there are a huge number of folks in Providence RI who hail from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and Mexico. I've been slowly trying this and that throughout the city for years, and I've got a short list of places we'll hit: Carolina's on Broad St for most beans, rice, and meat dishes; Chilango's on Manton Ave (at Atwells Ave) for suadero, chorizo, and other soft tacos; Sonrisa on Cranston St for chicharones tacos; La Arepa on Smithfield Ave in Pawtucket for their pabellon arepas. There are dozens of places and thousands of dishes that I haven't tried, though, so what else is out there, and what do you get? For example, we've struck out at Mi Guatemala a few times, but I think it's an ordering problem more than anything else.

I've another question along these lines. Let's say I'm a liquor retailer or a bartender and I buy a case of, say, Montecristo Premium Blend rum on vacation in NY. When I get back to RI, can I sell it in either place? Does it depend on the state?

OK, I'm giving up on this quest for a variety of reasons (exorbitant cost of the piece, lack of confidence in the used base), and today I saw this Rival skillet at Target for $50. Does anyone have experience with this? I'd be using it almost exclusively for frying chicken, hushpuppies, etc., so I'm most interested in how it maintains the temperature of fry oil.

That's precisely the product that got me to think of it! Do report when you have results.

I was intrigued by this sentence: Sam, as our resident mixological chemist, any theories on why this process eliminates air?

Sam, if I give into my desires, drive to Sam's Club, and get one of those Ice Butlers for $1,600, the next day my entire family will do an intervention (if they don't just commit me). No definitive reports on the clear ice question, eh? I've got an experiment going in the freezer in the meanwhile, and picked up an ice pick yesterday.

There are some of us, bostonapothecary, who seek knowledge in ill-conceived schemes and misbegotten results. And, yeah, Tanqueray's a lot better. Meanwhile, has anyone done a date infusion?

I've just finished up an interesting apricot habañero glaze for the ribs, which are cooking in the oven. Click here for the Recipe Gullet recipe.

Thanks for the props, Nancy! The key issue is temperature, I think. I'm going to grill the ribs, which will impart some smokiness, but I'm not going to smoke the ribs. I'm doing a low-n-slow cook in the oven (now, in fact), and when they're ready for the grill, they'll be at about 200F. Since I want them for dinner tonight, I won't have had a chance to let the cool meat develop a pellicle in the fridge, which gives the smoke something to cling to and which chills it so that it doesn't reach warmer temperatures so quickly. Smoke stops flavoring meat when the surface temp is around 140F, so If I put those 200F ribs into smoker, very little of the smoke would flavor the meat, though some would be absorbed by the glaze I'm making, which will be cool by the time I use it. So I'm just going to grill them, and let the high-heat char and a bit of smokiness work its way through the glaze. With Dave's method, as with most smoked meat methods (bacon, pulled pork, pork ribs), you want to start smoking with cold, dry meat for the maximum smokiness.

Apricot Habañero Glaze for Lamb This is a glaze for lamb ribs that I discuss here. The lamb ribs have baharat-based spice rub on them, so for contrast this glaze tends toward sweet, sour, fruity heat. You may want to adjust the sugar and habañero to your liking. The flesh of the fresh apricots give the glaze body; if you have only dried, reconstitute them in warm water for 30-45 minutes and add some of the resulting soaking liquid as needed. It tastes swell, and it really smells wonderful. I concocted it for ribs, but it'd also make a fine glaze for a slowly grilled butterflied leg of lamb. Makes a generous cup. 4 apricots (about 12 oz), roughly chopped 1 small onion (2 oz), minced 1 habañero chile, minced 1/4 c pomegranate molasses 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp cumin 2 T sugar 1 tsp salt 1/4 water Bring all ingredients to the boil in a sauce pan and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the glaze reaches a thick consistency and the apricot flesh breaks down, about an hour, stirring occasionally and adding water as needed. It will be chunky, so if you'd like a finer consistency, puree with an immersion blender and/or press through a sieve. Brush onto ribs just before finishing them on the grill and serve on the side for diners to slather. Keywords: Easy, Hot and Spicy, Sauce, Middle Eastern ( RG2008 )

Gotta put the best people on those projects where you're selling stuff that's free and abundant elsewhere.

I'm surprised that no one has reported here about cooking with Nose to Tail, so let's get that started! I've got a source for local rabbit, and I'm hoping to make the Rabbit and Garlic this week. Has anyone tried it?

Looks like the release of Beyond Nose to Tail: More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook will be in October. My copy's preordered! What are some of the new ones worth trying, mikeycook?

I'm more committed to saving my pucks for the Bradley until I have a few more things to smoke! Having said that, I was thinking along similar lines about the smoke -- too much smoke with lamb is a bad thing -- but my order is the other way round: no smoke until the end, after a while foiled in a 225F oven. I'm also wondering about a bottle of pomegranate molasses in my pantry that seems tailor-made for a glaze before hitting the grill. Edited to clarify -- CA

Several years ago, I had grilled lamb ribs at a restaurant somewhere and have been haunted by the memory ever since. It was like magical lamb fat candy. I hadn't been able to find a source for lamb ribs in all those years, but today I stopped in at Jerusalem Market, a halal butcher (on Rolfe Street in Cranston RI for you locals), and he was happy to accommodate. So now I have three pounds of lamb ribs in the fridge and nothing save a basic understanding of rib cooking to steward me forward. I think that this time around I'm going to make a dry rub of baharat, extra sumac, some zatar, and a bit of sugar, give 'em a good coating and an overnight rest, cook low n slow in the oven to get them close and finish them on the grill. But I'm interested in more recipes and techniques, because I'm going back for more and more. I did find this recipe from Monica Bhide's great eGCI course on regional Indian cuisine, but that's more of a braised meat dish than I'm looking for over the last few summer weeks. Any other ideas?

Any sense of how that ceviche was prepared?

I can't really imagine any of the Westerners I know finding it distasteful! Folks raised in small communities that have supported church suppers and neighborhood potlucks are certainly familiar with this, as are people who grew up in large families. My dad's mother (of ten children) certainly never plated anything in the kitchen!

If the ghee has been properly made, it's expelled all the water and milk solids, which, I believe, leaves only the fats. The only time my ghee has gone bad has been when I didn't cook it long enough and mold formed next to some moisture beads on the surface.

Thanks, Steven, interesting review. I'd be interested to know why they've gone with gas instead of charcoal. Did you miss the wood smoke that you'd find at, say, most LA Korean BBQ places?

Given the news in Peru, I thought that a Pisco Sour would be in order. I use Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology ratios with a few tweaks, most of which were stolen from somewhere around here: 2 oz pisco (Cesar -- only game in town) 1 oz lemon 1/2 oz 1:1 simple syrup 1/2 large egg white dash Angostura Shake all ingredients hard at room temperature. (I've been tossing in the lemon shells as well.) Then shake again with ice. Pour into cold glasses rimmed with cinnamon sugar and dot with a drop of Angostura for aromatics. Nod to eje's canted snaps:

Having suffered with the semi-circle ice problem Bleachboy mentions long enough -- does anyone else always drop at least one of these things when retrieving ice from the freezer? -- I'm on a mission to have my downstairs freezer stocked with appropriate ice for cocktails. I'm trying to find a few good cube trays around town along the lines of those above, but I'm wondering how people prepare ice for cracking. Do you just freeze a block in a loaf pan? I'm also wondering if anyone has any definitive results on the clear ice discussion above. Photos, please, if you've got 'em.

I've now cured my fourth batch using vacuum sealed bags, and I think that this method works best with my set-up. I'm coming around, btw, on the lack of a need for a second cure. Seems excessive to me; that batch was, in the end, overcured. I can understand a dry rub, perhaps, immediately prior to drying for the pellicle, but that's it. I've never gone for a cold cure with ice, Dave, so I've never seen that -- but your explanation makes sense to me.

The extraordinarily generous Libationgoddess shares this with the faithful: 3/4 oz Fresh Lime Juice 3/4 oz Simple Syrup (1-1, uncooked) 1/4 oz Pernod 1 sprig mint 2 oz Plymouth Gin Muddle / shake / fine strain Glass: Small Cocktail Garnish: None -- the opacity of the drink is the "Pearl" So, side-by-side, original and pretender: 2 oz Plymouth gin 3/4 oz lime vs 1/2 oz 3/4 oz 1:1 simple syrup vs 1/2 oz 1/2 oz 1/4 Pernod vs 1/8 oz 10-12 mint leaves (call it even) I think that this indicates my own preference for more "ginny" drinks. The balance between the lime and simple is 1:1 in both, and there's more of the faux green fairy in Audrey's original. It'd be more pearly, natch.

Welcome, udalum, and thanks for that great first post. I've been following with great interest this passionate discussion about an institution that is clearly very important to many Philadelphians, in part because I respect people on many sides of the issue, in part because it's a fascinating consideration of the various forces that bear down on food economics, and in part because I've visited RTM as a tourist and fell in love with the place instantly. (I was there for StudioKitchen, not a convention, however!) Non-profits by definition exist to serve the public, and in my own non-profit organization, I and my board struggle every year to define who that public is. I think that at the heart of this discussion is a similar, deeply felt debate about who is to be served. There are other issues, too, but that one keeps bubbling up to me.