TongoRad

I would advise against it. Even the best technique and equipment in the world will not be able to overcome the problems inherent in using lousy raw materials, assuming you are thinking about those concentrated kits that are diluted prior to fermentation. A step up from that may be the undiluted pressed juice that is available at harvest. Unfortunately my experiences with even the grapes that are available to home winemakers haven't been too positive, so I went on to making other things. Beer, mead, and even fruit wine, on the other hand, are a different story. The raw materials are easily obtained and so you can get much better results. Sadly, there is a reason that they say that homemade wine should be judged on the two point scale- (1) point if you can get it down and (1) point if you can keep it down.

A while back I was fortunate to receive a set of 4 Reidel Single Malt glasses as a gift. I found them to be a bit clumsy, to tell you the truth, so I exchanged three of them for their Port Wine Copitas and held on to one. I like the Copitas so much better- they really focus the nose and are the perfect size to boot- that I would not hesitate to recommend them.

I'll have to try the Tuaca if I have any lying around the house, but I generally do the same thing that you do except with the rum- it's a match made in heaven. My spices are green cardomom pods, cinnamon and cloves. If I'm doing wine then I add some citrus but I keep it simple with the cider. The ciders that I buy are also better with the tiniest amount of salt added to give it a bit of focus.

Recently I had a good portion of a bunch of cilantro in the fridge that was about to go south and I was seriously considering using it in a batch of dal pancakes that I got from a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook, but I wanted to do something quicker. The solution: essentially my potato latke recipe augmented with the cilantro, chiles and spices. I served them up with tamarind/date chutney. It was a first attempt so I noted that, although tasty, there was too much onion and not enough spice and I vowed to try again. This looks like a perfect opportunity. Of course, with Channukah approaching I may just stick with the standard dealio. My preference is for small, crispy lacy ones- topped with sour cream and salmon roe. It may take a few days before I know which way the wind is blowing on that one, but I'm definitely in for the cookoff.

Speaking of the lazies... Last night I was in one of those situations where I was cooking for myself, and I only had a half-hour to get something done. What I wound up with was a vegetarian black bean chili- just a simple chile (ancho, NuMex, chipotle) sauce, or gravy, with a can of black beans and some chopped green chiles added. Fortunately for me there was some leftover polenta in the fridge so I cut it into squares and pan fried them in butter and olive oil. They were laid on a plate and the beans were ladled over them along with sliced scallions and a squirt of sour cream. It was pretty damn good, if I do say so myself, in a 'city slicker' sort of way. And, yes, I did hear the entirety of Texas groan with the mere mention of the word polenta

I think you have to get even more basic than that- start in the right ballpark in terms of the major flavor components of the dish (sweet, sour, salty, bitter) and then fine tune from there. I have the Rosengarten/Wesson book that carswell mentioned and I love using it from time to time- the fundamental principals are still solid even if the specific recommendations are out of date- and I even have some old clippings of David Rosengarten's Newsday column from before the book was published. In my mind the classic example is the Duck a L'Orange match, where he suggests looking at the preparation (the sauce in this case) over the type of meat, which also touches on what JohnL just posted. They key, in this case, being the sweetness of the sauce which would be better served by a wine with some residual sugar than a dry Burgundy or Pinot Noir. Here are the basic principles that have served me well these many years: sweet needs residual sugar, sour needs acid, salty needs low alcohol, and bitter needs tannin. Of course there is a hell of a lot more to it than that, and I am far from an expert on the subject, but keeping those things in mind will come in handy for many situations and give you a lot of room to experiment at the same time.

A lot of the ingredients in the dish are in my 'default mode' of cooking- olives, fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, etc.- so I tend to always have Vouvray and Dolcetto on hand, and they have never let me down. I would have gone with either one with this dish.

My initial thought was that coconut would be a common element, so I'd suggest: Nariyal (Hindi for coconut) An added benefit is that on the surface I just think it is a pretty word. I like Kha, too.

I did mine last night and served it tonight. I used ground beef and beans, but no tomatoes, and went for a flavor profile of Chile Colorado. I was finished in under an hour but it turned out to be quite satisfying nonetheless. I posted the recipe here: Northern Valley Red I also took some photos, some 'still lifes', if you will. The first is my cast of characters (including appropriate tunes, of course): And this is how it went down (again, with an appropriate 'accompaniment'): Garnishes are corn tortilla strips, sour cream and cilantro.

Northern Valley Red- Chili with Beans Serves 4 as Appetizeror 2 as Main Dish. This is a nifty way of preparing chili when you don't really have the time to get involved with soaking the pods, pureeing and straining, stewing the beef for hours, etc., etc. The flavor profile is similar, and there are no tomatoes here, but the ground beef and beans are a real time and energy saver. 1/4" slice Salt Pork, 1 ½” x 3”, cubed 1-1/3 lb Ground Chuck 1/2 c Onion, diced 1 Clove Garlic, minced 1 tsp Vegetable Oil, for salt pork 1 T Vegetable Oil, for chili 1-1/2 T Flour 2 Small Bay Leaves, or 1 large 1 T Ground Cumin Seeds 1-1/2 tsp Oregano 2-1/2 T Mild Chile Powder* 1 T Pasilla Powder* 1 T Ancho Powder* 1 tsp Chipotle Powder* 1-1/2 c Water 4 oz Scotch Ale** 1 Can Pink Beans, drained and rinsed Salt, to taste 1) Place salt pork and 1 tsp. vegetable oil in small skillet over medium-low heat to brown and render some fat. 2) Brown ground beef in 4 1/2 qt. stock pot or Dutch oven. Remove to a holding bowl with a slotted spoon. Discard the remaining liquid and wipe pot clean with a paper towel. 3) Bring pot back up to medium heat and add rendered fat from salt pork along with 1 TBSP vegetable oil. Add chopped onion and slowly allow to caramelize. 4) Add bay leaves and garlic, stir until the garlic begins to lose its raw aroma. Add the flour and keep it moving until the roux begins to take on a nutty flavor. This is a very small amount of flour and oil for this size pot so it is important to keep the heat low at this point. 5) Add the chile powders and spices. Stir for a few seconds to allow the aromas to bloom, and then start adding the liquid. Raise the heat and allow to come to a simmer. Reserve some of the water as you verify consistency- you want it to look like pea soup- add more if needed. 6) Add the ground beef, salt pork and beans to the chile sauce. Check for salt. Cover the pot, slightly ajar, and allow to again return to a gentle simmer. Continue cooking for another 15 to 20 minutes. 7) Serve in bowls garnished to your liking. • * The proportions of the chile powders can be altered according to personal taste. This particular blend makes for a slightly hot and complex final product. • ** Any malty beer with a good amount of residual sugars will do, such as a bock or a dunkel. There are no tomatoes in this recipe and the sugars help smooth the flavors out in their place. Serving suggestion Keywords: Intermediate, Hot and Spicy, Main Dish, Tex-Mex, Beans, Beef ( RG1453 )

Hummus is a great idea. Another one I like is just taking roasted peppers, roasted garlic, salt, EVOO and maybe some fresh oregano and blending it all together.

I went through my freezer yesterday and discovered that the chuck that I thought was in there turned out to be a brisket instead. Not that I blame her mind you, but my wife immediately informed me that if I made chili out of her brisket she would kill me dead. So it looks like the chile verde that I alluded to way back in the beginning of the thread is off the table for now. I did find some ground beef in there, though, so a ground beef and beans chili it will be, and I'm kinda jazzed about it to tell the truth. I will make sure to take note of my measurements and post a recipe when I'm done. Good luck and happy cooking, all! I look forward to seeing more entries soon.

Daniel- you must know that about 1/3 of the fun of chili is in talking about it. Another 1/3 comes from the eventual fisticuffs, and the remaining 1/3 comes from the actual eating of it. I must say, though, that I find your zeal to be infectious ( I mean that sincerely) and will be making something this weekend and will try to borrow a digital camera to document whatever it turns out to be.

fifi: I think this goes to the old eatin' chili vs. competin' chili thing. Perhaps somebody with more recent experience on the competition circuit can verify this but it used to be that competition chili generally has more of a concentrated flavor punch and is a lot saltier that you would normally make it for yourself because you have a very limited window of opportunity to impress the judges. In that context the addition of boullion cubes seems to make sense, to me at least.

Papaya King in Manhattan! ( I prefer grilled dogs anyway.) If you insist on deep fried, there is Jolly Nick's on Madison Ave in Dumont that moved from Cresskill 5 years ago. Supposedly legendary among the locals. Just on the side of CVS. ← I used to live in Englewood and went to Hiram's during that time. Now I'm what you would probably call a 'local' who goes to Jolly Nick's quite a bit. The dogs are similar to one another, but I don't think that is what lutefisk is looking for- after all he could simply just go local and switch to Hiram's. And, taking the drive into account, he should probably just go with one of the other Callahan's just a few towns over. Aside- If somebody local to Dumont is reading this, though, Jolly Nick's is definitely worth a shot for a deep-fried Thuman's. The toppings are ordered according to a color coded system- 'Red' (onions and hot sauce) seems to be the most popular and the one I have been getting lately. I also like the 'Green', which is sauteed bell peppers and onions. ETA: I'm definitely going to hit the original Callahan's before they close. Those photos look great!

You really hit the nail on the head with regards to kidney beans, but I think that character is why they are traditionally used: they don't have an assertive flavor at all, so they don't compete with the chili, and they hold their shape very well. Pinto beans have a much better flavor but can break down easier. I find that pink beans are somewhere in between so that's always on hand as my 'all purpose' bean. There is plenty of room for experimentation, as far as I'm concerned. I would probably stop shy of using the lentils myself, though. I will say that I have added black beans, and corn for that matter, to chile verde and the chile gods didn't strike me down. As to the seasonings, cumin and oregano are all you really need, but a bay leaf is also nice to add. Cocoa is also pretty common.

I tend to prefer cubes myself, and the larger the better, but about 25% of the time I'll just be in the mood for a 'ground beef and beans' chili. I just don't have the patience to cut my meat into 1/4" cubes but I do have an Indian restaurant near me that does that for their Keema Mattar. I can appreciate the textural differencce with the ground but so far haven't been inspired to do it myself. Here's my method for a last minute down and dirty chili (I won't say 'recipe' because a lot of the items are subject to change depending on my mood and/or what I have on hand): Brown the ground beef in a stock pot or dutch oven. Remove to the side, drain the pot and wipe with a paper towel. Heat some oil and add chopped onions, caramelize until just turning brown. Add chopped garlic for a few seconds, and then a few tablespoons of flour. Keep it moving until the 'roux' takes on a nutty character and then in go the chile powders and spices. Allow this to bloom for a few seconds, but not to change color. Add the liquid (water and/or beer) until the sauce is the consistency of pea soup. Then the beef and drained beans can go in and simmer it for another 15 to 20 minutes. My chile powders are usually a combination of NuMex (hot and mild), Ancho, Pasilla and Chipotle and I prefer making them myself. I have also found that the paprika that I get from my local Indian market makes a very reasonable substitute for mild chile powder ( and it is kick-ass fresh and cheap to boot!). eje: Do you dry them out before grinding them? I usually put them on a wire rack on a sheet pan, and the put the works in a 175degF oven for a half hour. Then I turn off the oven without opening the door and leave it alone overnight (if possible). They come out very brittle but not scorched or bitter, and grind fairly well in an ordinary coffee grinder. I also pass the powder through a fine strainer, and there is some waste but not much.

Here is a recipe from the ICS recipe page that you can use as a jumping off point. Whether you use pork or beef, you should reserve a bunch of chopped chiles to add at the end. The RecipeGullet recipe features ground chicken so it isn't cooked to the point that the chiles start to lose flavor, but that can be a problem with cubed pork or beef. The one I linked to uses tomatillos so it should get you close. I prefer beef myself, but either way is better with potatoes (cubed, added during the last 20 min or so). They give the end result a real comforting home-style quality. When I was in New Mexico I would order my chile verde extra hot and they would simply ladle in some of those chopped really hot Hatch sonofaguns to the base dish before serving. It's something I do at home now because my wife prefers it milder. When I make a pot of red I have a puree of chipotles/piquins on hand for that same purpose. I still have to take an inventory of what I have on hand but if I do go ahead with the green I'll come back and post what I'm doing.

I have such a hard time finding hangar steak that I'd go to the store and get a nice piece of chuck, or even use pork butt. I know beef is traditional, but anyone else ever use pork? ← Agreed re: the hangar steak. Daniel, it looks like you're going to the store I've used pork before, and venison as well. I'm not so sure about goat but I think so. I'm reminded of these lines from Tom Russell's song "A Bowl of Red": Bull meat, crab meat, pig's feet, chicken feet. I've even seen her use a rabbit's head. Cumino, oregano, cilantro, let it go. Then sop it up with sourdough bread. and might even use a rabbit's head if I ever came across one But pork shoulder or butt, cubed, works beautifully well.

I've got a few pounds of chuck sitting in my freezer that I was about to use for a beef ragu with polenta but this thread may make me change my mind about that. I've also got some old roasted poblanos in there that it is about high time that I used, so if I do decide to go the chili route it will be with some NM Green (with potatoes). A lot of people just use straight NuMex peppers but I really like the quality that the poblanos give, plus they really stand up to the longer cooking time a lot better, so I use a blend of the two. The real key is to reserve at least a third of your chiles for the final 15 minutes or so of your cooking time. One of my favorite toppings is to simply take shredded corn tortillas and flash fry them in oil. It works for green or red- otherwise I just leave my green chili unadorned. Another idea is to add little masa harina dumplings, which I'll freely admit to stealing from Rick Bayless, but they work particularly well with a sauce made from guajillos and/or anchos. He uses them in a black bean stew (with chopped greens- I use spinach myself) that could broadly be called a vegetarian chili if you were so inclined.

I purchased a bottle of the Laphroaig 15 (being a fan of the 10). I poured a glass, and then gave the rest away. For my taste, I found it lacking character and not nearly as complex or interesting as the 10 for whatever reason. ← Ooh, a nearly full bottle, the lucky bastage! In my experience there is some real intensity and depth there, but it doesn't come at the expense of any complexity. Overall what appeals to me, I suppose, is a certain evocative quality, a pitch-soaked-timber element that goes so well with the brininess, seaweed and all that. Hmmm- that may not sound too appealing but it works for me. I also get heather, toffee, etc. but they come on late. I haven't had the 10 in a few years but it is the one that got me into single malts in the first place, so maybe it is time to pick some up and do a side by side for the hell of it. ETA: I think you do have a point there, in fact I recall thinking something along those lines the last time I sampled the Macallan 25yr, but I just don't think it applies to the Laphroaig 15yr.

I'll second the Bowmore. If you're familiar with Laphroaig and Lagavullin then Bowmore would be the next logical malt to try, especially if you want that intense peat and sweetness and taste of the sea. The 12yr definitely has what you're looking for plus it really is quite elegant. They also have a bottling called Legend, which has an amazing peat-saturated nose. The finish isn't all that much, but I tend to biased towards the bouquet to begin with, and at around $20/bottle I go through a few bottles a year. It may also be worth investigating. I happen to love Laphroaig 15yr, it is definitely my favorite malt (I love the peatiness). But if you can manage to get to try the Highland Park 18yr, definitely do. It may change your mind about their malts. I think it is quite wonderful, concentrated and complex, and it gave me a new appreciation for the 12 when I had them side by side.

6 months is great, although I could swear that I have their seen bottles dated 9 or 10 months from the time that I bought them. Then again, the old mental notebook may not be what it is cracked up to be Either way, I might stretch it to 9 months for certain styles, but keep it to 6 months for the light lagers and you'll be fine. All things being equal draft beer is a superior product. The bottling process involves a whole other layer of filtration and/or pasteurization, which definitely impacts the beer's flavor. The way I figure it- I can drink any bottled beer at home any time I want to, so I will always go for draft when I'm out. I'm sure that those unsavory things happen, but I don't recall the last time I encountered anything like that. What sorts of places do you hang out in, anyway? I guess if you ever do get a beer that has been infected by dirty lines, or the wrong brand, etc., you could just send it back and go to bottles from there on out. It's a bummer, but I wouldn't avoid all draft beer as a rule because something like that could happen.

I'm in the same boat. Most of the lamb we get lately has been the sliced shoulder cuts when on sale. Even the shanks that I was getting with regularity just 5 or so years ago seem to have gone up in price. No matter- those shoulder slices work just fine when I'm in the mood to cook Indian. I trim off the fattiest parts, but not too much, and put the rest into my versions of rogan josh, lamb with spinach, etc., bones and all. I love the results I get and they really are easy to use. Every now and then we do get a sale on those boneless leg of lamb jobbies with the netting and all that. The meat is fine but personally I don't think they work too well as a roast (they leave all that connective tissue on the inside after boning it)and I always threaten to cut it into chunks for grilling but my wife won't hear of it. So I usually make do by shmearing the outside with garlic, herbs, lemon zest and all that, and grilling the whole thing to medium rare. The slices aren't perfect but not too bad for eating on a budget. I do eat a lot of lamb now, but it took me a while. I seem to recall a breakthrough moment at a restaurant when I was 17 or 18 where it was served medium rare. The stuff I grew up with was absolutely nothing like that and I could never understand what everybody was always making such a fuss over. They really did cook the living daylights out of it in those days and all the marinating and stuffing of garlic cloves in the world could not help at all. My mom has since changed her ways but still- at family functions like Easter it has to be done the way everybody else likes it. Oh well...

recently communicated with brooklyn brewery - very professional, very helpful, makes u want to support there good products! ← Glad to hear it, and I agree! I was just coming by to post that on the way home today I stopped for some beer and I took a look at the Brooklyn Lager label to see if there was a labeling glitch. The ones here in NJ do have the 2006 slot notched but also the month of Feb. The notches are very faint, but they're there. In your case it was probably just a case of mistakes happening. I'm not sure what to make of those ratings you posted but I'll just add this: even the venerable beer writer Michael Jackson doesn't get it correct all of the time Some of them I agree with, and some of them I don't, which seems to be the way of things. Also- just to correct myself I also checked: Sierra Nevada apparantly does date their bottles. Look for a very small white code in the lower left hand part of the label, right by where it says 'Pale Ale'. The one I just picked up has the #5186, or the 186th day of 200'5'. I haven't done the math, but that would be bottled sometime in June (?). We may be getting to the point where all this stuff about date stamping deserves its own thread...