johnder

Good luck hathor! Looking forward to reading a blog, as opposed to writing one this week! John

I am not sure when this blog will be closed down, but I wanted to end by saying I had a blast. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. I think I answered everyones questions from the thread, but if I missed one, I apologize, please PM me and I will get right back to you. Aside from that, thanks for coming into my kitchen and enjoying the past week with me. Looking forward to doing part II of the blog in the future. p.s. keep an eye in the cocktail threads for more on the tonic syrups. John

Found this from the slightly evil google book search. Not exactly a tonic water, but seems to be more a tonic tincture. Pretty cool. Not sure what ss or Oij is, docsconz? Full text here.

Any chance we could get the tonic recipe? ← Keep an eye in the cocktail thread. I will try. There are already a few threads talking about it here and here and an external one here.

Hmm interesting, I was reading about quinine and this is a little concerning: and...

Yah, Jim is definately an ambitious fellow. He made a tonic syrup that he just combine with sparkling water at the last minute when serving. I am going to the herbal store later today to try to recreate. I hate getting an idea like this in my head. Now it won't leave. John

Close, I probably should. Although tonight I feel the need to have some comfort food. Maybe some chicken cutlets tonight with string beans and boiled red potatoes with a pat of butter.

Oh, huh, Hermes make an apricot liqueur? Interesting! FYI, there is a recipe for dried apricot liqueur here on Gunther Anderson's site. Like Chufi, it recommends rehydrating the apricots before steeping. Really impressed with the Saturday meal. Wow, you guys are hardcore! Truly inspirational. ← Take a look at this website. I just need to track down the Hermes product line. White curacao? Aweeeesome. I bet their white peppermint is kickass too. Anyone in Japan want to work on comission sending me a bottle of two? I will make it worth your while! edit: Apparently they make Hermes Violet too. I can't read anything on here except the titles. Another website.

No, they use a Dartangan pate from what they told me. They kick it up with a good sprinkling of fresh coarse pepper too.

Me too. I don't have a huge sweet tooth, but brie will do it for me every time. I can't wait to see what you do with those little "cukes" John. I've never seen anything like them! ← I am finally getting around to answering all the questions I missed during the week. I ended up just eating the cukes plain. They were super sweet cucumbers. Very addictive. I am going to go to the market this week to see if I can get more. I think they would be dipped in Kochu-chang too!

Ok Katie... here you go. Straight from the lips of the amazing Jim Meehan, cocktilian superior of Gramercy Tavern. For those of you in NYC, I highly suggest you go to Gramercy Tavern while this is still on the menu. You can taste a fantastic drink with the super awesome Chartreuse VEP.

Well things are winding down, slowly decompressing from photo documenting everything. I think I will be instinctively reaching for the camera every time I eat over the next few days. This morning, just a latte. Beautiful day in New York, crisp, clear. Good for detoxing.

We ended up getting back later than expected from Gramercy (surprise), so we just decided to order some take-out sushi. Which is fine, since I am still pretty exahusted from cooking yesterday. Just a generic take out sampler. I forgot to take a picture of the spicy crab roll and the spicy tuna roll, but most of you know what that looks like.

Yup, we recently did an inventory of our wines and pretty much planned the meal around the wines. I did use an immersion circulator. If you get one without the bath attachment it isn't really that big. Maybe the size of 2 stick blenders. I just used a rubber container to do the cooking in. 5 gallon pastic buckers work too. I figured fresh ones would work better, but unfortunately I decided to do it after the season was over. I guess I need to wait until next year to try it again. In the meantime I am going to try and track down a bottle of Hermes (Suntory) Apricot Brandy. john

So we went to Gramercy Tavern for a drink or two. (Jim says "Hi", Katie) Jeannie started out with Jim's beta test of his homemade tonic. Simple gin & house made tonic. Very tasty. Now I need to learn how to make tonic. The house made tonic is amazing. It blows the doors off anything I have tasted before. I had a Van Brunt. Next, Jeannie had the Tea Whiskey Hiball This was amazing. It is going to be my next summer drink. It was like an awesome Iced Tea, with scotch! He had a concord grape smash on the menu that called for Ketel, Grapes and Lime, but I didn't want vodka so he made it Agrigole and it rocked. All the time we snacked on their bar nuts. Spicy, Salt, Sweet. Man, it makes you want to stay and drink. (I guess that is the point)

Wow, that looks really good. I believe all the classic cocktails that call for apricot brandy actually are looking for something along the lines of an apricot liquer which would make it sweet. The Marie Brizzard Apry is very, very sweet. The taste has been compared to a jolly rancher candy, so I am thinking this i]boerenmeisjes could be a good idea. Especially if I can thin it down considerably. Thanks Chufi, now I just need to find that brandy!

So in my never ending quest for apricot liquor/brandy I decided to see what I could do with making my own. Well, let's just say it wasn't so great. I took 2 pounds of dried apricots and added about a quart of vodka. Let it sit for 2 weeks and got this. The apricots soaked up the vodka and got nice and plump. Straining off the liquid that was left over was easy. The question was how do I try to extract more liquid from the plumped up apricots. First I tried my juicer. I managed to get a small amount out, but not enough. Next I tried grinding it up in the food processor. Tried the juicer again. Bad idea. Big mess. Ok, lets try this another way. Piled it all in a clean kitchen towel, put between two sticks and twisted. Probably got out another 1 oz of liquid. I really need access to a centrifuge. I cut my losses, sending it through the filter. Once it all goes through I am going to add some brandy, a dash of simple and see what I can do with it.

Hah, paying in cocktails and doing good work may not go exactly hand in hand.

I did it at 75C.

So today is a relaxing day for the most part. Just finshing up the cleaning at this point. Around 5 we are going to head into the city to stop by Gramercy Tavern for a drink to sample one or two of Jim's drinks. Hopefully pick up the recipe for the Champs Elysee for Katie. After that we are going to head back and have a low key dinner at home. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the compliment! I am flattered. Who knows, maybe when I recover from this dinner we can have a Brooklynite dinner. (Doc, we will have to bring you back down one day!) Studiokitchen. Words can't describe it.

Some tasting notes on the cheese from the cheesemaster donbert.

I have not been there. I can only dream to aspire to such greatness.

Your square and rectangular plates are great. I adore square plates. Where did you get yours? Anybody have any reasonably priced suppliers? Great blog, BTW - I'm so full from dinner I could burst, but you're still managing to make me salivate... ← You won't believe it, but the square & rectangle plates were from Target. Love that place.

I should have explained that. No, that is a guest. He needed to lie down befoe desert, he was a little overwhelmed.