mkayahara

Why Midori? And while we're on the subject, I'd be curious to hear more about the shouchuu. I had several imo-jouchuu when I was in Kagoshima in May, and none of them tasted anything like vodka! Which is to say, they all had a flavour.

That sums it up for me. If the old way is better, do it the old way. If you find a new way (quicker, easier, more streamlined, more accessible, etc.) that gives you equal or better results, go for it. Of course, Bittman seems to (tacitly) admit that the quick-method preserved lemons aren't as good as the traditional method. I think Jenni nailed it when she said: Also: It doesn't surprise me, either, that eGulleters would be more committed than the general population to doing things right for the sake of doing them right. And I'm sure I'm at least as guilty as the rest of you guys!

Mark Bittman has a post up today arguing that, while there is value in making labour-intensive recipes the traditional way, there's also value in taking shortcuts on them if it means the difference between eating them and not. The example he gives is North African preserved lemons: In principle, I see where he's coming from on dishes like cassoulet. But preserved lemons? The amount of labour for the traditional version takes no more time than the "minimalist" version he proposes. Most of the time involved in preserved lemons is just waiting for them to be ready, while they slowly transform in your fridge. To my mind, a shortcut to preserved lemons is really just a case of culinary ADD: I want it now, and I don't want to have to plan ahead for it. Or maybe it's just because I'm still in my early 30s, and my life is as leisurely as Bittman's was when he was in his 30s. What do you think? Is the perfect the enemy of the good?

My husband refuses to eat pumpkin, in any form, sweet or savoury: pie, muffins, curry, on its own as a side dish... He's fine with any other squash under the sun, but pumpkin is a no-go. Apparently, when he was a kid, he was always stuck with the unpleasant task of removing the seeds and strings of the Halloween Jack-o'-lantern, and can't get past those memories when faced with it as a food. I've been known to sneak it past him by serving him "spice loaf," though.

Thanks for pointing this out! It was just the impetus I needed to finally pull the trigger.

Oh yeah, anchovies for sure. Mine come in a jar, but that's pretty close to "canned."

For a long time, the only seafood in my pantry was canned tuna, and I used it almost exclusively for tuna salad sandwiches. One day, out of sustainability and health (mercury) concerns, I switched to canned mackerel, which I can get easily at the local Asian grocery. I like it just as much as tuna in sandwiches - and my cat likes it better. The only problem is that the cans are much bigger than cans of tuna, so if I open one, I've committed myself to a whole week of mackerel salad sandwiches!

How about blanquette de veau? Any number of custards (or panna cotta) make great white desserts, too. You're not planning on eating this way for the rest of your life, are you? Painful dentistry or no, I could never give up red wine. Or coffee...

When I work with bulk couscous, I almost never go higher than 1.5 parts of liquid to 1 part of couscous, so that might be your problem right there! If I'm going to douse it in olive oil, I've been known to go as low as 1:1, but 1.25:1 seems to be about the sweet spot for the product I get.

What proportion of liquid to couscous are you using?

There is a recipe in the new book for "Aebleskiver and Vinegar Meringues." Is that the same as the one in the first book?

It's a pretty impressive feat, isn't it? Was it Lucy Garcia doing the interpretation? When I saw Adria on the book tour for A Day at El Bulli, I thought she did a great job.

I think the crux of the issue comes down to this: Correct me if I'm wrong, Adam, but I get the impression that you feel that "Cock-tail" and "Old-Fashioned" are coextensive terms, while others feel that Old-Fashioned is a proper subset of Cock-Tails. As far as Cherry Heering being brought into the discussion, I think this whole conversation got started back here, when I asked whether a drink consisting of 2 oz. rye, 1 oz. Cherry Liqueur, 1/4 oz. amaro Meletti and a dash of orange bitters really belonged in the "Old Fashioned" thread. I maintain that it doesn't, strictly speaking, but an ounce of cherry liqueur is a far cry from a dash of curacao.

Which bring us back to Sam's question: Edit: To which I'd add: *2 oz. gin, **/***1 oz. sweet vermouth, **1 tsp. maraschino and ***2 dashes bitters, stirred over ****ice and strained = Old-Fashioned?

I don't think lecithin or gelatin are the answer here. In my experience, lecithin airs and gelatin foams tend to be even less dense than fat-based foams, and consequently paler in colour. The first thing that occurs to me would be to check whether carrot tops are edible and/or tasty. Barring that, parsley might be a darker green than basil, and the technique should be about the same.

Check out the basil foam in Rick Tramonto's Amuse-bouche.

I use a rounded coffee spoon for the large ones. If you want to see the technique in action, check out the third video clip here: http://www.zeropointzero.com/ferran.html.

Properly done, all sodium alginate spherification methods result in a liquid centre. If you do "normal" spherification (with the alginate in the base and the calcium in the bath), the alginate will continue to gel after you take it out of the bath, and eventually you will end up with a solid gel. That's why some consider reverse spherification to be superior: it can be held for a time. (Just don't hold it in the alginate bath!)

I've never actually used carageenan, but from what I've read about it and from watching other cooks work with it, the answer is almost certainly yes. Not sure if there's a typo here, but reverse spherification involves adding calcium (preferably in the form of calcium lactate or calcium gluconate) to the base you want to spherify, then dunking it in a bath of sodium alginate. You can find a wealth of information on alginate spherification in this thread.

It sounds like the consensus opinion is that it mostly isn't worth the trouble of doing pork chops sous vide. (BTW, when I said "bland" above, I was actually thinking about texture, rather than flavour: I was hoping for a superior texture by using sous vide.) I still have high hopes for pork tenderloin, belly and shoulder, though! Last night's 24-hour flatiron steaks came out wonderfully, though a friend raised the question as to whether it really requires 24 hours, since flatiron is already a pretty tender cut, despite being from the shoulder. Has anyone tried it for shorter periods of time with any success? I also did a side-by-side comparison of searing in a hot pan vs. with a torch, and found that the steak seared with the torch stayed more pink than the one done in the hot pan, though the latter still had a great texture. I suspect my underpowered stove and the thinness of the steaks I had were to blame, so I think I'll be using the torch a fair bit from now on.

Uh... that's a false syllogism, Adam. Not that I think there's anything wrong with a dash of curacao or maraschino in a Cock-tail, but I think Sam's point is that, at that point, it becomes a Cock-tail (fancy, improved, what have you), but not an Old-Fashioned Cock-tail.

Toasted and crushed them, but they were older than they probably should have been. There's so many variables in play here that I'm not really sure what to think: the technique, the proportions, the allspice, the rum I used as a base... I'm kind of with Sam, though: I wonder to what extent this technique works well to give a "flavoured spirit" outcome, rather than the level of intensity you want in a liqueur. More testing required, I guess.

Isn't that just risotto?

Let me rephrase. To those of you who have made batches of pimento dram at home, do you generally find it is as aromatically intense as the St. Elizabeth product? I've always found St. Elizabeth to be a little overpowering, especially in drinks like the Lion's Tail and the Reveillon, so I don't think a less intense product is necessarily a bad thing. But I'd like to have a better idea as to whether the nitrogen cavitation approach is as effective as other home infusion methods.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I certainly intend to try all the cuts you mentioned - in fact, I have a 24-hour flatiron in the circulator as I type. I guess I was just surprised at the extent to which the pork chops really were just like with conventional methods. I'd been hoping that being able to cook them sous vide would make me see what I think of as a pretty bland cut in a different light. Of course, it's also possible that I was cooking them at too high a temperature!