FrogPrincesse

Is there a reason nobody has mentioned the Palm Beach Special on this thread? Let's find out... Gin, grapefruit juice, sweet vermouth - the combination sounds odd on paper. But we've seen improbable combos come together nicely in the past. I guess there is only one way to tell. In person it is quite horrendous. I followed the recommendation to use Plymouth gin but it got lost in the mix. The cocktail had a very unpleasant finish and the sweet vermouth clashed with the grapefruit big time... I tried fiddling with it adding this and that and valiantly finished it. But I would not like to repeat this experience.

Roman Punch from the Bartender's Choice app. Jamaican rum, cognac, maraschino liqueur, lemon (I used 1/2 regular lemon and 1/2 Meyer lemon) and orange juice (I used gold nugget tangerines). Powerful stuff...

Today's post on cocktail virgin slut is about what we have been discussing here, the Crescent City Cocktail...

Leek and fennel soup from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy. I liked what the fennel added to this traditional potato + leek combination. I prefer it blended and warm. I garnished it with chives from my little herb garden.

Ah, I see now... My omelette skills lack rigour That's right. Omelettes are not to be taken lightly as we can tell by the intense discussions in this thread...

Since we are on the topic of asparagus... here is a light dinner from a couple of weeks ago when I got a bunch of green asparagus in my CSA. It's even better with a duck egg if you have one. Asparagus Milanese (based on the recipe from Babbo)

The Loakal Red from the Bruery is a beer that is only available in Orange County. It's a red ale that is partially aged in oak casks. It is hoppy and citrusy with a great depth of flavor.

Any special tips on cooking lamb shanks in the pressure cooker? I have a couple of shanks and would like to try this technique. My pressure cooker is the venting type. I was thinking 30 minutes for the cooking time. I am going to brown them first before cooking everything in the PC. I am considering this recipe by Tom Colicchio (Braised Lamb Shanks with Roasted Tomatoes). Thanks!

The Savoy Cocktail Book is finally available on Eat Your Books (here). 897 recipes searchable by ingredients. Hopefully I did not miss anything...

Everything looks good Franci. What is "fake sauce" and what recipe do you use?

For those of you who read French... I thought that this little cartoon was pretty cute. Omelette technique, illustrated. As they say, it's all about the technique!

"Moonshine" Highball: corn whiskey, lime, ginger beer. The corn whiskey was from King's County Distillery, a nice present from a friend. I added a touch of simple syrup which was probably a mistake as the drink was already quite sweet from the corn whiskey. The corn whiskey tasted great in the drink; it reminded me a little of cachaça or rhum agricole with its raw edge and grassy notes. I need to try it neat too before this tiny bottle (only 200 mL - less than 7 oz) disappears.

As you may know, the omelette skin is made separately to the filling. [...]I did not realize that the filling also contained eggs. Thanks for the detailed description.

judiu, You are very observant! It's a whole wheat bread with walnut and scallion bread from Bread and Cie, a local bakery in San Diego. It is so good it's like cake, and I have to make an effort not to eat the whole loaf...

I do like the Vieux Carré, but not having an iPhone or iPad, I don't have the Bartender's Choice app. Is their ratio anything like what I found here (http://www.examiner.com/article/new-york-vs-los-angeles-cocktail-competition-part-i) with the addition of the Angostura? Yes, the same with the addition of 2 dashes of Angostura bitters.

Beet greens remind me of sorrel which I love. They are slightly acidic (from the oxalate). The recipe for beet green soup in Molto Italiano starts by cooking onions and garlic in olive oil, then adding diced potatoes and sliced beet greens. I adapted this recipe and mixed them with radish greens and turnips greens that I did not want to throw away. Everything is then cooked in water with a bay leaf and red pepper flakes. I chose to put everything in the blender but it would also work without that step for a more rustic soup. The key for me is the pecorino garnish. Very comforting (although not especially photogenic) with a slice of rustic bread. It's another soup that changes color with the temperature, by the way. Hot (left) it's noticeably darker than cold (right).

I made one for lunch too, with chives and a chive blossom. I cheated a little though as it was a two-egg version. Came out decent - no brown spots & slightly runny in the middle.

Since the famous modernist omelette is popping up on this thread I thought I should ask something that has been bothering me. Can you describe the texture? It seems from the photo that the inside is fully cooked. To me it seems very "well done", more like a crepe than a traditional omelette, but it's hard to tell without having tried it...

Nice tutorial. Do you use a spatula to fold the omelette or do you just shake the pan ?

Green Flash Saison and Lost Abbey Framboise de Amorosa at Blind Lady Ale House. Both on draft and both fantastic. The Framboise was not sweet and I found it more complex than Lindemans.

Kent - I use this swivel peeler from OXO. Not just for cocktails - I use it to peel vegetables too.

None but the Brave: cognac, lime, allspice liqueur, ginger beer. The recipe in the Bartender's Choice app called for homemade ginger syrup with soda water but I just used Bundaberg ginger beer. A little tikiesque with the allspice but curiously ginger + allspice is not a combo that you see very often.

Beautiful omelette, Soba!

+ 1 Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, found at the used book store.

Last night was an encounter with the Merry Widow from the Savoy Cocktail Book. She has a beautiful pale orange color and an exuberant flavor thanks to the combination of Benedictine with absinthe/pastis and Angostura bitters. Gin, dry vermouth, Benedictine, Angostura bitters, rinse pastis; ratios from Bartender's Choice which are heavier on the gin and Benedictine compared to the original. Here was the original as described by Erik.