FrogPrincesse

Merci. Now regarding Bacardi in daiquiris (or Bacardi in general) - not much flavor to begin with!

Is this the recipe in question? 2 1/2 oz aged rum 3/4 oz fresh lime juice 1/2 oz simple syrup (2:1)

That's what I do - mix panko with olive oil and seasonings, and brown in the oven before using. I'm not sure you would even need the oil: it's just "bread," so it should toast up nicely even without it! Olive oil for the flavor, not for browning.

Thanks for reminding me about the okolehao. I have a bottle of the liqueur that I use in tiki drinks, including one that I think is in Remixed - the Polynesian Paralysis. It's really flavorful/funk. I don't remember a coconut taste though, I will have to check.

Upthread, Sam had suggested mixing S&C with Bonal. In the same vein, there is this cocktail. Gramercy Tavern's Crossfire 1 oz Smith & Cross 1/2 oz Cherry Heering 1/2 oz Bonal 1/2 oz orange juice 3 dashes orange bitters I used Luxardo Sangue Morlacco, and a Cara Cara orange (a type of Navel orange with a pink flesh). For the orange bitters I used Regan's + Fee. It tasted a bit bitter from the Bonal at first sip (my husband thought for a second I had attempted sneaking some Campari in his drink), then an explosion of flavors. Intense - definitely a sipping drink.

That's what I do - mix panko with olive oil and seasonings, and brown in the oven before using.

Scallops in Tangerine Sauce from the Cooking of Southwest France. I used tangerines and Cara Cara oranges from my CSA for the sauce. The technique for the sauce is detailed by Paula Wolfert in an eGullet post here. The recipe is from chef Jean-Louis Palladin. It's a reduction sauce they call stratification and it looks like it could easily be adapted for other applications. The resulting sauce was transparent (like stained glass) and slightly viscous so it adhered to the plate and the scallops. The sauce was beautiful and the technique was fun & quick. Taste-wise, I liked the intensity of the tangerine flavor. There was an aftertaste however from the fish fumet/demi-glace. Probably my mistake, I used veal demi-glace (the recipe did not state which one to use). Chicken stock or chicken demi-glace would be a more neutral choice, even though in the end the flavors blended together. The scallops were half-moon scallops from Catalina Offshore which are kidney-shaped. They have a lovely flavor. Their texture was more firm that what I am used to, although I was very careful not to overcook them. They may work better in ceviche.

Inspired by a recipe in Babbo, a roasted vegetable salad with carnival squash, parsnip, torpedo onions, arugula, goat cheese toast. All vegetables were from my CSA. The squash was cut in little cubes and roasted in the oven with olive oil and sage (wild white sage collected during a hike). The parsnip was sliced and roasted with cumin. Sherry vinegar and arbequina olive oil dressing.

I made Dorie Greenspan's mustard allumettes with leftover puff pastry dough. Rolled a long rectangle that I brushed with Dijon mustard. Folded in half, egg glazed, sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds (+ one version with poppy seeds). Baked for ~ 10 minutes at 400F. Delicious with a cocktail (XYZ aka rum sidecar).

I love Appleton 12. It's great in tiki drinks and daiquiri variations too. I feel that it's a bargain at less than $35 typically.

Going back to one of my first (cocktail) loves, the Sidecar. A few years ago, when I did not know anything about cocktails, I made myself a sidecar after being intrigued by this recipe in one of Jamie Oliver's early books. Needless to say, I loved it and the rest is history... Anyway - there is a Sidecar variation with aged rum substituted for the cognac in the Bartender's Choice app. It's the XYZ Cocktail, first published in the Savoy Cocktail book. I wanted to finish up a couple of bottles of rum (in an effort to make room for new ones...) so we tried Appleton 12 year and Flor de Cana gold 4 year side-by-side. Appleton 12 was the clear winner, more depth of flavor whereas the Flor de Cana felt thin in comparison. I want to try it next with Havana Club 7 per David Wondrich's recommendation in Esquire.

Chicken stewed in wine, aka coq au vin, is a well-known French dish. But why not try something different. Chicken with beer (Coq à la bière), the Flemish twist on this recipe, is a very nice stew that does not take a lot of effort to prepare. The chicken pieces are sprinkled with flour and browned in a pan. Then the pan is deglazed with genever which is flambéed (it's hard to go wrong with a recipe that calls for genever AND pyrotechnics!). The chicken is removed from the pan to allow the sliced onions and button mushrooms to cook. The chicken pieces are added back, together with brown beer, and braised for about 45 minutes until tender. Cream is added to the cooking liquid at the end to enrich the sauce. I served it with fingerling potatoes.

There is a discussion about the Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao, an orange liqueur that was developed with David Wondrich and launched last year, here. To elaborate on what I wrote there regarding Cointreau still being my preference for margaritas, here is a margarita flight I did last summer. From left to right. Grand Marnier: rich taste but I felt that the cognac base clashed with the tequila. It was also slightly too sweet and there wasn't enough bitter orange flavor for my taste. Pierre Ferrand has a lovely bitter orange flavor but was too dry in this cocktail. I did not attempt to change my ratios to compensate for this and the drink was not well balanced. I love it in other cocktails though, just not in this drink. Cointreau is immediately likeable and recognizable. It was very clearly the better choice (confirmed by a representative panel of three people!). Great combination of "zing" from the zest and bitterness. Long finish and the most complex overall.

I am copying some information regarding orange liqueurs from the Rogue (now beta) cocktails thread here so we can find it later. Not a huge difference as far as I can tell. The Clément Créole Shrubb is rum-based and therefore it makes sense to use it in rum cocktails. I prefer it to Cointreau in Mai Tais for example, although the difference is quite subtle. Grand Marnier being cognac-based is not very versatile in cocktails in general and I hardly ever use it (for Crêpes Suzette maybe). There is an extensive review of orange liqueurs on the Oh Gosh! blog that I found very informative. Thanks. I quite like Clement Creole Shrubb myself but haven't done anywhere near the amount of cocktail experimenting you have! I have been through the Oh Gosh! orange liqueur threads before but was just curious on your thoughts given you have seem to be playing with different types almost everyday. I need to try to do more. I don't have as many different options as on the Oh Gosh! site but I have managed to end up with 8-10 different orange liqueurs that deserve more regular use.

The Bitter Spring is a very assertive swizzle with a lot of Fernet that is (slightly) softened by orgeat. Bitter Spring (Sother Teague) 1 oz Fernet-Branca 1 oz gold rum 3/4 oz ginger syrup 3/4 oz lemon juice 3/4 oz homemade hazelnut orgeat Heavy dashes Peychaud's bitters I substituted ginger liqueur for the syrup, and almond orgeat for the hazelnut orgeat. The cocktail is kind of fun. It would have been better with a more interesting rum - I don't particularly care for the Flor de Cana 4-year gold rum, even though that is what the recipe called for. It does not have much depth of flavor.

That sounds wonderful. Another successful rum + sweet vermouth combo. I am hoping to have a bottle of this creme de cacao by Tempus Fugit that everyone has been raving about in the near future.

These are next on my list... I am just worried about how this affair is going to end! Out of curiosity, do you remember what rum/sweet vermouth/curaçao you used?

After a flaming drink, a red drink: The Dutchess with genever (I used Bols), pineapple juice (yes - I admit that I cheated and used a can instead of trying to make my own), homemade orgeat, lime juice, and 1/2 ounces of Angostura bitters. The Dutchess (Theo Lieberman) 1 1/2 oz genever 1 oz pineapple juice 3/4 oz orgeat 1/2 oz lemon juice 1/2 oz Angostura bitters It's not bitter at all despite the large amount of Angostura. It feels like it has egg in it because it is creamy and rich, but I think that's just from the orgeat. I don't find the color particularly appealing, but it tastes quite good in a comforting way.

The Hotel Nacional, a daiquiri variation from the namesake hotel in Cuba, made with the ratios from PDT. It's a daiquiri with aged rum (PDT lists Ron Pompero Aniversario; I used Plantation Barbados 5 year which is another nice sipping rum), pineapple juice and apricot liqueur, in addition to lime and simple syrup. I initially forgot the simple syrup and added it later, but honestly I don't feel that it was really need with the sweetness already imparted by the pineapple and the apricot liqueur. It is a pleasant "beginner" daiquiri; with the rum I used it had undertones of coconut. I still prefer the crispness of a regular daiquiri.

I had this (psychedelic-looking) salad with dinner last night. Cara Cara oranges, cucumber, watermelon radishes, mint, olive oil and lemon juice dressing. Crunchy and refreshing. It was based on a recipe in The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.

It's been at least 3 years since my last trip, but I remember having an underwhelming lunch at Canteen (super casual), and a fabulous dinner at La Folie on Russian Hill (more like a special-occasion type of restaurant). One place I want to try is Baker & Banker - we are friends with the family of the chef and it looks like our kind of place.

Not a huge difference as far as I can tell. The Clément Créole Shrubb is rum-based and therefore it makes sense to use it in rum cocktails. I prefer it to Cointreau in Mai Tais for example, although the difference is quite subtle. Grand Marnier being cognac-based is not very versatile in cocktails in general and I hardly ever use it (for Crêpes Suzette maybe). There is an extensive review of orange liqueurs on the Oh Gosh! blog that I found very informative.

After the Arsenic and Old Lace from the other night, I was looking for something with a little more … va-va-voom. I looked through my copy of beta cocktails and the All Fair’s caught my eye. Usually the drinks from that book are challenging for my husband, but since this is essentially a Manhattan with rum, I thought I should give it a go. I happened to have the rum that it called for (El Dorado 12 year). The other ingredients are sweet vermouth (I substituted Dolin for Carpano Antica), curaçao (substituted Clement for Marie Brizart), mole bitters, salt “tincture” (aka salt solution), and an orange twist. The cocktail is the first in a series of three that are meant to depict the evolution of a relationship. This one is clearly the honeymoon phase; you can tell right away by its beautiful smell. It is a very aromatic cocktail with layers of rich flavors highlighted by the mole bitters, and just a hint of salt at the end. Like spending your honeymoon in the Caribbean - it's described as an "Island Manhattan" in the book. It’s very easy to fall in love! The name and style of the cocktail seemed familiar, but it took me a day to figure out why. The cocktail is clearly based on the Fair and Warmer from the Savoy cocktail book, a cocktail I tried a few months ago which is also a Manhattan variation with rum (the version I had tried was the Bartender's Choice app adaptation of the Savoy creation and has different ratios). The ingredients in the Fair and Warmer are white rum, sweet vermouth, curaçao, and an orange twist. The changes in the beta version are the use of aged rum instead of white, and the addition of bitters and salt. It elevated this already enjoyable drink to something even more memorable.

I have it and really like it. I've had good results in a Maiden's Prayer and a Daiquiri no. 2. I think that it would be great in a Corpse Reviver no. 2 as well. In margaritas, I still prefer Cointreau. Makes a more rounded margarita.

My guess as well. The same thing happened to me when we re-did our front yard. I had a great steak with morels and Marsala crème fraîche sauce that day! Unfortunately this was a one-time occurrence. .