FrogPrincesse

A charcuterie platter, pork or salmon rillettes, tapenade, smoked salmon or gravlax, gougeres (cheese puffs), soup shooters... Lots of options!

+ 3 Sierra Mar cookbook by Craig Von Foester- lovely birthday gift from my brother and sister in law Hunt, Gather, Cook by Hank Shaw A Girl and her Pig by April Bloomfield

As promised, I made the Cotriade Bretonne last Friday (fish stew with sorrel and leek). The recipe was very straightforward. Sorrel and/or arugula - I used a mix as I did not have a lot of sorrel - are cooked down in butter and set aside. I used a Le Creuset pot to soften some onions, leeks and garlic in butter. Then fish stock, diced potatoes, are added together with a bouquet garni and salt + pepper. I used "ratte" fingerling potatoes, which have the advantage of being firm with a nutty flavor, very nice in a stew. Then the fish is added and cooked for about ~ 5 minutes, and the shellfish is added last (if using). I used white bass fillets but in 2 inches pieces. Having a variety of fish, oily & white, and shellfish, as recommended in the recipe, sounds like a great idea, but the stew was also delicious with just one kind of fish. The sorrel, lemon juice, and a good amount of creme fraiche are added and the stew is cooked a few minutes more. The soup is served with croutes (crusty bread fried in butter and rubbed with garlic). Recipe here on Anne Willan's website. I really loved the flavor of this fish stew and the simplicity. A great option for week-nights which would also work for dinner parties.

This is gorgeous, Baron, and would make a great lunch with some crusty bread and coarse-grain mustard...

Just a note that BarSmarts Wired is currently free. I've enrolled and started studying... It's fun. I've only completed the first module so far.

You are very welcome, Anna!

That's some real nice stuff right there. Real nice. It does seem nice. It must be the French snob in me, but I would have a really hard time using Armagnac in cocktails. It's so nice on its own and it is somewhat difficicult to find (at least here in San Diego).

I tried the Estrella Damm Inedit at a Tapas restaurant last night, and really liked it. It's light and on the subtle side, with a lot of spice. We also had an Alhambra Negra, a dark lager from Spain that was creamy and rich, almost like a stout.

Margaret, Thank you so much for reminding me about the cotriade. I LOVE sorrel and have a small plant growing on my patio. I also just bought a couple of white bass fillets that I was going to cook tonight, so I think that I am going to give the recipe a try!

I forgot to add that the staff at Relae had recommended Geist and Mêlée, although we did not get a chance to try them.

I went to Copenhagen in June last year with my husband. We had an unforgettable meal at Relæ - we sat at the counter and had a fantastic evening. Being able to observe everything, chat with the staff, and learn more about the dishes was a great opportunity. The ambiance was on the casual side, but the food and wine were top rate. I was really moved by the food and the sensibility of chef Christian Puglisi. The wine pairings by sommelier (and partner) Kim Rossen were unexpected and fun. The other, more casual and affordable outpost of Relae, Manfred, which is just across the street, is also worth a visit. The menu was limited but everything was very tasty (creamy onion soup, hanger steak). The menu changes daily I believe. There were no tourists, just locals. We sat at one of the communal tables and had a good chat with our neighbors. The restaurant has since been renovated/expanded. They did not take credit cards at the time but this may have changed since our visit. Jægersborggade, the street where Manfred and Relae are located, is a fantastic neighborhood with lots of little shops and a great atmosphere. We wish we could have spent more time exploring it. We had dinner at Cofoco one night. Prices were reasonable and the food was well executed, although less memorable than Relae. We went to Kodbyens Fiskebar and it was ok. I thought that it was quite expensive for what it was, and the portions were minuscule. It seemed like a very trendy place. We tried the cocktails too, but they took forever to arrive and were nothing special in the end (other than the ridiculous price). For smørrebrød, we really liked Aamans. A nice place for lunch. They had a good selection. We had the smoked mackerel, smoked halibut, roast beef, and pork belly. We went to Copenhagen's micro-brewery, the Brew Pub, for a casual lunch on the day we arrived. The beer was excellent. The food is simple - we had the tapas plate with sausage and pork cheek, and the steak sandwich. They have a large courtyard that is pleasant for lunch. Did you check this thread? It's a little dated but you may find more suggestions there.

Recent lunches from MIHO. Bloody mary burger (grass-fed beef, pickled veggies, Point Reyes blue cheese, bloody Mary catsup) Squash blossom quesadilla (local squash blossom, anaheim chile & citrus salsa, caramelized onion, local arugula, Spring Hill cheddar, cotija, local flour tortilla). These squash blossoms were very tasty. And today's lunch, carnitas (Berkshire pork, hand made guacamole, fire roasted salsa, house pickled red onion, cotija, local corn tortilla). The pickled onion was a nice touch.

Beaituful homemade sausage, Shane. What recipe do you use? Here are a few recent simple/weeknight meals. White seabass with basil and cherry tomatoes, cooked in an aluminum foil pouch. Very flavorful and moist. Served with roasted cauliflower. Grilled Delmonico steak with English peas and caramelized onion foccaccia from Sadie Rose, a local bakery that is associated with my CSA. Duck sausage from Homegrown Meats; salad with roasted torpedo onions, cherry tomatoes and cotija cheese. The sausage was really delicious.

So after all this experimenting with the strawberry cupcakes, I did not have any time left to tweak chocolate cupcake recipes before the actual birthday party. I was not satisfied at all with the two recipes I had tried and did not feel that modifying them would give me the result I was looking for. So I was looking for a recipe that I could trust. In the past I found that David Lebovitz had consistently reliable recipes so I decided to use his devil's food cake recipe. (Surprisingly the recipe is by volume - as he explains it is a good recipe if you have to bake but your scale does not work). I made it as is, using the best cocoa powder I could find (i.e., Scharffen Berger). He gives the option of using coffee or water as the liquid and I opted for water since I was baking them for a kids birthday party. There were no surprises. The batter used considerably more liquid than the recipes I tried before (see upthread) so it was less dense. So this all looked very promising. They rose well and cracked a little, but much less than the other recipes. The recipe yielded 2.5 dozens cupcakes. For the frosting, I used the dark chocolate frosting recipe from Sprinkles since it is so decadent, with Trader Joe's pound plus 72% dark chocolate. And I used the chocolate "flakes" on top, which are square-shaped sprinkles made with real chocolate, and I was relieved to find them in a local store (although they cost more of less their weight in gold. If I make the recipe again I will try to buy in bulk!). The finished result and cross-section. One of the two platters we had at the birthday party. Some slight damage during transportation and handling, but nothing too bad. Well I have to day, David Lebovitz is a genius, because this was really fantastic, The cake was moist and delicate, more or less crumbless, and had an intense chocolate taste. I could not have been happier and here ends my quest for the perfect chocolate cupcake.

I made the strawberry cupcakes a few more times since my last posts. I made the Sprinkles recipe as is again, but using a fresh jar of baking powder since the one I had used in my first attempt was only a few weeks away from expiry. There was no difference - excellent taste and very good frosting, but the cake itself was still quite dense. After that, I had to bake a couple of dozens so my daughter could take them to school. I tweaked the recipe as much as I could (without making any drastic changes) - adding a little bit more baking powder, slightly more liquid, etc). But in the end there was no noticeable difference. So I concluded that it was just the type of cake that was not to our taste. I believe we would prefer the cupcake with a different type of cake that is inherently lighter, such as maybe a genoise/sponge cake. It's still a pretty good recipe and the frosting is great. I baked a dozen of them for the actual birthday party. Everyone seemed to love them and the natural light pink color is very pretty. I would be curious now to buy them again from the Sprinkles store and see how they compare. I am more or less convinced that the recipe that they have made available to the public is not what they use.

With my daughter I made this super simple recipe from The Country Cooking of France last night. She loves eggs (soft boiled, hard boiled, fried, scrambled, omelettes, you name it). For a change we made Oeufs en Cocotte. We cooked thinly sliced chives in butter (the recipe calls for scallions but I did not have any). Then we prepared croutons by frying little cubes of stale country bread in more butter. We added chives and croutons to buttered ramekins, then she cracked an egg in each one, and added a spoonful of sour cream (heavy cream or crème fraîche work well too). The eggs were cooked in a bain marie in a 350F oven. We forgot about them so they were a little overdone, but still wonderful. This recipe is very easy to modify by adding all sorts of interesting ingredients (cheese, sauteed mushrooms, ham, smoked salmon, fresh herbs, etc).

I made this (dry) Americano variation last night called Rome with a View (Michael McIlroy, via Bartender's Choice). Campari, dry vermouth (I used Dolin), lime juice, simple syrup, soda water. I was not sure how the pairing of Campari and dry vermouth would work; I am not usually a fan and have a hard time enjoying a Lucien Gaudin or an Old Pal for example. It was very nice though, bitter but not overly so (if there is such a thing), very refreshing with the lime and soda water, and the dry vermouth added a lot of interesting aromatic flavors. A good summer-time apéritif.

I think that the Brown Bomber is an amazing drink - but I make it with Lillet (as specified in the PDT cocktail book)!

I really like the Cocchi as well. I tried it side by side with Lillet in a Corpse Reviver No. 2 and a Vesper and liked it much better than Lillet in both. However for one of my favorite cocktails, the White Negroni, I have to admit after much testing that Lillet is a better choice. So Lillet still has its use.

My mint is still doing extremely well these days, despite aggressive trimming. Since I had prepared an Eastside Fizz for me last night, for my husband I just substituted cognac for gin (and held the club soda), resulting in a Maid in France. It's served on the rock(s) instead of up. He liked it very much, although maybe not as much as the bourbon version (the Kentucky Maid discussed upthread).

My drink last night was an Eastside Fizz. 2 oz Plymouth gin 1 oz lime juice 3/4 oz simple syrup handful mint leaves 3 slices cucumber + 1 thin slice for the garnish club soda Muddle the cucumber and mint with the gin, lime, and simple syrup. Shake with ice, double strain, add club soda, float a thin cucumber slice as a garnish. Absolutely gorgeous drink. Right away it reminded me of Toby Maloney's Juliet and Romeo. It is a simplified version of that cocktail (without rose water, Angostura bitters, or pinch of salt). Even without these adornments, this is still fantastic. It tastes slightly salty; the mint, cucumber and Plymouth gin blended really well together.

Last night I made an Imperial Fizz with rye, Jamaican rum, lemon juice, simple syrup, egg white, and club soda. Smooth and spicy at the same time. The choice of rye and rum could probably be fine-tuned. The flavor of the Bulleit rye came though, but the Appleton 12 was a little muted in that drink. A Jamaican rum that is a little more robust may be a better fit.

I just found a picture of the spot prawn dish that I took at the time. I still dream about it.

Honkman, I attended a previous event of Evolve Cuisine back in March, the Cambrian Event which was focused on seafood (provided by Catalina Offshore, whose owner also attended the event). We had a great time. We sampled a wide array of great seafood with original preparations. We chose to sit at the counter so we could witness all the cooking right in front of us which is always fun. Some of the standout dishes were a spot prawn dish that was served raw with pickled daikon and a very delicate ocean broth; the uni bisque (even though it was served in a syringe...); and a shrimp ceviche appetizer with ponzu. I did not care AT ALL for the molecular cocktails. Encapsulating overly sweet "cocktails" to make them look like sushi or other food items has very little to do with actual cocktails in my opinion. In the end, the finished product tasted mostly like thick gelatin (gummy bears come to mind) and very little else. They were fun to look at of course, but did not taste good. This is one area where using the modernist tools just felt like a gimmick to me. Cocktails aside, this was a very enjoyable event and a good value (I believe we paid $75 for a dozen courses overall). The menus for the past events are here- in addition to the announced menu we had three tray-passed hors d'oeuvres and a few other "bonus" items along the way. Also a highlight of these events is that you get plenty of chances to interact with the chef and the various cooks, which adds a lot to the experience.

A Hays Collins tonight (found on Bartender's Choice). It's simply a Tom Collins with an absinthe rinse. The absinthe rinse (I used pastis) alters the taste slightly. The finish changes from citrus to herbal, although it is subtle. I like it a lot.