FrogPrincesse

This whole thread puzzles me. I cook rice in a regular pot on the stove, in a large excess of water. I never measure the ratio but I would say it's easily 4 or 5 parts water to 1 part rice. I start with the rice in cold water, then boil until starchy bubbles start to form, which usually means that the rice is ready. I do this with Jasmine or Basmati rice and it works every time, no soggy rice. Obviously I drain the rice once it's cooked.

Always looking for good genever cocktails, I tried this one last night. Holland Razor Blade (Eric Alperin) Genever (2 oz), lemon juice (3/4 oz), simple syrup (3/4 oz), and pinch of cayenne pepper sprinkled on top (I substituted piment d'espelette which is a little more fruity/less fiery). I was a little skeptical but intrigued by the ingredient list. I loved it immediately. The chili pepper + genever + lemon combo is a great one; the cocktail had layers of flavor and was just fun to drink.

I tried Sam Ross' Chin Up a couple of nights ago (from the Bartender's Choice app). Gin, cynar, dry vermouth, muddled cucumber. It can be described as a dry martini with a touch of Cynar and cucumber. First I thought that the dry vermouth tasted too syrupy in combination with the Cynar. For a moment I thought that my vermouth was bad, but this is was a recently opened bottle - maybe Noilly Prat would be a better choice than Dolin for this cocktail. Overall, the cocktail felt a little out of balance for me. I could not enjoy it on its own but realized that it was much better in combination with a very pungent goat cheese such as Humboldt Fog. With the cheese it became great, the strong herbal aromas in the cocktail were a good match.

I recommend Yves Camdeborde's Le Comptoir du Relais (9 Carrefour de l'Odéon, in the 6th arrondissement). I had a few excellent meals there last year (eGullet discussion here). It's a very casual restaurant that serves elevated bistro food (more on the traditional side). Outstanding terrines, beef cheek daube, charcuterie plate, etc. L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon has excellent food but felt a little impersonal (I went last June). It was fascinating sitting at the counter and watching the cooks in action. Other places that I would love to try are Frenchie, and Inaki Aizpitarte's Le Chateaubriand or more casual Le Dauphin.

I love negronis. It's the perfect pre-dinner drink, it really gets your taste buds going. I like adding a few dashes of orange bitters in mine (Regan's + Angostura orange bitters).

I made a few of bourbon cocktails for my husband this week, all of them instant favorites for the warner weather. I used Woodford bourbon which works well, although it's not my favorite in that price range for mixing - I find it lacking personality and prefer Buffalo Trace. Elijah Craig 12 years, a recent discovery for me, is also very good for mixing. Bourbon smash (à la Dale DeGroff) Bourbon, lemon wedges, simple syrup, mint, angostura bitters. (from the Drinks thread) Bourbon Shake Bourbon, lime juice, simple syrup. It's essentially a classic daiquiri with bourbon instead of rum. It's really tasty and the lime extracts a lot of great flavors from the bourbon. Kentucky Breakfast (Jeffrey Morgenthaler) This one has bourbon, lemon juice, rich simple syrup (I used demerara 2:1), apricot preserves, and egg white. It is creamy and smooth, more subtle than the first two. It would obviously be an excellent choice for brunch.

deensiebat - your salad looks incredible. Rhubarb, beets, and blue cheese, I would never have thought of that. dcarch - beautiful as always. Kim Shook - great looking sandwich - I cannot resist a good crusty baguette! Last night's dinner was cooked on the grill. We had locally-caught black gill rockcod fillets with salsa di Giovanna (olive oil with garlic, mint, and marjoram - based on a recipe in Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Italy), and rainbow chard with home-cured tesa/pancetta. Grilling the chard was nice (I had to blanch it first though), it gave it a nice smoky flavor. It was based on this recipe from Food and Wine, with some tweaks.

This was originally a Jamie Oliver recipe that I have adapted for the pressure cooker after multiple trials/errors. I change the ingredients based on what I have on hand. Steps 1, 2, 6, and 7 are the same as for a non-pressure cooker recipe. 1. Sweat the aromatics (I used shallots and young red onions) in olive oil. 2. Increase the heat and add the rice (7 oz), stir for 1 minute, add a small glass of white vermouth and cook until absorbed. 3. Add the stock (2.5 cups). Close the pressure cooker and bring up to pressure over high heat (3 to 4 minutes). 4. Lower the heat to medium, cook for 5 minutes. 5. Remove from the heat, let stand for 6 minutes. 6. Open the lid, add the butter (2.5 tablespoons) and plenty of parmesan cheese. Stir gently, cover and let stand for 3 minutes. 7. Plate and add your garnishes (Parma ham, crumbled goat cheese, parsley). I found that this technique works very well with carnaroli rice. Arborio overcooks easily so it's hard to get right in the pressure cooker.

There should be nothing wrong with using mayonnaise in your cupcake recipe. If made properly, it's just oil and eggs, ingredients which you'll find in most chiffon-type cake recipes. Sorry, I just can't bring myself to doing it. It must be a cultural difference, but I used to bake a lot when I grew up in France, and never once encountered a recipe using these ingredients. It has to be butter for me.

I made risotto last night in my pressure cooker. It's what I make when I don't have the energy to spend a lot of time cooking and the fridge is getting empty. This version had plenty of shallots, young red onions, marjoram, and dry vermouth. At the end I added a ton of parmesan, goat butter, fresh goat cheese, Parma ham, and parsley. Pure comfort food and minimal effort (with only one pot to clean).

I made this simple but delicious Bourbon Smash last night for my husband: bourbon, lemon wedges, simple syrup, mint, angostura bitters (I did have a sip of it for quality control purposes). My mint is doing really well right now so it's a good time to take advantage of it!

A few cocktails that I made recently with crème de violette (the first two from other threads). The Water Lilly from PDT: equal parts gin, violette, Cointreau, lemon juice; orange twist. The Aviation... of course And the Deep Blue Sea (Michael Madrusan) that I just tried last night: gin, Lillet, crème de violette. Maybe it's the name but I thought it tasted almost salty... the combination of Lillet and crème de violette is quite intriguing.

These madeleines are beautiful... It's been too long since I've baked a batch!

I saw this beautiful roasted chicken with caramelized shallots on Kerry and Anna's excellent foodblog yesterday (here), and felt compelled to try it right away. It was delicious and required very little prep (excluding the fact that I started with a whole chicken and that my butchering skills are still approximative... but I am working on it). Recipe by David Lebovitz.

Is Laird's Bonded not available in your area? Calvados is a poor substitute, besides being more expensive. Laird's bonded is available in my area. I used to have a bottle that I finished some time ago. I actually don't care for it in most drinks, this one being one exception. It's a little too rough for my taste, so I decided not buy another bottle.

The PDT cocktail book has been indexed on Eat Your Books (here). That should be very helpful to search for cocktails by specific ingredients.

That chicken looks wonderful. I assume it's this recipe, correct? I will try it soon, for sure!

You are right, I remember you mentioned it on your blog a while back. Since then, I've been on the lookout for a good tequila-orgeat cocktail, and was very excited to find this one!

The logical follow-up for the Slope is the Sunset Park (Michael Madrusan), which replaces the Punt e Mes with dry vermouth (and uses slightly different ratios). I found it last night while looking for Manhattan variations in the Bartender's Choice app for my husband who was not convinced by my latest discovery, the Infante. 2 oz rye, 1/2 dry vermouth, 1/2 apricot liqueur, 2 dashes angostura bitters It's described as a summertime Manhattan. It's good but a little on the sweet side, so I would reduce the amount of apricot liqueur next time.

To recap the cocktails I made so far with my homemade orgeat, by base liquor: Rum: Mai tai, Bitter Mai Tai, Scorpion, Cavalier Cognac: Japanese Cachaca: Rio Bravo Gin: Army and Navy (previous post) Rye: Trinidad Sour Bourbon: Eastern Sour I realized that I had not tried pairing orgeat with tequila. So last night I checked the Bartender's Choice app and came up with the Infante (Giuseppe Gonzalez): tequila, lime juice, orgeat. It's very simple, and looks gorgeous in the glass. I see some online examples that use grated nutmeg, which sounds like a great idea. I really liked this cocktail as it accentuates the delicate flavor of the orgeat.

Playing with my Bartender's Choice app, I made the Archangel cocktail a couple of nights ago, not realizing at first that I had already made it on the PDT thread (the recipe is identical to the PDT book, except for the absence of lemon twist). This time I used the gin specified in the recipe, which is Plymouth. Gin, aperol, muddled cucumber. The Bartender's Choice app describes the drink as a Negroni-influenced Martini, which is an accurate description.

Thanks Kouign Aman, I sent you a message regarding the sprinkles. I checked the expiration date for my baking powder, and sure enough, it had almost expired (June 2012). So I threw it away and bought a new one. I tried another test batch of cupcakes this weekend, this time a chocolate recipe. It's interesting to see how few chocolate cupcake recipes use actual chocolate. The majority just seem to use cocoa powder. I eliminated recipes not using dark chocolate and recipes using ingredients that I would rather not see in my cupcakes (e.g., oil, condensed milk, Hershey's syrup, vinegar, mayonnaise (!)), or ingredients I did not have on hand (buttermilk). I was using Eat Your Books for my search which is very handy to eliminate specific ingredients. I came up with this recipe from "Confession of a Tart" that looked promising. I followed the instructions as is, even the step where the cocoa powder is added to the butter + chocolate mixture in the bain-marie (I am not sure why it's not mixed with the dry ingredients). I used the weight measurements because I really don't like baking with volume measurements as this can be another big source of error. Everything went well. Using an ice-cream scoop to portion out the batter was a revelation for me - so much easier than a spoon or a spatula! The batter was quite thick/sticky. The cupcakes rose this time but they also cracked badly. I made sure not to over-bake them by checking them regularly. For the frosting, I used the Sprinkles recipe (here). The verdict? The frosting is perfect, absolutely delicious. But the cake left to be desired. It was light and the taste was good, but it was also on the dry side, incredibly crumbly, and way too messy for a cupcake. I since found a recipe from Dorie Greenspan for chocolate cupcakes so I will try it next (recipe here).

What a fun thread, I just discovered it. I thought I would revive it by posting a picture of the equipment I bought at Cocktail Kingdom earlier this year, which has been getting a lot of use already. Regarding vintage items, I keep hearing stories of people finding perfectly-sized & adorable cocktail glasses at the Salvation Army for a few pennies, but no luck for me so far...

I made this refreshing coconut drink tonight, the Coco de Agua (Charles H. Baker Jr , via Bartender's Choice app). Light rum, coconut water, lime juice, simple syrup, and club soda.

Wonderful pictures. Love the fish selection and the two plates of pasta (langoustine and vongole) look absolutely delicious. And the dishes you make at home are always inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing your week, Franci!