FrogPrincesse

I believe you can get them from Cocktail Kingdom That's where I got it.

Coquilles Saint-Jacques with Champagne What do you do when you have leftover Californian "champagne" that went flat? Coquilles Saint-Jacques of course! The sauce is made by sauteing shallots in butter, adding some fish fumet (I use fish stock), reducing (I skip that step since I use stock), adding heavy cream, and simmering for 15 minutes. The scallops are seared. Then the pan is deglazed with Champagne which is reduced (I also use any juices from the scallops that may have accumulated), and to which the cream sauce is added. The sauce is finished with butter, lemon juice, and chives. I served the scallops with bok choy and carrots from my CSA.

Impromptu cocktail party at our house tonight with a friend/neighbor to celebrate the end of a productive week. The weather was great in San Diego today so we went with rum-based drinks. We started with a classic Daiquiri with Flor de Caña 4 years. Then we had a Captain's Blood with Appleton 12 years (and Angostura, lime, simple syrup), a new favorite we discovered yesterday (see here). We followed with PDT's Paddington with Flor de Caña 4 years. Really nice with some oro blanco grapefruit (here is a picture I took previously). To finish, a Santa Cruz Daisy with Appleton 12 years (+ lemon, a little bit of club soda and a few dashes of curacao/Clément créole shrubb).

I love reading your notes, David. Thanks for your detailed reviews, it's fun following you around! Comme Ça has been on my list of place to try- LA or the Las Vegas branch. Excellent cocktails with a cocktail menu designed by Sam Ross, and French bistro food, a perfect combo as far as I am concerned!

Let me know what you think about the Hart of Darkness. Regarding the rum combos, since you are having a party maybe you can just prepare a bunch of different ones and have everyone sample them and decide what they like best. I tried this approach a few times at cocktail parties and it's been lots of fun. We made flights of White Negroni variations for example; we passed them around and had everyone share their thoughts (we call this our cocktail "lab"). It was also interesting to see how they evolved over time as the ice melted. The key is to make sure to mark each glass (permanent markers work fine), otherwise it's very easy to lose track!

Nice review. Beautiful space. It is quite different from their Parisian branch, which is located in an old building with exposed stone walls and a wood ceiling, and looks more modern/rustic (but is very nice too). It looks like the cocktail menu may be different as well. In Paris I remember having a basil drink ("l'experience") that was quite good, but much less complex than the drinks you describe. But the small space was so crowded that we could not establish a relationship with the bartenders, which was disappointing because it is such a big part of the experience.

My personal favorite combo for the Mai Tai is La Favorite coeur de rhum vieux (aged) + Appleton 12 years, staying with the Trader Vic formula (aged rhum agricole + Jamaican rum). But there is only one way to find out - try different combos until you find one you like! I've never had Depaz so I don't know how it compares to other rhum agricoles. I would think that you need something with enough funk to really stand out in this drink. Some of the aged rhums can be too smooth. I've been using the Trader Vic recipe upthread (post #9) and have started using Clement Creole shrubb recently as the orange curacao, which works better than Cointreau, after a side-by-side test. As for the passion fruit, I have a bottle of passion fruit syrup but have found it surprisingly not very versatile. I love passion fruit but it is such an intense flavor that it is hard to use well in mixed drinks. Recently though I made the Hart of Darkness from Beachbum Berry Remixed for Mixology Monday, and it was quite nice. It only uses 0.5 oz (I don't think more would be very good).

I first saw them at a bar I frequent and I love their look and the fact that they are reusable. They don't impart a metallic taste to drinks. I am a little bothered by them though (like Mrs. slkinsey apparently) because they are cold and hard, but most likely it's just a question of habit/adjustment. Most people don't seem mind. I think I will end up buying a bunch of them just because I don't like plastic straws.

I decided to bake cupcakes for my daughter's birthday next month. I bake regularly but have never made cupcakes. I actually never saw a cupcake until I moved to the US from France more than 10 years ago. At the time, muffins had just started becoming popular in Paris. I don't even think there is a French word for cupcakes even today (they just say 'cupcake' which a French accent...). Anyway, I am very picky with cupcakes but like the ones they make at Sprinkles, so I am using them as my model. Additionally, they have the advantage of having a semi-hard frosting, which it should make transportation much less stressful. I plan on baking approximately 4 dozen cupcakes and they will have to be transported by car. I am thinking of baking two different flavors. Dark chocolate is a must because we are chocolate addicts in our household. However for my first attempt I decided to try the Sprinkles strawberry cupcake recipe that I found online because I had all the ingredients on hand. I made the recipe with no modifications with a Kitchenaid stand mixer. I made a half batch (yield of 6 cupcakes instead of a dozen) and used fresh strawberries since we can find excellent ones in San Diego. Sprinkles strawberry cupcake recipe, video (which also shows what the cupcake looks like) Sprinkles strawberry frosting, video Here is the batter. I love the pretty pink color, and the fact that the recipe does not use food coloring. The frosting, which I blended a little further after I took the picture. I forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes after they came out of the oven, but here is the finished product. They came out pretty well for a first try, but I need your advice to fine-tune the recipe. The cupcakes tasted great, so I don't want to depart too much from the recipe, but maybe tweak my technique to improve the results. First, the cake itself. It did not rise much beyond the paper liner unlike the cupcakes shown in the video and there was no overhang. And as a result, it was too dense. A few things could have caused this... The batter may have been overbeaten, my baking powder may be too old (I forgot to check the date), or maybe the oven temperature was not quite right. The yield was exactly 6 cupcakes so the amount of batter for each one should not be the issue. Could the fact that I only made a small batch have been a factor? I wonder what will happen when I scale up the recipe. The recipe is by volume unfortunately, which could be another source of error. The buttercream frosting was delicious, however it was not as smooth and spreadable as what is shown in the video. The instructions say not to overwhip to avoid incorporating too much air so I stopped mixing as soon as everything was incorporated. The frosting had a somewhat dense texture, but maybe I should have transferred it to the refrigerator for a short time before using it? Next, I will be testing a chocolate cupcake recipe. I am going to use this Sprinkles dark chocolate frosting recipe but don't have a cupcake recipe. I will be needing dark chocolate sprinkle flakes, which unlike regular sprinkles are flat and square (see the picture of the dark chocolate Sprinkles cupcake here). I am hoping I won't have to order them online.

I am sure it tasted great with your homemade falernum. The commercial stuff I have does not have much flavor.

I have so much catching up to do on this thread. I can't believe that I haven't posted the Easter meal yet... In the interim here is what I made last night. I had very little time to cook so I looked for something tasty and simple. Veal scaloppine with salsa verde-brown butter The veal is pounded, dredged in flour, and cooked rapidly in olive oil. The salsa is made in a mortar and ressembles a tapenade with herbs replacing the olives (if that makes sense). It contains parsley, mint, marjoram, garlic, anchovy, capers, lemon juice, and olive oil. A little bit of the salsa is mixed with brown butter and drizzled on the veal, and the rest is served on the side. In the book the veal is served on top of polenta and bitter greens. I ran out of steam for the polenta and instead served it with arugula and sugar snap peas.

Surprised there isn't more activity on this thread. The Daiquiri is such an elegant drink. I just tried a Daiquiri variation tonight with Jamaican rum (I used Appleton 12 yr) and angostura bitters called Captain's Blood. So simple and so delicious. It really highlights the flavor of the rum.

Tonight I made the version of the Army and Navy from Bartender's Choice (which contains gin, lemon, orgeat, angostura) with my homemade orgeat. It's really excellent; the orgeat offsets the acidity of the lemon and gives body to the drink.

Catching up... Last night I was looking for a rye sour in the Bartender's Choice app and found the Adderly (Sam Ross): rye, maraschino liqueur, lemon juice, orange bitters. It is described as a rye version of the Casino, which uses gin. It was good but too tart for my husband, who is not a fan of sours in general, unlike me. So for him I immediately thought of the Final Ward (Phil Ward) - the same ingredients, minus the orange bitters, plus green Chartreuse (it is equal parts rye, maraschino, lemon juice, and green chartreuse). He liked it much better. The chartreuse of course completely transforms the drink and gives it an incredible finish. The Bartender App also contains a variation of the Final Ward with yellow chartreuse (with adjusted ratios) which looks interesting. I will have to invest in a bottle eventually.

You are right, a full ounce is a lot of Fernet. Reducing the amount sounds like the way to go for me, at least for now!

I made a Queen's Park Swizzle for my husband last night (he is not a fan of my homemade fermented ginger beer), the version from the Bartender's Choice app. I believe that it called for white rum though, but I wanted to use the Appleton. I like the layered look, although it's partially obscured by the frost and the pattern on the glass I used. That version uses a couple of dashes each of Angostura and Peychaud's bitters. It never occured to me to buy a swizzle stick when I went to Martinique a couple of years ago, and I spent a lot of time looking for one since then. I found mine at Cocktail Kingdom.

Last night I had a Jamaican Firefly (Audrey Aunders): Jamaican rum (I used Appleton 12 yr), homemade ginger beer, lime juice, simple syrup. Although it's mentioned in the first post of the thread, I had never tried it. It's really lovely. I need to remember to buy some candied ginger for the ganish. Replace the rum with gin, reduce the amount of ginger beer by half, add mint, and you get the Gin Gin Mule which is already part of my rotation.

It looks like this book is available through iTunes for $3.99. This is very tempting.

Not exactly a book, but Sam Ross from Milk & Honey just came up with an iphone/ipad app, Bartender's Choice. It allows to search for cocktails by base alcohol, "sensation", and style. It includes several of Sam Ross' creations and also a few by Anthony Schmidt, San Diego Noble Experiment's head bartender. Of course I had to get it, and I will be playing with it in the very near future.

I bought The Essentials of Italian Cooking a few weeks ago and started to cook from it. Last night, with a pastured chicken I prepared the Fricasseed chicken with rosemary and lemon juice. The most challenging part of the recipe for me was to cut the chicken into 8 pieces. This was a first for me, but I did relatively ok. After that step, the recipe is very straightforward - brown the chicken in oil and butter, add garlic, fresh rosemary s+p, deglaze with white wine (I used leftover Californian champagne that had gone flat), cover and simmer for about an hour total. The breasts are removed and added at the end so they don't overcook. At the end, the lemon zest and juice are added. I served the chicken with white rice to soak up the juices, and sugar snap peas. Last week I made the Grilled fish Romagna style (from the Dinner thread). The fish - I used a large snook fillet - was seasoned and marinated for a while in olive oil and thinly sliced fresh rosemary, and coated with breadcrumbs (I used panko). Then I cooked it on the grill, adding a few bay leaves to the charcoal for the aroma, which was subtle but noticeable. We had the fish with pencil asparagus.

Sometimes going in the opposite direction works when picking ingredients. Since you already have an overwhelming amount of cucumber flavor (or aroma) from the cucumber itself, picking a gin with complementary contrasting botanicals might work -- maybe a classic juniper-forward London dry? Until the price went from "too high" to "insulting", Plymouth was my choice for pairing against cucumber. I made this drink again last night (3 parts cucumber lemonade, 2 parts gin) with a London dry gin (Beefeater) and Plymouth gin, side by side. Both versions were good, with a preference to Plymouth. The Beefeater had a sharpness at the end that did not completely harmonize with the drink, while the Pymouth resulted in a more cohesive drink.

One nice thing about buying books in a used bookstore (other than supporting local stores) is that sometimes you have a nice surprise. The Hawaiian cookbook had been signed by a couple of the chefs. Now I just need to gather the other 10 signatures to complete the collection. I also just got White Heat by Marco Pierre White, thinking it was his autobiography. It was the wrong book but now I am fascinated with the recipes...

I am adding Blue Ribbon Pizza (Encinitas) to the list of good spots. I finally went there last night after hearing a lot of good things about it. It's a tiny place that gets really packed. We had a table by the wood burning oven which is operated by chef/owner Wade Hageman, formerly of Blanca. The pizza was flawless - my favorite was their signature pizza with mozzarella, ricotta, lemon zest, red onion, and fresh basil with a thin and very flavorful crust. I also had a great burrata salad with arugula, served with toasted rustic bread on the side. The butterscotch pudding with caramel sauce, which is the only dessert on the menu, was really good too and devoured in a few seconds.

There aren't that many serious cocktail bars in Paris. We had a really good time at the Experimental Cocktail Club (37 rue Saint Sauveur, in the 2nd arrondissement) last year. It does get very crowded but the cocktails were excellent. Other bars that were recommended to us but that we did not get a chance to visit are Curio Parlor and Prescription Cocktail Club.

A Mint Julep with mint from our garden and Elijah Craig bourbon. And a great excuse to use my new swizzle stick.