FrogPrincesse

A Water Lily. Gin, violette, Cointreau, and lemon juice. The books calls for equal parts of each ingredient; I used double the amount of gin in error. It was very good and reminded me of the Aviation with the gin/lemon/violette combo. I used Bombay Sapphire but I imagine that a more floral gin like Henrick's would work well too.

A little late, here is the traditional Pithiviers, aka Galette des Rois, which is traditionally eaten to celebrate Epiphany in France. It is made of two disks of puff pastry which are filled with frangipane, a filling made from ground almonds and little bit of rum. The galette is egg-washed and decorated by scoring the top with a knife and crimping the edges with a fork. At the end of baking, the galette is brushed with a sugar solution for shine. Of course, to qualify as Galette des Rois, you have to remember to hide "la fève", a bean or a little trinket, inside the galette. Spiral pattern Ear of wheat pattern The galette is best eaten warm (and goes very well with champagne!).

Here are some ideas that come to mind: Marinated olives Garlic soup Mushrooms escabeche Roasted bell peppers Patatas bravas Blood sausage (homemade if you are brave!) Chorizo, Serrano Boquerones Some type of shellfish a la plancha - could be clams, razor clams, squid... Gambas Cheese such as a good manchego Iberico de Bellota would be great too but may not be an option for 20 people! And plenty of sangria too...

Although not currently seasonal, here is another salad from the book that I made for my Foodblog last summer: Summer Fruit Salad with Arugula and Marcona Almonds. I used peaches, but any stone fruit such as nectarines or plums would work too. For the berries I used raspberries. The dressing is made with olive oil, sherry vinegar, shallots. Similar to the roasted pear salad, she incorporates some of the fruit into the dressing as a puree. I love Marcona almonds. I discovered them at a restaurant last year and was very excited when I found them at Trader Joe's! Recipe here.

I have a bunch of them that I purchased last summer. I am still using them even though they have been open for more than 30 days. I cannot detect any change in their quality.

Just a quick note that it was nice to see Bird Rock Coffee Roasters recognized with the 2012 Micro Roaster of the Year award (link to the press release here). It's definitely worth checking out this place if you are a coffee lover (and as a plus, since the coffee is roasted on the premises, the smell in the shop is divine!).

I am seeing a citrus tree as well. The mango trees that I've seen were much larger than the tree in the picture.

Another salad from Sunday Suppers at Lucques that we really enjoyed is the Roasted Pear Salad with Endive, Hazelnuts and St. Agur. In typical fashion for this book, the instructions and attention to detail for this recipe are almost extreme. It's only a salad but it is a fairly involved/lengthy procedure requiring toasting the hazelnuts; roasting the pears in butter and thyme until golden brown; incorporating a portion of the roasted pears into the dressing together with a combination she uses in other salad recipes (see above): shallots, sherry and rice vinegars, grapeseed and hazelnut oils; etc. She even describes how and in what order to arrange the various ingredients to compose the final salad. The result is that each step is designed to maximize the flavors and in the end it is really worth the effort. Here is a picture. I really enjoyed the combination of arugula, endive, pear, hazelnuts and blue cheese. The St Agur works very well with the roasted pears as it is a little less assertive than Roquefort that is often paired with endive. This creation can be seen as a twist on the classic French salad of endive, Roquefort and walnuts.

Prices in $, so it's not Greece. I see schnitzel so I still think it's Australia where it seems to be quite a popular dish. It is not the US because the prices are per kg instead of pounds.

It looks like a very nice menu that does not require special equipment. I am tempted to try some of the recipes.

Umami boosters. Could this be someone from Australia? The jar in the middle with the hidden label looks like vegemite.

Beautiful Pork and Chicken Terrine, Jmahl! The condiments are a nice touch (are these pickled red onions?). I made another version of terrine de campagne for the holidays using the recipe from the Régalade restaurant in Paris (I found the recipe in French here): Terrine de campagne de la Régalade. The recipe is characterized by a large amount of pork liver, which seems to be traditional for a rustic terrine de campagne, and the inclusion of cream that the Baron had recommended upthread for texture. The meat to liver ratio is similar to that of the Les Halles recipe that I tried some time ago (2.5:1 compared to 2:1 for Les Halles). The recipe calls for pork throat (gorge) which I was not able to find. But I used a very fatty shoulder that I decided to use as is (with no additional fat). I was very disappointed not to find pork liver at my butcher shop but 99 Ranch had plenty of it (and it was fresh too, not frozen). The seasoning is very basic with just some (raw) onion and garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. I used plastic film instead of the caul fat that can be hard to find. I almost doubled the recipe which produced a huge amount. But when I realized I could just slice the terrine and freeze the leftovers, I was very happy with my decision - semi-instant pâté for cocktail parties! Here is a picture of the terrines going into the oven. I didn't bother to use a waterbath that some recipes call for, as a low-temperature oven works great and is much less hassle. After a couple of hours, the terrine is ready. Charcuterie plate, with some homemade saucisson sec and cornichons. The terrine tasted quite livery the day after it was made (maybe partially because I knew how much liver had gone into it?). I found that the flavors started to blend and mellow after 4-5 days at which point I felt it tasted best. This recipe is a keeper!

Any clues about the next blogger? It's been while since Lior's excellent blog.

Moving on to salads. My favorite salad of the moment is the Persimmon and Pomegranate Salad with Arugula and Hazelnuts. I've become addicted to persimmons thanks to this recipe (and so has my family). They are a wonderful surprise in this salad. She uses a mix of shallots, hazelnut and olive oils, rice and sherry vinegars for a very flavorful dressing. The pomegranate seeds and toasted hazelnuts add texture. The flavor is a mix of sweet (persimmon), tart (pomegranate), peppery (arugula). It's a wonderful winter salad. I can't get enough of it. Recipe link.

Honkman, I have never experienced the problems you described in any of the many times I've been there. I also found chef Knibb's Jamaican-infused dishes to be creative and inspired. We will just have to agree to disagree.

How funny, we had that one tonight as well. I used Laird's bonded applejack which I am not a big fan of and took me at least a year to track down. I much prefer a nice Calvados. Anyway, we really liked this cocktail. The maple seemed to round the rough edges the applejack, while not making itself noticed. A really good cocktail.

Honkman, I really pains me to read this about NINE-TEN. I would really give them another chance. I've had many great meals there including this one documented last summer. Jason Knibb, the head chef (teamed with his pastry chef, Jack Fisher), recently faced Bobby Flay in Iron Chef America (battle caviar). Unfortunately, he lost but I thought his performance was really solid.

Kouign Aman, I just saw your post. Here are my impressions on The Noble Experiments (with pictures) from my Foodblog last summer. Needless to say, I LOVE this place. Anthony Schmidt, the bar manager, has become a friend. He has won the Bartender Challenge two times now and is truly talented. Note that they now accept walk-in customers, so we sometimes go on the spur of the moment and bypass the (somewhat annoying) reservation system. It is really a treasure to have such a fine establishment in San Diego. If you are at all into cocktails, you must visit this place!

Thanks for bringing this up to our attention, this is interesting. My first thought is that the number of recipes they use for their evaluations of cuisines that are not North American seems quite limited. See page 7 in this document- more than 40 000 recipes for North America but only a few thousands for the other four cuisines evaluated. For example, with about 2000 recipes for "Western European" cuisine, that would mean about 10 cookbooks (assuming 200 recipes per cookbook). But their definition of Western European cuisine includes 9 countries so that's only about 1 book per country. So you have to wonder how accurate these conclusions are. I though that it was a little odd to see vanilla as a main ingredient in Western European cuisine, for example. It would be interesting to see if the same conclusions still hold with a more complete online database such as EatYourBooks, for example.

My brother-in-law will be taking care of the turkey and vegetables this year as usual, and I am taking care of the rest. This is a great arrangement as my in-laws insist on having a traditional turkey meal for Thanksgiving AND Christmas, and I want nothing to do with it. I've been trying to convince them for more than 10 years to try goose or duck instead but have been unsuccessfull so far. We will be starting with homemade saucisson sec (French salami, recipe from Charcuterie) and Terrine de Campagne (country pâté) served with cornichons and whole-grain mustard. Then we will have a root vegetable soup with a green apple and duck prosciutto garnish (the recipe is from Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef), followed by gravlax with a green salad. For the gravlax, the salmon is cured in gin, salt, sugar, juniper and allspice berries, coriander, lime zest & fresh mint). I've been doing the Charcutepalooza challenges this year and this will meet the requirements for the December "Showing Off" challenge, with a total of four charcuterie items. For the dessert, I will be bringing a cake from a local pastry shop.

A punch sounds like an interesting option. I always wonder how hard and fast one should try to stick to specific types of liquor in a recipe. So is Myers or perhaps Coruba dark rum adequate here? Appleton I tend to think of as more of a "gold" rum unless you get to the higher end stuff like the 21yo which I probably wouldn't want to put in a punch anyway! Are there other "Jamaican" dark rums I should consider for this punch that are reasonably available? Or perhaps a dark rum that isn't necessarily Jamaican would do? Personally, I've been very happy with Appleton 12-year in this recipe. For large batches, I've used the very reasonably-priced Whaler's rum from Trader Joe's with good results. I am sure that other rums would work well in this punch.

thampik, This was just meant as a inspiration. I am sure that you can create your own punch recipe based on this idea.

FrogPrincesse, you can wrap the whole kaffir limes individually in plastic wrap, and keep them in the freezer. They will last at least a year (I've been told). Cut off as much peel as you need at any time, and put the lime back in the freezer. That's how I keep my kaffir limes. The limes are most commonly used for their peel in Thai curry pastes. Thanks for this great tip, djyee100! Your dates look beautiful. I love Medjools too. I am not so familiar with the other varieties but now I am intrigued! I tried the yuzu limes in a mojito tonight but was somewhat underwhelmed. Their flavor was a little too subtle to play well in that drink I think.

A Sidecar sounds like a good choice. I would also recommend a Punch. For example, a variation on the Fish House Punch. It's delicious and you can prepare everything in advance and have fun with you guests instead of being stuck at the bar!

Thanks for the suggestion Honkman, that sounds good!