FrogPrincesse

The Batiste makes a very nice Ti Punch. Flavorful but less intimidating than higher proof rhum. Also a great Daiquiri No. 3 (I forgot to take a picture of that one).

Improved Whiskey cocktail (Jerry Thomas via David Wondrich in Imbibe) with 2 oz Bulleit rye whiskey, 1 barspoon homemade gomme syrup, 1/2 barspoon Luxardo maraschino liqueur, 1/8 barspoon St. George absinthe, 2 dashes Dr. Elmegirab Boker's bitters, expressed lemon peel. This is quite amazing, with a very luscious mouthfeel from the gomme.

Very reliable. But keep in mind that basic pantry items (salt, pepper, sugar, etc) are typically not included. Also, they are very quick to make corrections if you report mistakes. Just send them an error report by email!

Setting things on fire melts the sugar, extracts the oils from the lemon peel in the hot alcohol, and gives a caramelized taste. Plus it's quite a show. I don't think much alcohol is burned during the process anyway.

I bought a pound of Arabic powder on amazon for $18 (Frontier brand and it comes as a fine white powder) and made a batch of gomme using the recipe from Morgenthaler (I only had to wait for 24 hours for the gum to hydrate). Easy and a lot less expensive than the little bottles of Small Hands (which are impossible to find anyway).

Cream of (orange) cauliflower soup with parmesan (recipe from Rockpool in Sydney, found on Eat Your Books). I love this soup! Very tasty thanks to the browned cauliflower, and a bit of Dijon mustard & parmesan cheese.

@rarerollingobject Beautiful as usual! (and I have to point out that this is not "my" ginger pie, it is Matt Rowley's recipe, a fellow San Diegan)

Charles Dickens' Punch (from David Wondrich's Punch book). I love that recipe; it's simple, doesn't even require an oleo saccharum (which is easy enough but needs to be done in advance), and it's so much fun to set everything on fire! I used Plantation pineapple rum and Landy VS cognac. Setting all the booze on fire was achieved by setting a spoonful of Smith & Cross on fire, and gently transferring it to the bowl containing everything else. At first, I didn't think I had been successful, but then I realized the metal bowl I was using was getting quite hot! So this is better done with the lights out so the flame is visible, and for full dramatic effect of course... I served the punch cold and diluted with cold water, and freshly grated nutmeg.

Penicillin (Sam Ross) with Glenlivet 15 years French oak reserve, Laphroaig 10, lemon juice, Canton ginger liqueur (substituted for the ginger syrup), honey syrup. I love that one in winter!

A Painkiller and a 3 Dots & a Smash at the Grass Skirt, another new tiki bar in San Diego.

The seeds! It's fairly quick to slice the kumquats but then they have to be deseeded, and that is a rather slow process as they are full of seeds! In the first picture, the top pile of slices still have their seeds, while the bottom pile has been deseeded. All the seeds go into a piece of cheesecloth so their pectin can be extracted.

What to do with all the green tops from the vegetables in my CSA? Soup of course. Beet greens, turnip greens, and French sorrel from the garden. I added a bit of feta for a pop of flavor.

A recent order from Hi-Time. The Sipsmith London dry gin, Briottet crème de peche de vigne, yellow Chartreuse, El Dorado 8 and Plantation pineapple rum are restocks.

Irish cocktail (Harry Johnson via Frederic Yarm) with Green Spot irish whisky plus a touch of Luxardo maraschino, Pierre Ferrand dry curacao, St. George absinthe, Dr. Elemegirab's Boker's bitters. I would go slightly easier on the maraschino next time, otherwise it's a nice one with a touch of sweetness and nice complex flavors.

@ninagluckI am so jealous of your Seville oranges! They may be available here in SD but I haven't had a chance to go to the farmers market to find out. Stores don't carry them. Meanwhile I have a batch of kumquat marmalade in progress. I bought them a couple of weeks ago and almost forgot about them! I am following this recipe from David Lebovitz.

The recipe looks tasty and simple! http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/zaatar-lemon-grilled-chicken

I love capers too. I buy the pickled ones from Trader Joe's. I use them in tapenade, with fish for browned butter sauce, in salsa verde, as an accompaniment to smoked salmon or roasted bone marrow... I've only recently found the salt-preserved variety, but haven't tried them yet.

That is the one. Good stuff! But I've never seen it outside of England.

Well I understand that. I go to London regularly and am familiar with a lot of the restaurants that are featured in the book. I like the trend where they feature interesting local ingredients, maybe forgotten ones, and give them their own modern twist. I like dishes that have a sense of place, either through ingredients or techniques. For example I was especially impressed when I went to a restaurant that served an English sparkling wine that was as good as Champagne and that I had never heard of... And I love St. John and have been there many times. Never had the calvados cake though. More typical British things like their lemon posset... I think that this book looks very interesting actually, because the British food scene is booming right now. I am tempted to get it or at least to look at it. It is strange that Nuno Mendes (Viajante, Chiltern Firehouse) doesn't seem represented though. I would have thought that he would have gotten at least a couple of recipes in there.

Dolores Park Swizzle (Thad Vogler) with Batiste Ecoiste while rhum agricole, lime juice, J.M cane syrup, Maraschino liqueur, Peychaud's bitters, St George absinthe. Wonderful stuff and it was really harmonious with this rhum (which is more gentle than La Favorite).

Does anybody have experience with sous vide pickles? Are they as nice & crunchy as the video suggests? I was going to make a batch of pickled celery the traditional way, but I am thinking sous vide now... https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/make-crisp-flavor-packed-pickles-on-the-quick

I thought it was curious that a calvados cake was picked as a sample recipe from a London cookbook...! Don't get me wrong, I love Calvados, but why not use English cider brandy? The cake looks good though, like most things from St. John/ Fergus Henderson.

@mkayaharaI got it at Hi-Time, but there are other stores that carry it in Southern California. There is more info about it here, here, here, and here. Apparently it's not available in Japan! This was made as a trial run to test the American market

A gin-heavy negroni with 2 oz pineapple-infused Beefeater gin, 1.5 oz Maragerum amaro, 1 oz Campari. Campari + pineapple is always a winning combo.

Vintage sheep gouda. I liked the flavor, especially in the center of the piece. Closer to the rind, I found the taste to not be so clean (some mustiness), which makes me wonder how the cheese was stored.