FrogPrincesse

Michael Dietsch has a new book on Shrubs that will be coming out in a few months. He had written a couple of detailed articles for Serious Eats on this topic: How to make shrub syrups, More complex shrub syrups. This winter I made a pear shrub but haven't shrubbed since then. Maybe it's time to revisit.

Thanks - that's the one I was reading yesterday. It's also in his book.

Make your own?

It tastes a bit medicinal as expected, not very bitter relatively speaking, very licorice-forward. It did not feel particularly strong although it is 44%, but it's a very small bottle - 20 mL or 0.68 oz. The bottle is adorable by the way. I really wish I could get the truck, but I would need to drink another 335 more bottles and that is quite unlikely as I don't care much for licorice. Also at $2 a bottle it's not cheap.

The Eastwood (Marc Haines) with añejo tequila (7 Leguas), Punt e Mes, Benedictine, aromatic (Fee Brother's whiskey-barrel aged bitters) and orange (Fee's and Regan's) bitters, expressed lemon peel. It's similar to a Preakness cocktail or a Bobby Burns with aged tequila instead of rye or scotch, respectively. The initial impression is bitterness and wood, then it develops some really cool aromas including chocolate, and a touch of citrus. Good use of a very nice aged tequila.

In the past I've just used olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, sumac, salt and pepper, and plenty of herbs (mint, parsley), Here is a recipe from AOC (Suzanne Goin) that is a little more elaborate.

Nice. I went with a shot of Underberg (ok, not a beer). It was either going to be that or Fernet, so it was win-win. ... and, later in the day, this very nice Shegöat Weizenbock style beer from The Bruery (more info here). Also grilled sausages for good measure.

In celebration of Bastille day I went all out yesterday - Bone marrow, lemon and thyme gremolata, chive salad. The bone marrow was cooked (from frozen) on the grill in a cast iron skillet. The gremolata and chive salad (dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar, s&p) is a vague attempt at cutting some of the richness from the marrow. I was already comatose after this but so happy. Then I had a hanger steak with Bordelaise sauce. I used the cast-iron skillet that still had the marrow juices to cook the steak. Once it was done (which took about 5 minutes - just enough time to get a good sear), I put the skillet back on the grill while the meat was resting, added a ton of thinly sliced shallots and a good amount of butter, caramelized the shallots a bit, deglazed with red wine vinegar, added red wine that I reduced, added more butter to emulsify the whole thing, finally adding chives, and the juices from the meat. Sounds complicated but this only took a few minutes. I really like hanger steak - it's flavorful (some might say, slightly gamey) and tender at the same time. This one from one of my favorite butcher's shops was a prime example.

From the long weekend a couple of weeks ago. A perfect Gin and Tonic with Sipsmith London dry gin and Fever-Tree tonic water. A Queen's Park Swizzle with El Dorado 8 demerara rum, lime juice, demerara syrup, mint, Peychaud's and Angostura bitters. It was my first time trying the El Dorado 8 (I have tried the 3, 5, and the 12). I picked that up when I realized it was actually cheaper than the 5 ($18 vs. $19). It makes a great swizzle. Neat, it's infinitely better than the 5. I don't think the 5 makes a good sipping rum although I like it for mixing. With the 8 you are getting there with some really nice caramel and raisin notes, and it does not seem to get lost in mixed drinks like the 12. Tiare has a detailed review of this rum on her blog from a few years ago.

Toronto with St. George dry rye gin. Yes.

At the end, it was a tie between Cocchi and Lillet in the Corpse Reviver No. 2 (see here). The CR2 with Lillet has more lemon notes, while the Cocchi is more orange-forward. A lightweight libation from last week, Marseille Can You See? (Sean Hoard): white vermouth (Dolin), pastis (Pernod), orange juice (Valencia), lime juice. Better in my opinion than just drinking pastis (I like anise as in absinthe, but not the strong licorice flavor in pastis). And as opposed to what the cocktail notes say, people don't drink pastis neat in France, it's always diluted with water!

Here is a 10:3:2 daiquiri with La Favorite from this weekend. No surprise here, I am still a huge fan. As a side benefit, the rhum starts releasing its fragrance as soon as you open the bottle, and perfumes the whole room by the time the drink is ready.

Fauchon - nice. Last night, the Noah Calhoun cocktail (apparently another Ryan Gosling reference, although I haven't seen the movie in question) by John Mayer & co, courtesy of cocktail virgin slut: equal parts bourbon (Blanton's single barrel), cognac (Pierre Ferrand 1840), amaro Montenegro, with a dash of Bittercube cherry bark vanilla bitters. The Montenegro contributed a lot of spice and fruit, mostly orange and mandarin peel. Very likeable.

After trying Underberg for the first time on Sunday (it was less bitter than I expected and has a very strong licorice flavor), I tried Charles Joly's Red Light (genever, Grand Marnier, Underberg). It was created with Bols genever; I substituted St. George dry rye gin. It was surprisingly drinkable and worked great with the dry rye gin, the crisp flavors of which seemed to resonate with the other ingredients.

I don't trim the fat and no longer bother weighing. When I did the weight loss was 20-30%. It find it easier to judge when it's done by touch. If it's squishy, cure it for another day or two until it feels pretty firm.

I make duck prosciutto regularly and, like Chris, cure it in the fridge for about a week (testing regularly for firmness). The outside layer gets a bit dry but it's not an issue, it's not dry to the point of being hard and doesn't need to be trimmed.

A little bit of sugar and a drizzle of kirsch. A squeeze of lemon juice as needed.

I am so pleased because there is finally a great place for Tiki drinks in San Diego (and I am no talking about my house!). Ironside Fish & Oyster opened in April and it checks all the boxes for me. Their food menu, as the names implies, is focused on fresh seafood with anything from shellfish platters to spot prawns and lobster rolls (since it's the drinks forum I won't go into details here). The cocktail menu is extremely ambitious so I had my doubts. It's a large booklet with what looks like about 50 cocktails: sparkling and non-sparkling apéritifs, sherry cobblers, plays on classics, digestifs, and a good tiki selection. Here are a few pages to give you an idea. And I am very happy to report that the Tiki drinks are awesome. They recipes are spot-on and you can tell that they use excellent ingredients. I imagine that they must pre-batch to some extent because, even though the restaurant was quite busy, the drinks arrived very quickly. They had 5 or 6 bartenders behind the bar so that must have helped too. I just pray that they manage to maintain that level of quality. Here is their signature Mai Tai on the left (Clement VSOP + Hamilton back rum), and Three Dots and a Dash on the right. Crosswind on the left (not really tiki per se - more like a Last Word with Smith & Cross and falernum), and Fog Cutter on the right. Cool tiki mugs, fancy garnishes - it's all there. I have a feeling I am going to be there quite a bit!

Packed crushed ice, that's the key.

So I also made one with the Double Rye and the Orinoco bitters a few days later and it was great of course. Last night I decided to use the mint that has been flourishing on my patio for another Julep. I went with Natasha David's Torino Julep. No whiskey in this one, but a mix of sweet vermouth (I used Punt e Mes), Smith & Cross, and Fernet-Branca, with a pinch of salt to temper the bitterness. I reduced the Demerara syrup to 1/4 oz, which was plenty already (I think it could be skipped altogether). Very good. The only critic is that it is very lightweight for a julep, so it's no longer a sipper. Doing some reading afterwards I found this article from Time Magazine that has a lot of good Julep ideas, including one with Fernet snow that has potential.

Rhubarb is more of a spring thing here, and it looks like the season is already over. I love its acidic taste (due to the oxalic acid which is also in one of my other favorite vegetables, sorrel). I prefer the thinner pink stalks, they seem less stringy and more flavorful than the green ones, and they are just prettier. Here are a couple of things I've made with rhubarb in the past. A classic rhubarb pie -this was 100% rhubarb. I personally don't care for mixing rhubarb with berries, I think it just dilutes its flavor. Last year for Easter, I made compote that I served on top of a vanilla semi-freddo. The semi-freddo cut nicely the acidity of the rhubarb. This is a nice dessert for spring. This was the rhubarb I used for the compote.

Dan - For a detailed review of this rhum, you can check out Josh Miller's blog here (keep in mind that he is not usually a fan of agricole...).

It's good stuff. It's made in California from sugar cane grown in the Imperial Valley, east of San Diego. They use traditional techniques and the taste is comparable to a Martinique agricole. It's a bit more expensive though.

Exactly...

I had to try this. I made a few substitutions - Perry's Tot navy strength for the gin, Boker's for the bitters (not really knowing what Dutch's Colonial bitters are like), St. George for the absinthe. Hopefully I wasn't too far off. Anyway, this worked for me. Very aromatic with a kind of savory quality, and everything meshed together really well. Subtle and intense.