thirtyoneknots

If you're not completely wedded to the idea of the thing needing to be your own concept, perhaps you can put yourself in a position to be an investor/silent partner in someone else's business plan. Scout the up and coming restaurant talent in your area, focus on the ambitious folks who have experience and a record of successfully running a kitchen and/or foh. And if it can be people inclined towards the type of food you are thinking to do, all the better.

Scratching my head...? Haha see! It is an inside joke! Let's just say in this biz I've known many an iconoclastic individual with an axe to grind, many of whom feel like the cucumber thing is sort of played out. Hence take an "acquired taste" gin and add cucumber.... Not saying it wouldn't be good, mind you.

Genever plus cucumber sounds like some kind of bartender inside joke

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.

Graham's Six Grapes is or used to be around $20, and it's sort of the gold standard for Ruby Port in my book.

Ate the first padron peppers yesterday, blistered in olive oil and sprinkled with flaky sea salt. This is why I garden. Sighted the first haricot vert today. Life is good.

My knowledge is mostly with bars, but I have seen my share of peoples' business plans and known more than a few hospitality entrepreneurs. Just to throw out a figure, even here in Texas where real estate tends to be cheap, anything under a half million seems to qualify as a shoestring budget. My observation is people who can make it with that tend to be the most capable and dynamic minds in the biz.

Not long--capsaicin is notoriously volatile and the whole mess may become searingly hot within just a few hours. I'd start tasting no later than the 2 hour mark, if I were going to try something like this.

I (tragically) can't speak from experience but by all accounts Inner Circle Green would be an acceptable analogue.

No-name store in a no-name town off a no-name interstate. "Schnaaple" by W.Wilhelms [sic]. 48 proof, $7, Product of Germany. I unthinkingly opened it and sniffed--smells sort of like sweetened Calvados--but haven't tasted yet. Unsure of the age but it has no UPC anywhere, and was on a shelf along with a few unfortunate looking liqueurs with tax stamps on them. Anybody have any idea what this stuff is? Also from the same store: El Dorado 12 and 15, in older bottles for older prices. Ramazotti on the same clearance shelf as the Schnapple for $10, and Weller 107 in the older bottle but otherwise nothing special about that. I'll be revisiting this place at some point, maybe try a little deal making.

Stop. Please?

We ate a lot of soup this last winter, and probably my personal favorite, both from a flavor perspective and from the pleasure of having cobbled it together from what was laying around, went something like this: Sliced two huge onions and sweated in duck fat til they became very soft, added a significant amount of garlic, plus thyme and bay leaf. Added about 2 cups of the green French lentils, an appropriate amount of poultry broth/stock (including confit jelly), and two confit duck legs. Simmered 20-30 min, removed the duck legs, picked all the meat off and added back in along with a large amount of Swiss Chard from the garden. Served over heavily toasted sourdough bread that had been rubbed with raw garlic. So nice when things just sort of come together, isn't it?

Curing flat is more fool-proof, no chance of bad mold on the inside and such. If you experience uneven drying you can put the whole thing in a food saver bag and stick it in the fridge for a few weeks or more to even out. Seems to work, anyway.

My previously mentioned duck terrine: Forcemeat is pork, duck leg, and duck liver. Inlay of breast meat and tenderloins. Garniture of diced confit of duck giblets, fatback, smoked ham of modest origin, and pistachios. Depicted here as part of my lunch which I usually eat at my desk. Accompanied by coarse grain dijon, cornichons, cucumber salad, and (not shown) homemade pickled asparagus that probably have entirely too much garlic in them.

Just think though, around the time you're in the middle of peak harvest time, most of the gardens down here will have burned up and be infested with insects. Except, usually, the okra. Texas does have its moment though, even up here. My dad's garden near Houston has been giving red tomatoes for at least a week now--I'm probably still 10 days from that point.

Last year I did my first solo gardening attempt and wouldn't you know I picked one of the hottest years on record right at the epicenter of the drought (we were living just East of Austin, smoke from the Bastrop fires was visible from our house). The result was a lot of learning how not to do things, and not a lot to eat. Well in the meantime we have moved north of Dallas, and so I had a fresh opportunity to incorporate lessons learned. Getting started on 1/21/12: Boxes completed and partially planted with some greens and root things on 2/27/12: All tomatoes and most of the peppers in by 3/13: And this is from yesterday, 4/24. Runner beans, squash, pickling cukes in the foreground, tomatoes and peppers visible in the back box: And the old garden? Well since we moved the week before Christmas, there has been a significant increase in rain over most of the state. When I returned to do some work for the new renters on March 19th, I was able to harvest the following: The collards, cauliflower, and broccoli had all bolted, and the folks that live there now don't appear to have even walked out there to look, because it's not that hard to figure out which one is broccoli. Sad to see the waste, but it did make me feel vindicated that I sort of knew what I was doing after all.

Only kind of dive you'll find in Austin, for better or worse. Well, Donn's Depot may or may not count.

You really didn't need to say anything else after that. However... Real mature.

Caution: Wikipedia uses a very questionable source for their standard drink recipe authority, and this is no exception. The 'point' of the Mai Tai was originally as a showcase for a very fine old pot stilled rum from Jamaica, which being rare as those things often are, became scarce very quickly. The creator (so goes the legend) soon moved towards using two different rums in order to imitate the qualities of the original brand. In general, the preferred mix is equal parts (1 oz/30 ml each) of a smooth, full bodied, aged rum, and a medium body agricole or similarly funky rum--ideally also with some age. A typical recipe might look something like this: 1 oz/30 ml Smith & Cross 1 oz/30 ml El Dorado 12 yr .5 oz/15 ml high quality curacao or Grand Marnier .5 oz/15 ml quality orgeat (the subtle perfume of orgeat makes it superior to almond syrup here) generous 1 oz lime juice, say 30-40ml or to taste The whole thing is shaken up with a glass worth of crushed ice then poured, ice and all, into a pint or double old fashioned glass. Canonical garnish is the shell from half a lime, and a spring of mint. Straws are a good idea. NB if you found a Mai Tai you had out to be overly tart, maybe start with the low end of the range on lime.

How exactly have you assumed all that? Did you actually read what I posted? The point was about selling the Martinez. Which, as most people make it today, is almost identical to the Martini as it was first known (see picture I posted above). I assumed it based on your saying that the Martini and Martinez are essentially the same thing, citing a 19th century recipe as evidence, the following exchange ensued: I have. You know that Boker's thing I did? And that cocktail the Martinez? Sold quite a few of them. "You say poh-tay-toe, I say poh-tah-toh, you say Martini, I say Martinez." Which makes it sound like you are reaffirming your belief that this 19th century Martini/ez is the same thing that is meant by the word Martini today. Glad we got that cleared up.

bostonapothecary seems to be the resident expert on vermouth fabrication, though eje also did some experiments in his pursuit of the mysterious "Hercules". Both their blogs offer some insights as well.

I have. You know that Boker's thing I did? And that cocktail the Martinez? Sold quite a few of them. "You say poh-tay-toe, I say poh-tah-toh, you say Martini, I say Martinez." Really, you had paying customers sit in front of you and ask for a Martini with no other qualifiers and you served them something with Curacao and a cherry in it without getting it sent back? Don't take this the wrong way but that defies belief. Whatever their historical connection, a Martini and Martinez are today as different as a Liberal and Libertarian.

Last time I made a big batch of confit I tossed all the hearts and gizzards into the mix, and Baron's work inspired me to add them to a duck terrine. The complexity and richness they add is incredible, the only downside is that I used all of them up. If I remember to take a picture next time I'm eating it I'll post it up. Cool color contrast, too. Baron, do you add nitrite cure to your confit giblets? They look rather more pink than mine (I added cure to the forcemeat only).

Depends wholly on why you are collecting these things. Personally, I'd probably give it a taste but I only collect things for my own learning, not for any other value they might have, and I have no plans to ever liquidate any part of my collection.

I really should list sources when I post but I didn't think to keep them with the recipes as I collected so it always requires a search. Anyway, it was here. Hah! I thought that was Adam's drink. Thanks.