Tri2Cook

Hey Matt, what do you think of the Taboo? I have an order in to Okanagan Spirits that includes a bottle of the Taboo absinthe. Since the only alternative available where I live is Hill's, it seemed like the obvious way to go.

A bottle of Luksusowa. I know nothing about it. I already have a grain vodka so I figured I might as well have a potato vodka too. This is the only one available locally (and it only showed up in the local store a few days ago) so, good or bad, I bought it. I'm guessing that, based on common vodka definitions, having both is redundant but it wasn't expensive so I'm not too worried about it.

I have the Boker's and Spanish on order so we'll see how it goes. I have Peychaud's and Regan's on the order as well because I can't find a Canadian source for either. I can get Bittermen's, Angostura (regular and orange) and Fee's here. I'm also going to check out a Canadian-made orange bitters, Twisted & Bitter from Victoria Spirits, and I'm waiting for some information on another line of Canadian-made bitters from House Made. I want to find out if the House Made are spirit based with bittering agents in addition to the flavoring agents or if they're more in the style of Fee's.

You beat me to it. I was going to mention that most of the recipes I've seen involving compression from people like Johnny Iuzzini, Heston Blumenthal, the Ideas in Food folks, etc. usually mention compressing the item more than once. I'm thinking the most common number I see is three times.

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. It's not so much that I'm determined to love this particular bottle, it's that I don't want to decide I don't like it just because it's something more intense than I'm used to. I was loving the idea of heavy smoke, the problem I'm having is digging that from beneath what I assume is the iodine (the "bandage" thing). That iodine thing is what's going to take some work. I accept that I may never love it, I just want it to have a fair shot. Matt, I haven't tried that one yet but I have it on my short list. I have a huge file of drinks I want to check out but I also have some of them on a short list that I want to get into soon. The drinks I've used it in so far are the Penicillin and the Curse of Scotland.

By "in at the deep end" I mean that, when researching, I came across many references to Laphroaig being a somewhat in-your-face example even among other Islays. I have the type of personality that frequently gravitates towards the extreme so I started there thinking if I could tame this one, the rest should come easy. When I taste it, I can sense initially that there's a world of stuff going on but it's quickly washed away by the "bandage" thing. Once that takes over, it's hard to get back to what lies beneath for a while. So far I've tried it room temp straight and with a splash of water (no idea of ratio... maybe 8-10:1 scotch to water as a guess but I just drizzled a little in).

So I have to confess that maybe I should have spent some time learning to swim before diving into the deep end of the pool. I'm having a tough time learning to appreciate the bottle of Laphroaig I picked up a few weeks ago. I've used it in a couple of drinks that call for a splash or rinse of Islay and I've been happy with it for that purpose but as far as pouring some in a glass and sitting down to enjoy it for what it is, it's been a difficult battle. I seem to be having a hard time getting my brain to register anything accept bandage. My initial reaction to it was that it was going to be a fun challenge and I know there's something more in there to discover but I'm having trouble digging it out. I'm starting to think I should move on to another region and work my way back around to this one.

Being somewhat new to all of this and having missed the original wave of appreciation for this drink, I decided to give the Tantris Sidecar a try tonight. I did the traditional Sidecar a while back so comparing this modern variation seemed like fun. The good news: I liked this one... even the level of sweetness involved didn't bother me with all of the flavor going on. The bad news: I may never bother to mix up a traditional Sidecar again.

Yep... po-tay-to, po-tah-to.

Not really the liquor store but I think I've decided to give Okanagan Spirits a shot. I'm going to try their Aquavit, their Taboo Absinthe, a liqueur and an eau de vie. They have a nice selection of fruit liqueurs, eaux de vie and grappas so, if I'm happy with the test order, I have a longer list I'll go back for later. They have some interesting sounding eaux de vie but I'll probably start with something basic like apricot for the taste test. I'm also intrigued by their Sea Buckthorn Liqueur but will probably go with the cherry for the test since it can sub in for the stuff I use now in drinks I'm already familiar with.

If you can't find it locally, Upaya Naturals is a Canadian company (Toronto) that carries it and has an online store. I've ordered from them a few times and always had fast service.

When I make a Rundown the oil seperates on it's own during the process... but it's not a particularly quick process if you're working with large amounts.

I learned to cook for a fairly large family with not a lot of money from my step-mom. I think it taught me a lot about being experimental and extracting maximum flavor from minimal or lower quality ingredients. At some point you start looking for new ways to make that pot of beans taste different than last time. I learned a lot of the basics of pastry and baking from my mom. It's what she did for a living. I was also inspired to start thinking outside the recipe from her... to use recipes as idea springboards to create something different. I learned that you cannot properly cook on the grill without a beer in hand from my dad.

I don't think I have any books that I purchased myself (I have a large number of books I inherited from my mom in addition to my own books) that I've never cooked from. I also don't have many books that I've done a complete dish from. I've taken ideas, components, techniques, etc. from most of my books but I don't often end up doing the actual dishes. It's a habit I wish I'd break. For example, I've done components from most of the desserts in the Alinea book but, despite intentions, I've never done a complete dessert from it. I had intended to do the entire flexible ganache dessert but by the time I got the ganache to work correctly (either the recipe is off or they do something different that I couldn't figure out, I wound up using almost 2/3 less cream than the recipe calls for before it would actually hold up to twisting and bending without collapsing under it's own weight) I just never got around to doing the rest of it (although I did do the dehydrated mousse component as well). I guess I have a short attention span when it comes to working from books.

I had the local LCBO order a couple things for me yesterday and Havana Club Barrel Proof was on my list... but I talked myself out of that one at the last minute. I already have the blanco, reserva and 7-year so another seemed like overkill for now. I also have an online cart filled out for some things I want to try from Okanagan Spirits but haven't been able to make myself hit the "order" button yet. As far as grabbing something off of the shelf, I go stare at the Drambuie every time I'm in the store but so far it remains on the shelf. I keep deciding there's something else I want more. Did it again yesterday, walked out with a replacement for my almost-empty El Dorado 12 instead.

Sounds like an interesting article. I'm a huge fan of eat/drink what you like the way you like it. I give experts their due respect and if they say there is a particular way something can be best enjoyed/appreciated, I will give it a shot. But if I decide I prefer it my way after all, that's what I will do and the experts can look down their nose at me all they want. Anyway, back to the topic. Yesterday I picked up a replacement bottle of El Dorado 12 year and put in an order for St. Germains (which I missed out on when the LCBO brought the previous 300 cases in, didn't expect it to go so fast) and Fernet Branca. I was going to add the Havana Club Barrel Proof to my order as well but talked myself out of it.

I'm curious too. I like smokey chocolate so tossing a nice smokey mezcal and some cocoa nibs in the isi seems like a good idea to me. Unfortunately, there is no nice smokey mezcal available in Ontario that I'm aware of. I have the only one I can get semi-locally, Jaral de Berrio, and smoke is not really a characteristic I would attribute to it. In fact, I don't find much special about it at all. Still, it sounds like a good idea to me.

I'm obviously not at the level being discussed here but cooking's what I do for a living so I'll confess (and suffer the abuse that it brings my way) that I've been caught more than once with a microwaved frozen burrito in my hand.

Malic acid is your friend any time you do something with apples and feel that it's missing something. It restores some of the fresh taste to cooked out apples and can help restore balance in applications where the apples are trying to stand up to a lot of sugar. It has the ability to get the mouth watering so it's useful in palate cleansers, items where extra moisture in the mouth would contribute to the enjoyment, etc. I think it's a very handy acid to have around. I'd rank it right up there with citric and ascorbic in terms of usefulness.

The weather is finally beginning to warm up a bit here so to welcome it I decided to try a Mamie Taylor with Famous Grouse, fresh lime and homemade ginger beer. I liked it. I made a batch of limoncello towards the end of the year. After straining out the zest and adding the syrup, I left it in a cool, dark place to mellow for a while. This morning I filtered and bottled it and I have ~2oz. left that wouldn't fit in the bottles. I'd like to use that to mix up something tasty today. Any suggestions or is this stuff best relegated to sipping and not mixing? I'm hoping it plays well in drinks because that's the main reason I made it, as another liqueur option for mixing.

I agree with that one. It's not the kids that annoy me, it's the parents that do absolutely nothing to stop the disruptive behavior and flash those "isn't my little angel just adorable" smiles around the room at all of the annoyed people. Another thing that annoys me are loud groups that want everybody in the place to know how cool they are and how much fun they're having. The thing that annoys me most from servers is never seeing them again once they drop the food. Having to either do without something or flag down another employee to get it. I don't expect them to keep a constant watch on me but drop by a time or two and see if anybody needs anything. Overall, not many things really bother me in most situations. I don't expect servers to bow and scrape or pretend to be invisible. I don't want to pretend they're part of the furniture and not people. I don't need to feel that spending my money puts me on a higher level than them. I can accept that there are different personality types among servers just like there are among any other group of people. Attentive service (within the scope of the establishment, I don't expect the same from a 60 seat diner during a busy lunch with two waitresses to provide the same attention that I'd get at a high end place with an entire fleet of service staff) and good food are really all I need to be happy with a restaurant.

I'm getting a Cocktail Kingdom bitters order together that's going to include your Boker's and Spanish bitters as well as a couple others. Keeping my fingers crossed that Canadian customs is going to let it all through.

I haven't done the ice cream in pastry thing in a long time (and I'm not claiming that mine were any better than anyone else's) but spraying the inside with a very thin layer of cocoa butter or chocolate highly thinned with cocoa butter (depending on the flavors going on) gives the sog monster a pretty good fight. It has to be really thin though or it can add an (in my opinion) unpleasant chewiness after being in contact with the ice cream. I decided the extra work isn't worth it for what you get so I just don't do them anymore.

I'll have to do a recipe or three from the book sometime soon. I'm so backed up on recipes I want to check out from various books I have that I'll probably never get caught up but I'll definitely never catch up if I don't start doing some of them. I go to the Ideas in Food blog more for ideas and information but I've done a few of their recipes and haven't been disappointed yet.

I don't know. That's kinda like saying tossing a Hungry Man Mexican Fiesta in the oven is better because you've had good homemade enchiladas and bad ones. The bad homemade shouldn't even enter into the equation. If you're making it yourself, just don't make it bad.