Tri2Cook

In the interest of finally getting into one of the bottles of maraschino I was able to get my hands on and thanks to the recommendation of Matt (mkayahara) I went with a Martinez last night. I'm wondering if the ratios from the recipe I used (not from Matt, just one I found on the web) need some tweaking or if I just have to get used to maraschino. The ratios were 4 parts gin, 2 parts vermouth, 1 part maraschino and a couple dashes bitters. It seemed almost overpoweringly funky... but maybe that's as supposed to be?

Mine is now filtered, sugared and ready to spend a few weeks mellowing. I took a small taste and it's nice and lemony and not harsh at all. I noticed after a couple days that there are a few small cloudy clumps floating near the bottom. I'm assuming with 1.5 liters of 80 proof vodka sweetened with a syrup of 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water nothing to be worried about would be living in there so I think I'm going to pass it through a finer filter before bottling (I have it all in a gallon jar right now). I used a cone filter designed for filtering oil the first time, I'll go with a coffee filter next.

People discreetly taking pictures don't bother me. People making a big show of taking pictures or being obnoxious about getting "the perfect picture" do bother me (in some settings, obviously there are places where it's more appropriate). The excuse that "I'm a food blogger" should make no difference at all. There are at least 1.3245 billion of those, 97% of which average 3 viewers or less a week. So that shouldn't buy a free pass to be annoying. The excuse that "I'm being paid to take pictures" shouldn't make a difference either. That has nothing to do with the other customers in the restaurant at the time. Basically, I'm not particularly for the idea of banning photography in restaurants but I'm not really sure how you would weed out the rude and inconsiderate (even if they are the minority) by other means.

Continuing to play cocktail catch-up by exploring the classics. Tonight was the Corpse Reviver no. 2. I like it.

I do work in a restaurant and I still sometimes approach other restaurants to ask about volunteer shifts (depending on what's going on at my job) if I think I can learn something or get experience doing something I haven't done. Most have been agreeable. I got a late start to cooking as a career and haven't been to culinary school so any learning is good learning as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks. I'll give Cocktail Kingdom a shot. I tried Kegworks a couple weeks or so ago, it tells you during the checkout process that they can't ship bitters to Canada.

Cocktail bitters from a mailorder source. Prefer from within Canada but even from outside would be okay. I thought I had it covered but the places I've found so far all seem to have "can't ship to Canada" disclaimers for the bitters. I'd like to find a source with a wide selection but will be happy if I can get my hands on Regan's and Peychaud's for now.

That's the LCBO. Some common examples of the craziness... Maker's Mark - $38/750ml Knob Creek - $46/750ml Jim Beam (white!) - $26/750ml Sauza Silver - $30/750ml ...and you'll really like this one: Bacardi 151 - $43/750ml

The pricing becomes a bit irrelevant once the LCBO gets ahold of it. They have their own concept of pricing that has nothing to do with what things cost anywhere else in the world. I've given up on price comparisons and just buy what I want if I can find it. The Sazerac is selling for $45/750ml. Considering American Rye is usually not available here at any price (and considering a bottle of Jack Daniels sells for $30), I can live with that.

Unfortunately, I didn't. That would have been an excellent idea though. Sometimes it sucks being newish to this cocktail stuff. I'm enjoying the adventure but I don't always think of things like that when I should. I bought some creme de cassis for use in a dessert. I decided to check it out tonight via a kir royale. This was my first time drinking one. It will quite possibly be my last. I understand it's a classic but I didn't particularly enjoy it.

No lemons, no limes, one orange. Seemed like a good time for a Blood and Sand to me. Now there's no oranges either... just when another was sounding about right.

Not sure how it happened but, according to the LCBO website, Sazerac 6-year is now available in Ontario. I don't know if it's considered one of the good ones but, since it's the only one in Ontario right now, it has to be better than none.

There is that...

I'm guessing it's more a sign of the economic times. He's extended himself into a large restaurant empire. The domino effect of the individual restaurants suffering hard times at the hands of the economy would add up to a big kick in the finances. If you're pulling from your own pocket to keep a restaurant afloat during slow times or to cover debt if it goes belly-up, it takes it's toll. If you're doing that for a bunch of high-end restaurants, it will take it's toll quickly.

No.

I think that sounds like a fantastic amuse for lots of reasons: Me too. I also like the gastrique idea. A cherry gastrique would follow the sundae theme nicely and provide some relief from the fatty and sweet elements of the dish. Dried fruit is never out of season and, if time allow, you could infuse the vinegar you use for the gastrique with cherry to bring even more of the flavor. The bubblegum shot could be reworked to be part of the story without hitting your guests with a mid-meal vodka shooter. I'm picturing something like a gelee of the bubblegum vodka, a grapefruit granita and a tarragon cream. Break up the gelee with a fork, fill a spoon with equal parts of the gelee and granita on each side, add a dollop of the cream at the back of the spoon and garnish with fresh tarragon. A single bite that makes the point, carries the flavors and retains the balance of the drink in a more textural setting.

Probably. Heston wasn't happy with the results doing it that way but that's keeping in mind that he was going for the most extreme version of the dishes he was recreating in that series so maybe it would be fine 99% of the time. The only time I've wanted to crisp skin away from the bird was when I was crisping some chicken skin to pulverize for a croquant. I didn't care if it curled so I just threw them on a rack and tossed them in the oven.

In his In Search of Perfection series, Heston Blumenthal made his duck crackling by sewing the skins to a cooling rack so they wouldn't curl, pricking the surface with a needle, rendering them in a low oven then popping them back into a hot oven to crisp. You'll have to decide for yourself if it's worth the effort or not. My yet to be accomplished idea is something I've been working on for quite a while now (on and off). The process isn't difficult but doing it with ingredients that don't mess with the taste has been difficult so I'm still working on it. I put it on the back burner for a while then get a new idea and try it again. So far I haven't got a result I'm happy with. At the risk of sounding like a jerk, I'm not going to say what it is I'm working on right now. It's not anything revolutionary or anything, I've just been working on it so long that it would be kinda depressing at this point to reveal it and have someone say "oh, that's simple... just do this".

From the everyday commercial stuff, my favorite is probably Payday as long as it's fresh. The salted peanuts help cut the sweetness a little. I don't mind Skor but I'd like them to have less chocolate. I get in the mood for a Mars bar (the ones with almonds) now and then as well.

I knew that was coming and I'll defer to greater cocktail knowledge but I'd argue that it's as much a martini as a "dirty martini". A little tomato water instead of olive brine. Of course, I don't know if the purists consider the dirty version a martini either so maybe it's a wasted argument. Edit: because apparently I can't spell this morning.

I posted a while back that I'd used the information I found here to make a grenadine-esque syrup from local chokecherries. Being somewhat a beginner in the cocktail world, I mentioned that I could use some help with ideas for using it in a cocktail. I assumed from the lack of responses that maybe it was a bad idea. I'm feeling less silly about it now that an expert is playing with different flavors in this thread. I canned all of the syrup I made so it wouldn't have to be tossed before I got around to finding a use for it. Maybe I'll crack one open and see what I can come up with. I thought about replacing the cherry brandy in a Blood and Sand with it, just to get a feel for what it's like in a familiar environment. Is that a good way to start playing with something? Any ideas would still be welcome.

Have you seen Linda's latest post on Playing with Fire and Water? She did a martini with lime basil infused gin, dry vermouth and filtered tomato water. She garnished it with cherry tomatoes that were skinned, packed in a jar with salt and vermouth and fridged for a couple days. I realize that's more a geared-towards-this-drink garnish but I like the idea.

I'll have to give it some thought. If I can figure out something that will be more than a "yeah, we could do that..." that drifts off the radar in a few days, I just might do it. The trick to the challenges I've participated in (and the old ones I've read about here) was that it got passed along from person to person in some manner so that it encouraged participation and kept going for more than one round. I'll see if I can come up with something... and if anybody else is interested and comes up with something, they can jump in at any time.

A pecan version of a walnut soup... a pecan variation of pasta noci... hmmm, I'll have to think on it a bit. Pecans are almost a form of currency where I live so I don't work with them as often as I'd like.

I've been eating cheeseburgers with mustard and jalapenos for many years, it's one of my favorite burgers. Not the same chiles but I have no doubt that it works just as well if not better with some nice roasted New Mexicos. I'll have to try it sometime.