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bmdaniel

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Posts posted by bmdaniel

  1. Another idea is pickles - easy to make and delicious - I've never investigated them as cocktail pairings, but I think with certain drinks (probably the ones that are harder to pair with traditional snacks) they would work. Been enamored of momofuku pickles lately.

  2. Drawing inspiration from the egForums, I made an absinthe milk punch. Tried it on a goof, but actually a surprisingly tasty cocktail. I might dial back the proportion of absinthe a bit for future iteration, but worth trying....

    Green Hour Rum Punch

    4377819304_3c208a3385_m.jpg

    2/3 oz Absinthe (St. George)

    2/3 oz demarara rum (Lemon hart, regular proof)

    2/3 oz blackstrap rum (Cruzan)

    2 oz half and half

    1/2 oz rich simple syrup (demarara)

    Mime shake, shake with ice, serve up with grated nutmeg (mime shake probably not necessary)

  3. It looks like the MoMA doesn't sell them anymore, but they are basically the same as this one (except mine only have 2 balls per mold):

    http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://barsupplies.com/media/ice-balls.jpg&imgrefurl=http://barsupplies.com/japanese-ball-mold-p-7618.html&usg=__zNrM7chNvEVMDMb2wNUdCl8i0M4=&h=393&w=500&sz=72&hl=en&start=23&sig2=7ThI6uAYms9hqRHX0zMuQQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=pdi9lKsgNHGGHM:&tbnh=102&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dice%2Bball%2Bmold%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_enUS342US342%26sa%3DN%26start%3D21%26um%3D1&ei=X099S83GJ8ik8Aagsri-BQ

    They are pretty convenient to use because you just fill the bottom tray, push down the top tray, and that forces the water into the molds (also, you get more balls for your buck, so to speak). The only annoyance is that one ball usually sticks when you pull it apart and you have to run water to get it out.

  4. I made the fried cauliflower and the fried chicken for lunch yesterday - I thought both were spectacular, and pretty easy once your committed to getting a bunch of oil hot.

    The only problem I had was the cauliflower getting cold by the time the chicken was done, but it was pretty good that way anyhow.

  5. We were having hot toddies yesterday to celebrate our dallas snowday. Someone requested something reminiscent of herbal tea, so I made a:

    1.5 oz Famous Grouse

    0.5 oz Green Chartreuse

    Teaspoon rich simple

    Lemon peel

    Pretty good (if you're in the mood for a scotchy herbal tea) - honey as the sweetener would've probably worked well too.

    ETA: Also 2 oz boiling water.

  6. Maraschino is a wonderfully funky liqueur. I've never really thought about it before, but if I were going to list my liqueurs in order of importance to me:

    Triple Sec/Curacao (Obviously not the same thing, but we are talking desert island here)

    Maraschino

    Campari

    Green Chartreuse (I don't know if a 110 proof drink is technically a liqueur)

    These are the only 4 I probably couldn't do without; the rest I'd list in this order:

    Falernum

    Benedictine

    Cherry Heering

    Apry

    Peach Brandy (For fish house punch if nothing else)

    Cacao

    Menthe

    Cassis

    Fernet (I'm probably a heretic, but not a big lover)

    Violette

    Allspice Dram (Neither of these last two are crucial, but at least an Aviation is a great drink - I don't reach for the Allspice that often)

    All the famous stuff I rarely if ever use (Baileys, Kahlua, Amaretto, etc.)

    Anyways, the most striking thing to me was the gulf between the top 4 and everything else.

    Interested to hear other people's takes - I'm sure I'm missing something obvious (also, I'm sure I'm butchering a strict definition of liqueur, but that's how I think of most of this category - also I haven't bothered to duplicate categories really - e.g. Campari is standing in for Aperol, Cynar, etc.).

  7. Ad Hoc at Home has a chicken and dumplings recipe that looks intriguing, although similar to the Ruhlman recipe (shocker) in that it uses pate a choux. Has anyone tried it? I would make play the guinea pig but I'm trying (not too succesfully) to avoid carbs where possible (i.e. outside of my cocktail glass).

  8. Since it sounds like you are mostly in DFW, I'd definitely recommend Tei An for a spectacular Japanese experience. Tex-Mex you'll hear a lot of different opinions - in Dallas, I prefer Avila's and Mia's (and Cafe San Miguel for Mex-Mex).

    For BBQ, best bet is if you go to Austin. If so, stop at Louie Muller's in Taylor on the way down, or go south to Lockhart to any of the main places there.

    I wish I had some better McKinney recommendations - don't know the area very well.

  9. What's the effect of shaking with crushed ice and pouring unstrained, versus blending with crushed ice, versus shaking with cubed or cracked ice and pouring over crushed ice? I assume dilution may be greater by shaking with crushed ice than cubed ice (though I realize, in light of the recent Cooking Issues blog posts on dilution, that the jury is still out on this).

    When making Tiki drinks, I often find that the amount of crushed ice called for in the recipe isn't enough to fill the glass, so I end up topping up with more to make it look pretty. I'm always tempted to just shake with cubed ice and fill the glass with crushed ice separately. I guess that uses more ice in total, but my gut instinct is that it would keep the drink cold longer.

    By the way, I got a manual ice crusher for my birthday last month, and it's one of the best bar presents I've ever received. It's so much easier to use than a kitchen towel and mallet! I'm even finding myself looking for excuses to make crushed-ice drinks now.

    I prefer to shake with cubed ice and strain into crushed ice; I find that shaking with crushed ice then topping up can lead to over-dilution (I have an electric ice crusher that produces a pretty fine but not snowlike crushed ice).

  10. If you like passion fruit and have a good syrup (like from the Goya puree), the Spievak Zombie is a great passionfruit drink.

    I think you should be fine if you use Cruzan white as your light PR, the Appleton wherever gold PR or Jamaican are called for, and pick up the Martinique and Demerara.

    Sound like a great party!

  11. In terms of Rum, the first two I'd add would be a Demarara (Ideally Lemon Hart Overproof) and a Martinique (St. James); having those two plus what you have would let you make pretty solid versions of the Mai-Tai and the Zombie, which are the two quintessential tiki drinks in my opinion.

    Mixer's/liquers/etc are trickier - if you're going to make both you'll need at least Orange Curacao, Orgeat, and Falernum, and really should have some anise and grendadine also. There are great guides available here for making your own orgeat and grenadine, which are both pretty easy. If you've got all this gathered together you'd be in great shape for other tasty tiki drinks too (e.g. a Surf Room Mai Tai).

  12. Is this the Seersucker?

    Kent,

    Yep, that's it. I am probably overrating it, but I think it's the best modern tiki drink invention I have tried, it's one of the few drinks I know that can really showcase a good strawberry, and it's one of my wife's favorite drinks (which makes it at least personally significant).

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