haresfur
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Posts posted by haresfur
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I was brought up with fi-lay (steak) and fillet (fish or verb). But mostly I think many people take this stuff way too seriously - not that it's bad to know how words are pronounced in their county of origin.
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Are you envious of my bottle of Apry?
I'm envious of your Ramazzotti!
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Can't beat filter cone, paper filter, electric kettle in my book.
Gets my vote, too. Use an espresso roast to get something resembling a flat black.
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When visiting Woodstock winery once, they let us taste some Rose slushie that they had made. It works a dream and is very refreshing.
Did they add crushed ice to the rose or did they partially freeze it?
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I just made my first risotto (thanks for the help eG!) and I think it was as good or better than any I have had in restaurants. I found the traditional method gave me control over the result. I used a large skillet (ok maybe that's not traditional) and a flat edged wood spatula so it was easy to mix. Adding the broth as I went along meant that I knew how fast it was getting absorbed as I got to the critical end point where you want to have the right thickness when the rice is just cooked. I started tasting at 15 min and stopped when I liked what I had.
I can see how parboiling the rice could work but advance preparation wasn't an issue for me. Maybe I could have saved some stirring up front but I can see how there might be temptation to beat the crap out of the rice at the end to get the creaminess. A pressure cooker might work fine, but it seems to me that there would be some work to get the timing and the water content just right for a given type of rice and recipe.
Overall, I think the attraction to the traditional risotto is that it is easy. Heck you don't even have to measure the broth. I have trouble seeing a lot of saving in time and effort in the other methods for the home cook doing a single batch. What's 15 minutes in the grand scheme of things? Maybe a better cook could use that wisely to get another dish out but I would probably only be able to do a little cleaning or get the table set.
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Not a sazarac- 1.5 oz Old Crow bourbon, 0.5 oz limoncello, 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters. Rinse of absinthe in a glass; build over ice.
A bit heavy on the absinthe but that helps cover the weird aftertaste I've found in the Old Crow when used in cocktails. Overall a successful way to use bottom shelf bourbon and I imagine similar to the inspiration for many cocktails.
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I confess to using amaretto in tiki-ish drinks as a lazy way of going. Generally shooting from the hip on everything else, though - a bit of rum(s), a bit of fruit juice, a bit of lime, adjust to taste. Only you can decide if it would be up to your standards and suit your philosophy. I don't think I can get Luxardo here.
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Could you tell us a little about your work environment? Does the wonderful looking street food influence (flavour?) the other dining options?
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My first Ward 8. Rittenhouse rye, blood orange, and new home made grenadine. I think the lemon is too dominant. I'd dial it way back.
It's always a bit of a dilema whether to use the precious hard to replace Rittenhouse on a new drink or to go with the easier to replace (but more expensive if you don't count the airfare) Wild Turkey rye. But blood orange season is short here and I wanted to give this one my best shot.
Imperfect as always in politics but I'd vote for this one.
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cascade mountain gin is my new favorite. it has an elegant brashness. the tonality of their juniper is superbly extraordinary. and the price, $24 retail for a craft spirit. amazing.
Interesting. I thought I read somewhere that Cascade gin was infused spirits and not redistilled afterwards. Anyone know if that is the case? I guess if it works, cool.
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Well I hope they at least have some gin!
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Yes - that is a gigantic hand carved ice ball in the center of the punch bowl. These guys don't mess around.
Whew! I thought it was a red cabbage
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I was just out to dinner with the new BF this week, and I talked him out of ordering a pound of asparagus at this steakhouse we were at. He said, "I like asparagus." And I said, "I do to, but I try to avoid ordering it on a date." Explaining that sucked some of the romance out of the conversation, to be sure. But, better safe than sorry, right?
FWIW, I've noticed brussel sprouts, and, to a lesser extent, other cruciferous vegetables have the same effects, albeit slightly less offensively.
I've heard that pee isn't the only bodily fluid to be affected.
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In the UK? Ikea POKAL at 15cl?
These are the ones I have. Need to get more if I see them again.
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Seems you are fast moving out of the beginner category.
A couple of thoughts. You may want to explore sours more. A challenge with them IMO is to figure out the sweet/sour/booze balance that works for you. And of course that depends on your citrus so recipes are only a guide. Maybe try to perfect your margarita and sidecar. The next challenge with them is how to adjust for other people's tastes (usually add sweet).
You seem to like boozy drinks but highballs might be worth checking out, too.
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Great read, Scoop. Could you describe the different uniforms worn by various people in the kitchen hierarchy for us outsiders? Are they pretty much universal or vary from place to place? Maybe I'll take up cook-spotting.
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I have 4 and 8 oz cafe glasses from Ikea. Not fancy but they work.
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Although it's not strictly fish & chips in the traditional deep-fried sense, it's still about southern hemisphere fish...
I regularly get a salmon fillet and cook it sous vide for lunch, salmon is something that really makes sous vide shine. The other day I thought I'd try Tasmanian ocean trout instead. It looks just like salmon but is about 1/3 cheaper, and I had some vague recollection that Tetsuya is a fan and almost single-handedly responsible for it's popularity. So I bought a fillet, cooked it simply, and it was delicious.
I'm happy to admit that I could not tell any difference from salmon at all. I'm pretty sure that if I had to taste them side by side I still couldn't tell a difference. But it's a lot cheaper, so from now on it will be ocean trout and not salmon...
I'll have to try that. I assume the ocean trout is farm raised too. Farmed Atlantic salmon is nothing like fresh Pacific Chinook or Sockeye. Then again it's nothing like Atlantic salmon freshly netted by my coworkers early Sunday morning (um, poached - then grilled).
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Oh, I forgot to add that one of the steel Thermos bottles was an award for bringing my own plate to a company picnic that was touting energy savings. The packaging that the bottle came in contained more cardboard and plastic than the little paper trays used for serving the hot dogs...
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Thanks for starting this topic, I was thinking of asking the same thing. I do try to consider the energy implications but it isn't always easy to consider the trade-offs.
Here in Australia energy is very expensive compared to my last abode, in the land of hydroelectric dams. My oven is electric and the range gas, so I try to use the range more and the oven less - Australia is one of if not the highest per capita greenhouse gas emitters, primarily due to the reliance on low grade brown coal for electric generation. So between that and the higher cost than running gas, makes the stove a preferred choice for me.
In the rest of the house the considerations get a bit harder. I just put in 1.6 kW of solar panels, not much but a help and the excess is sent back to the grid at a premium feed-in tariff incentive scheme (or will be if the power company ever finishes the conversion). I have a swamp cooler but didn't use it much last year and when I wanted it the humidity was up, too so not as good as it could be. The trouble is, water is in short supply (or was up until it started flooding). After that I would need to look at major investment to insulate the house - a foreign concept, here.
Just because running the oven is a small part of the energy use, doesn't mean it isn't worth doing for energy savings - especially if you aren't going to reduce the other elements. And comparing the the American over-dependence on climate control in often excessively large houses, isn't completely valid. And I used to live in an region of cold winters and hot, very dry summers. If there is a place to cut back with only minor impact on quality of life (or even net quality gain, since I believe there is value in voluntary simplicity), why not?
And yes, for me it is important to cut my carbon footprint by looking for nutritious food that relies on smaller quantitites of meat is an option I want to pursue further.
Oh, and I'm getting to know my pressure cooker and I think bacon works well in the microwave.
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I'm really ashamed but I have a tendency to accumulate:
And that's not the complete collection, but you get the idea. Yes, I probably have more carbon footprint tied up in keep-cups/travel mugs than I would ever use getting throw-aways. In my defence, some were freebies, some were inferior designs that were replaced, and some were bought when I realised that I didn't have anything to drink from on a camping trip. But still...
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DeGroff's book landed on my doorstep this afternoon. Flipped to the page on the Negroni and mixed one up. Not sure what to make of it--I like it enough to keep on drinking but I'm not sure if I want to make more.
Will try a Manhattan later.
Anything else I should look into? My present collection of spirits includes a single malt (Talisker), the Canadian Club, gin (Tanq.), sweet red vermouth, dry vermouth, Campari and Amaretto.
Don't worry, you'll start craving Campari soon enough, especially if you didn't spit out your first Negroni. I like americanos - leave the gin out of your negroni and top with soda or tonic water. Lemon slice is good. Then mix yourself a martini with a reasonable amount of dry vermouth.
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Well that's the thing. My tastes in booze are normally 'simple'--good quality beer, nice single malt, nice cognac. I don't tend to mix or order cocktails. As such I wasn't going to go all out and buy an expensive (but obviously superior quality) rye or bourbon, something I normally wouldn't drink, given there was a fair chance I wouldn't have enjoyed the end product.
I'm going to pick up some Campari and sweet red vermouth (I already have some dry vermouth) to expand my options: figuring on sampling Negronis and Manhattans.
My Dan Murphy's now carries Wild Turkey 100 proof rye for the same price as the bourbon. Not that any spirits are cheap in Australia. I think they started to stock it after I asked - before they just had Jim Beam Rye. I've seen obscenely expensive Rittenhouse on the web. But hey, if you drink good whisky and cognac...
I find it interesting that blended Scotch gets more respect than Canadian rye. Aren't they both more or less whiskey cut with neutral spirits? Not that Canadian rye is the same as American 100% rye. I actually like CC, partially because the taste evokes good memories, but I don't drink it very much.
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Made (and tasted) an Old Fashioned for the first time. Essential Cocktail (DeGroff) hasn't landed yet so after reading the 'who would win in a fight--Batman or Spiderman?'-esque Old Fashioned thread I went out and bought some rye and bitters and gave Wikipedia's recipe a go (sans the cherry). Probably an inferior recipe to what the average eGulleter might use, but hey. I like the drink. I see it maybe even toppling the gin and tonic (the only other cocktail I know how to make) as my go-to summer drink (not that it's summer ... but it never hurts to start early).
Glad you liked it. Which rye?
Favorite single malt
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted · Edited by haresfur (log)
My initial impression was the 28 was nicer but the 33 grew on me. Maybe a little more going on with the flavour.
Thanks to Chris for a great evening. I'm a whisky novice compared to him. The Calvados was very nice, too. Maybe Chris remembers what it was.
I clearly lean toward the Speysides. Don't quite get the attraction of Islays yet, although they went well with the ribs. Sort of like cultivating a taste for smoke-tainted wine.
ETA: Calvados