trillium

The cooking version is very, very salty. So if you're using the wine with other salty things (say black beans for instance) then you could run into trouble. It takes a little more care not to end up with an over-salted dish. It is also less aromatic and flavorful then some of the better grades of "non-cooking" (I don't know anyone who drinks it!) wine. I'd use it if I couldn't get anything else though. regards, trillium

Hang on... you'd add Dots? What do you like there? We were there last week and it annoyed me that I was paying over $5 for a burger (without fries) and didn't get to specify how to have it cooked. I did like the velvet flocked wallpaper and the black velvet paintings, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to eat there unless it was past midnight and I needed cheddar fries. regards, trillium

Hmmm. Portland, you say? Maybe you need to come over to our place and taste what we've got... that might help you eliminate some of the things you don't like and it would be fun to know another cocktailer in pdx. We just emptied a few bottles before the move (Barbancourt, erm, some other rum and the Maker's Mark), but it's scary how many boxes we had to move full of booze bottles. And I have a stash of Seville oranges in the freezer... My story is the same as cdh's, I cut my teeth on Wired's cocktail site (which was sold to someone else I think) except I was fortunate to have been living in the same city as the authors (some of whom were still tending bars). I've been slowly working my way through every featured cocktail in Paul Harrington's excellent book and it's been a fun and educational ride. You might try hunting it down through bookfinder or something. I think it's nicer to buy bottles as you need them to try different cocktails then to buy a bunch of stuff all at once. regards, trillium

At a place in Chicago they were garnished with a cubes of cheese and slices of salami, pepperocini and celery and then dusted with grated cheese and pepper. regards, trillium

If you can find them, using Meyer lemons instead of Eurekas gives a nice complexity. It's not the same as the lemons in Amalfi, but it's lovely. regards, trillium

I did run into these at quite a few places in Chicago, but they were never called Chicago martinis! My favorite place to have them was at erwin on Halsted. regards, trillium

I hope the sad part isn't the fact that I found out I enjoy pure gin! Not at all. The sad part is that what you enjoy gets called a martini, when it is clearly not one. The other sad part is that an experienced barkeep at a busy bar hadn't even heard of maraschino liqueur. And I know for a fact that 3 different brands are for sale in Chicago. regards, trillium

That's a sad tale in so many different ways....

If you've ever been preparing artichokes and then licked your fingers, Cynar tastes something like that, but with sugar. I had a lot of fun tasting different bitters (the digestivo sort, not the dropper bottles) in Sicily, nearly every town has their own blend. At least a year ago I claimed I was going to try my hand at making my own, but I never got around to it. I did get some good advice about looking for hard to find ingredients in Chinese medicine shops, so I really have no excuse. If you can find them, the pith of Seville oranges is wonderfully bitter and astringent, and so is the bergamot orange. I highly recommend them for infusing purposes. Worlds of complexity in the oils too... Corti Bros. in Sacramento does a brisk mail order business and had Fee Bros. bitters the last time I was there. I've run accross the orange bitters in many liquor stores, even here in Oregon, so I'll bet you can find it locally. regards, trillium

I'll get to that as soon as I can find the damn box it's packed in. I forgot how much it sucks to move...sigh. Anyway, I'll be sure to report back. When I tasted a small amount of just the grain alcohol + violet and vanilla infusion it didn't taste violetty enough for me, but this may be because the fumes at 100% EtOH are so obnoxious they're burning up my nose before I can smell. Dilution and a bit of sugar may help. Alas, spring has sprung and the violets are not more so adding more isn't an option. I was thinking of getting some of those French violet pastilles and letting a few dissolve into the alcohol to up the violet flavor but then I'm worried that the anise will flavor it before I have a chance to strain it out. It's funny about Creme de Yvette, I've heard the opposite of what is put forth here, that it was the worst of the violet liqueurs because it was so sweet and heavy compared to some of the French versions. Of course, The Gentleman's Companion is no help, the only mention of violet liqueur is to say that it's a fluffy abomination made for ladies who don't like alcohol (I'm paraphrasing). It was nearly, but not quite, as funny as reading the bits on Oriental houseboys preparing drinks to the Asian dude in the house. regards, trillium

I don't think it gets imported into the US anymore. I searched high and low a year ago for it and couldn't find anywhere...so, this spring I attempted to make my own. It's described as tasting of violetes dipped in vanilla. My attempt is a half finished project since I'm moving, but I took a bunch of violets and part of a vanilla bean and put them into a small amount of grain alcohol for a week. I was disappointed because it started out with a lovely purple color but then turned green with time, I expect because the alcohol extracted from the stems as well as the petals. I still need to add sugar, a little glycerol and some water. I'll let you know how it goes! regards, trillium

If you are lucky enough to live near Manhattan, these guys have the best domestic pancetta I have ever tasted... It is all I will use... Their salame, sausage and other regal pork products are all mighty fine also... They will probably ship to you if are fanatical enough. Salumeria Biellese 378 8th Ave. NY NY 10001 212-736-7376 They have guanciale too. Another good place to buy pancetta or tesa on the west coast is at Armandino Batali's salumeria near Pike Place Market in Seattle. Salumi 309 3rd Ave S Seattle, WA 98104-2620 Phone: (206) 621-8772 regards, trillium

Maybe we could do a charcuterie cook along, like the baking thread? I'd be up for that, although summer is not a very traditional time to be making all of this, right? It's funny that you should mention that, I don't like the cornichons here in France (too sweet - they make some place in my jaw hurt!) and was a rather picky pickle picker in the States. I went to St. Petersburg (Russia) recently and found myself in pickle heaven. Everywhere. They were all exactly how I imagine the perfect pickle to be and I have yearned for them since, and the pickled chives, the pickled garlic, the pickled everything else. I could just eat pickle after pickle. I have a jar of polish dill pickles which I found at an imports shop that I pull out for my side of the table when we serve pâtés and terrines, they aren't exactly there, but closer. This is very strange. The recipe I'm using is in no way sweet at all. They are so sour the partner can only eat them with rich terrines, the rest of the time they make him grimace. We did them by covering them in salt overnight, rinsing, and then dropping them into white wine vinegar that had been heated and poured over shallots, peppercorns and mustard seeds. Tarragon gets tucked in after it cools. Ok, I cheated and added a tiny bit of alum because I thought they could be crisper, but that's it. No sugar and no sweetness. Some of the recipes I looked at on the fr.cuisine Usenet group did have sugar and some didn't. I hate sweet pickles so I didn't use those. Of course, they didn't have that yeasty taste I associate with kosher dills, but they were not sweet! regards, trillium

Pierre says there are not butchers around here that have a vat to dip the hog so you can scrape the bristles and leave the skin on. However, there is some chef locally who buys a whole batch and drives them to a processor somewhere far (southern/eastern OR?) who can butcher that way. I think the chef is Italian or cooks Italian food. Anyway, Pierre thought maybe we could get in on the deal if we wanted a minimally processed (as in, you get the head and skin!) pig. I think he was growing a couple of crosses, one of which had some Berkshire. The meat is amazingly buttery, isn't it? Over the mountains is no big deal, compared to what we've contemplated. There is a guy in Indiana who grows the most wonderful hogs. They're pastured and the fat has a yellowish tinge from all the greens they eat. They taste a little closer to wild boar, without an extreme gamey taste. We really miss his stuff, and we've contemplated a hog road trip, or buying a seat for a pig on the plane, but we've decided it's too nutty even for us. And a slice of this baby is yours for the asking... regards, trillium

I would also suggest just focusing on a limited number of cocktails (like two or three, one with citrus, one without, one muddled, one not, that sort of thing) and learning to do those well. The lessons you learn from them will carry over to other drinks, and limiting the number you are focused on will steepen the learning curve. Also, it might help to find a willing victim to be a taster. I hate long division and nearly flunked my maths one year because of it, but I've managed cocktails just fine. regards, trillium

I'm moving this weekend, but I could be up for something too... One thing to keep in mind for group dinners, I've been hearing that clarklewis is unbearably loud from a couple of different people who went there, and it popped up on chowhound too. regards, trillium

You shouldn't. Bread crumbs from fresh bread is much nicer than from stale bread... and I have Mr. Pepin to back me up on this one. regards, trillium

The two are't mutally inclusive, trust me. Can't stand Mr. Pitt, love cornichons. What don't you like about cornichons in combo with terrines? Are your objections acidity based? Texture? Do you have a problem with pickles in general? If you're going to do full disclosure, we need details. regards, trillium

It's funny you mention that. We had a horrible cultural clash buying our half of pig. A co-worker refers to it as the pig of discontent because the partner was so annoyed that the butchers not only skin it so they don't have to deal with the bristles, but they threw out all of the innards (caul, intestines, heart, kidneys, etc) except the liver, and also threw out the feet and the head. Needless to say, I spent quite some time listening to how weird it was that Americans would toss out the best bits of the pig, and not even save the blood! We had bought this half a hog to use in our Asian cookery and to dabble in charcuterie, so the loss of the caul fat was a real bummer. I had spoken to the butcher at my grocery and he had trouble finding some, but suggested just using fatback. In one of my trips to a Vietnamese grocery store, I spotted the caul fat in the freezer. It was the whole thing, from a very large hog (I only used half), and cost me $2. Cool, huh? That's a great idea too, and I have several of those. I found that a lot of the fat and juice went back into the meat as it sat in the fridge for 3 days. I can't imagine how you would weigh it down while cooking, but that may be because I used a piece of cardboard and several cans of tomatoes for my weights. That French book I refered to was interesting because they were presenting terrines from a professional cooking point of view. They had you pouring off all of the liquid after it baked and then bathing it in another liquid you made especially for it while it cooled. I'm sure the results would be delicious, but I can't imagine that happening very often in the home kitchen. You're the second person to recommend the book to me, so maybe I better go find it! It wasn't available at the library, which is why I didn't consult it. The nice thing about the book I used was that it had pictures of every step of the process. regards, trillium edit: to let my fingers catch up with my thought processes

Merci beaucoup, madam. The sauce is bits of the liquid that came out of the terrine (I'm sticking with a word that has no squiggles) while cooking, and when cooled, had a lovely jelly consistency. There was only a few spoonfuls, the rest kind of went back into the terrine as it cooled. I do have some fat the rendered from it that tastes just like the terrine. I wonder what to do with that...potatoes maybe. regards, trillium

Bread salad and roast chicken ala Zuni Cafe. regards, trillium

They shouldn't go into the ground until evening temps are above 55 - 60 F. For us, that means we have months and months before they need to be planted. So you might have plenty of time. If you have trouble finding the seeds or starts (I could find both) I'd be happy to mail you some of last year's seeds. Just PM me. edit to add: the recipe I ended up using is closest to the one in french, not the first two in that thread. regards, trillium

Damn. I was so proud of figuring out how to put that thing over the a, and now you're telling me I needed to have an accent on the e too? Thanks for the lesson! regards, trillium

Yes, that's what my French friends said. They were going to be really impressed if I had done it in one of the clay terrines. Which got me to thinking, I wonder if you could use those little individual sa po (sand pots) that I see in Asian groceries. It might be nice to make smaller ones instead of handing out chunks. regards, trillium

I'll try that next time, and report back. And I do love it. In terms of flavor and texture, it's pretty delicious. It's frightening how easy it is to eat large quantities when you have so much of the stuff lying around. We've given away about 1/4 and eaten about 1/2, it's disappearing much faster than I thought it would. The cornichons were really easy to make, last summer I grew about 4 Vert de Massy plants in a container in a southern exposure. It was a long, hot summer for the northwest, and now we have more cornichons then we know what to do with. I asked for help translating a recipe in the French forum and they did turn out rather well. When I had to go away for a weekend, the parnter complained bitterly about how prickly they were to pick, but I didn't mind them as much as he did. I'll confess that I feel like a bad-ass cook to have made both the cornichons and the terrine! thanks for the help, trillium