lesliec

Thanks, Moto. What I was trying to say was the Mai Tai recipe I found wanted lime juice, but I used falernum instead and was very happy. But in the interests of completeness I'll do as you say. Last night we had a Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (from cocktaildb.com) with rum, Cointreau, falernum and lime juice. I was reluctant to use the full volume of juice the recipe called for, but I did, and it was too sharp for our tastes! A bit of sugar syrup improved it, but I think we'd both have been happier with half the juice in the first place. No argument about the orgeat. Wonderful stuff.

Wow - what lovely stuff orgeat is!. Made my first batch this weekend following Sam's recipe from page 2 of this thread. Delicious. I was able to persuade my man at the Nut Shop to sell me a small quantity of semi-bitter almonds to replace the suggested apricot kernel. Final quantities, before peeling - the bitter ones were much more tricky, by the way - were probably closer to 250g (200 'normal' almonds, 50g bitter) than Sam's 150, but it all worked fine. Further ravings here. Another thing to be grateful to eGullet for ...

I spent the weekend making my own orgeat and falernum, both with splendid results (particularly the orgeat - that stuff's delicious!). I thought I'd seen a recipe which used both, but come last night the only ones I could find used one or the other. So ... I used the falernum instead of lime juice in a Mai Tai recipe I dug up. This was probably the first Mai Tai we'd had. It soon turned into the second, it was that good. We're fortunate to have several people around New Zealand (and in Wellington in particular) making interesting spirits, which I should do a proper eG writeup on at some point; depending on where you are you might not find the precise ingredients I used, but those of you experienced with Mai Tais will no doubt have your own favourites. The following makes two drinks: Two measures (say 60ml) Stolen white rum (local) Two measures Appleton V/X One measure (30ml) Smoke & Oakum English Curaçao (local) One measure orgeat One measure falernum Shake together with ice and pour into a chilled glass. For each glass pour over one measure Smoke & Oakum Gunpowder Rum (another local product, and yes, it really has got gunpowder in it). Serve, sip and smile. I was less generous with the gunpowder rum in the first one; going all the way to a full measure added a certain character (and made it harder to stand up afterwards). It didn't hurt that summer has properly arrived; the weather people are predicting 10 days of stunning weather and we were sitting outside on our deck, looking out at Cook Strait. Life stinks sometimes. Call me a Mai Tai convert!

Now, kids, play nice ... Seems to me there are various factors involved here. Certainly there is a degree of rudeness, intended or otherwise, in using flash in a restaurant, but mostly I wonder if it's not just plan ignorance/technical incompetence/call it what you will - many people probably don't know how to turn flash off! I've noticed many times people taking photos of (or from) cruise ships, in sports stadiums or - my favourite - of Wellington harbour from Mount Victoria, all using flash ... which isn't going to have the slightest effect at the distances involved. It's probably the same in a restaurant; although avoiding flash would almost certainly (a) improve the photo and (b) make the act of taking it more discreet, people just don't know how to turn it off. I have no problem with people documenting every moment of their lives, if they must, as long as they don't bring me into the process. But as for restaurants imposing a blanket ban on all photography - bad idea. [Edited for a speling misteak]

A trial-and-error, (relatively) non-wasteful method we've used is to make mini cocktails in a shot glass or some baby cocktail glasses we have. Put in teaspoons (or fractions thereof) of your ingredients and increase one or another until you get close to something you like. Chris's proportions are a great starting point to get one or two more errors out of the trialling. But it's fun either way.

OK, thanks - not sure if I can get liquorice root here, but there's some people I can ask. My 'standard' ice cream method is to bring the milk, sugar and half the cream to a simmer with whatever I'm using for flavouring - fresh ginger has been a great success recently - then leave it to infuse for an hour or so. I bring it back up to a simmer, temper the egg yolks and pour into the other half of the cream. Then an overnight sit in the fridge before churning. It works very well, but for my liquorice experiment I used a commercial sweet/soft liquorice. It nearly worked, but the texture was odd - too much glycerin, or something.

Jo, I'm interested in your liquorice ice cream. I had a fantastic one in a restaurant several years ago but my own experiments haven't come close. Can you expand on making the infused milk? How much liquorice, how long, heat? Thanks, Leslie

Looks like a pretty low-risk investment. We found a small cask at a junk shop. From the amount of woodiness it's imparted to our aged Negroni experiments I strongly suspect it had never had anything in it before (I gave it a good dose or two of boiling water to hopefully annoy any bugs). The cask is possibly aesthetically superior to the Tuthilltown bottle, but cost considerably more. Give it a try.

Right, to resume the story of this year's Christmas dinner ... I started by dismembering a large (by NZ standards) turkey. The word 'butcher' as a perjorative was coined for people like me. The thighs and various other good bits have been vacuum-sealed and frozen for later and the bones became stock (and very good it was too). All I wanted for this was the breast - and once I got it off I decided I only needed one side, so the other is now also in a vacuum bag in the freezer. Next, I split the breast to get a (relatively) even strip of meat. I added salt and pepper, sprinkled the transglutaminase and laid a couple of duck breasts, skin removed, and chicken breasts along it. Not the prettiest sight: Another sprinkle of TG over everything, then rolled. The final step was a further sprinkle of TG then draping the duck skin over the top: I wrapped the result firmly in kitchen wrap and put it in the fridge to 'set'. After a day or so I took it out and cooked it sous vide for 6 hours at 62°C, chilled it quickly, dried it and put it back in the fridge uncovered for another couple of days to dry the skin, which seemed to be well-stuck. Here's how it looked at the end of that: Since it was already cooked, all it now needed was about an hour at 170°C. Maybe hotter would have been better - the skin didn't crisp up as much as I'd hoped, but I think we can agree it looked pretty good: Starting to slice. You can certainly tell where the duck is, since it's a completely different colour, but the turkey/chicken boundaries are a little harder. Note how well the skin is adhering to the rest: And served with potatoes roasted in duck fat and sous vide baby carrots, and gravy made with the turkey stock: It was delicious. Very moist, very tasty. I'll do this again. So ... transglutaminase. On my (very limited) experience, I'd certainly recommend it as a useful addition to your kitchen if you like to play. It's pretty straightforward to use and nowhere near as finicky as some modernist ingredients. Will it revolutionise how you cook? Probably not. Can you do similar things without it? Mostly, yes - 'traditional' turducken has been around for years; so has filet mignon with the bacon tied on with string or secured with skewers. But there are some things it can do which will make your dinner party guests (or restaurant patrons) think "how did he/she do that?". Meat glue is a scary concept for some, but I think it can offer you some extra fun in the kitchen. And many of us are here on eGullet because we sometimes like to do things a little differently, right?

Hi all. I was a little undecided about where to post this - it would fit in 'Dinner' or a 'What I did for Christmas' thread quite happily - but in the end, since the common factor in all my recent experiments has been transglutaminase, I figured this would be the place. I've had some difficulty finding TG in New Zealand. I first started looking for it in 2009 without much luck; I created an eG thread asking about a local source and met some nice eG people online as a result, but no glue was forthcoming. I went off the idea for a while, then when thinking about what I might do for Christmas dinner this year came up with the idea (I know, I'm not the first!) of turducken using only turckey, duck and chicken breasts stuck together with TG. Another search was started, using one or two contacts I didn't have three years ago, and ... I hadn't previously heard of Dunninghams, but they've been supplying the food trade with equipment, tools and ingredients for some 90 years, it seems. Normally they sell TG in 1kg bags but they also break it down into 50g 'samples' for $NZ20, which is just about my speed. One surprise was the manufacturer - I'd always had the impression only Ajinomoto made TG, but this one appears to come from Australia. My first experiment was squid 'pasta', trying to get an effect I'd had at Gelonch in Barcelona last year. Short version - success notably lacking! I used 2 - 3% TG to the weight of the pulverised squid, but it didn't really come together in the way I'd hoped. I need to do some more reseach on these fish noodley things before I try that one again. Next I tried a stringless filet mignon. First I laid out some strips of streaky bacon (Pestell's from Rai Valley, if you're interested. Nice stuff) on a sheet of kitchen wrap: Then I sprinkled the TG (the lines are from brushing it evenly over the surface with a silicone pastry brush): Next, a nice bit of eye fillet, silverskin and other odd bits trimmed: Starting to roll ... ... and done: The whole thing then spent a day or so in the fridge before I vacuum-sealed and froze it, ready for some sous vide treatment in due course. The bacon appears to have adhered very well, and I look forward to trying the result. Now we come to Christmas dinner. The first course was a variation of the 'fish checkerboard' written about in Modernist Cuisine and elsewhere. I used strips of monkfish and salmon, did the same sprinkle technique as above and, after 24 hours or so resting in the fridge, the result was this: Into a pan with hot oil (my own bay-infused olive oil) - one side done and sprinkled with salt: And cut into serving pieces. The monkfish was a little underdone but it didn't seem to matter - next time I'll probably include a sous vide step to ensure everything is fully cooked: The adhesion of the pieces was good. I'm very much coming round to the view I've seen elsewhere, that measuring the TG isn't vital; you just need an even coating. There's probably a Goldilocks factor - not too much, not too little. I didn't do a photo of the plated dish, unfortunately, but it was very pretty and worth trying again. This post is getting a little large. I'll conclude at this point and start a new one for the turducken.

Eureka! It's been a quest, but I've finally been put onto Dunningham's, an ingredient/equipment supplier with branches in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. They normally sell 1kg packs ($195, I think they said) but will do 50g for $20 plus GST. Mine's on the way. Reports of experiments will follow.

It's a butter knife - it should just melt!

Moore Wilson's in Welly has good ones, but I don't know where they get them. If you can track down Will of 24Carrot he might be able to put you onto some.

Anna/Kerry, your tea cake is pretty much a Yorkshire Brack and is traditionally spread with butter and served with Wensleydale cheese. Recipes vary. Some, like yours, have no butter; others do. The one I have starts with hot tea poured over the fruit and left to steep overnight, with 100ml of rum or whisky added after 10 minutes or so, once the mix has cooled a bit. Then the next day the sugar and flour is added. I don't recommend a single malt for this. I tried some Talisker (I know, sacrilege) and it was a shade too smoky - interesting, though. I'll try a nice dark rum next time.

I haven't tried this recipe, but my 'standard' ice cream base uses much the same quantities of dairy and eggs but ... half the sugar. I know you can't really make caramel without it, but I also know from experience with an entirely different recipe that too much sugar means freezing doesn't happen. Worth a try?

Try Southern Hospitality, Merkinz. They have all sorts of interesting things.

You mean you don't? Nice review, Merkinz.

Fantastic! It will certainly be an experience. Have you dropped in for a visit yet?

Once again, eGullet introduces me to something new! My wife and I, both far from being advanced cocktailers, are very partial to a classic Negroni, so I was fascinated by the concept of a white one. We don't seem to be able to get Suze in New Zealand, but Gentiane de Lure is reasonably widely available and I got one on Saturday. Saturday night's drink was two versions of a white Negroni; one with two parts gin/¾ Dolin Blanc/¾ Gentiane de Lure, the other with two parts gin and one part each Lillet and gentian. There wasn't a lot between them, but we decided we liked the Lillet one better - just a little sweeter, perhaps. Yesterday I did some surfing and came up for a recipe for a Tour Eiffel - rinse a glass with absinthe and ice and discard; mix fresh ice with 2½ parts brandy (the recipe said XO Cognac, but we have a nice Jerez we used) and ½ part each gentian and Cointreau; serve with a slice of lemon zest. One word: it was bloody marvellous! I haven't spent as much time in this eG topic as I should have, but I'll be very receptive to any more recipe ideas you can come up with. Salut!

This is like car companies throwing their new technologies into exotic race cars - the theory is some of it (ABS, traction control, heads-up displays ...) will eventually trickle down to us mortals. I'm interested in the implication that a company like Electrolux is making its own vacuum sealer (surely a chamber - they wouldn't do a kitchen like this with a FoodSaver, would they?). That's good news, in a couple of years, for those of us who want to be able to get one from a normal appliance store.

I think sometimes those of us who can cook, and enjoy it, and like to talk about it, intimidate those who might be quite capable but just aren't as interested or confident as we are. There's more than one couple who haven't reciprocated after dinner at our place, and I can't put it all down to my aftershave ... some have actually said they don't think they could do anything to my standards, which, although perhaps flattering, is also mildly annoying. I haven't seen it recently, but somebody on eGullet has a quote in their signature to the effect that being a foodie simply means you like food, in the same way that enjoying being tied up doesn't mean you don't still like the missionary position. (I really MUST do some searching for the original quote. I remember it being far more succinct that that!) We found a solution with one couple we regularly entertained. N is very competitive but felt she was struggling to keep up (I wasn't competing; I was just doing interesting things because I wanted to). Her suggestion was, each time one of us cooked for the other, we'd have to make something we'd never done before. And it worked. The side benefit was, presumably because she had to think about it a bit more, her cooking improved.

Amazon UK seems generally to be faster than Amazon US for me - solidarity with the colonies, maybe? UK gets stuff here in maybe a week (sometimes a day or two less); US more like 10 days, so I guess not a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. I've only used BD once but they were fine. They're based in the Channel Islands, I think.

Jamie, I think next time you announce you're doing something like that Merkinz and I will be agitating for an invitation ... On the subject of indices and Kitchen Manuals, I keep a printed copy of the KM index with my books (and a copy of the main index as well). Works fine.

Absolutely - the Nike approach! One of the advantages of living at this end of the world is Christmas being in summer. This leaves the way clear for a second, midwinter, Christmas dinner in the middle of the year, and we've been doing that for maybe 30 years. It started spontaneously one year, as I recall; we and some neighbours used to get together for dinner every few weeks and it just seemed a logical thing one June to have a 'pretend' Christmas dinner - roaring fire, far too much food, the lot. Which is, with the exception of the fire, how I like my 25 December Christmas too (there are those who claim you can't enjoy Christmas pud in summer. I disagree). Then we just kept doing it. In your part of the world you don't quite have this option, but who's to say you can't suddenly start having a pavlova party in the month of your choice? Pavs would go well after the grilled hunk of meat.

Hi Shel. I heard the view expressed recently that only (thin) metal will do for pies - ceramics and glass heat up too slowly for the pastry base to be cooked at the same time as the filling. Of course that isn't a consideration for panna cotta, but could be for quiche and clafoutis. FWIW ...