ChrisTaylor

I assume you brought some kind of heart-shaped micro-cookie cutter/stamp/etc for preparing those vegetables. If you cut them to shape with a paring knife I wouldn't know whether to be really impressed or terrified.

Bobby Burns (Glenfiddich 12, Benedictine, Dolin sweet vermouth--no shortbread, tho').

Would love the proportions for that. It looks like something I want to drink. Incidentally, any cocktails that showcase creme de cassis or apricot brandy? Or, you know, any particularly interesting (ideally not overly sweet) cocktails that feature these tipples? I purchased a bottle of each without really taking seriously the fact that I had not much of an idea what to do with them.

Just tell them it was vegetable fat if they ask. I would. And I do not mean this as a joke. It's not like it's some honest-to-God allergy thing that actually justifies the adulteration of food.

A 'capitan' from the pisco thread: 60 mL pisco (this is my first taste of pisco, by the way), 30 of red vermouth, a couple dashes of Fee Brother's orange bitters and a twist of lemon. It's not bad ... although it seems to be lacking something. I might mess around with it some: maybe use some chocolate bitters instead of the orange next time, maybe swap the lemon peel for orange (or even bitter orange) peel. Just not the same time as experimenting with the chocolate bitters.

It wasn't so much a thought of 'this would make awesome red beans, right?' as a random thought, one partly motivated by the fact that here, at least, smoked ham hocks are expensive. Of course, when I saw your comment I remembered I now had a freezer full of homemade andouille--and only a kilo or so of them will be going into the gumbo I'm making. I suppose at least some of the leftover sausages can go into the beans and rice.

Duck confit on Valentine's Day?, Keith? Genius. That'd work for me. *bats eyelids* In all seriousness, I'm not cooking. We're heading to a cocktail bar (1806, for 'all' you locals) and then having dinner at MoVida Aqui, a tapas restaurant.

I've just invited myself. Hope it's okay if I collapse on the sofa.

Cin Cyn (Cynar, gin, sweet vermouth, splash of orange juice, dash of orange bitters). This one's a yes.

Funny you mention that. This one time, he attempted to pick up both my partner and her friend (as a package deal) in bar in St Kilda.

On the matter of ham hocks. Normally, I use smoked ham hocks. Normally, I make such small quantities of the dish that one smoked hock will do. What if I am making the dish for a crowd? Is a blend of smoked and unsmoked (i.e. uncured) hocks a good idea or should I stick with 100% smoked meat?

Yes, I do. I wouldn't do it in your situation (a cheap dinner set would do--me, I'd go to my local Chinese discount store and spend some change on some generic white plates), but if when I cater for ~20-25 I run to the supermarket and buy plastic bowls, plates and cutlery. Why? Well, I don't have enough actual plates. Close, but not enough. And on top of all the other cleaning I have to do, I really don't want to have to clean 20+ bowls, plates, cups, etc. Not to mention the fact that when people aren't all sitting at a table, it's more likely I'm going to end up with broken glass/china/etc ... possibly in the sole of my heel a few days later.

That's a fair point. For me, intense flavours (that I actually like) demand I overindulge.

The 'smoked eel, bacon and mashed potatoes' recipe from Fergus Henderson's first book. The only point at which I deviated from the recipe was the mash--I moved halfway towards colcannon by making a butter-heavy mash laced with parsley and spring onions. Served w/ a bottle of '05 Bordeaux.

What CocktailDB calls a 'frigid witch': Strega on the rocks with a squeeze of lime.

The andouille, hanging in the fridge. I'll leave them there overnight before hitting them with smoke some time tomorrow.

The events that really jumped out at me--the BBQ one, for instance--were sold out months ago. This always, always, always happens.

The mise en place is critical (i.e. cooking chapatti 'to order'? Make, rest and portion the dough in advance). You maybe haven't cooked for lots of people before, but think back to preparing a complex dish (something along the lines of an Alinea or Fat Duck recipe) if you've ever done that. With so many components to get right, you need to prepare a lot of things in advance. A curry or braise isn't as complex in the sense it has lots of components, but the complexity comes instead from the logistical challenges presented by the crowd/timing on the day/etc. Prep what you can in advance. Say you opt for some kind of meat curry, a veg curry, dahl and rice. You can make three out of four of these things today then just store them (make sure you have enough fridge space) until tomorrow. Reheat while you prepare your rice. Cooking in advance, a day or two prior to the event, means it's not a big deal if you forget something. Forgetting an item when you have people rocking up in two hours and lots of stuff to do right now is a different matter altogether. Some things are really nice, such as chapatti made at the last minute (you can make the dough a hour or two before, then just drop pieces one by one into a hot pan), but aren't so nice as to be worth the stress if you're new to this kind of thing. Forget anything like that.

Earl Grey*, even.

I bought a 100mL mini of Earl Grey liqueur today. Purely because it's, er, Earl Grey liqueur. It's quite sweet, yes, and tastes very strongly of Earl Grey tea (Bergamot being a dominant flavour note). I want cocktail ideas--ideally things that aren't too sweet. I should add that it's based on gin.

I decided to finish off a bottle of Tanqueray (only got one ounce out of it--ended up using a 50:50 ratio of Tanq to Plym) with a Bennett. I used a little bit less sugar than what you said, only because I don't like sweet things--I wanted the sourness to dominate--but man. This. Is. Fucking. Great.

If you're just looking for great meat, I'm sure Keith W and I can give you some recommendations. The big markets--QV comes to mind--tend to have a lot of 'just okay' stalls but most of them will have one or two stalls that sell very, very, very good meat. Consider Sardes', the butcher in QV Market I mentioned in my Melbourne blog. It's located at the entrance to the fish section, just next door to those poultry places. There's Peter Bouchier--you can go all the way to Malvern, if you want, but given you're on the other side of town, iirc, you might want to go to his David Jones Food Hall outlet (Bourke St). That's just off the top of my head. If you feel like some British classics and an, er, scenic drive, you could always come down to Dandenong and check out Rob's British Butchery.

Benedictine Earl Grey liqueur (100mL mini) St Germain (third bottle) Inner Circle Green (with the intent of using it in DIY Pimento Dram)

I've also heard of freezing them and then thawing them, the idea being that the freezing/thawing process breaks something down and helps tenderise them.

I was at the local bottle-o today, searching for Cynar, when I overheard the guy behind the counter promoting a 'chilli beer'. There is a chilli maruding, Jawstyle, in every bottle. The man at the counter, he told a woman who bought this stuff that maybe she shouldn't kiss anyone, shouldn't use her lips, after drinking 'a few' of these beers. And he smiled, all lechlike. It sounded interesting--in a truly horrific, car accident way--and it was only a couple of dollars per bottle, so I figured I'd take a gamble. Who knows? Maybe it'd be okay. Turns out, it's everything I imagined it to be and worse. Take a whiff when you open the bottle (or pour it into a glass): basically it's the smell of freshly chopped, raw chillies. And the taste? They use a Mexican lager, so you don't get a helluva lot of 'generic beer flavour': it's just chilli, chilli, chilli. Think eating pickled jalapenos straight from the jar. And I do that. I like beer: ales and, yes, lagers especially. And I like chilli--I like eating pickled jalapenos from the jar. But this ... this is shit. As much as I like chilli sauce, I don't really want to drink it. It's maybe not as bad as the chilli red wine I sampled a while ago, but that's like saying having your foot run over with shoes on is better than having your foot run over when you're barefoot: it's still a horrendous experience. There's also this really sinister ... it's not an after taste, not quiet, as an after taste is something that occurs in your mouth. No, this is an after feeling. I can feel it in my stomach. My gut is asking me, in a very rude fashion, just what the fuck I think I'm doing. My girlfriend, who sampled the beer too, decided she feels like puking. I can't believe the guy at the counter raved about this shit. It's a horrid, horrid, horrid product. Avoid.