ChrisTaylor

When I went to the bottleshop and asked for grenadine I was presented with two options. Both $10. Both 'imitation' grenadine-flavoured cordials. All I could taste in the Ward Eight--and I was careful to not use too much 'grenadine'--was an icky sweetness from what I presume was the grenadine and the sugar syrup. I was surprised. I expected something almost along the lines of a Manhattan.

Ward Eight. Really, really, really not my thing at all.

How important is the brand name when it comes to creme de cacao? The only creme de cacao I've seen locally--even in a couple of large liquor stores--is cheap stuff from an Australian manufacturer that also produces a number of other liqueurs (advokaat, creme de cassis, triple sec, creme de menthe, etc). I'm told their advokaat is a very poor imitation of the real deal but that's advokaat. Creme de cacao, tho', is something I have no intention of drinking straight. I'll cook with it or mixologise with it. Are cheap, generic bottlings of creme de cacao (and, perhaps, creme de menthe/cassis) generally acceptable? For Australians, the companies I'm speaking of are these guys and Baitz (I bought their maraschino liqueur--haven't tried it staight but it didn't do terrible things to my Last Word).

I recently purchased DeGroff's Essential Cocktails and armed myself (or I already had) the following: Absolut Amaretto Americano Angostura bitters Campari Canadian Club Chambord Cointreau Espolon Tequila Reposado Galliano Vanilla Gin: Tanqueray, Hendrick's Green Chartreuse Green Island white rum Kahlua Maker's Mark Maraschino Martell VSOP Mount Gay dark rum Pernod Scotch: Talisker 10, Glenfiddich 12 Vermouth: sweet red and dry white Wild Turkey Rye I also have grenadine, tonic water, soda water, tomato juice, orange juice and fresh fruit (lemons, limes, oranges, etc). In short, this allows me to make most of the things I actually want to drink from DeGroff's book. I've already made most of the drinks that jumped out at me and enjoyed, to varying extents, all of them--most notably The Last Word (altho' I wouldn't want anything sweeter than that), Sazarac (with bourbon, rye or cognac), Old-Fashioned, Manhattan and Mojito were clear winners. I found the Americano (the cocktail, not the apertif) and Negroni interesting enough to want to further explore bitter cocktails. The Vesper was okay. I like gin and tonics, Bloody Marys and (out of character--I know) black Russians. I don't really like sweet things--altho' there are a few exceptions (basically the flavour needs to be really interesting or maybe have some sort of sweet and sour thing going on, it can't just be a booze-laden sugar rush). if it's to be sweet then sweet in the way of fresh fruit is more appealing than sweet in the way of, say, Fanta. Something sweet in the way cognac is sweet is about right. But sugary drinks aren't my idea of a good time at all. My palate is skewed towards the savoury. I want to try something new but the amount of information avaliable when you enter an ingredient into, say, CocktailDB can be slightly overwhelming. I'd like to have some other liqueurs/spirits on hand--creme de cacao, etc--but I won't be shopping again any time soon. So where to from here? What cocktails/family of cocktails should I be looking at, based on what I have in my booze collection and my taste?

Chapters and contents: * Meat: their definition of quality meat, finding and identifying quality meat, the science of what happens when you age beef, cooking steaks, steak sauces, hamburgers and etc (a tartare, a hotdog), roast beef lore and recipes, braises/slow-cooked dishes, grilled chops of various species, a couple of roast poultry recipes. * Seafood: some techniques (i.e. shucking and preparing oysters), some mostly shellfish-centred recipes * Sides: potato and other vegetable recipes * Cheese: some recommendations of cheeses to buy, some cheese-heavy recipes (i.e. macaroni and cheese, a salad) * Breakfast and brunch: lore, recipes for meaty breakfasts (baked beans, their signature sausages, HkMuffin) * Puddings: desserts such as queen of puddings, sundaes, trifle * Cocktails: lore and a limited amount of technique, a few cocktails (mostly twists on classics--i.e. a tobacco Old Fashioned) * Wine selection of wines appropriate to the style of food served at the restaurant/in the book, a limited amount of technique (decanting) Yes and yes. Yes. Yes.

The books are both pitched at the 'home cooking' market but they have different intents. Heston's book is obviously for people who want to spend 24 hours fussing over a chicken before finishing it with the precision of a scientist. Adria's book isn't for those people. I'm ... not sure who it is for. A lot of the people who know his name probably wouldn't be bothered by recipes that ask for you to, I don't know, rub a potato over a mandolin a few times to produce straws or make some icecream. I've no problem with the use of store-bought alternatives--I mean, when I come home from work and it's the middle of the week, I really don't want to be piss farting around with some preparations. But still, some of those things that really do make your dinner better--brining, say--take damn near no time at all. I can't fathom leaving those out--I mean, those little 'cheffy' touches (without going to the level of Heston's book) are kind of what you'd expect from the one of the world's greatest chef's approaches to home cooking. Still, the recipes are simpler than 90% of the recipes in a Jamie Oliver book (even in his '30 minute weeknight meals for people who normally just buy McDonald's' moments).

My first Vesper. Used Americano instead of Lillet.

London Iced Tea. Last night. Not now ... a hour before I walk into the classroom.

I ended up buying the Reposado. One of the staff members at the shop gave pretty much the same case for it that I'm hearing here.

What if you freeze the sauce into little cubes using liquid nitrogen (I've never done this--it just came up when a pastry chef friend and I were discussing booze-filled chocolate desserts, so maybe it wouldn't work as well as we imagine) and then make the rest of the mousse as normal. Place the little frozen cubes of sauce inside the mousse domes. At 'normal' freezer temp., the centres will thaw into liquid.

Er ... maybe I'm missing something but what's the big deal if they offered to email you their own photos?

My latest and final haul (for a good while, at least, as I have enough variety to make a lot of different cocktails): Glenfiddich 12 (the only blend that grabbed me happened to be a blend of Speyside whiskies ... I figured Glenfiddich would be a more suitable choice for Old Fashioneds, Rob Roys, et al) Galliano (vanilla) Americano (to use instead of Lillet in Vespers) Espolon Tequila Reposado Was tempted by Plymoth gin--both the regular and, purely because I've never had it, the sloe--but didn't give it. Will maybe wait until it's on special or I finish my (just opened) bottle of Tanq.

Martell VSOP Green Chartreuse Maraschino cherry liqueur Absolut Kahlua Tanqueray (regular) Maker's Mark

Any thoughts on the Espolon range? I don't want to spend a lot on tequila (i.e. I don't want to spend ~$100AUD on a bottle of a something I've never even tasted) so is the Espolon a worthy choice? Do I want the blanco or the reposado? Do I really need both? I'm mostly intending to use it in cocktails.

A kimchi burger (basically a cheeseburger with added kimchi) inspired by the recipe of the same name in the excellent Hawksmoor book. In the book they make their own kimchi using a slightly (intentionally, too--they wanted to boost the umami factor) westernised recipe. It's the middle of the week so I didn't DIY my kimchi, I just bought it from the local Korean shop. Fermented goodness.

Went shopping today and came home with some stuff. Mixed up a Last Word (thanks, Wikipedia). Holy shit. Awesome. Can't wait to try some of the variations I've seen kicking about eGullet.

A Manhattan. I bought a bourbon (Maker's Mark) for my collection and used that. Will probably attempt another Old Fashioned later.

Always, always, always this. Whenever a recipe tells me to do both at once I ignore it and stick to the old way for a bunch of reasons. Notably, I want the meat perfectly brown and the onions perfectly caramelised--I don't want to sacrifice the quality of one for the other, which is something you probably need to do (unless you have ninja timing skills) if you do both at once. And, of course, because crowding the pan with vegetables means the meat is more likely to stew in the resulting liquid. Also, I cook vegetables at a lower heat than I brown meat.

I've had Momofuku sitting on the shelf for a while but I haven't done much with it. I decided I had to remedy this (as I am with several other books I've purchased but not really used) and went with the marinated flank steak. Only the local butcher was all out of flank and I didn't really feel like travelling around, hunting for flank on a Sunday, so I settled for some rump. Marinated it yesterday and then cooked it today. Served it with kimchi and spring onions, altho' I didn't make them into a sauce as in the recipe purely because after Monday and a long staff meeting and no beer in the fridge I'm in no goddamn state to be a saucier. It was nice. I can see the marinade becoming part of the regular line-up over summer proper, when I use the BBQ more often. I'll be using some of the leftovers tomorrow for lunch and the final lot in Momofuku ginger and spring onion noodles recipe.

Steak, roast potatoes, roast mushrooms, roast tomatoes.

I've got a lamb ribs recipe here. Tried it a couple of times. Calls for the fat on racks of lamb ribs to be scored. Make a paste with crushed garlic, salt, thyme, lemon zest, lemon juice and olive oil. Rub said paste into said scored ribs. Roast at 150C for ~1 hour. I guess you could get all fancy and sous vide it then finish it on a BBQ or something.

Anyone picked up a copy yet? I've never been to the steakhouse--altho' flipping through the book, that's something I must correct when I head to the UK in '012--but this is a nice book. Obviously beef centric, altho' there are also recipes for other beasts--chicken, lamb, veal, goose, pork and shellfish. What's nice is that for a meat-centred book, the steak and burger recipes are less recipes and more detailed breakdowns of the technique. Indeed, the book as a whole has a lot of recipes (for cocktails as well as savoury dishes and puddings) but there's also a lot of room given to relevant techniques. Altho' being a steakhouse book there's obviously no discussion of sous vide, etc. A nice touch, too, that I'd never thought of before: the burger patties are made with ground meat and bone marrow. Genius. The breakfast section alone should mean that this book is sold in sealed black plastic and kept behind the counter and only sold after a waiver has been signed. I love this kind of book and I love this kind of food. Already this is one of my favourite British cookbooks. Tonight I'm cooking a T-bone steak (using their method, which differs somewhat from my usual) and some of the sides. Preparing a marinade for the 'Tamworth pork ribs', too.

Adria slow roasts them under foil in his new book. Guess you could try something like that--he sticks with garlic and rosemary but you could do whatever you wanted. Some Indian spices, maybe. Oregano amd garlic. He splits them lengthways first.

Monkey Gland. I used the amount of Grenadine DeGroff suggested (i.e. a couple of drips) and ended up with an ugly-coloured cocktail--not the glorious orange thin in the photo. This shit is worse than saffron powder and tandoori colouring.

Salad Nicoise. The greatest of all salads. Discuss.