JAZ

I had a cucumber gimlet quite a while ago at Cortez, a San Francisco restaurant and bar known for its cocktail menu (not sure if it's still on the menu, though), and a basil gimlet last week at Rye, a newish SF bar. So, naturally, I decided to blend the two -- I muddled cucumber and basil with gin, then added a little simple syrup and a splash of green Chartreuse. It was good; but it's important not to get it too sweet. I thought at the time it would also be good with a splash of soda as a tall drink.

I know you said that you don't want to use pectin, but I would recommend buying some Ball Fruit Jell pectin for freezer jam. It requires much less sugar than regular pectin and gives reliable, good results. If you use apples with the strawberries, you'll dilute the strawberry flavor -- you'll end up with apple-strawberry jam, which will probably be good, but won't be strawberry jam. Freezer jams in general require less sugar and also don't require sterilization or sealing jars. Just make sure you get a pectin that's formulated for freezer jams.

If you started with a cocktail at the Top of the Mark in the Mark Hopkins hotel or the Starlight Room in the Sir Francis Drake (better cocktails at the latter, in my opinion) then you could take the cable car to Tadich Grill, which is definitely old San Francisco and has pretty good fish and seafood as well.

Here are a few things that come to mind: The chili would probably stand out more if it were in a solid color bowl, rather than glass -- if you had a yellow bowl, that might look good. Also, ordinarily I prefer white plates to colors, but since all that's on the plate in this case is the saltines, a darker plate might provide some contrast. As far as the contrast goes, some chopped cilantro would be nice, or -- since you don't want to add more heat to the chili, you could try a little diced red or yellow bell pepper (or both). Slivers of the peppers might be interesting too (instead of the dice).

Depending on the texture you're after, you might want to try seeding and shredding the cucumber, then draining and drying it. That's what I do for tzadtiki (sp?) and it doesn't end up watery. If you want largers pieces of cucumber, you still might want to seed it first before slicing. I find that leaving the seeds in results in more water seeping out.

Your recipe as written calls for baking soda, but then you talk about baking powder. They do vastly different things. Baking powder is a leavener, but baking soda is not on its own -- it needs an acidic ingredient to act as a leavener. So if your batter recipe really calls for baking soda, you need buttermilk or something acidic in it.

Can anyone give a good recipe for the batter? I think I know the basics, but every recipe I've come across seems to be a little different. For instance, some use just egg whites; some use whole eggs. Some use baking poweder; some use cornstarch. My attempts so far have been less than satisfactory.

Would this just be an exercise (seasoning without salt)? Do you not use salt, and if not, why? You could just as easily assert that butter (or other fat) is a cop-out, or that sugar is a cop-out, or that mirepoix is a cop-out. Yeah, you can make things taste good without them, but why?

When I buy waxed lemons, I scrub them with dish soap and very hot water and then rinse thoroughly. It's always worked for me.

These walnuts are great bar snacks. I used to sell them to a couple of local bars.

I've had deep fried anchovy-stuffed olives that make a really good bar snack.

A couple of notes about organization: Even though you'll have everyone work on the preparation, don't forget to give yourself time to unload the groceries, wash the produce and divide it into bowls/baskets/piles so everything they'll need is ready for them to work on. You'll also want to do things like fill a couple of bowls with some salt for seasoning, get your spices ready to be measured (if you're not pre-measuring), and make sure that anything your liquid ingredients (oil, soy sauce, etc) are in containers that are easy to manage (i.e, not the two gallon Costco cans). With everyone working on the prep, you'll need lots and lots of prep bowls of all sizes, and also several sets of measuring spoons and cups -- how well is the kitchen stocked? You mentioned having people bring their own knives and cutting boards; given that they're coming from work, you might want to invest in a package or two of the flexible plastic cutting boards so they don't have to. They're only $7 or so for a package of 4, and since you can charge a materials fee, it might be worth it. I've found that they work pretty well if you put a damp towel or paper towel underneath to keep them stable. Then you can keep them, or donate them to the kitchen. As for the content of the class, one thing to spend some time on in your class (which you're probably already planning to do) is the role of seasoning, especially salt, in cooking. I've found in my classes that even fairly experienced cooks really don't know what they're tasting for when the directions say "salt to taste." Letting them taste a dish after adding salt in several stages is an eye-opening experience for many of them.

Since I'm all out of Pernod, Herbsaint or any plausible Absinthe substitute, I couldn't make a Sazerac. However, I think an Old Fashioned Cocktail made according to Dave Wondrich's recipe in Killer Cocktails is a good way to celebrate, and a good way to break in my new bottle of Michter's rye.

Maybe because I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, I've been thinking about this sort of thing, which is why I jumped in. There's an interesting account of "eating locally" in the Missoula (Montana) Independent: Grubshedding

Oh yeah -- forget coffee, tea and chocolate too.

You're kidding, right? First, the easy points: Where do you think your spices come from -- New York? Is there olive oil produced within a hundred miles of New York? You'd have to give up cheeses from Europe (or California, for that matter); any wines from farther away than 100 miles; sushi -- in fact, rice, period. Forget Scotch or Cognac. And, do you know where the wheat for your flour comes from? My guess is that it isn't from within a hundred miles. The cane or beets for your sugar? Probably doesn't come from New York. Second, even for ingredients that can be grown or raised within a hundred miles, you have to investigate them -- if they're from a supermarket, chances are they aren't local. If you're lucky to have access to a farmers' market, you have a head start, but it still means no emergency trips to the local corner store for a pint of cream -- probably not going to be local. Third, unless you're sure of the ingredients your favorite restaurants use, better not plan on eating out. I'm much luckier than most -- I live in California, and I could get a lot of products that are grown or made locally. But if I lived in Southern Utah (for example), it would really suck to stick to foods grown within a hundred miles.

This sounds like a great idea. I think your menu ideas sound good -- fairly simple but tasty. If you haven't taught cooking classes before, I think one of the main things to plan out is the timing. When I taught my first class, I went way over my time limit, just because I didn't really take into consideration two things: the questions I got during the class, plus how long it would take to actually make things. (And that was after I'd been assisting with classes for a couple of years -- I thought I knew enough, but assisting is one thing; teaching is another.) The second class I did much better, and by the third I had it down pretty well. But if I'd just done a dry run of the first class, I think I could have timed it much better. So I'd suggest doing a trial run of the first lesson on a roommate or friend -- just so you get a feel for actually doing the demonstation parts of the classes. It sounds as if you're planning to teach this as a hands-on class, right? Will you have help cleaning up? Will the students clean, too? Teaching a class is pretty tiring, and if you have to clean everything up alone afterwards, you'll be exhausted. So get a volunteer or two -- maybe offer a free class to someone if they help you clean up. If you can get someone to help get everything prepped before the class, do that too. Those are the first things that come to mind. I'm sure I'll think of more as the discussion advances.

I have used my LC for risotto, and I thought it was okay, until I used a copper bottom saute pan (and then a copper one, which is even better). But soups can work really well in coated cast iron, depending on the soup. Long cooked ones work well -- the ones that are halfway to stew, for example. Same with curries; it depends on the style of curry. But it's not the best material for everything, by any means. Basically, if you need fast temperature control, cast iron is the wrong choice. If you need slow even heat and good heat retention, it's the right choice.

Huh, that is interesting. I would think that between the guys from Tommy's and Jacques Bezuidenhout, (last seen concocting incredibly expensive libations for Harry Denton's Starlight Room and recently featured in Cocktailian,) they would at least manage to get the bar right. ← I was at Tres Agaves in March for a tequila tasting/class sponsored by the Museum of the American cocktail and had a great time. I hadn't been there since, but a friend of mine has been wanting to try it so we went for drinks last week. I can't really speak to the food issue, because we only got a couple of appetizers (which I thought were good) or the service, since we were sitting at the bar, but I thought the drinks ranged from above average to really good. We started out with a house margarita (it was swamped when we got there and it seemed like the easiest way to start) -- I had mine up and my friend had hers on the rocks. They use Arette Blanco tequila in their house margaritas; I'm more used to reposado tequila in margaritas, but I'm trying to branch out to blancos, because it seems they're a more traditional choice. Anyway, it was good -- a bit sweeter than I prefer, but I like my margaritas on the sour side. Then when it calmed down, one of the bartenders, whom I know, made us a tall drink with Don Julio blanco, lime, agave nectar (I think) and a new pineapple agua fresca they'd just gotten in. Since we'd just gotten our chips and salsa, these drinks were great for putting out the fire (the runner misidentified the hot and medium salsas, or we misunderstood him -- in any case, the hot salsa is very hot.) With our food, we had a cocktail created by Jacques, which contained Grand Centenario anejo, agave nectar and a very nice sherry, the name of which totally escapes me. I never would have thought that sherry and tequila would be a good match but this is an exquisite and intriguing drink. Jacques already won a cocktail competition with it, and is due to travel to Spain soon to try it in an international competition. All this being said, we were sitting at the bar, and I do know both Jacques, who manages the bar, and another of the bartenders there. Except for the first drink (the house margarita) we simply asked them to make us "something interesting." It could be an entirely different situation ordering drinks at a table. I'd say that regardless of the food, it's worth going for the drinks. At least if you like tequila.

The matte black enamel (in the Staub) does, I think, do a better job browning. It's also more durable and thus less likely to chip (although I've only chipped one LC pot in 20 years). On the other hand, I find the hard enamel of the LC much easier to clean. I'd come down on the side of LC for that reason, but either one will be good for your uses.

I picked up some Pete's Wicked Ale on sale a few days ago, and I have to admit I'm disappointed. I used to drink it pretty regularly, and remember liking it. I'm not sure if it's changed or I have, but I'm finding it pretty boring and one-dimensional. Not bad, but not great.

If you read through the "I will never again. . ." topic, you'll find all kinds of stupid coffee-making mistakes. The ones I, personally, have been involved in include virtually mistake you can make. I've forgotten the water; I've forgotten the coffee. I've forgotten the filter (although I've always caught that one before brewing). When making coffee in my sister's coffee maker for the first time, I didn't put the lid on the carafe -- it wasn't really that I forgot, but with my coffee maker, it didn't make a difference, so it didn't occur to me that it would with hers. But hers had a drip-stop function, so that without the lid, the little lever didn't drop down, so the water just backed up in the filter and went everywhere but into the carafe. My best (or worst) error, though, involved the coffee grinder I used to have, which was a cheap burr grinder of the sort that shoots the coffee out sideways into the container. Here's something to keep in mind: if the container is not snapped into place, the coffee will shoot out sideways all over the kitchen.

Incanto Cortez

Is this it? CLICK Or similar? ← Very similar to that one. I actually got mine from a "Realime" advertisement, although I never used Realime, just regular lime juice. Mine calls for twice the amount of tequila -- 4 tablespoons, which, since the filling isn't cooked, is quite a bit. I like it that way, but you want to use good tequila if you use that much.

I used to have a recipe for a Margarita pie that was kind of like a key lime pie flavored with tequila and triple sec, and poured into a crumb crust made with pretzels (for the salt). It was always a hit.