JAZ

I can't help with the cake recipe, but I was looking for a malted-milk truffle center for my Christmas truffles, and came across a filling for sandwich cookies from a cookie book by Nancy Baggett. I altered it a little, and it made a great filling. Maybe you could use it between the layers or even as a frosting. Chocolate-Malt Filling 1 cup white chocolate chunks or chips 2/3 cups milk chocolate chunks or chips 1/4 cup unsalted butter 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp plain malted milk powder 1 3oz package cream cheese, softened 1/3 cup milk 2 tsp vanilla extract Melt chocolate and butter in small heavy saucepan over low heat and cool slightly. Beat the malted milk powder and cream cheese until well blended and completely smooth. Beat in half of the chocolate mixture just until incorporated. Beat in the milk a little at a time until well blended. Beat in the remaining chocolate mixture and the vanilla until evenly incorporated. At this point the texture will be really strange and viscous. Don't worry. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until somewhat thickened but not stiff. Beat the filling on high speed until light in color and very fluffy, about 3 minutes more; scrape down the sides several times.

I wish this book had been around when I was just starting to make cocktails.

I'd go further than that, personally. If I could only use one base liquor for cocktails, it would be gin. One thing to keep in mind, of course, is that gins, unlike vodkas, really do vary quite a lot in their flavor profiles. If you can find a good supply of 50-ml bottles, it's worth buying a selection to compare. They don't all taste like a juniper forest.

I had a great new (to me) gin-based drink last night. Called a "Journalist," it was made with Damrak gin, sweet and dry vermouth, a dash each of lemon juice and Cointreau, and bitters. CocktailDB has two recipes which sound similar to the proportions in the drink I had last night. Even my friend who's not a big gin drinker loved it. It's definitely going in my home repetoire.

I have a double-burner sized stovetop grill pan, and many nights I'll throw one or two boned chicken thighs (or fish) on one side and some vegetables on the other. I'll make a sauce if I feel like it, or wrap it all in a tortilla with some salsa.

For more opinions on the subject, check out this older thread.

I have a copy of The Pleasures of Cooking Fruits and Vegetables; I picked it up last year for a few dollars but haven't done much with it yet. Now, after reading this, I'll have to look through it. Thanks, Maggie.

As a substitute for Pernod or other licorice liqueurs, try green Chartreuse. It has a faint hint of licorice, but so many other herbal flavors as well that the taste of it is very muted. It'll provide the alcohol and complexity, just not the big licorice flavor.

This is more a point of terminology, but when you wrap beets in foil, or add a little liquid and cook them covered, you're really not roasting the beets, you're steaming them. And while I agree it's a good way to cook them, a much easier and faster way is to steam them in a pressure cooker. I used to do the wrapped-in-foil-in-the-oven method, but often had trouble with uneven cooking. And although I really wanted to believe that they tasted better, I no longer think that's true. That being said, I have had roasted beets -- peeled, cubed, and tossed in olive oil and salt with a few other root vegetables and roasted at medium heat uncovered -- that were really good. In that case, roasting really did make a difference.

I've been meaning to try Cortez for quite a while and finally made it last week. Although I went primarily for cocktails, we did try a couple of the dishes, including the fries (very good, with two sauces) and grilled spicy prawns on top of a coconut rice. I'm not ordinarily a big fan of coconut, but this was subtle and worked well with the prawns. The highlight, though, was a complimentary shot glass of carrot soup topped with chive oil. The flavor was great, but what made it memorable was the ethereal texture; I wish I knew how they got that. The cocktails were superb; at $9 and up for specialty cocktails, it's still worth it -- not more expensive than any other hotel bars, and much better than most. The cocktail with Tanquerey Ten and elderflower syrup was a standout. I'm not sure I'd categorize the food as tapas, though. Small plates, yes, but not particularly Spanish in inspiration.

I've tried both cointreau and regular ol' cheap curacao and found that because of the aromatics of the gin and the flavor of the two bitters that it doesn't make THAT much of a difference in this case. Of course, I may not have as exceptional a palate as you! Well there's always food coloring! ← One thing to keep in mind if you go the food coloring route is that it stains. As in lips, teeth and tongues. (So does blue curacao, for that matter, since it also contains food coloring.) Another idea for the pink cocktail would be to substitute blood orange juice for regular orange in just about any cocktail calling for it.

I made this drink for a class last year. It's a very accessible drink: The Pomeranian: 2 oz. white rum 1 oz. pomegranate juice (I used Pom Wonderful) 1/2 oz. lemon juice 1/2 oz. triple sec 1/4 oz. grapefruit juice Shake and serve up in a chilled glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel. I also made a nice non-alcoholic version by (obviously) leaving out the rum, upping the amount of grapefruit and topping with soda.

Cool. Any idea what kind of distribution they'll have?

Well, the classic Campari drink is probably the Negroni ( here's an earlier thread on that topic). The Jasmine from Harrington's book is also a good one to try (1.5 oz. gin, .25 oz. Cointreau, .25 oz Campari, .75 oz lemon juice) -- the Campari isn't as pronounced as in the Negroni, but it's very good. For anyone in the SF area, Pesce is a good choice for serious cocktails. Jacques is a very nice guy and a fabulous bartender.

I've experimented with it and use it in some dishes. If you're interested in reading about my conclusions, you can check out this Daily Gullet article (the first part is about citric acid; the second part gets to MSG).

The EGullet Culinary Institute presents a new course on Plating and Presentation the week of March 21. The instructor Currently a Chef Instructor at a Central Florida culinary college, Chef Tony Adams first developed an interest in culinary arts in his hometown of Fairfield, Maine. He pursued his passions and pursued a Bachelor's Degree in Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. While in Providence, Chef Adams joined the team at Empire, the restaurant owned by Chefs Loren Falsone and Eric Mosier, two of Food and Wine Magazine's Top Ten Best New Chefs, working up to Operations Manager there when the restaurant closed in the early fall of 2003. He then traveled, working as a stagier in the kitchens of some of the world’s best restaurants and hotels: Le Manoir Aux Quat Saisons in England, Daniel in Manhattan, Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, Primo in Rockland, Maine, and Magnolia Grill in Durham. The course The Plating and Presentation course will teach the participants what to look for during the cooking and plating process in order to make their presentations more visually appealing. The course will cover the handling of food, equipment that will aid in the presentation of the food, and the merits and pitfalls of certain plate and platter styles. Click here to go to the Plating and Presentation course.

Do you mean these? I love them; they're my everyday cocktail glasses. They're comfortable to hold, and don't have a seam where the stem connects to the bowl, which I prefer.

And don't forget ginger, which can add a nice touch to cocktails, Asian or otherwise. Ginger syrup can even make a lemon drop more interesting.

Most of the really good, interesting cocktails to be had in SF can be found at restaurants, not dedicated bars (with the exception of the Orbit Room). Try Cortez, Enrico's, Absinthe and Pesce in the city; Nizza La Bella (Albany) or Cesar (Berkeley) if you're in the East Bay. Of the hotel bars, the Starlight Room in the Sir Francis Drake hotel is better than most -- although their best bartender left, they at least have his cocktail menu to work from. I've had good, if not very imaginative, cocktails at the Pied Piper in the Palace Hotel as well. I've heard very good things about the bar at the Fifth Floor, but haven't made it there myself, so I don't have any personal experience.

A variation on the Vesper is to sub a mandarin-flavored vodka for the plain. In that case I like a little more of both the vodka and the Lillet. Hangar One Mandarin Blossom is especially good in this drink.

Comic, I really didn't mean to imply that Alberta is not a good bartender; she's great in many ways. As I mentioned, I've had some fabulous drinks with her, on many occasions. She's good; she has a great sense of flavor combinations and takes a lot of time and care with her drinks. I like that; I like her, and I like the Orbit Room. My comments about her speed and efficiency were just my observations. The article, though, calls her, at one point, "the best bartender in SF" and I do disagree with that. There are other places in the city that offer great cocktails from extremely talented bartenders, some of the best I know. And on a busy night, I'd rather be at those places than at the Orbit Room.

I was making a Pegu Club the other evening and didn't have quite enough lime juice (I use the Dave/Paul Harrington proportions) so I augmented it with a very little bit of blood orange juice. It was a very good variation, and a beautiful color as well.

I've been using the wild Italian amarena cherries in cocktails ever since I tried one at a local bar -- Amarena Fabbri is the best brand I've found. Before I was introduced to them, I generally asked the bartender to hold the cherry because I dislike commercial maraschino cherries so much. Once I tried these, I kept trying to find drinks that used them so I could eat more of them.

Alberta does make some wonderful cocktails, but calling her the best bartender in San Francisco is not terribly accurate. While I've always enjoyed the drinks she's made for me, she's not very quick or efficient in mixing, and it can be frustrating to wait a long time for your drinks when it's only moderately busy. When it's very busy, I'd give the Orbit Room a pass entirely. I've enjoyed the Orbit Room the most when I've been there in the afternoon with few other customers in the place.

Marlene, my vodka-preferring friends all really like martinis made with Tanqueray Ten. It's much less assertive than the regular Tanqueray, with less juniper -- but stands up much better in a martini, in my opinion, than Sapphire. You might give that a try.