slkinsey
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I have a follow-up question:
What makes a drink a tiki drink?
I ask this after looking through George's webtender wiki list of tiki drinks, where I see several that I would not consider born of the tiki tradition. In particular, I'm not sure I'd call the Dark and Stormy, Hurricane, Piña Colada, Queen's Park Swizzle, any variety of Margarita or Daiquiri, or the non-Trader Vic Suffering Bastard a "tiki drink."
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I think there is a growing interest in tiki drinks due to a combination of 1) there is a cocktail revival well underway; 2) many tiki drinks are nonthreatening, easy-drinking and approachable to those who cut their teeth on "vodka with 6 different kinds of fruit juice" drinks; 3) there are some genuinely good tiki drinks out there; 4) 50's-era kitsch appeals to the "ironic hipster" set these days. These things combine to make it more likely that certain individuals will say "yes" to a Mai Tai in a tiki mug.
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You could add other things to it to improve the color. I am thinking particularly of curry powder, which would bring it more towards the yellow side of the spectrum. Curry and cauliflower happen to go together brilliantly. Then a little chopped flatleaf parsley for color, maybe a dice of tomato sprinkled on the top... you've got more or less the same soup, but with a different flavor and color plus some added texture, with very little effort.
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Interesting. I haven't found any of these to be notably better than Awash, but I understand that the Ethiopian dishes I like are Awash's specialties.
Honestly, I can't say that I notice a huge difference from Ethiopian place to Ethiopian place in the City. There was nothing about Queen of Sheba that would make me want to go to 46th and 10th rather than a few blocks away to Awash. But, then again, I'm sure I'd feel exactly the opposite if I lived around the corner from Queen of Sheba.
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The pans when I saw them in the store were more than 2.5 inches deep - more like 4 inches....I don't know if the links I posted gave dimensions, but I handled both sauciers in the store yesterday, and they looked like they could handle enough oil for papads and pooris.....
From a purely geometrical standpoint, they could not possibly have been 4 inches deep if they were 1 quart pans. A 1 quart (57.75 cubic inches) cylinder that is 4 inches tall has a diameter of scarsely more than 4 inches.
Anyway, All-Clad's product information page gives the dimsneions of their 1 quart saucier as 6.5 inches in diameter at the top (which calculates to approximately 4.9 inches in diameter at the bottom) and 2.25 inches in depth. I agree that you wouldn't want to fill the pan more than 1/3 deep (.75 inches) with hot oil. That would give you around 1.25 cups of cooking oil to work with. If that's enough for you to work with, you should go for it.
That said, the blackening is going to happen no matter what if you're doing a lot of deep frying. It's also unclear to me why you'd contemplate spending 45 bucks for something like this. If I were you, I'd look around for a 1 quart carbon steel wok. Do such things exist?
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Unless you are planning on frying miniscule amounts of food in a cup of oil, a one quart saucier is going to be way too small. The pan is only something like 2.5 inches deep. That's a recipe for boilover and a grease fire.
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Since dulce de leche is a milk-based sweet, and a very thick one, I am not sure how easy it would be to incorporate into a cocktail. I would think a small amount of it might work in a rum or whiskey based fizz-type drink that was exhaustively shaken.
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First of all, you don't need to worry about the drink bursting into flame. No cocktail worth drinking is alcoholic enough to catch on fire.
To answer your questions:
- An approximately silver dollar-sized piece of orange peel seems to work the best. It's possible, albeit more difficult, to flame an approximately quarter-sized lemon twist as well.
- You could use either a match or a lighter. Most of the bartenders I know use wooden matches.
- Flaming the twist definitely makes a difference in the impact of the drink. There is a distinctive "burnt orange" aroma that comes from flaming an orange twist.
- You flame the outside part of the twist.
- You don't actually light the twist on fire, so there is no need to blow it out (more on this later).
- You don't soak the peel in alcohol.
Whenever a cocktail calls for a "twist" or "peel" garnish, you're not supposed to simply drop a piece of citrus peel in the drink. You're supposed to "twist" the peel by flexing it over the glass, causing the citrus oils to spray out of the peel and onto the surface of the drink (sometimes you may also choose to run the peel around the rim of the glass to rub off the residual citrus oils). When a recipe calls for a "flamed orange peel," what they are asking you to do is flame the orange oils as they are sprayed out of the peel when you twist it over the cocktail, not the actual peel itself. The best way goes something like this:
1. Have the finished cocktail poured in front of you, and have the orange peel from a fresh orange pre-cut and ready.
2. Hold the orange peel in your right hand between your thumb and forefinger in a more-or-less vertical position with the orange part of the peel facing away from the palm of your hand.
3. Light a match or lighter in your left hand and briefly warm the surface of the orange peel by bringing the peel close to the flame at a slight angle. This helps to bring the oils to the surface of the peel.
4. Hold the flame near the rim of the glass, maybe a few inches above. Coming from the side, flex the orange peel causing the orange oils to spray out of the orange peel onto the surface of the drink. The idea is that the orange oils should pass through the flame on their way from the peel to the surface of the drink. The flame will ignite the oils, and there will be a brief flash as they burn in the air.
5. Enjoy the burnt orange goodness.
If you want to see this technique in action, visit either Flatiron Lounge or Pegu Club and ask for a drink with a flamed twist garnish (you will notice that both establishments have a glass of wooden matches on the bar for just this purpose).
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First off, what home cook doesn't line a pan with foil for easy clean up?
Me. I don't.
How am I going to take the roasting pan from the oven to the stovetop to deglaze and scrape up all the concentrated bits of roastey goodness if there's foil all over the inside of the pan?
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Rittenhouse bonded Old Fashioned.
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As I mention upthread, it is not possible to obtain lacón in NYC so something else must be used.
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Hi Nina. Now that the weather's turning cool, I've got to give fabada another try. I am not expert in making it (clearly!) but have had the privilege of dining at La Maquina, which is considered by many to be the pinnacle of fabada-making. So at least I think I have a good idea of what a world-class fabada should be like.
Some thoughts on making fabada in NYC:
It's great to have a source like Despaña, but their fabes aren't as fresh as they could be -- certainly not as fresh as one can get in Spain. This proved to be a problem in my first attempt, because while some of the beans cooked through to that etherial, creamy interior, around 10% of them remained somewhat mealy and undercooked even after several extra hours of cooking. The best way I can think of to make this work with Despaña's fabes would be to cook the fabada extra long (and extra low to avoid breakage) the day before, to make sure all the beans are properly cooked, and then gently reheat for service the following day. Needless to say, the fabada should not be stirred or the fabes will break.
Looking at your picture, your fabada seems to be around 75% meat and 25% fabes. This is very different from the classic formula, which to my eye seems to be more like 85% fabes and 15% meat. As I think I pointed out above, at La Maquina each person got maybe 3 small pieces of each of the three meats (morcilla, chorizo and lacón). I don't know that it'll help much with the heaviness, but it should make for a less rich dish if you cut way back on the meats. That's missing the point anyway, as fabada is all about the beans.
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Is anyone besides me using SAF Gold or a cloche?
I used King Arthur bread flour and SAF Gold for my first experiment. I have to say that I don't quite get the "no flavor" criticism in this thread. I found the loaf to be quite flavorful for a commercial yeast leavened white wheat loaf (I did use 2 tsp of kosher salt). The crust was especially nice. That said, I'd really like to try this with a natural leaven.
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phlawless, what kind of flour did you use?
I note, by the way, that the recipe from the Times calls for bread flour and 1 5/8 cups water, while the recipe in the video calls for AP flour and 1 1/2 cups of water. When you're talking about only 3 cups of AP flour (and especially given the difficulty in measuring 8ths of a cup of liquid along with the accompanying tendency to err towards 3/4 rather than 1/2), that additional 1/8th of a cup can make a difference.
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The light comes from above? Or from below?
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For a long rise like this, it also may help to use a small amount (maybe 1/2 tsp) of diastatic malt powder. This contains enzymes that will gradually break down some of the starch in the flour into sugars that the yeast can use for food.
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I also disagree with Bittman on flavor: even at 18 hours, this dough lacks flavor. Using a chef (piece of old dough) or a 1/4 cup of sourdough if you have it lying around will dramatically improve flavor. You will also get far more flavor if you mix a little flour, water, pinch of yeast and let it sit a few hours before you make this dough. OK - that's maybe not minimalist - it adds one step, but this also improves flavor dramatically (it's known as a 'poolish').
I haven't tried it with this particular recipe, but experience suggests to me that using a poolish or biga won't make a dramatic difference in this recipe given the length of the rise.
It is also worth pointing out that those of us who are used to working with natural leavening (aka "sourdough") will likely find most any straight white flour/water/commercial yeast dough to be underflavored. The same would be true for those who prefer herbed breads or breads made with specialty grains. I think there is something to be said for the flavors of a well-fermented straight white flour/water/commercial yeast dough, though. It's just not going to have the same impact as the others.
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One of the things that happens in a long bulk fermentation is that the gas produced by the yeast exceeds the dough's capability to contain it. This is why the dough at this stage is very delicate and spongey, and why it has a tendency to collapse dramatically when agitated. When you reshape the dough, you give the bread another chance to contain the fermentation gasses and inflate. One thing that the folding does -- even miminal folding such as suggested for this technique -- is to help provide a better structure for containing the fermentation gasses.
One tip for shaping extremely wet doughs: I have found that the best way to do this is to flour the board, gently turn out the wet dough into a rough oval, roll the dough up the long axis into a "cigar," then roll the cigar up its long axis. At this point, the dough should have enough structure for a quick, light turn to stretch the gluten across the top. As always with wet doughs, if you want the big holes and irregular crumb, it's best to handle/deflate the dough as little as possible when shaping.
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Rapid rise yeast is the same as instant yeast.
Rapid rise yeast is more finely granulated than active dry yeast, so it does not need to be dissolved in a liquid first. It can be added directly to the dry ingredients.
To the best of my knowledge, this is not entirely correct. AFAIK, "rapid rise yeast" is actually a strain of yeast that was created to rise faster (i.e., have faster metabolic activity) than regular active dry yeast. It may also be more finely granulated, and thus an "instant yeast," but other "instant yeasts" like SAF Red are not necessarily "rapid rise" (in fact, some of instant yeasts, such as SAF Gold, are specially formulated to be slow-rising).
With respect to the wetness of the dough, I think others have pointed out that the wetness will depend on the gluten content of the flour. The higher the gluten content, the more dry the dough will be for a given percent hydration (I note that most everyone who complained of an overly soupy dough and/or a wet crumb in the finished loaf used AP flour instead of bread flour). This is why, as Mark Bittman suggests, one should view the recipe formula as an approximation and adjust the dough with additional water or flour until a target texture is achieved. There is no way to assure that the wetness will be the same unless the same flour is used (there is also the effect of humidity and how wet or dry the flour is before it is used, but this should be fairly negligible in a three-cup recipe).
Today I am experimenting with combining this technique and my usual "workday bread" technique. I fermented the dough for 18 hours, then this morning I formed the dough into a boule and put it into a cloth-lined banneton. I put a plastic bag around the banneton and put the whole works into the refrigerator to retard. I'll take it out while I'm preheating the oven once I get home this evening. This, I've found to be a good method for having a proofed loaf ready to go into the oven when you get home from work.
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One issue with the Northern Tools grinder:
As previously mentioned, it is extremely heavy and heavy-duty. Every part is thick metal. . . except one: the on/off switch. This is made of plastic. Because the grinder is so heavy it's not going to move if something bumps into the plastic switch. No, what's going to happen is that the plastic switch is going to crack and break -- which is exactly what happened to mine. Apparently this is not an uncommon problem, because when I called Northern Tools to order a replacement switch, the helpful customer service rep told me that it was back-ordered and that there were already several orders pending.
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In order to qualify as a stinger, does a cocktail need to have Creme de Menthe in it?
Yea.
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The bakelite knobs on Le Creuset pots are notoriously crappy. Mine is continually slipping off the lid entirely. I've been meaning to replace it with a brass drawer pull from a hardware store.
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I thought this was an interesting discussion in its own right, so I split it off.
I wonder if the Daisy started off more or less with two different meanings, one being a sour with a short squirt of seltzer and the other having a float of chartreuse and no seltzer.
It also seems that this drink went through a kind of re-definition at some point, much like the flip.
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Well, to be precise, of the 23 recipes you have there, 16 of them have a squirt of fizz water added at such time so as to make the drink have light carbonation, 3 use a squirt of seltzer in the beginning to dissolve the sugar, and 4 have no selzter at all.
The "float some Chartreuse on top" recipes all seem to flow from William Schmidt whereas the "squirt of seltzer" recipes seem to flow from JT.
allclad
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Denise, a two questions. . .
1. Without wanting to invade your privacy, I'm wondering just how deep this discount is. I ask for an important reason: All-Clad is egregiously overpriced at retail, and Williams-Sonoma typically charges full retail price. For example, a 12" All-Clad Stainless fry pan at Williams-Sonoma will run you 125 bucks. The same pan as a "second" at Cookware and More will run you 85 bucks. That's a 32% reduction in price. Can your discount beat 32%?
2. Why do you want this frypan? What do you want to use it for?