slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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How do people cook their bacon? I really haven't found a better way to do it, although I'm open to other ideas.
Although it may not be practical for a small amount, I think the best way is to lay the strips out on a cookie sheet (one with a rim all the way around!) and bake it in a 350 degree oven until crispy, flipping once. Convection ovens are best, but it works well with a regular oven too. This is hands-down the best way to cook large amounts of bacon, and I think it even beats frying on the stovetop or griddle for small amounts. For one, the strips always turn out flat when you bake them, with no curling or buckling. Of course, you can then pour the bacon fat out of the cookie sheet, through a paper towel or coffee filter and into a container. Keep the container in the freezer and dig out a teaspoon every so often when you want to give sautéed mushrooms or other foods just a little extra kick of flavor.
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kjohn, just FYI: Alchemist is not "The Alchemist" -- aka Paul Harrington.
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I tried making a cranberry champagne cocktail to start my over the top Thanksgiving dinner last year (Cava, cranberry puree and a sugar cube soaked in orange bitters). It turned out okay, but I had some trouble with the cranberry puree I made being a little to cohesive due to the pectin and therefore not diffusing into the drink as well as I might have liked.
Last year our hosts served champagne with a dollop of pom wonderful pomegranate juice. Something about anti-oxidants which I thought was pretty lame. So very California.
You've inspired me to serve cranberry champagne cocktails, except I'm going to use homemade Cranberry Liqueur instead of cranberry puree. There's still time to start your own!
I'm actually going to make something similar this season using cranberry syrup (1 part cranberry extract from the health food store, 1 part water and 2 parts sugar) instead of cranberry puree. I'll put in the sugar cube, douse with orange bitters, fill with champagne and then pour in an ounce or so of the cranberry syrup, which I hope will make an interesting color effect.
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I often try to expand the cocktail repertoires of my less cocktail-experienced friends, which is something I probably have in common with many people who frequent these forums. And, of course, a great technique for learning which directions to explore is simply to ask the other person what cocktails he/she likes, which creates a nice opportunity for me to suggest: If you like Cocktail A, I bet you'd really like Cocktail Z.
So, for example:
If you like a bourbon Manhattan, you'll probably like one with rye and bitters. And if you like a Manhattan with rye and bitters, you'll probably like the Tombstone (100 proof rye, demerara syrup and bitters). And if you like the Tombstone with rye, you'll probably love it with Laird's bonded applejack. And so on.
I'd be interested in hearing other strategies like this. What's the best way to expand the cocktail palate of a devoted vodka tonic drinker? What about a Cosmo drinker?
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For me, it's really impossible to say. There are so many that I like. I will say, however, that I haven't been to Pegu Club a single time when I haven't had the Fitty - Fitty Martini (1:1 Tanqueray and Noilly Prat, stirred, strained and garnished with a twist). But whether that's my favorite is hard to say. It's my favorite way to start a long night of imbibing, I'll say that!
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An "Apple Pie Martini," eh? What goes into one of those?
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I "cured" my dolsots by rubbing them with oil and baking them in the oven (repeated this a few times).
I've never cooked rice in mine, but I do heat them over my gas stove, add cooked rice and the vegetables and let the whole thing sit on the flame for 5 minutes or so. As you can see, I get good crisping of the rice (better than I have usually had in restaurants, actually).
I'm not sure how it would work with electric. Probably would make sense to use a flame tamer just to spread the heat around.
I would think you could effectively seal the dolsots for rice cooking by putting a heavy oven-friendly ceramic plate on the top of each one while it was on the stove. I don't think the "seal" has to be any better than that. Remember, you're trying to crisp the bottom anyway.
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From this book we love the Bronx and the Income Tax Cocktail (a Bronx with bitters), Twentieth Century, Aviation, Vieux Carré, Coffee Cocktail, Brooklyn, Satan's Whiskers, Corpse Reviver #2, Blinker, Pegu Club and the Jack Rose.
I was familiar with at least half of these before the book published, and I disagree with some of the formulae (strongly disagree in the case of the Pegu Club), but that's a remarkable number of "regular rotation" cocktails in one slim book.
I hope there's a volume two.
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I fear for Zakarian, a wonderful guy and an absolutely first-rate chef, for if Country fails, Psaltis may try to make him the fall guy.
I like Zakarian too. I think his work is brilliant and Town is IMO deserving of far more recognition and attention than it gets. So it seems a bit odd to me that so many people have been speaking of Country as though it were a "Psaltis restaurant." As far as I know, Country will be a Zakarian restaurant. I have heard that, at least up to this point, the dishes are Zakarian's and that Zakarian is at the chef's station calling orders during service. People initially spoke of Esca as a "Batali restaurant" even though it was more Pasternack's place than it was Mario's in terms of the kitchen, and I'm not sure why we are doing differently here.
All this is to say that we shouldn't take any credit for Country away from Zakarian.
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Interesting question. My guess is that it probably wouldn't have been posted or written about. Another bad meal at Beard House isn't exactly news. But if it was as bad as Mimi says it was I'm sure the people who were there would be talking about it among themselves, even if only to say "that was one of the worst Beard House dinners I've ever attended."
Here is the menu postef on the Beard House web site, by the way:
Bites of Classic Diner FoodForelle Pear and Chestnut Salad
Shellfish, Cauliflower, and Caviar
Poulet Rouge Fermier du Piedmont with Pumpkin Gratin
Toasted Almonds with Poached Grapes and Apples
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Yikes. It does sound pretty awful.
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This is by no means a defense of Psaltis and his cooking at the Beard House dinner. Indeed, I have little trouble imagining that it was not very good. That said, I am given to understand that mediocre is par for the course at Beard House dinners, regardless of who is in the kitchen.
This post by Fat Guy in the Beard House thread back in August may offer some perspective:
It would also be interesting to hear perspectives from those cooking at the events.I've cooked at a Beard House event. A few years ago, I was invited to participate in a latke competition there. I had to prepare latkes for 70 people. . . .The Beard House kitchen is a disgrace by the standards of the contemporary upscale restaurants the Foundation seeks to represent at its events. The equipment is second-rate, the design is poor and it's extremely difficult to work cleanly and efficiently. It would have been much easier to produce latkes for 70 in my mediocre kitchen at home than it was in the Beard House's disaster of a kitchen. . . I've had some good and some bad dinners at the Beard House. Mostly mediocre to bad. Some chefs can pull it off.
This suggests to me that Psaltis has some pretty good company in making bad food for a Beard House dinner.
FG's impression of the typical Beard House dinner attendees is also an interesting counterpoint to Mimi's characterization:
. . . The attendees at Beard House dinners are not some magical distillation of the tastemaker class. Indeed, whenever I've been to Beard House dinners, I've looked around and said, "Who the hell are these people?" They seem mostly to be secretaries and assistants from companies that support the organization, rounded out by a group of older folks whose primary distinction seems to be that they go to a lot of Beard House dinners. The journalists who attend are mostly second-tier people (like me!) and they almost never write about the dinners (I've written about a few, which is probably a world record).Of course, I'm sure some dinners have more "important people" at the tables than others -- and that may have been the case on Tuesday.
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Yes, Boston is very strange about the things the community will support and the things the community won't support. I always thought it was odd that a city that has the BSO -- historically one of the great orchestras in the world, although I think they declined under Ozawa -- has never been able to sustain an opera company of comparable quality.
I grew up in Boston, and it was never much of a restaurant town, although I heard that it had made great strides in that respect over the last 10-15 years. Perhaps not as much as we might have liked.
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I've tried combinations with limoncello, but haven't found any I like yet. Kind of curious about Campari and rye or Campari and bourbon.
I would think that Campari with limoncello would be way too sweet.
As for Campari and rye, you could try a variation on the Red Hook. The Red Hook is 2 ounces of rye and a half-ounce each of Punt e Mes and maraschino liqueur, stirred with ice and strained. You could sub Campari for the Punt e Mes for more bitter herbal bite.
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It's definitely interesting. I wonder whether a spoon (presumable a ladle) with a "cock's tail handle" was something commonly used, or if this was a common term.
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It's a pig's stomach of course.
Nope! Sorry!
My guess is that it's caramel or chocolate or taffy or something like that, partially solidified in a pan of some kind and then turned over.
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What brand is best to grill is a matter of opinion. I like Best's, Nathan's, Sabrett, Usinger's, and Boars Head. Empire National and Hebrew National are good too.
Usinger's! Takes me back to my college days in Wisconsin. Does anyone in NYC serve Usinger's?
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I posted this in another thread:
Actually, the first printed use of the word "cocktail" comes dates from May 13, 1806, in the magazine Balance and Columbian Repository of Hudson, New York. It was a response to a letter to the editor of asking about the meaning of the word:Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters--it is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a Democratic candidate: because a person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow anything else.Since the word "cocktail" to describe a spiritous libation wasn't mentioned in print until 1806, I have a hard time believing it originates from a punch spoon used 200 years earlier.
That said, I suppose it's no less likely than any of the usual suspects.
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Does anyone out there know why rucola is called "arugula" in North America?
Probably for the same reason Puglia is known as "Apulia."
The UK's "rocket" most likely comes from the French roquette.
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Real Spanish chorizo -- which is to say the dry cured paprika-loaded sausages (not Mexican chorizo, which is entirely different) -- should stand in for Portuguese chorice nicely.
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Tap water especially strikes me as inherently amusing. I still remember a Consumer Reports taste test of a number of different waters about a decade or so ago in which the two top scorers were the municipal water supplies of New York City and Los Angeles.
Not to mention that quite a bit of the bottled water for sale is simply municipal water that has been filtered. I've never had bottled "spring water" that comes close to the NYC tap water I run through my massive plumbed-in under-the-sink water filter.
Mineral water, on the other hand, is entirely different. There are wide differences in the tastes of mineral waters.
Surely when we've reached the point where we're fetishizing sodium chloride and water, and subjecting both to the kind of scrutiny we used to reserve for choosing an oncologist, it's time to admit that the relentless questing for that next undetectable gradation of perfection has stopped being about the thing itself and crossed over into a realm of narcissism so overwhelming as to make the act of masturbation look selfless.Bah, you can lampoon the hell out of everything else but stay the hell away from my collection of gourmet salts. I *can* taste the difference and it *does* matter.
Research would suggest that you can feel the difference due to the different shapes of various specialty salts, but that you cannot actually taste the difference between the salts (which makes sense, since aven fancy sea salts are something like 99.5% sodium chloride anyway). This is why it doesn't make sense to use fleur de sel to season the water you use to boil vegetables or to salt your soup.
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Can we add bars and cocktails as well? Vodka martini comes to mind along with all BLANK-TINI drinks.
I might be wrong here but isn't a martini traditionally gin? So saying you want a vodka martini is correct - but asking for a martini should result in a gin "martini"?
Well, here's the thing: A "Martini" is a drink made with gin and dry vermouth, maybe (hopefully?) with a drop of orange bitters. If you change the basic ingredient, it is no longer something that should be called a "Martini."
Think about it this way: A Margarita is made with tequila, Cointreau and lime juice. If I mixed up a drink made of bourbon, Cointreau and lime juice, it wouldn't be a "Bourbon Margarita." To us, a drink made with vodka and dry vermouth is so different from one made with gin and dry vermouth that it doesn't make sense to call them by the same name, even if we modify "Martini" by saying "Vodka Martini." But I think it's more than that. When you start calling everything a "Something-tini" or a "Whatever Martini" it starts to take away some of the meaning and value from the word "Martini." It's also not very interesting, and we're missing out on some really interesting and more informative cocktail names. Isn't it much better to have a "Vesper" than a "Vodka and Gin Martini?"
I also think there are more interesting ways to indicate in a cocktail's name that it is inspired by another cocktail without just tacking something onto the name. As it so happens, this is something Alchemist and I have been discussing in this thread about swizzles. There is a famous swizzle called the Queens Park Swizzle that Alchemist has been riffing on. The QPS has a rum base. Alchemist came up with an interesting variation using gin instead of rum. Now, he could have called it a "Gin Queens Park Swizzle," but instead had the idea of naming it after a park in London to give a nod to the city of London Gin: the "Hyde Park Swizzle" or something like that.
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Kohlrabi gives me the cold robbies.
(Ten points for anyone who knows the reference.)
Best beef for stew?
in Cooking
Posted
I agree with everyone: It's the meat and it's the technique.
IMO, the chuck at Citarella is too lean and doesn't have enough connective tissue -- it's too pretty. I made a beef and cauliflower tagine using chuck I bought at Oppenheimer Prime Meats (and which was cut to order from a massive hunk of chuck) and the meat was one of the most tender I've ever had. I made the same exact tagine a month later using beef from Citarella and it was dry.
Keeping below-the-simmer temperatures as recommended by McGee also makes a big difference (one reason why tagines can be so tender).