slkinsey

In a great bit of irony, only weeks after we've been lamenting that genever is all but impossible to find in NYC, the NY Times does an article on genever. And not only genever, but the even more impossible to find Belgian artisinal genever. Way to do an article on something none of your readers can buy, guys! Anyway, there are some interesting bits worth reading:

Smithy, instead of making what will inevitably be a somewhat dry chicken breast tagine (that's just the nature of the beast), if your friend won't eat chicken thighs or skin why not make the beef and cauliflower tagine? Everyone I've made it for loves it.

I've come up with a pretty good one. It's based on the Improved Holland Gin Cock-Tail as given in Dave Wondrich's new book, only substituting linie aquavit for genever gin. Improved Aquavit Cock-Tail 2 oz : linie aquavit 1 tsp : 2:1 demerara simple syrup 1 tsp : maraschino liqueur 2 dashes : Peychaud's bitters Mix in a glass with ice. Garnish with lemon twist.

Yea, I don't recommend them for fish unless you live in the 'hood and don't want to go to Citarella (of course, if you're really serious about fish, you'll go to Sea Breeze on 9th Avenue). Their fish is from Wild Edibles, and good quality. But it's more or less an add-on. Meat is the reason to go to Oppenheimer. Honestly, I'm not sure I approve of the whole "butcher/fishmonger combination" thing. I'd rather have a good butcher and a good fishmonger separately. The considerations, skills, suppliers and connections for these two different types of purveyor are very different.

The customary brief excerpt for posterity:

We really like Oppenheimer Prime Meats on Broadway just about 96th. They are an old fashioned, full service butcher. Nothing is pre-cut. If you want a porterhouse, they bring out a whole shortloin of prime porterhouse, discuss how you are going to cook it, and cut the steaks to order. The last time I was there, they turned this: Into this: They are my go-to guys for custom cut high quality meat. Their pork chops are something special too.

One last thing, for those of you who may be wondering what I am doing while bergerka is cleaning the dishes and I'm all tired out from cooking a big dinner. . . Usually this.

Sorry about missing your question earlier. I'm not sure it makes sense to change vermouth brands for the purposes of cooking. You're unlikely to taste a significant difference in a pan sauce made with Martini & Rossi white vermouth and one made with Noilly Pratt white vermouth. Certainly you wouldn't want to use red vermouth, except for a few special applications (Batali has a "sweet garlic cloves" thing he does with red vermouth). The only case where you might want to switch would be if you wanted to go drier. I'm not familiar with M&R, but if it's a little bit sweet you should notice a difference switching to Noilly Pratt.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments and a fun time, and special thanks to my counterpart Marlene. It's always interesting to see how different people approach the same idea. Throughout the week I've found myself thinking that, although I wouldn't have cooked what Marlene cooked, I would have been very happy to have been eating at her house that night. I suppose that says something about the personal style or approach to cooking one develops over time, and the fact that it doesn't necessarily include all the things one likes to eat.

I've come down with a very bad cold that just keeps on getting worse. This means that cooking dinner tonight is more or less out of the question. Sorry, but no mystery basket. If we order something in, of course I'll document it here. Anyway, this morning was yeast-raised waffles. This is the legendary Sunbeam Model GC Waffle Baker & Grill, widely held to be the best waffle baker of them all. It has separate removable waffle and pancake/sandwich plates, commercial quality components, a very accurate temperature controller and heavy duty 1250 watt heating elements. They were made in the late 1950s, and this one has been in my family for around 50 years. What I like about it most is that it has very deep pockets without going over to being a "Belgian waffle" style. It makes 4 waffles at a time. Here is the batter and some condiments. Yeast-raised waffle batter is significantly thinner than baking powder-raised waffles, resulting in a much lighter and airier waffle. I also beat the egg whites and egg yolks for additional lightness. Here is one finished batch of waffles, and a single waffle on the plate. The Italian butter (made from the cream of the milk used for parmigiano-reggiano cheese) rocks.

Very cool, Marlene. I regret that I don't have much interesting food stuff for today. For dinner tonight we went to see our friends The Logistical Nightmares perform at A&M Roadhouse. I had a "fried chicken sandwich" with gravy, bacon, cheese and onion. Kathleen had a pulled pork sandwich. Both were, more or less, Applebee's caliber -- but we were there for the music, not the food. We did, however, drink quite a few glasses of nice Stella Artois.

I did try your cane syrup when we tried all your rums that first time down at Flatiron. This is actually roughly comparable, although I think your syrup might have had some vanilla as well. Anyway, you can find dehydrated cane juice at just about any health food store. You can even get a less refined version called Sucanat that is also widely available, but I thought that would have too much of a molasses character to match your syrup (which was my goal).

Here's what I have in the refrigerator these days. From left to right: 1:1 simple syrup, 2:1 cane syrup (made with dehydrated cane juice), 2:1 demerara syrup, 1:1 ginger syrup (infused both hot and cold), 1:1 lime syrup.

Err, would you care to deconvolute "red vermouth" for those of us unfamiliar? Sure. Vermouth is the name for a class of aperitif wines made with white wine that is infused with herbs and fortified. The name "vermouth" comes from the German name for wormwood, wermut (pronounced ver-MOOT), which used to be one of the principle flavorings. There are two different kinds of vermouth. A white/dry/"French" variety, and a red/sweet/"Italian" variety (the red color comes from caramel, not red wine). In practice, however, there are red vermouths made in France, and there are sweetish white vermouths, etc. To my palate, the principle difference between the two schools of vermouth is best described by color. Red and white vermouth have markedly different flavor profiles (it is also the case that red is usually sweet and white is usually dry). The classic white vermouth is Noilly Pratt and the classic red vermouth is Cinzano. I prefer the red and white vermouths made in America by Vya.

Fixed.

Good straight rye whiskey is spicy and a little rough around the edges. Nothing at all like the smooth sweetness of a blended whiskey. Canadian (blended) whiskey is often called "rye" -- but it really isn't what we would call "straight rye whiskey" down here in the US. By law, "straight whiskey" is distilled from at least 51% of one kind of grain to no more than 80% abv, aged for at least two years at no more than 62.5% abv in charred new oak barrels, and bottled at no less than 40% abv. No neutral grain spirits or any other substances may be added. So, for example, "straight bourbon whiskey" is made with at least 51% corn, "straight rye whiskey" is made with at least 51% rye, etc. In practice, the percentage of the base grain is significantly higher than 51% Canadian whiskey, on the other hand, is a blended product. It contains some aged whiskey blended with neutral grain spirits and other coloring and flavoring agents. This is not to say that there aren't some excellent blended whiskies out there. But it really isn't the same thing at all as a straight whiskey. When you figure in the neutral spirits and flavorings, etc. -- there is nothing particularly "rye like" about Canadian whiskey. In making a Manhattan there really is no substitute for using a good (preferably high proof) rye whiskey. Wild Turkey rye is fairly ubiquitous, and an excellent product. It's bottled at 101 proof. Part of the charm of bucatini/perciatelli is that it's a little unruly. I wouldn't say that it gets caught in the tines of my fork, though. More that it doesn't want to twirl up and stay on the fork as cooperatively as spaghetti or other smaller-diameter strand pasta. Just a Canon Elph. I'm glad you like the pictures. Being friends with an accomplished photographer with great equipment like Ellen Shapiro, I tend to view the quality of my photographs as marginal at best. Not me. I never play music during dinner. As a musician, I don't feel it's respectful to either the music or the food.

Dana, this sounds like fun. At this point, I am going to suggest that we don't aim for Franny's and hold off until another time. It really is a very small place, and it may realistically be above some budgets. With places that small (Fornino as well) we really need to set something up in advance -- although if only six people are going this time, that's a different story. I hope to arrange a pizza demonstration for us at Franny's some time in the future. In the meanwhile, there are a number of very interesting places we haven't tried yet that should have less trouble accommodating the group. Luzzo's sounds interesting. There's also Angelo's in midtown (coal oven). Nick's in Forest Hills is a major place we haven't visited yet. For that matter, there's Otto.

I have a number of custom made knives I got about ten years ago. They're made with David Boye's cast dendritic steel. Very good edge retention, very aggressive edge. They have Brazilian ironwood handles. Mine were made by a custom maker in Escondido, California named Russ Smith. I'm not sure he's still making knives. I used fresh mozzarella, but "supermarket fresh" fresh mozzarella. This is to say, it wasn't like the fresh mozzarella I buy from the guys out on Arthur Avenue where the texture is almost shaggy and when you tear off a piece it starts bleeding milk. But it was the kind of "fresh mozzarella" you'll find in a good grocery store. Once mozzarella is refrigerated, it tightens up the texture considerably. After I browned off the meatballs, I sautéed onion and celery in the same pan to scrape up the brown bits. Then I added some San Marzano tomatoes, simmered the whole thing for maybe 15 minutes and ran it all through the food mill, discarding the fibrous material left behind. Then I cooked the meatballs in the sauce for maybe 30 or 40 minutes, removed the meatballs and tossed in some parsley. That's the sauce I used for both the pasta and the meatballs. Very traditional technique. If I was going to change anything, I might have soaked the bread crumbs in a little milk to give the meatballs a softer, springier texture. The first thing that comes to my mind is: "What is she making that Manhattan with? Is that Canadian whiskey I see? You can't make a Manhattan with Canadian whiskey. With Canadian whiskey it should be called an 'Alberta' or maybe a 'Saskatchewan' (if garnished with a saskatoon berry). " If you want to give the Manhattan a chance, get your hands on some rye whiskey (preferably 100 proof) and make the real thing. 2 ounces rye whiskey, 1 ounce red vermouth, 2 dashes angostura bitters, big lemon twist. You'll have a much better chance of liking it then, I bet.

Here is the rest of dinner. First, of course, I had to have a drink. Tonight it was a Ti Punch. White rhum agricole, a touch of demerara syrup and a lime twist stirred with crushed ice. This is one of Ed Hamilton's rhum agricoles. Excellent! Here is the pasta, sauced with the tomato that was used to simmer the polpette. Big plate of polpette. A portion of polpette on the plate.

Okay... I had a bunch of errands to run this afternoon, so dinner is late. It's bucatini with red sauce for the primo, and polpette for the secondo. Here are the ingredients: Nothing fancy. Pork, veal, beef, pancetta, fresh bread crumbs, onion, parmigiano-reggiano and fresh mozzarella. Grinding the meats together. Forming the polpette. A piece of mozzarella is hidden inside. Finished polpette and browning them off. Vegetables for the sauce. A little later, after everything is soft, it goes through the food mill. Simmering the polpette in the sugo. More later. . .

I think there was a time when they produced a few different bottlings (notably Black Label and a few "vintages"), but this is no longer the case. Note that almost everything described on thewhiskystore.de is at 45% abv. This says to me: same whiskey/different bottle.

Again, as the people from Maker's Mark told me, they are currently producing only one kind of bourbon -- the same stuff that goes in the red wax bottles.

Skewers of shrimp and cuttlefish.

Okay, it's my turn to post about Thursday's dinner. Sorry I didn't get to this last night, but I was pretty hammered by the time I got home and went straight to bed. Before dinner, Kathleen and I headed to Flatiron Lounge, a favorite watering hole of the NYC cocktail conoscenti. We had a number of drinks. I took pictures of a few, but it was dark and they didn't turn out so well as a result (I wasn't going to take flash pictures in a lounge). I try to go to Flatiron when it's not busy, and often will just talk with the bartender about what sort of things I'm in the mood for and let them make whatever they feel like making me. This was an interesting tall drink made with rye whiskey, strawberry and milk. Just behind you can see Phil, one of Flatiron's many accomplished mixologists, shaking up another one. Whenever he's behind the bar, I love to have a taste of whatever he's been kicking around in his head. He once made us a tall drink with jalapeno-infused tequila, muddled tomatoes and cilantro that the friend I took with me that night is still talking about. This is a drink from the menu, a Mandarin Old Fashioned. More or less a whiskey old fashioned with some muddled Mandarin orange and other things. Deciding to stick with brown liquor, Phil said he had a "scotchtail" on his mind and we agreed to give it a go. This is blended scotch, Drambuie and lemon juice (roughly in Sidecar proportions) with a few big dashes of Angostura bitters. Scotch-based cocktails are not easy to make, and this was a real winner. Sticking with the scotch theme, Kathleen had an excellent Blood & Sand (blended scotch, cherry brandy, sweet vermouth and orange juice). There were a few other drinks, but my memory is a little less reliable after the first four. One great thing about the "cocktails crowd" hangouts in NYC is that it's a very close community and you never know who you're going to run into. Just as we were starting out last drink, who should we see on the next stool over but the Minister or Rum himself, Ed Hamilton. He's traveling all over the country these days bringing in the best rhum agricole you've ever had. If you're in NYC, get yourself down to Astor Wines and pick up a bottle of La Favorite white rhum agricole. It's a steal at around $30 a liter -- especially since this stuff is 100 proof. And you heard it here, folks: Ti Punch (white rhum agricole, a touch of cane syrup and a half-dollar-sized cut of lime peel stirred with crushed ice) is going to be one of the hot new drinks. Ed's got one in his hand. After a while, the three of us allowed that we had worked up a prodigious hunger, and we decamped for Bianca -- a restaurant featuring the cuisine of Emilia-Romagna. We each had a primo and a secondo. Here are the primi. . . Spiedini di gamberi e seppie. Fegatini con aceto balsamico. Gnocchi al gorgonzola. And the secondi. . . Salsiccia e fagioli. Cotechino con pure di patate. Salmone con rape saltata in padella. With all this we had a nice bottle of Barbera d'Asti, a high acid/low tannin red wine that worked very well with everything,

As far as I know, Captain Applejack is the same as Laird's Bonded. My favorite applejack cocktail these days is a simple "throwback" Applejack Cocktail: 2 oz : Laird's 100 proof applejack 1 tsp : 2:1 demerara simple syrup 2 dashes : Fee Brothers aromatic bitters Stir well with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a fat lemon twist.