slkinsey

Question: Who cares whether it is coated with diamond dust? What is supposed to be the benefit? Personally, although extra thick aluminum (which I take to mean >5 cm) is a great thing to have, I can't see spending a hundred bucks on a nonstick pan.

Let's continue any such discussion on that thread.

The drink comes from Ian Fleming's "Casino Royale" thus: He names it the "Vesper" (not the "Vesper Martini") after the hot female double agent in the book named Vesper Lynd. This is the only book, afaik, in which Bond drinks a Vesper. There's a ton of press clippings about the Algonquin's publicity mechanism drink on their web site.

Anyone tried this method with Corona beans? They are gigantic (around the size of a small thumb before they're cooked) and I am a little concerned that they'll take forever to cook and get all torn up on the outside if I don't soak them. The thing is that Corona beans are quite expensive, so I'm a little hesitant to do the trial and error thing.

All these pots will work just fine on the stove. Personally, I think Staub is the best. Heavier construction. I think the matte black enamel is better for browning. And I think the "basting spikes" are cool. But they'll all do well, I think. It's a matter of preference.

Sweet! Will have to procure some (although I am swiftly running out of room to hide bottles around the house). For pineau cocktails, of course, there's always the Per Se house cocktail. Haven't tried it yet for lack of any Belle de Brillet. But it intrigues me. Lemon does seem more like a natural to me, but I'd like to try it with lime first. I have to assume they've not making it that way for no reason.

I would love to know where to find some of this in Manhattan. Liz: Check out a copy of Cocktails in New York by Anthony Giglio. There is a recipe in there for the "Pear Martini" they serve at Blue Ribbon made with Belle de Brillet, Absolut Citron and lime juice. According to this SF Chron article by Gary Regan, it's made with 2 ounces Belle de Brillet, 1 ounce citrus vodka and 1 ounce fresh lime juice (shake with ice and strain).

Make sure you include some oil, as this will tenderize the crust. You could also maybe bump up the hydration to 65%. Very important, I think, is to do a lengthy fermentation and to retard the dough in the refrigerator. As for the toppings, Patsy's uses a very light hand with the toppings. This is important when the crust is so thin. They have two kinds of cheese, you cen have either fresh mozzarella or low moisture mozzarella. The sauce strikes me as a cooked puree of tomato without much in the way of herbs, garlic or onion (perhaps a bit but not much). The sauce is fairly dark in color, so I think it is likely cooked a fairly long time. You can find some good pictures of Patsy's pizza making set up here in the NY Pizza Survey thread.

What I suspect leads to part of the Patsy's crust texture is that they are using higher hydration than most of the regular slice shops. This makes the dough more extensible and the extra moistyre contributes to oven spring and that special interior layer of soft, flexible crust.

I am almost positive that Patsy's East Harlem (the only Patsy's worth copying) uses a strong flour, most likely with some oil to tenderize it. This is common in the neo-Neapolitan style, and just about every pizzeria that is not a Neapolitan-style specialty place uses strong flour (even some of the "new Neapolitan places like Franny's use strong flour). Any time you see someone stretching a pizza dough in the air, flipping it around and pulling it aggressively, it's a strong flour. Pizzaioli working with soft flour doughs tend to do their stretching of the dough on the bench.

I'll be interested to hear what she says. As far as I understand it (and especially given that the EU is a member of the IOOC), the IOOC sets the standards. This is supported by reading through the "What's the IOOC" pages on the IOOC site. They are desribed therein as the "intergovernmental organisation in charge of administering the International Olive Oil Agreement." The EU is a party to this agreement. Here's a quote I found that sounds relevant: All the laws, as far as I know, that have to do with the legal classification of grades of olive oil have to do with the percentage of oleic acid present in the oil, with "extra virgin" meaning not more than 0.8% by weight.

How much money do you want to spend and how much do you want risotto to be the focus of the meal? Town, for example, has a brilliant escargot and black truffle risotto starter. San Domenico has an excellent risotto as well, and a more Italian orientation than town. I haven't had, but hear very good things from people I trust about Gray Kunz's "risotto with mushroom fricasee," which can now be had at Cafe Cray. All are expensive. The Kunz's "French style" risotto may be an interesting variation that your risottophile friend hasn't yet experienced. It comes in two parts: the bowl of creamy well-executed herbed risotto and a pot of wild mushroom fricasee to fold into the risotto as you see fit. Here is what Hal Rubenstein at New York Metro had to say:

It's usually best to add a short quote for posterity: Here is a recipe from the article: The Sharpie 1.5 oz : gin (Hendrick's is mentioned) 2-3 oz : fresh grapefruit juice Juice of 1/2 lemon 1-2 Tb : superfine sugar or equivalent simple syrup* 0.5 oz : Green Chartreuse Dashes of orange bitters and maraschino liquor to taste * she infuses her simple syrup with grapefruit and lemon slices, cardamom and lavender No instructions are given, but one assumes the ingredients are combined with cracked ice, shaken and strained into a chilled cocktail glass. Also discussed is what she calls "bitter sugar" -- grapefruit peel, cardamom, bay leaf, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, hibiscus flower and "her own secret ingredients" boiled way down and added to drinks a drop at a time. Sounds interesting. Like a sugar-infused bitters rather than the usual alcohol-infused kind. The Orbit Room Cafe was featured in the SF Chron in 2003 for "best cocktails under $6." Anyone been to her place? Sounds cool.

Hmm. I generally think this is bad advice. If the gin is chilled to freezer temperatures, then the drink is not sufficiently diluted by the melting of ice. Try mixing two Martinis, both with two ounces of gin, one half-ounce of vermouth and a dash of orange bitters. Mix one drink with gin from the freezer and one with room temperature gin. I think you'll find that the Martini mixed with room temperature gin is better.

My favorite easy pasta sauce is one that JosephB reminded me of a while back. It's since joined our regular rotation as the default quick sauce. 1 large can San Marzano or other best-quality tomatoes, roughly crushed; 3-4 tablespoons cold butter; 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut in half, salt. Throw everything in a cold pan, turn the burner on medium low, bring it slowly up to temperature and simmer (total ~30 minutes). Discard the onion and use the sauce. Looks like this when it's done.

No direct experience, but the principles tend to be the same. A micron (aka micrometer) is 1/1,000,000th of a meter, so 50 microns is equal to 0.05 millimeters. This undoubtedly describes the thickness of the anodized layer. The 3 mm figure would appear to describe the total thickness of the cookware. This is okay, but nothing to write home about. Similar to Calphalon. For $24 Cnd you can hardly go wrong with the fry pan. Fry pans are the only pans that I think are worth getting with a nonstick coating. I don't think there are any positives to having nonstick in a saucepan or stockpot, and some negatives (namely the coating eventually wearing out). If you want to improve your cookware, I think you're better off buying it piece by piece over time as you need it. This way you can buy better (which usually means more expensive) stuff from different manufacturers that best suits your cooking practices and needs. I've never known someone to be entirely happy with a preconfigured set. On the other hand, as you say... it is hard to go wrong for $200 Cdn.

I don't think you're going to find anything that gives you that "maraschino cherry red" color without the use of food coloring. This is a color that does not exist in nature. No reason you couldn't make some brandied cherries (or perhaps soak the cherries in maraschino liqueur) for use in cocktails, though.

Gordon's definitely has an emphatic gin taste. You could always try it with one of the lighter flavored varieties (Tanqueray Ten seems to work well for the gin-shy) until you develop a taste for gin. IMO, it's one of those things, like coffee perhaps, where you just have to decide to like it and revel in the flavors. Absolutely. That's me having a drink of Haut Brion at the tender age of 1. I'll let you extrapolate the time period from my outfit as well as the fact that Haut Brion could be had for a reasonable price. Oh yea, it's a good recipe. But there is some question as to whether it is really representative of what a Pegu Club is supposed to be. In recent conversations, it turns out that the earliest recipe he could find actually called for a teaspoon of Rose's instead of regular lime juice (not that I am advocating that particular substitution). Dave's version is very tasty, though. I like them both.

Have a look in this thread before you make a Pegu Club. Dave's recipe is good, but quite sour and not really "standard" for a PC. A classic Pegu Club would be more like 2 oz. gin, 1. oz orange curacao and 1 tsp lemon juice, with one dash each of Angostura and orange bitters.

It's hard to give any advice without tasting, but my initial reaction is that it doesn't have very much in common with a French 75. A French 75 is gin, sugar and lemon juice on ice topped with champagne. The first step in improving the drink would be to decide whether you think it's a good idea at all. If you think it's worth working on, then you should decide what it is that you don't like about it. From what I can gather, you didn't like the brandy part. Okay, delete the brandy. Maybe replace it with something else, or just leave it out. Beyond that it's harder to make any guesses. There's an awful lot going on in your drink. If I were you, one of the first things I'd do is thing about ways to simplify it. Even some of the more complex-sounding drinks can often be reduced to three ingredients. For example, Audrey's Tantris Sidecar has cognac, calvados, Cointreau, lemon juice, simple syrup, pineapple juice and Green Chartreuse. Seems complicated. But when you break the drink down, it's just a three ingredient drink: the cognac and calvados combine to be a sort of apple-brandy (that's 1), the Cointreau, Chartreuse and simple syrup combine to be a sort of herbaceous orange liqueur (that's 2) and the lemon and pineapple juices combine to be a slightly different flavored lemon juice (that's 3). Of course, the composite flavors she created for each one of the three constituents work both by themselves and in combination, and that's important. With your drink, it's not clear from reading it where the flavors are supposed to be going. In my own practice -- and in full recognition of my own limitations in this regard -- I rarely use more than three flavors when trying to come up with a new drink. Fewer flavors means it's easier to make adjustments. Some day I'd like to do a roundtable discussion with a few cocktail pros about methods of approach for creating new cocktails and turn it into an eGCI class. One question I have is why you're using the pear eau de vie. I would think that the flavor of the pear cider would completely obscure any contribution of the eau de vie. Also, adding pear flavor to pear flavor doesn't seem all that interesting. Not quite sure how the raspberry flavor of Chambord is worked in either. What would you want to change about it?

Thirty-two raw oysters?! Sniff.... I'm so proud of you JJ.

Since Liz put Sidecars in my mind, but finding myself without brandy, I made a variation tonight: an Applejack Sidecar. 2 ounces Laird's blended applejack, 1 ounce GranGala and just unded 1 ounce fresh lemon juice. I'd love to try this with Laird's bonded applejack. Since the blended applejack is a little rough around the edges, I used GranGala instead of Cointreau to give it a bit more roundness. Very nice!

Tanqueray is very good, but I have a fondness for good old Gordon's gin. It's got a nicely emphatic piney-ness that I like in drinks like the Aviation.

Yea... at some point we get into the whole question of how much does the cocktail have to change before it's no longer a Sidecar. Using GranGala instead of Cointreau is close enough, I think. But the Cherry Smash strikes me as more Sidecar-inspired rather than a Sidecar variation. On the other hand, it's probably no more a deviation than Audrey's Tantris Sidecar -- perhaps less. Here is a link to a recipe for the drink, which seems to contain Courvoisier VS cognac, orange curaçao, Schladerer Edel Kirsch, lemon juice and muddled brandied cherries. The thing that's so great about a classic formula like the Sidecar is that it can be the basis for so many diversions. It's just brandy, triple sec and lemon juice. Substitute maraschino for the triple sec? You've got a totally different drink. In fact, it's almost impossible to go wrong with some variation of the classic combination of base liquor, orange liqueur and citrus. That's how I came up with the "Eighteenth Century Cocktail" which, while nowhere near as complex or inventive as the sorts of things a real pro like Julie or Audrey can come up with, still turns out to be the most popular drink I've ever thought up.

We note that an article on the Mint Julep by Gary Regan appeared in the 2004 year end edition of Entree and is now available online. Gary is in the "don't muddle the mint" camp. Personally, I'm in the "lightly muddle" camp myself. Mint infused simple syrup or pre-infused "minted bourbon" is right out, though. Dave, I know I'm responding almost a year late, but I don't see anything wrong with using brandy (and/or rum, applejack, rye, peach brandy... even gin). As you point out, they were made with any number of base liquors back when.