slkinsey

Hmm... Interesting. So, what people seem to be saying is that there are three attractions to a gyutou: 1) no bolster; 2) specialty steel; and 3) thinner/lighter. The shape of the knife seems to be a Western shape, so there's not difference there. Does that about sum it up? Given the above, these seem pretty similar to custom Western knives, which often have a similar or lower price. For example, you will note that my chef's knives don't have a bolster, which is often the case with Western custom knives. My knives are also made of super-hard cast dendritic steel, and Western custom knives are often made of special metals. The main difference I can see is that my knives are extra-thick (definitely thicker than a Wusthhof) and the Japanese knives are most often thin. People will differ in whether they prefer a heavy knife or a light one (I like heavy) and one can always, of course, prefer one specialty metal over another. When I go to Japanese-Knife.com and search for "gyutou," the knives don't look all that exotic. Not sure about needing the bolster to balance the knife. I though a full tang and a properly weighted handle took care of that.

Interesting. Looking at this UX10 here, it doesn't look fundamentally different in design from my custom cast dendritic steel knives: These always struck me as fundamentally Western shapes. What makes a gyutou different?

Just a few more pictures by popular demand, then I'm handing over the reins. These address the question of my culinary roots and the the depth of my entertaining experience... I am a foodie from way back I was often to be seen about the kitchen As you can see, I am quite the dinner party veteran Yea, I've been hitting the sauce for a few years, too Although it did take me a few years before I could hold my liquor But at least I've always been able to appreciate a good bottle of Haut Brion (that's my father in the back) Thanks, everyone!

Ooh, interesting! Dimmi di questo gin.

I like to make mine with the same ratios as Janet and Dave, but a smaller drink: 1 oz gin, .75 oz campari and .75 Carpano Punt e Mes instead of regular sweet vermouth. In general, I'd rather have two small drinks instead of one big one. From a purely historical standpoint, isn't the formula favored by Janet, Dave and myself a Camparinete, or was that just its original name?

Guys, it's been fun. My thanks to everyone for their kind comments and enthusiasm. I hope I've provided some inspiration, and if nothing else I hope I've shown that you don't have to be a Ducasse-trained chef to pull off a complex, multicourse dinner party. All it takes is planning. If there are any questions or requests, please post today and I'll see what I can do. Thanks again!

"Nurse Cocktail"! I love that. And why not "Anesthesiologist Cocktail"?

Good points, Robert. I should have mentioned the difference between "potable bitters" and "nonpotable bitters." My comments were, of course, directed towards the latter -- which is to say, the kind of bitters one uses in drops and dashes as a flavoring. Interesting to hear that "potability" was keeping Gary's bitters off the market, and very glad to hear that it will be on the market soon. I predict a rash of cocktails designed around orange bitters upon its release.

I don't think any place is in the same league as Peter Luger with respect to the quality of the steak. So the other places are competing on the basis of, "sides, wine list, atmosphere and service much better; steak not quite as good." I'm not sure it qualifies as "obscure," but Fat Guy and I had a very good meal at Ben Benson's not too long ago that fit that bill.

Now, I hope no one out there with the Doc's book is cheating!

Pretty much any long-simmered vegetable will be perfect with the addition of this "kosher smoked ham hock."

Nope. You're probably thinking of the Jack Rose. That's applejack, lemon or lime juice and grenadine.

A vintage concoction makes a comeback ... just don't ask for its name: Here's the recipe: 1.5 oz : gin 0.5 oz: applejack 0.5 oz: fresh lemon juice 1 egg white 2 dashes grenadine Shake well over cracked ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish with maraschino cherry. This is a wonderful classic libation. Can anyone guess what it is? And who is this mysterious "Janet" at the bar?

I just scored some raspberry syrup and tried this one myself. Loved it, but I am a real fan of rye. One thing, though: this is a drink that IMO required Old Overholt. I tried it with Wild Turkey 101, which has a much stronger flavor, and it was hard to tell that the drink tasted like much of anything other than rye. With milder Old Overholt, though, it worked very well. Interesting drink. I would never have thought of rye with grapefruit juice. I'll definitely be making it again. After all, I have to use up my raspberry syrup.

From the business section of today's NY Times: For whatever it's worth, here is the 21st Amendment:

The slates have an interesting story. My old day job used to be doing graphics and publicity materials, etc. for a small group at Citibank that was developing a product to do very secure, high value, electronic cash transactions. When I say "cash" I mean actual cash, not some front-end that looks like cash but actually involves bank-to-bank transters at the back-end level. So if you withdrew a million dollars of cash and left it sitting on your computer, it was like having a million dollars of cash in your wallet. You can see our patent portfolio here. Anyway, we were part of what was called the "Corporate Technology Office" -- a small division that reported directly to the CEO of Citicorp. One of the things that the head of the CTO did was order a whole bunch of these slate things to use for corporate awards and whatnot. They could just send out the slate to be engraved whenever they wanted, and so it was handy to have a bunch of them on hand. Well, eventually Citicorp merged with Traveler's Group to become Citigroup. Soon thereafter the Citigroup CEO was gone and Sandy Weil was the top dog. Sandy Weil was not interested in having a small technology division under him, and so the CTO was dissolved. Everyone forgot about the slates (among other things) or simply didn't care. Our group was put under "emerging markets." Then 9/11 happened and the bottom fell out of "emerging markets" -- most of which are in Asia and the Middle East. Suddenly there was pressure to make money, and our product was more of a long-term project with not insubstantial right-now costs. To make a long story short, our project was terminated. Not only was the project terminated, but we had very little time to get out of our facility. Some bigwig from Solomon Smith Barney wanted the whole floor for his group, and they were coming to tear out the whole floor in a few weeks. We had around 14 days to shut down the project, warehouse all the records, terminate contracts, get rid of the hardware and clear out. Anything that was left on the floor after a certain date would be thrown out with the trash. Since all the other CTO people were long gone, there was no one around to care about the slates and they were going to be thrown away. So I took them... among other things. Use them mostly as trivets.

Okay... now that I have some breathing room, I'll run down the dinnertime execution logistics. As mentioned upthread, there were cocktails and crudités starting around 6:00 with a planned sit-down time of 8:00. 3:00 : All chilled wines into the refrigerator (cava, moschofilero, montlouis sur loire and riesling). Red wines by an open window. Make bourbon caramel for bread pudding. bergerka cubes brioche. 3:30 : Shred turkey dark meat, reduce braising liquid. Set covered saucepan on kitchen window sill (the sill in the kitchen is around 1 foot deep). 4:00 : Blanch cabbage leaves and make dressing rolls. Place in baking pan, sprinkle turkey stock jelly over rolls, cover with foil and set on kitchen window sill. Extra dressing removed from baking pan to ziplock bag and into refrigerator. Dressing pan washed and put away. 4:30 : Pound out tuna, place onto salad plates. Salad plates into refrigerator. Mix herbs for salad, place into stainless steel bowl. Bowl onto kitchen window sill (underneath baking pan). 5:00 : Brussels sprouts gratin out of refrigerator to kitchen window sill (on top of baking pan with dressing rolls). 5:15 : Shower. bergerka does last minute cleanup and supervises setting of table. Various infused oils, vinaigrettes and purees in squeeze bottles out of refrigerator to kitchen counter. 5:45 : Print place cards (menu on back) and assign seating. Two bottles of cava from refrigerator into freezer. 6:15 : Cauliflower soup and spinach puree out of refrigerator and into covered pans on the stove. Slates into the freezer. Make custard for bread pudding. Layer brioche cubes and bourbon caramel, then cover with custard and set aside. 6:30 : Make first round of cranberry champagne cocktails. Mingle and make merry. Set oven to 350 F. 7:30 : Moschofilero wine to freezer. 7:45 : Start opening oysters. Take cauliflower soup and spinach puree up to simmer and then reduce heat to minimum. 8:00 : Deploy slates on table. Go around table making mound of salt on each slate followed by ewindels who placed one oyster on each salt mound. Open wine. Fill and place cucumber cups while ewindels pours wine and bergerka gets everyone to the table. Begin dinner proper. Next : When oyster course is finished, ewindels and bergerka remove slates from table, sweep salt, shell and cucumber cup into trash with damp cloth and stack slates out of the way. Demitasse spoons into the bus bin. Meanwhile I have turned stove to high to bring soup and puree up to full simmer and opened wine. All bowls laid out on kitchen counter. One ladle of spinach into each bowl, then knock bowls on counter to level puree then fill bowls with cauliflower soup. Each bowl garnished with parsley leaf and sprinkled with curry oil. ewindels has poured the wine by the time I am at the garnishing stage. ewindels and bergerka take finished bowls out to table. Brussels sprout gratin into the oven. Pots for soup and puree rinsed out and put away. This whole process takes maybe 7 - 10 minutes. Next : When soup course is finished, ewindels and bergerka strike soup bowls and soup spoons to bus bins. Wine is opened and ewindels pours. Sauteed Brussels sprouts into nonstick frypan with guanciale fat on low heat. Guanciale into oven. Salad plates onto kitchen counter and sprinkled with a few desalinated capers. Herb salad dressed, mixed and mounded on plates by hand. Plates deployed by ewindels and bergerka. Down time 5 - 7 minutes. Next: Salad plates and white wine glasses removed to bus bins by ewindels and bergerka. Red wine glasses set and wine opened/poured by ewindels. Sauteed brussel sprouts pan turned to high. Crème brûlée removed from refrigerator, sprinkled with sugar and flamed with torch by me. Gratin and guanciale removed from oven and slaw from refrigerator to counter top by me. Each plate is: cut small round of gratin with too-expensive French ring cutter, place on plate; place one crème brûlée at opposite side; place four pieces of sauteed Brussels sprout and a few pieces of guanciale by hand; place small mound of slaw by hand (which cools off fingers from placing the sauteed pieces); squirt ring of marjoram vinaigrette and hand off to ewindels. Oven to 400 degrees. Down time 10 - 12 minutes. Next: Plates scraped and stacked in bus bin along with ramekins by ewindels and bergerka. Red wine glasses removed and small glasses for moscato deployed and filled by ewindels. Sorbet bowls placed on kitchen counter. Meanwhile, roasting pan heated on stove, breasts browned in butter and put into oven with temperature probe. Skillet of sliced mushrooms and butter into oven. Baking pan with dressing rolls into oven. Sauce and shredded dark meat brought up to temperature on low heat at back of stove. Each sorbet bowl with two scoops of sorbet and a drizzle of Farigoule thyme liqueur. Down time 10 minutes. Next : Large "restaurant plates" (kind of like gigantic pasta bowls) placed in oven. Turkey breast and dressing rolls removed from oven. Sorbet bowls, spoons and moscato glasses removed to bus bins by bergerka and ewindels. Large bowl red wine glasses set and both red wines opened. Mestizaje poured by ewindels and Syrah placed on table. Sauce mounted with around 3/4 pounds of 83% butter. To make up a plate: ring mold into center of heated plate; then some mushrooms, then some shredded darm meat; a little sauce on top of the shredded meat; then several slices of white meat into the top of the rind mold; a small piece of foie gras and some black truffle over the white meat; remove ring mold; place sliced dressing roll at 12 o'clock and pour sauce around plate; dust with minced parsley. ewindels took each plate to the table as finished. Oven to 300 F and the bread pudding into the oven. Down time 15 - 17 minutes. Next: Everyone to the living room for a break. Plates and glasses to the bus bins. Desserts deployed to table and espresso made to order. People help themselves to desserts. Next: palmiers, chocolate truffles and various bottles of booze offered.

Seems about right to me. A few comments below. These changes make it closer to what I did, which is not to say that doing exactly what you originally wrote wouldn't be just as tasty.

Sounds very fun, Lucy, and delicious! So glad you liked the pecan tart recipe. Not surprised to find that there are some inconsistencies, though, as I don't really use recipes for anything -- any time I write one down it's more or less the result of trying to remember what I eyeballed the last time. Everything looks great. It's clear that everyone had a great time and a wonderful meal. The soup sounds great. I may copy something like that next year.

On Saturday we had a brunch. This is something we started doing several years ago when we found ourselves in the situation where we weren't able to invite everyone to Thanksgiving we would like to have invited. This is a great way to spend time with friends who weren't able to come to Thanksgiving dinner, and also to get rid of leftovers. We used to do the brunch on Friday, but after we figured out that was completely insane, we started having it on Saturday. It's an open house buffet brunch, and people dropped by from 11:00 to around 4:30. Here's what we had... The desserts were out, of course: We made three different kinds of potato hash: A "dry hash" with potato, turkey and onion On the left: a hash with potato, turkey, onion, smoked paprika, thyme, parsley, chicken stock and sour cream. On the right: a hash with potato, turkey, onion, chicken stock and leftover spinach purée Made some cheese grits with cheddar and gruyere: Had to have plenty of preserved pork, of course. This is breakfast sausage and double smoked Schaller und Weber bacon. Here are some of the filled crêpes. I love crêpes filled with just about anything (in fact, I have been filling leftover crêpes with Nutella) but these are filled with a sort-of "turkey a la king." To make the filling I softened some onion in butter, added flour, then added some milk to make a white sauce. Into this went the leftover shredded dark meat (the white meat went into the hash), green peas, parsley and some other seasonings.

So, to continue... We woke up relatively late on Friday and continued with the cleanup. Then the parents came over and we went out to Grand Sichuan International Midtown for dinner. Had spicy beef tendon, spicy dan dan noodles, green parrot with red mouth, freshly killed kung pao chicken, stir fried pea shoots, au-zhou beef, shredded potato with vinegar and salt & pepper shrimp. We had Sonny, our favorite waiter, and everything couldn't have been better. The kitchen was really on its game. It was a good idea for the day after Thanksgiving because nothing could have been more different than what we had eaten the night before. When we got home, I had two things I had to take care of before we went to sleep. First was making a batch of ferret food. The ferrets eat, among other things, raw whole chicken (including bones) that has been ground up. Is that your partner in the wood chipper there? Looks a bit like ground veal. The pink color comes from the bones. (From left) Asher, Zebulun and Issachar chow down I also wanted to make a stack of crêpes to use for the brunch we had planned for Saturday. So I banged out around 50 crêpes before going to bed. Start with a good French steel crêpe pan. I find that the nonstick ones don't give the color I like. In goes a ladle of bergerka's crêpe batter. Flip it over after a few seconds Before you know it, you have a big stack of crêpes.

Here's dinner. Later on, when I have a chance, I'll post about the logistics of dinnertime execution. Here is a shot of the centerpiece ewindels did for the table. I absolutely could not have pulled this dinner off without the assistance of Ed and Kathleen. They poured the wine, cleared dishes and took plated courses out to the table as I finished them. Having reliable and expert assistance like this is really vital. The first course was: Marinated Crudités Cranberry Champagne Cocktail Here is a shot of the cocktail. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the vegetables. The cocktail I would rate maybe a 50% success. It really didn't work quite right in this style of champagne glass, and the raspberry puree didn't mix quite as much as I would have liked. Maybe it should have been thinner? Next course was: Kumamoto Oyster On The Half-Shell With Cucumber Granita Mantanía Moschofilero, Tselepos, 2003 This worked very well. It's a nice, light ad festive way to start the meal at the table. Everyone thought the cucumber cups were cool, and it looked nice. This picture doesn't really capture, unfortunately, how neat it looked on the slate. On the other hand, I was able to open all the oysters without stabbing myself. Next was: Cauliflower Soup With Puréed Spinach and Curry Oil Montlouis Sur Loire "Dionys," Domaine Alex-Mathur, 2002 This was a huge hit. No one stirred up their soup, the curry oil worked its magic, and the spinach purée was a very cool transition. A few people were even surprised to find spinach a the bottom of the bowl. The wine match was brilliant, as several people remarked. Here's a few looks: Soup bowls filled with spinach purée waiting to be topped with cauliflower soup Finished portion at the table Getting to the bottom of the bowl Next was: Tuna Carpaccio With Mixed Herb Salad Rheingau Riesling Trocken, Weingut Robert Weil, 2003 As I said upthread, I wish I could have used prettier tuna. Nevertheless, the tuna was delicious. The salad was dressed with integrated lemon/olive oil and a touch of vermouth vinegar. There were a few (desalinated) salt-preserved capers strewn about. The salad was tarragon, basil, oregano, mint and parsley. It worked very well, and the riesling was just the thing to go with it. Slightly moving in a fuller direction, but with killer acidity to refresh. Next was: "Brussels Sprouts Four Ways" crème brûlée - gratin - sautéed with guanciale - shredded "slaw" Vin de Table Gamay "Le P'tit Tannique Coule Bien," Domaine Thierry Puzelat, 2003 The lighter red wine worked wonders against the richness of the crème brûlée, the savoriness of the gruyere in the gratin and the porky fattiness of the guanciale. Around the plate is a marjoram vinaigrette. This is the course that really had me smiling. It was a bit of a risk to design a whole course around Brussels sprouts, and I wasn't sure how it would work. Well, it worked extremely well. Each "way" showed a completely different side of the Brussels sprout. The crème brûlée in particular was a revelation. Most everyone was a little bit suspicious at the prospect of a Brussels sprout crème brûlée, but everyone smiled, laughed and loved it once they tried it. The lightly vinegared "slaw" was a nice crunchy contrast to the other preparations, while the gratin played on the whole "cheese sauce" thing on top of the slightly funky flavor of fully cooked Brussels sprouts. The sautéed Brussels sprouts with guanciale brought out the nutty quality of browned brussels sprouts, and of course guanciale is a killer match with just about anything. Here is a shot of the last few bites of crème brûlée: After that it was time to rest the palate with a refresher course: Lemon-Thyme Sorbet Moscato d'Asti "Bricco Quaglia," Azienda Agricola La Spinetta di Giorgio Rivetti, Piemonte, 2003 This is fairly straight forward. Passing the thyme through a fine sieve this year really solved the problems I have had in the past with the thyme being slightly gritty in this dish. I drizzled a tiny bit of Farigoule thyme liqueur over every portion as well. The Rivetti moscato is a very good one, slightly frizzante. A tiny glass went well with the sorbet. The gold gelato spoons my mother's family bought in Italy some 50 years ago when they were living there. Finally came the turkey: "Turkey Two Ways" Cornbread Dressing, Foie Gras, Black Truffle Carpaccio Vino De La Tierra El Terrerazo "Mestizaje," Bodega Mustiguillo, 2003 Syrah, H. Coturri & Sons, Crane Vinyards, Sonoma Valley, 2001 This was by far the best this dish has ever been for me. The sauce was so intensely flavored, it was like a turkey demi-glace. The wines are fairly big wines, and matched well with the big flavors here. I loved the Coturri Syrah, although perhaps not quite as much as their Albarello. Here's a few pictures putting together a plate. First goes a base of sautéed portobello mushrooms Then in goes some of the shredded dark meat. On top of that goes a few slices of white meat, the foie gras and black truffle. Then the ring mold is taken away, the stuffing role placed up at the top and sauce poured around. A little parsley dusting and here is the finished dish Next it was time for dessert! Bourbon Bread Pudding Cranberry Cheese Cake Pecan Tart Sugarless Apple Pie Coffee Here are some pictures: The bourbon bread pudding. Really did well with the bourbon caramel this time. Nice and dark ewindels' cheesecake. Always a big hit The pecan tart. Steen's cane syrup made all the difference bergerka's sugarless apple pie. Don't miss the sugar one bit. Very nice. Of course, if one is doing imitation haute cuisine, there has to be a second course of dessert. No lollipops, but instead we had ewindels' chocolate truffles and palmiers. I opened up the liquor cabinet as well. My father brought a very nice bottle of Poire William, and Eric_Malson brought a bottle of Glenmorangie "Port Wood Finish" and a few bottles of Orujo (Spanish grappa, but with a funky, musty quality). All in all a wonderful evening and a big success. I'm exhausted, but couldn't be more pleased. Cocktails started at 6:00, we sat down to the oyster course at 8:00, and we started dessert at midnight. Guests left around 1:30, I collapsed at 2:30 and bergerka was doing kitchen cleanup triage until 4:00. More later...

A few more prep pictures from yesterday, then I'll get to the main event... Here I am browning off the turkey dark meat for braising. Vegetables for the braise into the same pan. Then in goes the marinading liquid and the reduced turkey stock for a braise of several hours. Think there's a little gelatin in this stock? Here is the spinach purée for the soup. Includes cream and nutmeg. Those crispy shallots went in there too. Sautéed Brussels sprouts. These went cut side down into a massively heated copper frypan. Then I tossed in a few tablespoons of butter, and got this browning within around 40 seconds. The Brussels sprouts were still crunchy, so when I reheated them for service in guanciale fat they still had some nice bite. On the right is rendered julienned guanciale. That was also reheated for service to crisp it up. This is the shredded Brussels sprouts for the "slaw." I did decide to blanch them for around 5 seconds and shock in ice water. Here is some of the tuna prior to being portioned and pounded out. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get really super-primo tuna with a darker color, but strangely everyone seemed to be out of it.

Tonight before the old folks showed up, I finished the dressing. Here I sweated the vegetables in turkey fat. Below are the three stages: raw, sweating covered with parchment, cooked. That went into the oven with the cornbread, some cubed stale white "peasant" bread, sage, parsley, thyme, eggs and some stock. Tomorrow I'll use this dressing to fill the cabbage rolls. I also made the curry oil and put that into a squeeze bottle. Before dinner we had a "Blinker Cocktail" from Dr. Cocktail's book. It's rye whiskey, grapefruit juice and a touch of raspberry syrup. Very good. Dinner was a simple affair of littleneck clams with yard-long spaghetti, onion, chili and parsley. I don't have any pictures of the completed dish, but when the clams are this good you know I had to open a few and eat them raw. Off to bed now. More tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts. I have a moment to rest before the 'rents show up, so I thought I'd answer a few stray posts. How much do they charge for their service and do you have to leave them or acn you just wait? There's a thread on knife sharpening in Manhattan here, complete with prices, etc. In general Westpfal is considered one of the very few really top-rate places in the City. I had to leave my knives there for around 2 days. These are both really good ideas. I may try the ceviche sometime soon, and may end up deploying a tea cup or two tomorrow. Oh this is nothing. Wait 'til she starts posting the diaper down around the ankles baby pictures! My avatar is me circa 1970-something. No worries there! I'll take some pictures, but rest assured that, although it is quite nice compared to Manhattan rental apartment kitchens, it is a thoroughly unexceptional kitchen by the standards of those who own their own homes. I'll post some pictures when I have a chance. Not yes, unfortunately. Not that they really need a bath, but they are extra cute when they get all fluffed up after a bath. Yard-long spahgetti (Setaro) with littleneck clams for dinner.