slkinsey

I'm doing the braising first thing tomorrow. So glad, not to mention flattered, to hear that you enjoy the recipe so much. We love it.

Continuing with the cauliflower soup, once the cauliflower is tender it goes into a foodmill. This step can be skipped, but it does hold back a lot of the fiberous junk that will make the end product not quite as silky. After that, it's into the blender. I use approximately 2:1 cauliflower puree and the milk I cooked it in. Here is the finished product. I'll reheat this tomorrow and hit it with a bit of cream right before service. It's incredible how sweet cauliflower can be -- something that is often obscured when it is overcooked. Now for a little rest before tackling the next task.

Continuing on with things for today, I made the lemon-thyme sorbet. This is easy and really good. Simmer a bunch of fresh thyme in a little water until tender. Drain and press thyme through a fine mesh sieve. Mix with two pints Fairway's (excellent) lemon sorbet. Here is the pureed thyme and sorbet prior to mixing: Here it is after spending 60 seconds on high speed in my KitchenAid, and then packed back into the containers: From yesterday, here is the cucumber granita, and here is one filled cucumber cup. I'll want to be careful about handling them tomorrow so they don't have fingerprints in the frost like this one does: Bought lots of herbs today at the Greenmarket. Here is parsley, oregano, tarragon, sage, chive, thyme, basil and mint. Right now I am starting to simmer the cauliflower in milk for the soup:

Liz, I'm afraid I won't be of much help to you. I get my orange bitters at Spec's Warehouse in Houston. The cranberry champagne cocktail would probably be just as good with Angostura bitters, though.

Yesterday was a busy day. I ran to Zabar's during my lunch hour to pick up two loaves of brioche for the bread pudding. Later in the day, I dropped in on JosephB to pick up some books and borrow his bus bins. These are a huge advantage when doing a multiple course dinner party, because you can stack up plates, etc. in the bins as you are finished with them. This way you don't end up crowding the sink. Very important when you don't have a dishwasher. I also picked up the turkey at Citarella. It was just over sixteen pounds. I went at the turkey with that sharp knife, and separated it into dark meat (left) breasts (center) and bones/skin/etc. for the stock. Not nearly as much meat as you think it's going to be, is it? After that, the dark meat went into double trash bags with red wine, port and vegetables to marinate. The breast meat went into brine in a double ziplock bag. The bones and scraps went into the stock pot overnight. I saved a nice bit of turkey fat I can use to sauté vegetables for the dressing, etc. This morning, I strained off the turkey stock. What you see in this picture is my Falk Culinair curved sauteuse evasée on the bottom, then a pasta strainer stock pot insert to provide some height, then a colander sitting in the pasta strainer lined with the back panel from an old linen shirt. Right now, I am reducing down the turkey stock. More shopping and cooking details to come later in the day.

Mooooooooooooom... you're embarrassing me in front of my friends.

Kurt, the "d'Auge" part means "from Auge." It's part of the regulation for calvados d'appellation contrôlée. A Calvados so named must be distilled form apples grown in the orchards of the Pays d'Auge. Classic sidecar: 1.5 oz : cognac or cognac-like brandy 1.0 oz : Cointreau 0.5 oz : fresh lemon juice lemon twist for garnish Take a lemon wedge, notch a slice into the middle and use it to moisten the rim of a chilled cocktail glass. Frost the moistened outer rim of the glass with superfine sugar. Shake ingredients together with cracked ice and strain into prepared cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist. Some recipes might call for only a half-ounce of Cointreau, and I've even seen one that called for equal parts of all three ingredients. I think the one I posted above is a good one to start with. Here is Julie Reiner's sidecar recipe. It calls for 3/4 ounce lemon juice and GranGala instead of Cointreau.

Bitters may be one of those things that is exempt from most liquor distribution laws. This is because, although it does contain alcohol, it must (by law, I think) be so bitter that it is not potable on its own. AFAIK, underage kids can buy Angostura bitters in a grocery store because it is not considered an "alcoholic beverage."

One thing this Diary will reveal is that I almost never measure anything. I just added 1:1 simple syrup until I thought it was thin enough and until it toned down the acidity to "somewhat less than mouth-puckeringly tart." The "bellini" will really be more like a "cranberry champagne cocktail" since I will be using a squirt of the cranberry puree, then dropping in a sugar cube soaked with orange bitters, then topping it off with the cold cava.

Steven, unfortunately there is no substitute for Peychaud's. That said, I bet the drink would work with Angostura. It won't taste exactly the same, but will probably still be very good.

Sounds very interesting, Mary. Good idea to keep in mind for next year. Where does one normally find these, and is there anything one should look out for?

I think Lillet Rouge is great just on the rocks with a twist.

It would be interesting to break down this list by price. I note that one of your favorites at #5, Luksusowa, costs around half as much as all the others.

Indeed, yew halve a pointe they're. Lettuce knot continue.

This morning I had my usual wqeekday breakfast (when I have anything at all): A double cappuccino from the Rancilio. Here is the machine in action: And here it the finished product:

(1) QA is short for "Quality Assurance." Used as a verb it means, "go through everything and make sure it works the way it's supposed to work." (2) No way, man! It's just that this particular dinner party demands this kind of organization. Otherwise, you're getting up at 5 AM on Thursday and trying to make everything in one day. My usual dinner parties are more on the Italian model: go to the market, see what looks good, to a starter, a starch course and a meat or fish course with some vegetables. I love the Silver Moon, but you can't get an enormous brioche there the size of two loaves of Wonder Bread like they have at Zabar's. I could probably get them to make me something like that specially, but it would cost an arm and a leg.

It's given all its flavor to the sauce and it's quite mushy by this time, so I'm not sure what it could be used for why I'd want to use it (to make an ecological point?). Money wise, we're talking about a 15 cent onion. It is a fairly standard technique in Italian cookery to use garlic or onion or celery as a flavoring agent for the sauce, removing the garlic or onion or celery once the sauce is finished and the flavoring agent has contributed its flavor.

Back to Thanksgiving planning. Today I was met with the first substantial setback in the schedule. Went to Zabar's to buy a brioche loaf for the bread pudding, and they were sold out. I'll have to run over there tomorrow at lunch to make sure they don't sell out again. If they're sold out at lunch tomorrow, I'll either have to go at the crack of dawn on Wednesday, or use regular bread. Anyway, tonight I made the pecan tart. The crust is baked blind, and the filling is Steen's cane syrup, dark muscovado sugar, eggs, bourbon and arrowroot. Oh, and pecans, of course. Extra pecans glazed with Steen's and butter go on top. After the pecan tart, I made the cranberry puree for the cranberry bellini. Threw a bag of cranberries into a pot of boiling water. Waited until they all cracked (making cool popping sounds, by the way). Then ran them through the foodmill on the fine disk and pressed it all through a fine sieve. In the end, I had a tart catsup-looking puree that I thinned with simple syrup and funneled into a squeeze bottle. I also took a look at the cucumber cup I put in the freezer last night to see how it would work for the oyster course. Looks good, and I'm satisfied. No weeping after 30 minutes. Alas, there was no time to bathe the ferrets. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday.

Well, as it so happens, I am the foodblogger this Thanksgiving week as well. We'll see how (and if!) I manage to fit meals in around all the Thanksgiving preparation. Lunch today was in the office. A scallion tuna salad sandwich, a can of diet Cel-Ray, a big bottle to lemon Perrier and a volume of the complete works of William Faulkner. For dinner this evening, I was in a bit of a bind. I've really had to clear out my freezer in order to make room for stuff I need to put in there for Thanksgiving. One container I had in there was a bowl of frozen egg yolks left over from when I used the whites to clarify some stock. So... if you're in the slkinsey household and life gives you egg yolks, you make egg yolk pasta. For a condiment I wanted something simple that worked with fresh pasta. In times like this, I always turn to what I call "sugo rosso Bavusiano" because I was reminded of it by JosephB, who is also a great proponent of this preparation. All you need is a can of San Marzano tomatoes, a nice lump of butter, and a medium onion cut in half. Start it all together in a cold pan and bring it slowly up to temperature. Once it starts looking like this -- in around 30 minutes, it's ready. Toss out the onion (it's given its flavor to the sauce) and you're good to go. An incredibly sweet sauce, and nothing is better for gnocchi. It also works well for fresh pasta if you want to use a tomato sauce. The pasta went into plenty of salted water for a while, and then into a pan with the condiment. From there, it goes to the plate.

A heavy garbage bag inside the pot should be just the thing.

It is that. The other option might have been a nice glass of sherry. Since the serving for sherry is smaller it prevents guests from getting overfilled on liquids with the soup too. Soup is always a hard pairing because of that IMO. Good points. I didn't consider sherry because I'm not sure about following the sherry with the lemon-thyme sorbet and Moscato d'Asti, both of which are sweet. You also make a good point about the soup. I should mention, though, that the soup will be both small and thick, and that I'll be serving only a 1/3 or 1/4 pour with the soup. All the portions and pours will be small, otherwise everyone will be three sheets to the wind and stuffed to bursting by the end of the meal... and this is the voice of experience talking here, as that would accurately describe my first try at this format for Thanksgiving dinner around 3 years ago.

The thing that I find so nonsensical about reviews like this is that, given the number of entirely opposite "peak experience" reviews I have seen in these forums and have heard personally from people I know and whose palates I trust more than any print reviewer, I find it incredibly hard to believe that ADNY serves dry veal, undercooked langoustines, etc. In fact, it makes it all the more obvious that the reviewer has an agenda.

Yesterday wasn't quite as busy as I had planned. I was tired from all the activity on Saturday, and besides, the Jets won, the Giants were starting new quarterback and the Packers also won. Whenever the Jets and Packers both win, all is right in the world. Much time was spent in front of the television watching football in between various cooking tasks. Sunday I had: Make pie crusts Make cornbread Make cucumber granita QA cucumber cups The pie crusts were first. I've been using a variation of a technique ewindels developed following a commend I made several years ago to the effect of "I wonder what would happen if we froze the butter and grated it on a box grater." So, first I froze flour, butter and lard, and grated the fat into the flour with a box grater. Then I rolled the fat and flour together with a rolling pin several times, chilling the mixture in between rollings. After that, I added sour cream and "turned" the dough several times until it came together. I'll blind bake the crust for the pecan tart this evening. The cucumber granita couldn't have been easier. Just peel and seed two large English cucumbers, cut into sections, puree with a little salt and white pepper, freeze and break up roughly with a fork. I also made cornbread for the dressing. It's important to make it early so it has time to dry out before it's used in the dressing. I had some chicken fat in the freezer, so I used that for the fat in the batter. Figure it will give everything an even more poultryesque flavor. Today I have to drop by Zabar's after work for a brioche and some ring molds and cutters, then make the pecan tart and the cranberry puree for the bellini. bergerka will pick up additional glassware from ewindels. Hopefully we'll have enough time left to go swimming with the ferrets. Hmm. I've never really experienced any off taste for Brussels sprouts. But I have heard that there may be a substance in Brussels sprouts that some people are able to taste and others are not. This is genetically mediated, much like the ability to smell "asparagus pee." Anyway, for sure Nancy's has Gruner Veltliner. That wasn't the issue. Rather, I'm not sure it would make sense to go from the Riesling in the previous course right to a Gruner Veltliner, which is a somewhat similar wine. Also, with the richness coming from the crème brûlée, plus the gruyere in the gratin and the funky porkyness from the guanciale, I thought it made sense to go in a red direction. But it is a somewhat quirky course for wine pairing.

This is kind of cute, what with the homophonic affectations and all. But I don't think it is correct. Notwithstanding the fact that no three French speakers will agree on the precise pronunciation of a word, the general rule of thumb for two-syllable words in French is to place the stress on the final syllable. As in parFAIT, bonJOUR, voyAGE, aimER, etc. This, of course, does not mean that one won't hear BONjour instead of bonJOUR (etc.) in certain parts of France, but I believe that would be considered an accent much like "warsh" instead of "wash" down around Baltimore. But, hey, don't take my word for it: thus speaks the course materials for French 200 at Indiana University.

Yea, I thought that was weird, too. Or at least weird that books using these measurements (most likely for historical reasons) don't mention what they expect the usual juice per lemon/lime/etc. to be. I've had lemons with one ounce of juice... I've had lemons with 2 ounces.