slkinsey

Next is: Mixed Herb Salad With Shrimp Ceviche Saumur Blanc "La Papareille," Domaine Saint-Vincent, 2002 I like the idea of having a tiny little salad and something cold after the soup. I'm looking for bright flavors and some acidity, no richness. This salad, which was a handfull of mized herbs dressed with integrated lemon/olive oil and two medium shrimp "ceviched" in lemon juice, worked well for that purpose. However, I've done the shrimp ceviche thing for around 5 years now, and I have the sense that it's time to move on to something new. Not really sure what to do with this one. I could keep the herb salad and do a little piece of cold poached salmon or seared-but-mostly-raw tuna in place of the shrimp. Or I could go in a more bitter direction and do something with frisee or endive. I like to stick with seafood until the main course. Still thinking about this one.

Continuing to look down the menu, we have: Cauliflower Soup With Seared Diver Scallop And Curry Oil Saumur Blanc "La Papareille," Domaine Saint-Vincent, 2002 This was the surprise hit of last year. It's literally nothing more than a large head of cauliflower cooked until just tender in milk, then pureed and enrichened with a little cream and chicken stock. The curry oil is made by heating good curry powder in olive oil and infusing the oil for several hours, then straining it all through a coffee filter. Last year, each dish was garnished with a single seared diver scallop and drizzled with the curry oil. The nice thing about this soup is that it can be made several days in advance and then warmed up on the stove for service. I've tried it cold, and it just doesn't work. I'm going to be keeping this dish more or less intact this year, with a few modfications. I'm reducing the size of the serving and switching from a wide shallow bowl to a tall narrow bowl. I'm eliminating the scallop. I'd also like to do another layer of something hidden underneath. I've been thinking of putting a spinach puree on the bottom of the bowl and then filling the rest of the way with the cauliflower puree and garnishing with the curry oil. Spinach goes with curry flavors, right? Any thoughts? It would also be nice to think of one other garnish element for the surface of the soup. Something like a single leaf of chervil laid down flat on the surface.

It is more or less interchangable with the common cream liqueurs, although a bit different. Check out the web site here.

This is why Audrey is so great. There are some new ones on the menu that are definitely worth a try. I think her Tantris Sidecar is a brilliant drink, and one you really should try. But it's really hard to pick. I've never had anything there that wasn't exceptional. If it's on the menu, it's very good. And the menu offers very good descriptions of what the drinks are like. Off the menu, she makes a brilliant Manhattan with Bookers bourbon and Carpano Punt e Mes, and the Dreamy Dorini Smoking Martini is extremely interesting. But, then again, the Sazerac at Bemelman's is superb (it's Eric_Malson's favorite) and so are the other classics like their Pegu Club and Pisco Sour. I can't decide! Could this be why I often need a blood transfusion after I've been there? I'm looking forward to a full report. Talent like Audrey and Sasha Petraske and Julie Reiner and others like them are what makes NYC a great place for the cocktail enthusiast.

We have a large-for-NY but small-for-anywhere-else kitchen, so it's difficult to have a lot of help back there. I have help moving plates out to the table and clearing in between courses, and some limited help at plating... but not much. The real secret is to come up with things that can be made ahead of time and plated easily. You also have to have a good game plan in place for which things go where and when certain things get done. As you can see, the oyster course isn't particularly difficult to plate and I'm under no time constraint there because I can open the oysters before everyone sits down. I would never schedule the opening of a dozen oysters in the middle of the meal, because that would be too much trouble and take too much time. Once I start talking about the next course, I'll begin to talk about dinnertime logistics and scheduling.

Right. Well, there are two things at play here: 1. the cucumber cup is not meant to be eaten, and 2. if the cucumber cups freeze well and they are sitting on a block of frozen slate, melting will hopefully not be an issue. But it's definitely something I should QA.

So, next is: Kumamoto Oyster On The Half-Shell With Cucumber Granita Muscadet de Sevre et Maine sur Lies, Cuvee Vielles Vignes, Domaine Clos des Briords, 2002 This I thought worked very well as the course that calls everyone to the table. It's nice to sit down at the table and have something briny, bracing and cold to start the meal. Last year I served these on little mounds of rock salt, on top of frozen blocks of inch-thick slate. That was pretty cool. I've vastly improved my oyster opening skills in the last year, so this one should be easier, too. It's also good that this course doesn't require any cooking -- the soup course can come up to temperature on the stove while we're eating this one. I can I'll keep this for 2004. Nevertheless, there are things that I wasn't entirely happy about. Last year I ordered the oysters ahead of time and picked them up. This means that I didn't get to pick them out. They were high quality oysters, but overall a good bit larger than I might have liked. I'll be picking out my own this year. It means more time at the store when it's mobbed, but c'est la vie. Last year I put a scoop of cucumber granita right into the shell with the oyster. Nice idea in my head, but not as good in execution. It's also diffisult to execute under time pressure. Better would be something that can be pre-set and simply placed. This year, I think I am going to use some hollowed out sections of English cucumber to form little "cups" for the granita. Hopefully I can portion the granita into the cucumber-cups a few hours before dinner and place the filled cucumber-cupsin the freezer (I'll have to see how this effects the appearance of the cups). That way, once the oysters are opened, all I have to do is place a mound of rock salt on each piece of slate, bed the oyster shell in the salt and drop a filled oyster-cup onto the corner of the slate. I need to think of a cool and interesting garnish for this. Wine TBD (there will be a section on wines early next week). Cleanup is easy. Just use a damp cloth to swipe off each slate into the trash and stack the slates in a predetermined out-of-the way niche. This whole course is one bite of oyster, maybe 4 demitasse spoons of granita and around 1/3 of a glass of wine.

Bread pudding has always been a big hit at Thanksgiving, but there are a few things one has to consider... In general I try to make the dinner as light on starch as possible, because starches can be so filling. The portion of dressing is very small, and is really the only starch. After a few gut-busting Thanksgiving dinners, I also am beginning to get a handle on portion size. These are all plated courses, so I can control the portion size. You have to have small portions when you have so many courses. This year, I am going to make the portions even one size smaller than last year.

I'll get to that. Some of those are changing. However, I should point out that the scallop is really just a garnish in the cauliflower soup, and the ceviche/herb salad dish is basically herb salad with a ceviche garnish.

Okay... so step one of menu planning is to take a look at what we had last year and decide what I think about it. There are three concerns here: 1. to replace or tweak things that weren't a total success, 2. to improve, refine or vary good ideas from last time, and 3. to rotate some dishes off the menu so it isn't the same thing every year. With that in mind, here are some thoughts I am kicking around: Assorted Crudités Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Rustico, Viticoltori Nino Franco, NV This is something we eat/drink before coming to table. The idea is to have something to snack on, but not too filling. The Nino Franco prosecco is excellent. That said, we've done this more or less the same for years and I think it might be time for a change. First, as certain regular guests have been agitating for cranberry, we had the thought of doing a "cranberry bellini" instead of just straight prosecco. This needs to be tested, but my going-in idea is: cook/puree/sieve a bag of frozen cranberrys (this is good, because it can be done several days in advance -- a key element of the overall strategy for this party), then each champagne glass will get a spoonfull of cranberry puree, then a sugar cube soaked with orange bitters, then filled with prosecco. Could use rosemary stalks with all the needles stripped off except up at the top as a garnish. One advantage of this is that I can (and should) buy cheaper prosecco. Fellow eGulleter ewindels usually does the crudités. We will talk about ideas for this year. More menu thoughts soon...

We have in the past had guests with severe fish and nut allergies, which we were able to accomodate with minor revisions to the dishes they were served.

We usually have between ten and twelve. The table is designed for ten, but twelve is workable.

Just FYI, the clear base coat is also enamel. This is from Le Creuset's UK site: This is from Le Creuset's Australian site: Interesting how they both give information that the other doesn't have.

Note: Now that it's Thanksgiving week, this Diary has upped the ante by turning into the weekly foodblog as well. Click here to go down to the beginning of the foodblog. In consultation with our blog Czar over in the General forum, I am going to be writing about the preparations leading up to our big Thanksgiving Dinner which, as most of you know, is just around the corner in a few weeks. I guess it's been around ten years now that I've been doing Thanksgiving dinner partys, and they have increased in sophistication and complexity every year. It was just the usual turkey, dressing, and vegetable sides the first year. Then that grew into Turducken with the usual sides jazzed up a bit. After a few years of Turducken, I started getting tired of that and began moving in the direction of multiple courses. The first time I think we made a lobster bisque followed by a buckwheat crepe filled with a leek and gruyere mixture alongside a bundle of three asparagus spears held together with a strip of bacon, and then a turkey ballotine stuffed with a chicken and foie gras mousse. From there, it just kind of took off, and this is where we found ourselves last year: So the question is, what are we going to have this year? Over the next few weeks I'll post here about the process from end-to-end, from settling on a guest list to picking the wines, to QAing new dishes to picking out wines to dinnertime logistics and execution to cleanup, and more.

Dude. A cocktail that you have to shake by hand for five minutes can't possibly be a good/easy choice to serve out of a pitcher. Kind of a funny recipe you linked to as well. Confectioner's sugar? No lime juice? Vanilla extract? Two egg whites for one drink? Half and half instead of cream, and more of it than gin? Try this one here instead, and try shaking it with ice for 2-3 minutes instead of blending it.

Wow. That.s 69.95 CAD for a half liter! Expensive stuff.

According to Gary Regan, a "New Orleans Sour" consists of a base spirit, triple sec (e.g., Cointreau) and lemon or lime juice. Famous examples include the Brandy Crusta, Sidecar, Classic Cocktail, Cosmopolitan, Between the Sheets, Pegu Club and Corpse Reviver #2. The most famous example being the Margarita. The Sazerac is a classic NO drink, but doesn't exactly lend itself to pitcher deployment. There are a number of drinks with "New Orleans" in the name over at cocktailDB.

Message to Europe: [stop] Must have Plymouth Navy Strength Gin. [stop] Please send case. [stop]

Hmmm. Haven't heard about it, but it looks interesting. Seems like the publication date is this coming Saturday, though?

I've been very interested in trying Plymouth Navy Strength Gin at 100 proof. This is, I am given to understand, the "real" original Plymouth and I think there are a number of cocktails that would benefit from this higher octane version. Has anyone tried it? Is it available in America? Anyone seen it for sale in NYC?

Oh, I'm not defending them. It was just counter to the other information I've read, including their own materials. But it's entirely possible they applied a nonstick coating to raw cast iron for a short period of time until they figured out it was a horrible idea. I'm still inclined to think wkl's pan is coated with LC's "black stuff." I am thinking here mostly of cocottes (aka French ovens). As Trillium points out, Le Creuset does make raw cast iron crêpières.

Hah! Well, I said "doesn't need to be very good" not "can be complete swill." Of course, a real latte macchiato hardly has any coffee in it at all. I'm curious as to the difference between an American-style "double latte" and a "really big cappuccino."

I think the article missed the point on a few levels: 1. The fact is that there are very few places in America one can go for a decent cup of espresso. For most, it's make it at home or nothing. 2. It is also a fact that is is extremely difficult, bordering on impossible, to consistently make a really good cup of espresso on a machine below the "Rancilio Silvia" level. 3. The fact is, of course, that most people in America don't really want espresso anyway -- they want milk-based drinks. 4. The deal with making milk-based drinks is that, while the quality of the espresso doesn't need to be very good, machines that really steam well for people who want to be able to make 3-4 capuccini in a row are even more expensive than the Rancilio Silvia. 5. Most of the lower-priced machines seem like a bargain, and it may even be possible to get okay results on them. But it's usually so inconsistent/unsatisfactory, or it's such a pain in the ass to get good results that most of them end up in a closet.

Sounds almost like a Mornay with the cheese and egg yolk. Definitely beyond a plain bechamel for sure. Good bechamel information may be found right here in this eGCI class.

So, you're saying that the exterior is coated with enamel but the interior is raw cast iron? Are you sure it isn't coated with a different kind of coating on the inside? I just can't imagine why anyone would go to the trouble of enameling the outside of a piece of cookware and leave the inside raw. To clarify re Le Creuset nonstick, it appears to me as thought the nonstick coating is applied over a base coat of enamel rather than directly onto raw cast iron.