slkinsey

The people at the Union Square greenmarket were probably Quattro Farms.

I've never made gnocchi with leftover mashed potatoes. Have to think you'd have a very hard time keeping them appropriately light. Personally, I'd be more likely to save them for shepherd's pie or something like that.

Interesting... On CocktailDB the "Sand Martin" is made with gin, sweet vermouth and green Chartreuse. This (presumably historical) recipe contains more vermouth than your version, making a sweeter drink -- but I find it is often the case that drinks from that era need to be dried up a bit for modern tastes. Having tried it with both green and yellow Chartreuse, I agree that yellow is definitely the way to go. Stangely, the "San Martin" on CocktailDB contains equal parts gin, dry vermouth and sweet vermouth with a splash of anisette and a dash of aromatic bitters. Totally different drink.

Sounds like a cool idea. Funny, I had exactly the opposite thought about the quality of homemade alcoholic beverages. Maybe it's because I've consumed most of mine in Italy, but my impression has always been that it can be pretty darn good. The problem with most homemade distilled stuff is that the technology and techniques are not advanced enough for the home distiller to make sure only the right alcohols make it into the mix. The result is lots of headache-producing (along other, nastier, things) congeners. This is fine, if the alcohol is treated post-distillation in a way that will reduce the presence of the congeners -- the easiest being to age the spirit in wood. When this step is skipped, then yea... it can definitely be a hair-on-chest-growing experience to drink the stuff.

Hmmm... I thought they made that stuff in jail. Or is that pruno?

Chartreuse really is a great cocktail ingredient. For me, just a hint of Chartreuse adds a certain ambience of far-away places. I'm always interesting in hearing about cocktails with Chartreuse, since I bought a large sized bottle which is apparently a lifetime supply. Audrey, I was just thinking about that cocktail of Dave's, too. It was a real keeper. Taste of NY sounds cool. Little rich for my blood at $100-plus, though.

Yay! Sounds interesting. Very Thanksgivingish as well. I, too, would love to get my hands on a bottle of their bonded stuff. I don't know if you saw the thread where Splificator and I were talking about making a "Subway Cocktail", but I've been thinking about applejack a lot myself. My effort at an applejack-based cocktail is below. I'd very much like to see how it tastes using bonded straight applejack instead of the usual blended product. I like the rough-around-the-edges, old-school aspects of regular Laird's blended applejack, but I do wish it had a more assertively apple-y flavor. Here is my humble attempt at a cocktail with Laird's from the Subway cocktail thread.

It seems to me that one of the fundamental problems that led to the current topic of debate is the whole way the Times reviewing is set up. This is to say, the "main reviews with stars" are the important reviews that get most of the column space, and the "$25 and under" reviews are the little sisters. I mean, since Asimov stopped writing it, they haven't even had one consistent reviewer for "$25 and under." Fat Guy says that "there is no lack of space in the Times for coverage of Sripraphai or of any other restaurant from multiple angles" -- and while this is strictly speaking true, it's also the case that none of these things offer the same kind of context, importance or impact as a Main Review. And this is a problem. I think we can all agree that Sripraphai is an "important restaurant" in its own way, and one that is well worth knowing about. Frankly, Sripraphai is too important and too good to be given a 300 word review by whatever freelance they get to do "$25 and under" that week (and let's not even get started on the stupidity of the $25 limit). This is no less true of plenty of restaurants in NYC that deserve wider recognition and fall into the "one star or less" category. And, let's be honest, despite the fact that the Times has a somewhat elite circulation demographic, most people who read the Times food section do most of their eating at places in the range between Sripraphai and @SQC. I just don't see any justification for giving Spice Market 1,000 words and giving Sripraphai 300, not least because Sripraphai serves much better food on just about any objective standard. So, while it may be true that places like Sripraphai can be covered more extensively in first-person essays, Diner's Journal writeups, Magazine pieces and so forth -- it is also true that these are unsatisfactory compared to a real review. They are not written consistently enough or with enough consistency to have any meaningful context. What would be ideal would be to have two equal-sized reviews with similar consistency of reviewer (i.e., no "rotating reviewer" like they're doing with $25 and under right now). The "haute guy" would take all the places that would traditionally get starred reviews, all the way down to the occasional exceptional one-star restaurant. The "not-haute guy" would take everything from regular one stars to places like Sripraphai. Both would write 1,000 word reviews, only the haute guy would assign stars. This would allow places like Sripraphai to have the benefit of an actual in-depth review and a context in which to place that review without breaking the haute reviewing system. I think this would increase readership of the food section, but I have no doubt that it will never happen.

Right now, Fee's is the only game in town for orange bitters. So it's not a matter of better or worse. If you want orange bitters, you have got to buy Fee's. Some day in the future, the Sazerac Company will supposedly be selling Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6. People who have tried his previous homemade versions (Nos. 4 or 5) say it blows Fee's orange bitters away, and they are loathe to go back to Fee's. I'll be interested to taste for myself. Fee's is also the only game in town for Mint Bitters and Peach Bitters. After this, it's not so much a matter of different brands of bitters as it is different styles of bitters that happen to be made by different producers. Peychaud's bitters, for example, is deep pink and has anise and cherry flavors along with the herbs and whatnot. It is an essential component of the Sazerac, but can be used interestingly in a variety of new and old cocktails. There is no substitute for Peychaud's bitters, and nothing else tastes similar to it. It is a proprietary recipe only produced by one company. Angostura bitters is probably the most commonly used and easily obtainable bitters. It is entirely different from Peychaud's or orange bitters. It is very dark and herbaceous. Technically, Angostura bitters is an "aromatic bitters," which simply means bitter concentrated infusion of herbs, spices, etc. The only other brand of aromatic bitters of which I am aware is Fee Brothers aromatic bitters. This is a great bitters, but tasted quite different from Angostura. If you make the same drink with Angostura and Fee's aromatic bitters, the two drinks will not taste the same. So it's not really a perfect substitution. There used to be a zillion different kinds of bitters, as bitters was once (and properly) considered an important part of any cocktail. Bars used to make homemade bitters in several styles for their own use.

Orange bitters is a classic cocktail ingredient and a necessary part of any cocktail enthusiast's pantry. There are countless classic cocktails that include orange bitters. Indeed, bitters is an entire class of ingredient that is underappreciated among drinkers and bartenders these days. There is hardly a cocktail that won't be improved with a dash or two of bitters. Some great cocktails with orange bitters are the Satan's Whiskers and the Scofflaw. If you click here you will find hundreds of cocktails on cocktaildb that feature orange bitters. But there are even more. Plenty of drinks that are made with Angostura bitters (e.g., the Manhattan) are very good with the addition or substitution of orange bitters. Hopefully orange bitters won't be so hard to find when Gary Regan's orange bitters goes into production. Everyone I know who has tried his homemade bitters swears by it. Unfortunately, there is no knowing when it will be offered for sale. I keep on hearing (and reading) that it's release will be just around the corner... but I've been hearing that for a long time.

They sound really interesting. Of course, at $97.35/bottle plus shipping, they had better be!

Here's an article by Gary Regan that appeared in today's San Francisco Chronicle about a drink created by David Nepove at Enrico's Sidewalk Cafe in San Francisco. The article is written as an amusing dialogue between "The Professor" and "Doc." You may draw your own conclusions. To make the Spanish Rose you need: 1 sprig : rosemary 1.5 oz : gin (Plymouth is specified) .75 oz : Licor 43 .75 oz : fresh lemon juice .50 oz : cranberry juice Strip the leaves from the bottom half of the rosemary sprig and muddle with the lemon juice. Reserve sprig for garnish. Add gin and Licor 43. Shake with ice and strain into ice-filled wine glass. Top with cranberry juice and garnish with rosemary sprig. Sounds interesting. I've never made a cocktail with rosemary.

From an article in today's Times: Isn't there already commercial production of Absinthe in Switzerland? Anyway, the article makes it sound like the new law will pave the way for more "historical" absinthes with higher thujone concentrations.

If the tin is fresh and in good condition, there's no reason not to use them. The main problem with tin is that it does wear out eventually. It's also a problem because tin melts at around 450F/232C. That's not very high, and it's quite easy to get a pan above this temperature -- especially if you are sautéing. Once that happens, you've got a retinning on your hands. So, as long as you use moderate heat and are careful to use soft "teflon-friendly" tools, you should go ahead and use them. There's no reason not to use tin-lined copper you already own. I just think that, since we now have the ability to buy significantly more durable stainless lined copper, there are plenty of reasons not to buy new tin-lined copper.

You'd be surprised at how easy the ingredients are to find. Pear eau de vie (aka pear brandy and poire william) can be found in most decent liquor stores, as can riesling wine and orange curaçao. The only one that might be difficult to get your hands on is Peychaud's bitters. But even that can be had via the internet (and should be a part of any cocktail enthusiast's pantry anyway). Honey syrup is simply honey mixed 1:1 with water. You can make it at home. Click the link over to NY Metro for the full recipe, BTW. Although she has been very generous with recipes in the past, I didn't want to post the recipe without Audrey's permission.

Isn't it a specialty of Locke Ober?

I'm not sure what temperature is required for retrogradation, but I assume it is refrigerator temperature. That's where I keep my leftover rice anyway. Not sure I'd want to eat cooked rice that had sat out at room temperature for 24 hours.

Well... not exactly every time I want to. Luckily for her (and for my liver, no doubt) I can't get over there nearly as often as I'd like -- otherwise she'd never be able to get rid of me. Probably have to take out a restraining order, etc. And really... cocktail stalking is so uncouth.

That sort of thing is perfect when you want to serve individual portions of something like mussels. I also find that it's good to have several ~1 quart pots around for warming sauces, doing individual portions of vegetables, etc.

Re day-old versus fresh rice: It's not necessarily a fresh versus not-fresh question, it's a warm versus cold guestion. When rice is cooked, it releases starch. There are two kinds of starch in rice: amylose and amylopectin. Short grain rice has more amylopectin and long grain rice has more amlyose. Amylopectin is stickier than amylose, which is why short grain rice is said to be "sticky rice." But amlyose is also pretty sticky, and well-cooked long or medium grain rice will still stick together when the rice is fresh. When cooked rice cools to refrigerator temperature, the starch undergoes a process called retrogradation. This means, among other things, that the starch cells collapse, the starch crystalizes and the starch molecules realign within each grain of rice. The result is that the rice gets hard and individual grains of rice no longer stick together. Since one would like separate grains of rice rather than clumps of rice stuck together when making fried rice, it makes sense to use refrigerated cooked rice. This usually means day-old rice. The hardness imparted by retrogradation also works to the cook's advantage in making fried rice, because it means that the rice will not break apart while it is tossed in the wok. Luckily, when the rice is reheated, the hardening effect of retrogradation is reversed.

New York Metro just ran a blurb on one of Audrey "Libation Goddess" Saunders' new cocktails at Bemelmans: Falling Leaves. I'm pretty sure Clear Creek Distillery is in Oregon and not upstate NY, but I quibble... The recipe includes pear eau de vie, reisling, honey syrup, orange curaçao, Peychaud's bitters and a star anise garnish. I was able to try one of these a few weeks ago when I visited Bemelman's with JAZ, Fat Guy, Splificator, Eric_Malson and bergerka to be dazzled by Audrey's mixology. It's a very interesting drink. In many ways it's a cocktail unlike any other with which I am familiar. More subtly flavored and, since the base "liquor" is reisling, with less alcoholic kick than most cocktails (substantially less kick than a Manhattan or Martini). It also needed to spend some time in the glass and warm up slightly for the flavors to have full impact. So, it's a drink that one can have two ways -- taken straight from the shaker it's a light and subtle quencher, after a minute or two it's a more complex and full flavored drink for sipping and thinking. I'm not aware of any other cocktails (which is to say, short strong drinks chilled with ice and served "up") that have wine as the base alcohol. One thing I have always noted about any of Audrey's recipes, unlike those from certain other notables in the cocktail world, is that they always turn out just right if you follow the recipe. So if you can't drop in to Bemelmans, mix one up and see what you think.

I've read this a number of times, but metalurgists and other scientific types say that it isn't true, that the cracks/pores/etc. don't close as the metal heats up.

Strictly speaking, this is not actually true. Any time you cook something in a pan with hot fat where you are largely letting the ingredient sit still in the pan, you are "frying." "Sauteing" is when you constantly agitate the pan to keep the ingredients in motion -- not something one normally wants to do with fish. "Pan frying" is kind of a deceptive term. I prefer the term "shallow frying" which seems to be used only to describe a fried chicken cooking technique that is not deep frying. The way I see it, you have "frying," which is cooking in a fairly limited amount of hot fat, you have "deep frying," which is cooking entirely covered in hot fat, and you have "shallow frying," which is in between the two. Although, if one is going to be entirely precise about it, shallow frying and deep frying are fundamentally different from "regular frying" because they are actually boiling the ingredients in oil. This is good advice, but one needs to understand that it only applies to sauteing and high heat frying. For moderate heat frying, it is often advisable to bring the pan and the fat up to temperature together because the appearance of the fat will often tell you when it has reached the appropriate temperature (there is also no fear of burning the fat in moderate heat frying). For shallow and deep frying you also want to heat the pan and the fat together since what you care about is the temperature of the fat, not the temperature of the pan (the fat is what does all the cooking in deep/shallow frying). If you heated up a pan, dumped in an inch of cold oil and then attempted to shallow fry, you'd get nothing but a big mess. JJ: For cooking fish, the best thing to do is get yourself a large high-end nonstick frypan (like Calphalon Commercial Nonstick). You wouldn't use this for shallow frying (i.e., cooking in around an inch of hot fat) but it works great for regular frying.

This is an especially good point. Stainless lined heavy copper cookware is expensive, although it's not all that expensive compared to brands like All-Clad and Demeyere -- but it is expensive. However, the cost needs to be put into perspective: An 11 inch sauciere (aka curved sauteuse evasee) from Falk will run you 235 bucks. If you keep it for 20 years, thats a cost of around 12 bucks a year. For one of the very best pans made. It's like being able to drive around a Ferrari for a hundred bucks a year. What else can you get for 235 bucks? Well... you can get a good DVD player. That might last you around 5 years if you're lucky. Or, hey... it might get you one-fifth of an okay laptop. That might last you three years. Now, I happen to use my copper pans a lot more often than I use my DVD player and I'll still be using them when DVDs are as obsolete as Betamax. So, in my opinion, the money was better spent on the pans.

I imagine it comes down, in many ways, to the fact that FOH is usually not a career choice and BOH often is. I'm sure it's also much more likely to be seen in larger, more corporate and/or busy restaurants not owned/operated by family. I've never seen any signs of this conflict in small family owned/operated restaurants that serve at a leisurely pace.