slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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Question then. Do you layer all 4 of those ingredients as normal? ragu,parmigiano, bechamel or something like that?
I think I'll skip the mushrooms thanks. Did I offend you in someway so that now you are trying to kill me?
You don't like mushrooms?!
My typical method is to start with a small layer of ragu (and you can easily convert a non-meat tomato sauce to a "ragu" by dropping in some crumbled sausage), then a layer of pasta, sprinkle on some ragu, a little balsamella, a little parmigiano, repeat to the top of the baking dish. It's important, I think, to be stingy with the non-pasta ingredients. Just a few blobs here and there for every layer, as though you were topping an artisinal pizza.
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Whoa! Hold on there.
Neither ricotta nor cottage cheese is required for lasagne al forno. These have become somewhat standard in the Italian-American version of the dish, along with dry rather than fresh pasta, but are certainly not required ingredients.When I make a classic lasagne al forno I use only four ingredients
- Fresh lasagne (lasagna is the Italian name for the wide pasta used in lasagne al forno, not the baked dish, which is named lasagne al forno to indicate that it is baked in the oven)
- Ragu Bolognese
- Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Balsamella (aka, béchamel, aka "white sauce")
To vary from this I might use a regular tomato sauce along with, say, mushrooms or sausage slices. But rarely ricotta and never cottage cheese.
- Fresh lasagne (lasagna is the Italian name for the wide pasta used in lasagne al forno, not the baked dish, which is named lasagne al forno to indicate that it is baked in the oven)
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I must say that slkinsey is right
You know... you really can't say this too many times.
Beefeater is definitely an underrated gin, and when included in a G&T has become to me one of life's simple® pleasures.Yea. It's a decent gin, and it's one that has enough presence to come through in a G&T. There's little point to making a G&T with a delicate gin like Hendrick's.
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it's a matter of degree. if you overwork the dough, the gnocchi will be tough and heavy, certainly. but if you don't develop any gluten at all, what is to hold the gnoccho together? (oh sure, you could cheat and add egg ...)
If I am not mistaken, there is a certain amount of interlinkage that happens automatically when water and gluten are mixed. And, needless to say, there is a certain amount of gluten development that happens as the ingredients are incorporated and as the dough is rolled out, etc. I've never found that it wanted any more working than that. Certainly not ultra-minimal as one might do with a pastry dough, but not really anything I would call "kneading."
and i don't have an oed in front of me, but i believe knead and knuckle both come from the same root.Hmm... Maybe, although I am a little dubious about infusing modern-day words with meanings according to their ancient origins.
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. . . I've been drinking a lot of 50-50 Dry Martinis lately (I guess you could call this a Wet/Dry Martini, or an Amphibious Martini), with a great deal of pleasure. You have to use Noilly Prat, though, and the choice of gin is important.
Thanks for the info on the Yellow Chartreuse. Now - you state that the choice of gin is important for the San Martin. I have the Noilly Prat, which gin do you like? Plymouth?
I believe he's saying that the choice of gin is particularly important when you're making 1:1 gin:vermouth martinis.
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i'd be really skeptical. the butter and cream would be the problem. gnocchi (potato gnocchi anyway) are made by developing hte gluten in the potato starch (the word gnocchi comes from teh same latin root as the word "knead"). any decent amount of fat would interfere with the development of said gluten.
This is very odd. I've never heard that one wants to develop the gluten when making gnocchi. In fact, I have always proceeded with exactly the opposite assumption: that one should work the dough as little as possible in order to avoid developing the gluten.
I've also always heard that the word gnocco, which most sources seem to agree is of relatively recent, late 19th century provenance -- can probably be traced back to Middle High German, perhaps knöchel (knuckle), and comes most directly from the Italian (Veneziano dialect?) word nocchio meaning "a knot in wood."
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The people at the Union Square greenmarket were probably Quattro Farms.
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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.
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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.
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I am a complete ignorant in the forum of homemade hooch, yet also an extremely willing participant. Okay, so the old stuff sucked. But I'm sure that by "doing the work" we can build a better mousetrap and "advance the cause". I just love the idea of raisinjack and applejack; et al; blah, blah....let's not waste time, the winter is coming, so let's just forge ahead andplay with it in hot toddies for the heck of it........?
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.
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A sidebar comment....our maitre'd and I were talking about applejack last night, and he commented that his grandfather used to make Raisinjack! Sounds interesting.
Hmmm... I thought they made that stuff in jail. Or is that pruno?
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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.
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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.
1.5 oz : applejack1.0 oz : straight rye whiskey (101 proof is what I've been using)
0.5 tsp : yellow Chartreuse
0.25 oz : fresh lemon juice
0.25 oz : 1:1 simple syrup
dash : Fee Bros. aromatic bitters
Shake hard with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon and a clean NYC subway token.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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They sound really interesting. Of course, at $97.35/bottle plus shipping, they had better be!
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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.
Bar manager David Nepove created the drink known as the Spanish Rose at Enrico's Sidewalk Cafe in San Francisco using a Spanish liqueur, Licor 43, as its sweetening agent. Licor 43 is flavored with 43 different herbs, spices and fruits, and bears fragrant vanilla and orange notes.The Professor makes two of Nepove's drinks and places one at each side of Doc.
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.
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From an article in today's Times:
For three years Claude-Alain Bugnon has competed with his wife for space in the unfinished concrete basement of their home here, she to do laundry, he to make absinthe.Armed with plastic containers of dried herbs, tubs of pharmaceutical ethanol, a homemade still and a secret recipe from a friend's grandmother, Mr. Bugnon has used his skills as an oil refinery technician to produce the powerful herbal elixir long blamed for driving people mad.
In January a new law takes effect in Switzerland aimed at rehabilitating the reputation of absinthe, whose distillation, distribution and sale were banned after an absinthe-besotted factory worker killed his wife and children nearly a century ago.
The new law will allow Mr. Bugnon and dozens of other underground absinthe makers to "come out," as one Swiss newspaper put it, seek amnesty and produce absinthe legally.
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.
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I find this all very interesting, as I have a bunch of copper, mostly stainless lined, but I do have two gorgeous pieces I never use. Both are tinned, one is a bail handled pot with cover 9 1/2 winde by 6 deep and the other is a very heavy pot with a cast iron handle 8 wide by 4 1/2 deep. I'm scared to use them because I'm, afraid the tin will wear out. I used to use the larger one and the tin did wear in one spot so I had it retinned, but it's never seen heat since. What's the bsdis of my irrational fear? they are both high quality and would probably look cool on the stove with something cooking in them.
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.
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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.
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Isn't it a specialty of Locke Ober?
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Day-old rice cooled to refrigerator temperature?? Shouldn't it be cooled to room temperature(not in a fridge)? Should the rice be uncovered or not, I'm not 100% sure(I've seen Chinese restaurants cool their rice uncovered, but maybe that's not the best way).
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.
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You guys make me extremly jealous. Being able to drop in and share such wonderful cocktails with Audrey anytime you want to... :-<
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.
Making Lasagna
in Cooking
Posted
Just so we're clear, now that two people have made reference to Tuscany, the most famous style of lasagne al forno, and the one upon which my technique is based, is lasagne alla Bolognese -- Bologna being in Emilia- Romagna, not Toscana.
"Balsamella" is just another word for "besciamella." Maybe it's dialect? For some reason I am more used to hearing balsamella than besciamella.
I should point out, while I'm at it, that Italian-American lasagne al forno with dry pasta and ricotta can be really good.