slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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Some people really like the Northern Italian dark roasted profile but roasting that dark can increase bitterness or in some cases mask the more subtle flavors. I like a medium dark roast instead as the fruity and chocolatey notes of some beans are more evident.
I think you meant to say the "Southern Italian dark roasted profile." In the North, the roast is more or less a "full city" roast taken just a little bit further -- nicely dark, but still not all that much oil on the surface of the beans. In the South, the roast gets darker and darker.
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Sweet Maria's has a short article on blending that may be of some relevance here. Among the things they say there is:
Filter coffees may be blended for complexity or for balance, but an espresso blend usually must be blended for balance or particular varietal qualities that would be favorable in a filter coffee brew might overwhelm the espresso extract.Anyway, espresso is a drink that must be produced from a blend, and really from a blend specifically designed for espresso. A moka-java blend would be disappointing as espresso, but a single varietal would really suck. No amount of roasting is going to make a varietal that is fundamentally bright into a mellow cup of espresso. I think the deal is that there is no single bean that has all the characteristics one would like in a cup of espresso.
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We love Noche Mexicana. It's our go-to place in the nabe for Mexican. Cheap, good and only a few blocks away.
Another interesting place is Taqueria y Fonda la Mexicana on Amsterdam and 108th. They feature, among other things, tripe tacos, pig ear tacos, beef tongue tacos and beef brain tacos. JJ, when are we going?
We'll make a day of it: a morning of tacos de cesos, the to the E. Village for spleen sandwiches; for lunch, mixed grill at Pampa(?); and an all-offal dinner at a Batali place. For dessert, we'll have to creative. Baba au pig's blood?
But seriously, I'd love to go mid-March, when my temping ends. Is Noche Mex still tiny?
Whoa, Nellie!
Youse mind an interloper on this excursion?
Sounds like something worth coming up to NYC for.
Absolutely, dude. Look for an announcement of Sam 'n' JJ's NYC Guts Tour coming sometime in mid-March. I am leaning towards "Gutapalooza," but there is some popular sentiment for calling it "The Offal Truth."
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GREAT post, Rachel! The poached eggs would be perfect for a tiny frisée aux lardons-inspired salad in a multi-course meal.
As for you, Cool Hand Shaw, what we got here is a failure to communicate. You throw down the gauntlet and there's gonna be a deviled quail egg eating contest.
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If I may make a plug for my omelette-making implement of preference, a French steel purpose-designed (and cheap) omelette pan, this pan almost always provides a very light browning.
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After reading Steven's excellent unit on omelettes, I thought I would demonstrate a slightly differnet classic technique. Now, I actually prefer Steven's JC-influenced "jerk and pull" technique, but those who prefer a drier omelette without browning the eggs might prefer to give this one a try.
This afternoon I decided to make some caramelized shallot omelettes. I beat the eggs with a little water, salt and white pepper.
I use a French steel omelette pan. It is technically a "three egg omelette pan," but I find that this means three medium eggs or two extra large eggs. I used two extra large.
To use a French steel pan , you heat it up on the stove and pour in a little oil.
Then take the pan off the heat and wipe it out out completely.
A little butter into a lukewarm pan over medium high heat.
When the butter is completely melted and the foaming has subsided, the pan is ready.
In go the eggs.
Here is where the technique differs. At this point the eggs are rapidly scrambled into small curds with the tines of a fork held parallel to the surface of the pan until around 3/4 done.
On go the shallots.
Reverse the grip to a palm-up, thumb-towards-the-body grip, tilt the pan and bang on the handle. This causes the eggs to slide towards the away lip of the pan, which is steeply curved in a classic omelette pan.
As the eggs slide up the curve of the pan, the far side of the omelette flops back over onto the eggs.
Turn out onto a warm plate.
The finished omelette. As you can see, the curds are apparent and the exterior is not as smooth as the omelettes prepared by the other method. Ordinarily the exterior would be more uniform, but I let the curds set up a little too much while taking the pictures. Omelette making is a speed-cooking procedure.
Here it is dressed with a little Red Devil hot sauce. You can see that the interior is nicely dry (the liquid on the plate is from the hot sauce -- there was no oozing from the omelette).
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We love Noche Mexicana. It's our go-to place in the nabe for Mexican. Cheap, good and only a few blocks away.
Another interesting place is Taqueria y Fonda la Mexicana on Amsterdam and 108th. They feature, among other things, tripe tacos, pig ear tacos, beef tongue tacos and beef brain tacos. JJ, when are we going?
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This is totally cool, and definitely a uniquely UK thing.
I am curious... what would you all say are the defining characteristics of a gastro pub, what constitutes a good one, and are there any dishes that are classic "must have on the menu" pub dishes?
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Getting this bad boy. Fully stainless. Grinds 260 lbs. per hour. Weighs 70 lbs. 1 HP/650 watts. 300 bucks.
Seems plenty powerful for what I need to do, without having to worry that it will choke on poultry and small game bones. The more expensive/powerful ones just seemed like overkill, since I don't have plans to grind up up 400 pounds of elk sausage in my Manhattan apartment any time soon.
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Sounds very tasty!
BTW, if you search PR Newswire for an article and then right click on the appropriate search result to "open in a new window" you get a unique URL for each release, like this one.
The whole six-column, slow-drip filtration thing makes me suspect that they end up with something that is, for all intents and purposes, completely flavorless ethanol at the end -- which is probably a good thing when one is planning on adding other flavors.
I am curious about this text, however:
The vodka is then carefully flavored with a delicate elixir of rose and over a dozen other natural flavor components -- including honey, vanilla and hints of citrus."Flavored with elixir of ___" strikes me as code for "we dump in a few gallons of ____ flavoring," don't you think? I mean, if it were infused with roses, etc. don't you think they would have said "infused?" Then again, I suppose there is some question as to whether infusion is the best vodka flavoring process, or is practicable on an industrial scale.
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Grinder ordered. Will report back on results.
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Since I am about to purchase a fairly powerful meat grinder, I plan to experiment with grinding all the ingredients finely (especially the bones) before adding the water and proceeding with the stock. My guess is that the flavor extraction will be faster and the gelatin extraction will be much greater.
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Sam's golden rule of food #1: never eat something that can be described as mucilaginous.
And I say: mucilaginalicious!
Yes.
Andrew: YOU I like.
Sam:
Wait, he says "mucilaginalicious" and you like him better than me?! Aw, jeez...
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I think a warm plate makes a big difference, too. Omelettes are really at their most fluffy when plated just slightly underdone. When the omelette is plated on a warm plate, the gentle warmth of the plate itself finished the cooking of the eggs.
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I was interested to note that the NYT article mentioned that all white truffle oil is synthetic, not that all truffle oil is synthetic. I wonder what this means about black truffle oil?
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One thing that I can definitely say about the UWS restaurant scene is that practically every halfway decent middlebrowor higher restaurant to upen there in the last 5 years or so has been a huge success. This, I think, speaks to the desire of UWSers to have a better dining experience nearby.
Now, that said, I do think it's true that UWSers -- especially those with money -- are used to traveling to "destination" restaurants, and this may color their receptiveness to such places in the 'hood.
What I think the UWS really wants is more places like SQC and Aix, not so much places like Daniel or Mix.
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As my favorite talking alligator would say: oog!
No.
Sam's golden rule of food #1: never eat something that can be described as mucilaginous.
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At the risk of side tracking fom the issue of gins, what is the prefered method, in America for creating the perfect martini's is it the "in out" method, with vermouth splashed over ice then drained off, before the gin or vodka is poured in and stired. Or is it the " wash" method of coating the glass with the vermouth?
Personally, I think these are both horrible methods for making a martini. If one is going to use so little vermouth (that would be, what, 20:1 if not higher?), then there is no point in using vermouth at all. I would be willing to bet that no one can taste the difference between an "in out" or "wash" martini and straight gin stirred with ice and strained. 8:1 is, IMO, the highest reasonable ratio for a gin martini -- and I reserve that ratio only for very delicate gins and/or strong vermouths. Typically, I'll go 6:1 or even 5:1.
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Last PM Eric Malson, bergerka and I decided to make some martinis and compare Hendrick's to Citadelle. All martinis used Vya white vermouth and were mixed at an 8:1 ratio of gin to vermouth (this seems like a vrey high ratio, but Vya is a very flavorful vermouth).
So... we got our materials together
Into the cocktail mixer for a light stir
Garnish with cucumber slices (these are the Hendrick's martinis)
Et voila! The cloudy appearance is due to frost on the glass, which had just come out of the freezer.
The results were interesting. We all, I think, liked Hendrick's better. It seemed more subtly flavored, more refined and had a silkier texture. The mild cucumber flavor was right there in the front of the mouth, and there was an interesting hint of rose in the finish. Interestingly, we all agreed that, while Hendrick's does not have an immediately identifiable juniper flavor or aroma, it still had a taste that was immediately recognizable as "gin." Citadelle, on the other hand, was more upfront with the juniper. We liked Citadelle as well, but I think we all felt that it was less complex amd a little clunky and unsubtle compared to Hendrick's. Citadelle did not have the silky texture that Hendrick's had, and there was a definite, although not unpleasant, alcohol taste which Hendrick's did not have (interesting, since both are 88 proof). This is not to say that Citadelle isn't a good gin. It has a nicely heavy mouthfeel and, perhaps due to its more assertive flavoring, a good finish.
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Anyone have any experience with or information about the Northern Industrial tools grinders like this one or this other one?
I have the first one. It was initially purchased for making dog food so it had to be able to handle bones and all (chicken and turkey though, not rabbit as in Hest88's cat food).
I'm very happy with its performance, both for the dog food and for human food. It is very heavy though so it's not too "portable".
Does it have a reverse function?
No but it also has never jammed...not even while feeding chicken quarters (bones and all) through it. I can't imagine that just meat would cause it to jam up.
Okay, good to know. As detailed in my first post above, I want a grinder specifically for grinding up poultry, etc. including the bones. What you describe is exactly what I would like to be able to do: quarter a chicken and feed the quarters right through, bones and all.
It's interesting that the lower priced grinder has a reverse function while the stainless model does not.
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Anyone have any experience with or information about the Northern Industrial tools grinders like this one or this other one?
I have the first one. It was initially purchased for making dog food so it had to be able to handle bones and all (chicken and turkey though, not rabbit as in Hest88's cat food).
I'm very happy with its performance, both for the dog food and for human food. It is very heavy though so it's not too "portable".
Does it have a reverse function?
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A few months back the NY Times ran a gin taste test w/Amanda Hesser, Eric Asimov, Dale DeGroff & Frank Prial.
I actually thought their tasting was ridiculous. They did them at room temperature! One reads comments like "hot" or harsh." Well, duh! Some aspects that might seem hot or harsh or too strong at room temperature might be just right at martini temperature. I don't see any reason to judge any liquor at a temperature other than the one at which it will be served. It's just as silly as tasting a bunch of chilled (or heated) Bordeaux and writing up a comparative review. What's the point?
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You're on. But you'll have to bring some Hendrick's too, we're fresh out.
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To give credit where it's due, I ripped off the entire garnish and accompaniment idea from the bar at Town, Geoffrey Zakarian's place in midtown Manhattan. As an interesting touch, the cocktail is not even stirred! The bartender simply poured the ingredients into an ice-filled individual cocktail mixer and then bedded the mixer down in a large tub of ice while he prepared the garnish and accompaniment. When they were done, he poured the drink -- no shaking, no stirring.
Upper West Side Blues
in New York: Dining
Posted
852 Amsterdam @ 102nd.
212/662-6900