October 18th, 2008
- 3# San Marzano Tomatoes, milled whole
- 7 small ripe Serrano Chillies, milled whole
- 3 Shallots, minced
- 4 cups sugar
- 2T red wine vinegar
- 1T crushed red pepper
- a couple of pinches of salt
Combine everything in non-reactive pot and bring to a boil. Cook for about 30 minutes skimming the foam as it comes up. Turn off the heat and let sit, covered, overnight. It’s a good time to taste it and add more chillies if needed – this batch wasn’t spicy enough. Bring back to a boil and reduce to a medium heat, skimming and stirring frequently, cooking until it passes the plate test. Ladle into prepared jars and process for 6 minutes.
I like this batch with the shallots distinctly less than the batch with only tomatoes and chillies.
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October 6th, 2008
Tomato Serrano Jam
- 2# San Marzano Tomatoes, peeled
- 3 Serrano Chillies, sliced
- 3 cups sugar
- Juice of one lemon
- a couple of pinches of salt
Puree half of the tomatoes and dice the rest. Combine everything in non-reactive pot and bring to a boil. Cook for about 30 minutes skimming the foam as it comes up. Turn off the heat and let sit, covered, overnight. It’s a good time to taste it and add more chillies if needed – three is a little short of where I’d like it but isn’t too spicy for my children to enjoy it. Bring back to a boil and reduce to a medium heat, skimming and stirring frequently, cooking until it passes the plate test. Ladle into prepared jars and process for 6 minutes.
Great with cheese, even better with peanut butter, bacon and bannanas.
Tags: jam
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January 30th, 2008
So, I wrote a bit of a post about our adventures in bagel-making over here, but we’ve since made another batch and I feel that I should record the differences.
I used a recipe from The Fresh Loaf which appealed to me because it could be made in the evening and then boiled and baked in the morning. The first time out we used 1/4 cup less flour in the last mixing because it was pretty dry and our mixer was having a hard time with it (we still had to alternate between kneading half by hand and the other half in the mixer) but this time we ended up adding the entire amount of flour plus almost a whole 1/4 cup.
Yes, head scratching ensued.
The only thing I can think is that we used a different brand of flour this time–last batch was made with Bob’s Red Mill bread flour and this time with King Arthur bread flour, and to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure which kind of yeast I used last time, but this time it was Rapid Rise.
The bagels cooked up about the same–maybe a little chewier this time, but I don’t really have any complaints. They’re not bready which is a total plus, or this recipe would be a junker, but they’re missing a certain je ne sais bagelness that I can’t put my finger on.
Overall: not bad. Pretty fair. Will make again.
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December 11th, 2007
- 1 1/2 oz. gin
- 1/2 oz creme de casis
- 1/4 oz fresh lime juice (not syrup, please – it’s sweet enough already!)
- 1 egg white
- a generous dash or two of Tabasco Sauce
Shake with plenty of ice and strain, serve up.
This is a surprisingly tasty cocktail and has been featured frequently since its discovery while trying to find something to mix with the bottle of Gabriel Boudier Dijon Creme de Cassis that we picked up. We like it on the hot side. The Tabasco balances out the sweetness of the creme de cassis which would otherwise be overpowering.
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November 22nd, 2007
This year we almost had a strike on our hands. Amelia threatened to whine all the way through the holiday and Wiley…actually, Wiley didn’t seem to actually give a damn.
That’s my boy.
The problem? Our guest list for Thanksgiving. There isn’t one. A guest list, I mean. It’s just us. Us and Grandma and Roland but they don’t count as guests what with living under the same roof and all. To be honest, I just wasn’t feeling very Thanksgiving-y this year. Usually I can’t wait for November to roll around because:
A) Halloween is over!
and
B) I love Thanksgiving.
I love to think about menu possibilities, I love to look at glossy food porn magazines and imagine how delicious the stuffing will be this year and what I’ll do with sweet potatoes…yum. I love it. But this year I’m totally not into it.
That is, I wasn’t into it until we started cooking this morning. Then I got into it. It may be just the 7 of us, but we’re cooking like we’ve got a full house.
Thanksgiving 2007 menu
- Best Way Brined Turkey from the San Francisco Chronicle. In the past we have used Alton Brown’s recipe but I couldn’t find it right off the bat, so I used this one.
- Sausage Sourdough Stuffing
- Cranberry Sauce #1
- Cranberry Sauce #2
- Cranberry Sauce #3
- Mashed Potatoes
- Burbon Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Green Beans with Shallots
- Pumpkin Pie
Recipes will follow for anything worth repeating.
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November 18th, 2007
- 1 head of garlic
- 2 doz ripe red jalapeño chillies
- 10 ripe red serrano chillies
- 1/2 large white onion
- 1 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 3/4 tsp sel gris
- 3 dried chipotles that have been hanging around in the back of the pantry for god knows how long
Simmer 20 minutes, or until you remember through your margarita fueled haze that there’s something cooking on the stove, hey, when did the buzzer go off?
Blend.
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November 18th, 2007
I wanted to make something with the Cherry Heering (mostly because I just really like saying “Cherry Heering” because of the way it makes me want to say “Cherry Herring” which makes me think of swedish fish, which, really, taste-wise, is not far off) and I found recipes for Singapore Slings and variations of, from which I concocted my own devious cocktail.
And when I say “devious”, I obviously mean “grossly sweet and girly”. I didn’t mean for it to be so. But I guess you can’t have Cherry Heering, Benedictine and St. Germain together without getting something, you know, sweet.
So here it is. A drink we may never try again. It’s not bad, really, just wussy.
1 1/2 oz Junipero gin
1/2 oz Cherry Heering
1/4 oz Benedictine
1/4 oz St. Germain
1/4 oz lime juice
dash(es) Angostura bitters
Shake gently with ice, strain into glass and top with soda water.
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November 10th, 2007
When I first tasted St. Germain I wasn’t confident that we’d be able to mix it well. Too floral. Too tropical. Too different. But, very, very delicious; Emily’s been sneaking it neat. However, I read that it should work well in place of Cointreau. In comes the Corpse Reviver Variation #2, a fabulous drink featuring my many of my favorite spirits: Gin, Cointreau, Lillet Blanc, and Pastis… Especially the Pastis.
Saint Reviver #1
- 3/4 oz Junipero Gin
- 3/4 oz Saint Germain
- 3/4 oz Lillet Blanc
- 3/4 oz lemon juice
- splash of Herbsaint
The first attempt was promising and exotic, the blend of flavors and smells coming together as something familiar but unnamed, lychee or star fruit, but not well balanced. The St. Germain featured prominently but the lemon juice was overpowering and muted every thing else. My second pass with the St. Geramin was a Leo Special Cocktail with the cointreau swapped out for our feature again. Even better but I had to come back to the Saint Reviver.
Saint Reviver #2
- 1 oz Junipero Gin
- 1 oz Saint Germain
- 1/2 oz Lillet Blanc
- 1/2 oz Herbsaint
- 1/2 oz lime juice
I’m at a loss for words. It’s wonderful. Hard to believe that only a few months ago that if you said Gin, I’d think Tonic. Cheers!
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October 10th, 2007
Ok, the left hand knows damn well. The right hand may be making Jalapeno and Serrano Hot Sauce #2, but the left hand is drinking a Queen of the Ocean.
..mmmm…Regal….
We (I) selected this cocktail because
- It contains Lillet Blanc which I just discovered the other day in the Hoop-La! and am completely in love with now; and
- Egg whites!
Unfortunately, and this is no fault of the lovely drink itself, Kelsey and I have become aware of our proclivity towards drinks with citrus. Which this drink has none of.
However! It is a lovely drink. I’m halfway through (I should perhaps mention that the egg whites have become downright icky looking. This did not happen in the Pisco Sour I made last weekend. Or the Edith Day. I don’t know why.) and…well, I’m sort of pining for a margarita, and that’s never a good sign.
edited to add:
So, we totally decided to go ahead and make margaritas. And there’s no shame in that.
Right?
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October 7th, 2007
- 1 shot Kelt Tour du Monde
- 1 shot Lillet Blanc
- 1 shot Grand Marnier
- 1 shot lemon juice
Shake with ice and serve up with a lemon twist. This is a slight variation on Oh Gosh!’s hoop-la. It’s a delicious cocktail although it wasn’t until I hit it with a dash of Angostura bitters that it came together for my taste. Next time, I’ll hold back on the lemon so to keep it in balance.
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