The dark(roast) side
I feel like a corporate whore, but at least I am a *local* corporate whore: The Scharffen-Berger Mocha Freddo is my new guilty pleasure. That’s not grainy cocoa, oh no… it’s ground espresso. Oh dear god…
I feel like a corporate whore, but at least I am a *local* corporate whore: The Scharffen-Berger Mocha Freddo is my new guilty pleasure. That’s not grainy cocoa, oh no… it’s ground espresso. Oh dear god…
This morning we moved everything breakable — which is to say, nearly everything — out of the dining room in preparation for painting. I don’t think I understood how much booze and glassware we had in there until I saw it all covering every square inch of counter space.
On Saturday, we harvested our first bergamot from the new tree. It was very light and probably overripe, so I didn’t think it’d be worth juicing it, and frankly we have plenty of bergamocello (from commercial bergamots) this year, so no need for the zest. I decided to make a quarter-batch of Lucy’s belle-mere’s Vin d’Orange with it.
I also found green walnuts at the Alemany Farmers Market, and bought 4 pounds of them to make nocino. It turned out I had a few extras, so I also made a small batch of Paula Wolfert’s vin de noix.
Now I just have to wait 40 days to find out how they come out.
I started out canning just to see how it was done, mostly dill pickles and pickled beets, and the occasional fruit preserve. Then I started pickling and preserving a few batches of produce from my friends’ gardens, as a way of helping them cope with overabundance — 2 years ago, in Seattle, it was a huge batch of brandied plums, and a batch of pickled serranos and carrots.
Last year was a tough year, as we were moving long distance from Seattle to SF, and living in a furnished apartment without access to our own kitchen gear. I did manage a very small batch of tomato-bourbon jam, and my first batch of nocino (green walnut liqueur).
Now I’m hooked: I preserve at home now mostly to get flavors I can’t get from retail products. And a lot of what I preserve ends up being holiday presents and hostess gifts.
I just took a marmalade class this past weekend with June Taylor, a local preserving maven — unfortunately, the citrus season is almost spent, but I may put up a batch of something simple, just so I don’t forget what I learned.
And we’re about to plant a bunch of fruit-bearing trees and plants with the express intention of preserving and infusing. It was fun coming up with all kinds of different plants, from trees to shrubs to vines to groundcover, that will give us something to eat. Most of our yard will be edible in one form or another.
As far as books go, I like Georgeanne Brennan’s The Glass Pantry, which you can get used online for about $2, and Linda Amendt’s Blue Ribbon Preserves. I just recently purchased Putting Food By, which many consider the bible of preserving, but I found the authors’ writing style horrifically pedantic… it set my teeth on edge and I slogged my way through it wondering what people see in this book. It is remarkably complete, so if you need a recipe for somethings really specific and unusual, it may be the only way to go (as ad-libbing in preserving is a definite no-no — you really want an expert to have sussed out all the biohazard stuff, and changing from one fruit or vegetable to another can throw that all out of whack).
Finally got the Fernet Branca we needed to try the Porteño… my oh my, what a lovely cocktail.
It helps that it’s courtesy of my friend Murray, the best bartender in the universe. But I would love it anyway…
Rocky and I had a little too much fun visiting Murray last night.
The good news is that I am staying at the Ändra, so the best damned room-service hangover cure ever was only a speed-dial call away: Two eggs (scrambled), housemade pork-maple sausage, smashed garlic-fried potatoes, rustic Dahlia Bakery toast, figs… courtesy of Mr. Douglas at Lola.
Originally posted on Mouthfuls’ Perfect Seattle Food Day thread
My perfect day would have to be a weekday (Tue-Fri) because it would involve lunch at Salumi. But if we’re talking about weekend-days, here are two itineraries we’ve done numerous times:
Down to the market, brunch at Cafe Campagne. Spend the middle of the day shopping for dinner fixings, then return to the car and stash the perishables in the cooler (or the chilly car, in winter). Wander around Belltown and the Market area — sorry, I just can’t type ‘West Edge’ with a straight face — browsing and grazing as we go. Perhaps stop by Beecher’s for some mac-n-cheese for late lunch. Wind up for an aperitif at Zig Zag right when they open, then back to the car and home to cook. If we’re having too much fun, they we end up hanging out for another drink (or two), and thn taking a taxi to Palace or walking to a nearby restaurant, and leaving the foraged items for Sunday dinner.
Another variation on this theme: We go to Essential for a great latte and something from the pastry case for a light breakfast, then back home for menu planning, with the entire dining room table buried by cookbooks and magazines. Then we spend mid-day shopping for dinner stuff, and ingredients for the rest of the week’s meals. In the right season, the first stop would be the U District farmers’ market to get the majority of the produce and anything else we can get find there; this time of year, it’s either Whole Paycheck, Uwajimaya, or Central Market, depending on what else we need to get — WF has good cheese, CM has better deli meats, etc. Lunch is grabbed when we start to feel peckish; a recent favorite has been splitting a cheesesteak and an order of fries at Philadelphia Fevre, or each of us going our own way at the Uwajimaya food court. A new find I’m looking forward to adding to this plan: If we’ve got a Mutual Fish (aka ‘Smoochable Fish’) stop planned, I’ll agitate for lunch at the taco bus, El Asadero on Rainier, before heading home to prep dinner.
There’s usually a cheese plate or some other nibbles on the counter while we’re chopping, dicing, fileting, etc. Lately our weekend meals have been big, multi-hour projects: the latest mexican cooking project from the Mexico forum, Cam’s newfound love of wok-frying whole fish on the turkey-fryer burner outside, etc. It’s comforting to me to have a homey project to fill a winter afternoon. I know when summer comes, the meals will be simpler, less constructed… which I am also looking forward to, in its own way.
There aren’t any particularly surprising finds in these ideas, I’m afraid. Still, reading them over pleases me. We’re actually going to do an abridged version of #1 today, so it was fresh in my mind.
Reporting back from the front lines of the bergamocello operation.
The first photo is a shot of the zest infusing in the 100-proof vodka. I used Absolut, since it was the only brand on offer at our crappy state store. This is shown at approximately the 2-week mark; I wish I had taken pictures earlier in the process to give you a comparison, but I didn’t.
Here’s a finished flask with the label. I couldn’t get a clear enough shot of the label, but it says “January 2005 — Bergamocello — Bergamot digistivo“. The finished product is really interesting and good. Not too sweet, reminiscent of grapefruit with hints of spice and spicy herbs. It’s almost middle-eastern or indian in flavor: cardamom, nigella, coriander. It’s definitely similar to, but distinctly different from, the flavors in the bergamot juice. I wish I could upload a glass for you all to try!
I’m pretty happy with the first effort.
I bought a dozen bergamots today at Whole Foods, and my test-batch of Bergamocello — like Limoncello — is steeping happily on the counter, while I sip a Friday After Five cocktail made from the juice. I’m a happy girl.
Zesting the peels with a fine Microplane works much better (and faster) than a peeler or a traditional zester.
Tweaking Katie Loeb’s recipe from the eGullet Limoncello thread, these are the the ratios used for my bergamocello:
– 750ml of 100-proof vodka for the steep
– 750ml of 80-proof vodka for the dilution
– 500ml of 1:1 simple syrup (or to taste)
Basically, when diluting the mixture, use the same amount of vodka/everclear that you originally used for steeping. If you’re using 100-proof vodka, you’ll want to use simple syrup equal to 1/3 the total amount of vodka.
If you’re using Everclear/grain alcohol for the original steep, you can bring it down to a drinkable level by using 80-proof vodka for the dilution, or making a weaker simple syrup (more water than sugar).