Exercising My Taste Buds

Today I gave my taste buds a work out. It started with an innocent trip to the Spice House where I was only going to pick up a few items for my pantry. My day soon became a culinary adventure that worked my taste buds into a tizzy. Below are the details of what I bought and/or consumed. I should warn you...there is food porn below.

First stop was The Spice House where I went a bit overboard. I started with a list of a few ingredients and it just snowballed from there. Here's what I ended up buying:
dehydrated cilantro leaves
dehydrated minced orange peel (I'm really excited to use this for my cocktails)
garlic powder
telicherry black peppercorns
dried chanterelle mushrooms (going to try these in a soup)
chicken base
freshly ground cumin
sweet curry powder
rose water (once again -for cocktails)
black truffle oil (this stuff is like crack to me - now I understand addiction)
Bridgeport seasoning (for my taters)

and then I left with the intention of going to lunch and heading home. That's when I stumbled upon Old Town Oil (http://www.oldtownoil.com/) and what I like to call an orgasm in my mouth. So I walk in to find containers of olive oil and balsamic ready for tasting. The guy working there (sorta cute, but I may have been deluded by the access to olive oil and the fact that he had a shaved head, which is a major turn on lately) was kind enough to show me around and give me samples of the oil. From there he moved me over to the balsamic and fed me combos of oil and balsamic like Meyer lemon oil and strawberry balsamic. I ended up with two bottles of oil (a Castile from Spain and a Basil infused oil from Tunisia) and a bottle of 18 year old balsamic. On the way home I was thinking of all the naughty things I was going to do with my new friends and a baguette.

I was almost tempted to skip my lunch and head home, but I wanted to check out this new restaurant called Pho and I. It's right up the street and Ive been hearing so much about pho, a Vietnamese soup. I had a lunch of mango bubble tea, fish cakes and pho- all for under $20. Very filling on a bitter cold day like this.

I had one final stop - my neighborhood cheese shop, Pastoral. There I purchased a baguette, some French butter, Mexican chocolate, and a bottle of Chateau Coupe Roses Minervois which I am enjoying immensely. Right now I'm safe at home looking up recipes for all my new ingredients. I can't wait for later when I lower the shades, dim the lights, put on some Miles Davis and pull out the baguette, oils and balsamic.

Avocado Cocktail

Think of this as the best margarita you’ll ever have. This came from my favorite book, Market Fresh Mixology. This book really changed the way I looked at cocktails. It uses a lot of fresh ingredients and flavor combinations that would never have imagined. This drink will not disappoint.

Savory Avocado Cocktail
· Avocado cut into 1 inch cubes
· 5 fresh tarragon leaves
· 1.5 oz fresh sour
· Juice of half pressed lime
· 1.5 oz tequila
· ½ oz triple sec

Muddle one cube of avocado with tarragon leaves, sour, and lime. Add tequila, triple sec and ice and shake well. Double strain into glass, using the strainer on the shaker while pouring contents through a sieve over the glass.

Garnish with tarragon sprig a rim with salt and sugar.

Fresh Sour (After you try this sour mix you will NEVER want any of that premade shit near one of your cocktails)
2 cups lemon juice (that’s about 10 lemons, but if I’m running low I top off with a little bottled lemon juice)
1 cup simple syrup (1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup boiling water –stir to dissolve sugar. I usually do the 1 cup to 1 cup ratio and store the extra in the fridge for future use. It will keep up to 2 weeks.)

A word about tequila: I had always been a Jose Cuevo fan, but my tequila experience was limited to shots with salt and lime (an often a night of vomiting). I went to Mexico a few years ago and visited the town of Tequila and have since changed my view of tequila. Tequila is meant to be sipped and when it’s 100% agave, that’s not a problem. Now, you can feel free to use tequila that isn’t 100% agave in this drink because that stuff is okay for mixing. However, I used really nice Anejo Tequila I brought back from Mexico. Anejo just means aged for over a year. This gives it the rich gold color. Just look for the label in your liquor store.

Is this what it is like to be retired?

So, I really have to find something better to do on my days off (cleaning my apartment would be a start). It's already 2pm and here's what I've done today:

• made huevos rancheros and watched 2 episodes of The Jetsons.
• cooked a chickpea and bay scallop soup (started from a recipe from Mark Bittman, but soon turned into my own Frankensoup)
• Opened and consumed a half bottle of Malbec
• Looked into classes at the Chopping Block. Will be taking a knife skills class in February.
• Spent about an hour looking at cocktail sites and classes offered in Chicago.
• Cleaned my bathroom and did about 70 loads of dishes.
• Secretly promised to go to church if Jesus would just bring me a dishwasher. Somehow I suspect that if there is a God, he is not amused by my humor.
• Listened to NPR.
• Considered posting a blog called Souper Douper.
• Drank a bit too much and decided to take my blog public.

So maybe I need to start getting out a bit more. I fear I could easily turn into some crazy shut in who drinks way too much and smells like soup.

White Lady

WHITE LADY

2oz gin

3/4 oz cointreau

1oz lime juice

white of a small egg

shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass

I had two reasons for making this cocktail. 1) I had some limes I wanted to use up. 2) it called for egg whites and i've always liked the idea of using them in cocktails. If you don't want to use the raw egg you can buy pasterized egg whites as the grocery. The egg whites add a nice frothy note. This one is pretty potent, but it's a nice crisp cocktail for a cold winter day.

Embassy

EMBASSY

3/4 oz brandy

3/4 oz cointreau

3/4oz rum

juice of 1 lime

a dash of bitters (the recipe calls for angostura, but I used Peychauds. I think orange bitters would work nice as well)

shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass

I've been using brandy a lot more lately. It all started with a champagne punch recipe that i used for new years. I love it's oaky richness and think that it is a great addition to cocktails. It works really well with the rum in this drink.