We had some excellent food at home over the weekend. Some details briefly follow:
- I made french fries with the traditional double frying technique, at 350 F followed by a full drying on a sheet pan followed by a second fry at 375. I think the results were terrific, and I found that the peanut oil I used gave them a great flavor.
- I made a quick hamburger bun for the accompanying burger, though I wish I had actually had eggs. On the other hand, cooking is not always about having all the right ingredients, so I substituted some whole fat milk.
- I tried Bittman's tofu chocolate pudding. It was good, but did not make me forget cream.
- We made margaritas on both Saturday and Sunday at home, with Patron Silver, cointreau* and fresh lime juice. We also played around with increasing and decreasing the lime and cointreau, to see how those changes unbalanced the drink. It was very interesting.
* Yes, margaritas are usually made with triple sec. Cointreau, which I suppose is a kind of triple sec, is better.
- Saturday night I decided to do a little "Chipotle/upscale pseudo-Mexican burrito joint" at home. I cooked pinto beans in water until soft and creamy, and brown rice. I brined chicken thighs for extra juiciness, and then marinated in a dry adobo rub. I made guacamole of good avocadoes, and a fresh salsa supplemented with tinned san marazanos to make up for the poor quality of the tomatoes. The last two items got jalepeno too.
The point to make about this meal is that it could be scaled up very easily for a party. It's no more effort to make half a pound of beans than it is to make five pounds of beans, I think.
6/15/2009
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7 comments:
"Patron Silver, cointreau* and fresh lime juice."
Ha, someone else uses Patron Silver for mixed drinks! I caught so much hell for this when I tried to introduce some law school folks to Mexican martinis.
Why? What kind of hell did you catch?
The "how could you use a quality liquor in a mixed drink" kind of hell. I was a guest, so I didn't point out to the person who said this that if he wanted liquor to be treated with respect, perhaps he should have stopped his girlfriend, the hostess of the party, from pouring Sprite into the drink.
Oh. How strange. That's like saying you shoudn't use quality ingredients when cooking.
Obviously, I'm not going to be pouring $1000 a bottle liquor into a cocktail, but better liquor does make a difference.
And yes - if you're drinking it with Sprite, maybe it doesn't matter which tequila it is.
so did you come to any conclusions about the correct proportions?
I've always used cointreau myself, not sure how I got into that habit.
We liked 1.5 oz. tequila, 1 oz. cointreau, .5 or .75 oz. lime, in the end. Of course, I was pretty sozzled by that point.
What do you like, Paul?
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