deangold

We picked up our profish order, I drove up to the truck, said my name to the masked driver and he grabbed the styrofoam fish box and asked me if I wanted it tin the front seat, back seat or in the far back. It was a seamless process. I feel bad because I forgot to tip him.

When I got home, I weighed the products. At first I was pissed thinking I was shorted on the shrimp as it came to 14 oz, but when I actually looked at eh bill, I was charged for 14.4 oz. Since there had been some liquid in the bag which probably has shrimp juice in it, the weight charged was fair. The scallops came out to 1# on the dot and I was charged for 1#. The crab claws were 1# 6 oz and I got charged 1.1 pounds or for 1# 1.6 oz. That was a bargain. 

The scallops look fab and the shrimp looked & smelled great. Tonight we are going to bake the shrimp is local heirloom tomato sauce, Maryland feta, local spring onion & herbs. Probably going to cook some pasta w/local ramp pesto to accompany. I will put the half scallops and a few shrimp in lime juice overnight for cevich, and pansear the remaining scallops. 

This is a big win. The seafood seems even more pristine than when I ordered for the Grotto from Profish as I bet they are keeping the inventory much tighter. I highly recommend this option.

17 hours ago, weezy said:

 Dean -- I live over in Annandale and I'm willing to go in on an order.  Would love some rockfish and/or fresh shrimp.   I haven't had tilefish, so that would be an interesting cookign experiment for me.  Next week perhaps?

I will let you know. I was also thinking of trying to put together a soft shell order. 

The Pimm's project continues apace: Now strained and with sweet vermouth, taylor port, and luxardo triplum added. I am not macerating 1.4 vanilla bean and a teaspoon of dried bitter Curaçao orange peel in each of four 1.75 liter jars I obtained, I am going to stop off at Total wine for some Taylor or Gallo cream sherry and try a tiny bit. I still want to boost the proof on the Gordon's a bit but will run an experiment with 151 rum before grabbing a bottle of everclear if I have to. My 151 rums are both pot still, one is Ed Hamilton's 151 made from Central American rums with Jamaican style and the other a very funky Jamaican Smith & Cross} so even if the rum works, I may get a bottle of Cruzan for a more neutral, less assertive flavor. But we are in the final steps. 

Now, the Bombay and Gordons differ mote than ever but the initial wimpiness of the Gordons has lessened and the addition of port, red vermouth and Triplum made a major difference. 

I also may have let the macerations of the fruit go an extra 12 hours too long as they had a slight more balanced, brighter flavor when I tasted them yesterday. I now know what to look for in ending the maceration time.

Last interesting note: the Bombay batch has and extra 14 hours maceration time under the gin before sous vide. The Gordons had an overnight in the fridge without alcohol until I could grab the Gordon's from the VABC. The color extractor on the Bombay was far darker even if the mason jars all had the same exact mix of fruit. I literally sliced the blood oranges etc and then divided them evenly amongst the four jars, 

Thursday lunch:

From our profish order, we enjoyed 1# of stone crab claws. I just wish I acted on these sooner when I could have paid 60% of their current price. Amazingly sweet! We had a trio of dips: lemon juice, homemade roasted garlic mayo, a blend of cherry blossom shoyu and bottled yuzu juice. We wound up dipping on one of the citrus sauces and then the mayo. 

Salad: last of Spring Valley's super salad, can of sacha brand heart of palm {TJ's current brand and really superb quality,} Goya romano beans, avocado, red onion, the remaining trio of dips from the crab, roasted rosemary & garlic olive oil served with toasted atwater whole wheat sourfough to slop up the dressing and avocado bits.  

Spot is back to his greedy butt self.... I mean he seems to have recovered his spunkiness. He ate almost his entire ration of dry food by the 5.30 cutoff and he even ate all his pizza without a request for a togo box. He seems to be bored with our stories. He found new places to hide and get in the way, as well as chased his sparkly red ball with more speed than we have ever seen. I think he is getting friskier as he loses weight. And more supercilious. 

Dinner was our first BLT of the season with G taking the place of B. G is for guanciale from Sogno Toscano. This dates back to the Grotto so it is a well aged piece of guanciale. I have 2 more. They are in fine shape. I used a serrated knife to slice 3/16" slices. The guanciale is skin on. I put them on a baking pan and popped them into the toaster over. 30 minutes at 3.25 followed by a flip and 10 more at 300. This left us with crispy pork reminiscent of chcharomes as well as a bonus of half a cup of guanciale fat which is going to help us saute some spinach and maybe some asparagus. 

The bread is Atwater's whole wheat sourdough, sliced thin and toasted to medium. Next is homemade roasted garlic mayo slathered on thickly using a soup spoon. Then we sliced some tomatoes from Spring Valley {Hot house variety} that rally had some good flavor. I salted the tomato, piled it on the bread, topped with the crispy guanciale and two large outer leaf's of Barajas romaine. This is our second usage of these outer layers and the head is still huge!. The top slice, also coated in mayo and then a diagonal cut. SOmehow I managed to reduce my sandwich to a messy pile somewhere between a salad and a sandwich. So good! 

Champion Missile IPA followed by Sun's Out, Hop's Out IPA from Solace. Surprisingly filling meal. 

I didn't put Hendricks or Green hat into my mix. Tanq because I don't have any and Kay has this thing about  paying the rent before we buy our 10th bottle of gin {Spot doesn't understang this obsession, he things the priority is pizza, cat chow and cat treats then rent because he like his {formerly our} bed. We also did thins test before dinner on relatively empty stomachs. There was a limit. I was surprised at how different and floral & spice the Plymouth was. 

I do want a bottle of Tanq as it was the gin of my childhood: I learned to make martinis making tanquerey martinis by the pitcher for him. I used to get to lick the bar spoon nad to eat the garnishing onions or olives. One of the greater benefits from having an alcoholic father. At least I learned my booze. 

I recently have added a bottle of Del Maguey Vida Mezcal, a good bottle of rye, Templeton, a couple of bottles of rum {Barbancourt 5* which is an amazing aged agricole/pure cane juice rum and Clement Canne white {again, pure cane/agricole} which is very hard to get at the VABC. My local store got a single case which they did not put into their online inventory} an every day bourbon {Kay drinks bourbon more than anything else: evan williams 1983 is really superb,  and we need another good rye as this bottle of templeton is defective with too fast evaporation. So Tanq keeps on getting pushed back.

I am channeling a Modena style, high egg yolk style of gelato. For 1.5 quarts of base, give or take a little, I use 5 or 6 yolks. I first scald the milk, with sugar, spices, vanilla bean{s} etc to 180 or 910 degrees. While the milk is heating, I use my ancient sunbeam mixmaster to beat the egg yolks and sugar n the lowest spead until the mix is white, very creamy and thick. Then I belend in some hot milk to temper and lastly go back into the milk mix with the tempered eggs. This gets reheated to 180-190 degrees and then strained into a container for over night chilling. Then, the next day, I spin it. 

Are you using whole egg? And do you cook the custard after the egg addition? 

17 hours ago, deangold said:

We wound up with 4 half gallon mason jars of Pimms. 2 are Bombay Sapphire and 2 are Gordon's. Right now they are being poached at 140 degrees for three hours. The extraction as far as the berries are concerned seems amazing. The citrus in on the bottom. Next up is cooling and then straining. I will infuse mint into the spirit and then add port, red vermouth & triplum triple sec. 

They are now chilling to wine cellar temperature. The sit overnight cooling off from 140 degrees really mellowed and rounded the infusion. The Gordon's was a little wimpy yesterday mostly due to lower proof. Today, that is far less noticible. I will probably still dose it with some everclear. The Bombay, which has one overnight of soaking/maceration before the sous vide is stunning: round, complex, very strong citrus and spice notes. Both are unstrained as yet, I will check them this afternoon/evening before starting dinner. 

It is hard to call a cutoff as you cannot predict exactly what will happen in the next 12 hours. I am going with the fact that the rate of change was huge, leading me to believe there is more good stuff to macerate out of the solids.  

Profish is one of the better fish suppliers in the area. I would say on a par with JJ Mcdonnell. A & H {which retails out of Pesca Deli in Bethesday, is better but more limited. We just places out first order with Profish and will pick it up Thursday. They ahve last of season snow crab claws and a high premium over earlier, but I oculdn't resist. Fresh American Shrimp {never been frozen, most American shrimp are slacked out} and Dry Scallops filled out ur $50 minimum order. That really is 4 days woth of seafood at a minimum which is as long as I am willing to hold the fish. I might make some of the scallops and shrimp into a seafood cocktail on the third day which will help get them to day 4. 

If this works, our next order will include Golden Tile and Wild Rock. Both of these fish are superb from them. For just the two of us, the $50 minimum has been daunting and we can barely make it. Their frozen shrimp, which we eat regularly, is not a good addition to the basket as it is not a particularly good brand from quality or sustainability reasons. They do have mussels in 2# bags and Virginia clams in 25 clam units priced very well. Restaurant Depot is only $1 to $2 cheaper if you buy 10# of mussels or 100 clams. 

Stir fry of snap peas from Barajas. Garlic, ginger & reg spring onion, finely minced & sauteed, snap peas and a touch of water then put a cover on it. Seasoned with dark soy, black vinegar and Shaoxing wine. Then a slurry of potato starch & water. Served at room temp.

Took 2 spring red onions, sliced them in half lengthwise, oiled and salted them and grilled them on the yakiniku grill. Let them get close to burnt and soft. Sprinkled them with a bit more salt and rosemary garlic oil. Really wonderful. I have a lot of spring onion, so I see this helping us power thru the abundance. 

Took our last package of chicken thigh and marinated it in shiokoji and spice rub. Cooked them slowly on the yakiniku grill. They were wonderful! We need to go get more Amish chicken from Huntsman and refill the freezer and make stock. I made a spiced scallion oil using green sichuan peppercorns, garlic, ginger, star anise, clove, black cumin & aleppo pepper. Also did a dip of Iwashi Barrel aged fish sauce & key lime; and a second one of sakura shoyu and bottles yuzu juice. 

3.5x Vanilla gelato which is really one of our best gelatos yet.

Le Salette "I Progni" valpolicella ripasso 2001. Stunningly good on the fourth day after twice hitting up the bottle for glasses using the coravin. 

Spot was getting used to his new food system. He was a minute early for his reservation but we did have his place ready. He got an entire pizza for dinner, with no chow for an hour before or after. He ate half of the pizza and then went for a nap. I replated his pizza and actually took it into the bedroom and waved it under his nose and he lay there until I was by his dish area. Then he shot over and got in my way to the point of almost tripping me. He still left some and asked for it to be boxed to go home, but we told him no boxes. He was not amused.  I again took the last of the leftovers to his bed {which used to be ours} and waved it under his nose. Again, he got there before me. I had to dance to avoid stepping on him. He approved of the entertainment. Finally we presented him the bill and he turned his butt end towards us and raised his tail. We think he said "eff you cat mom and cat dad! It is a pleasure for you to wait on and feed me." or maybe that is just his way of saying "thanks." Or, "Cat dad., please check to see if I have worms coming out my butt."  Hard to say. He is a cat of few words. Lots of loud meowing, but few words.  His dessert was the remaining daily ration of his chow. 

I've never really had a yellowish crumb, but the crust at Kossar's is definitely on the yellower side of brown. Kossars used a modest amount of schmeer but it is oily and meltingly soft. I grew up with a small bagel producer by me called Western Bagel. They were open 24 hours and so late night after poker runs were common. If you went then, the retail baskets were empty and you got your bagels fresh off the cooling rack. 13 to the dozen. Of course, they had Bialys. In my memory, bigger than Kossars with less of a toothy texture, but still better than anything I have had otherwise. They appear to still be in business at the same location and still family owned. But they are now packaging their bagels in plastic bags, while in the old days, they only did bulk. 

Did not know about Metropolitan Meat's acquistion by the evil empire. Metro was Whole Foods meat purveyor while I was there and not very quality oriented. They mostly brought in what WFM needed. Their quality has gone down hill. Today they rank far behind Huntsman and Capitol meats. But they are better than the others. 

We wound up with 4 half gallon mason jars of Pimms. 2 are Bombay Sapphire and 2 are Gordon's. Right now they are being poached at 140 degrees for three hours. The extraction as far as the berries are concerned seems amazing. The citrus in on the bottom. Next up is cooling and then straining. I will infuse mint into the spirit and then add port, red vermouth & triplum triple sec. 

Given our Pimm's project, we needed a bunch of gin. The first purchase was a 1.75 liter of Bombay sapphire on sale. This covered the fruit but did not fill the first 2 half gallon mason jars. So back to the VABC for another 1.75 of sapphire and 2 x 1.75's of Gordons. 

So once home, we finished off the pimms filling and now are heat infusing 4 half galllon jars: 2 Gordon's and 2 Bombay Sapphire {around 140 degrees for 3 hours. Too cool to boil off alcohol or water.} Then we tasted th Gordon's to see what is up with a cheap gin. It was nice! SO I pulled my English style gins off the bar and we tasted them.

Gordons {80 proof) Surprisingly good. Classic gin w/pine & juniper notes an the nose, very gin like in a lighter, smooth style in the mouth.

Brokers {94 proof} Very good indeed. Big, bold, classic gin. Lots of pine and spice on the nose, almost earthy. My personal favorite of the quartet.

Bombay Sapphire {94 proof} More floral/spicy than either of the above, a tad lighter than the Brokers, much fuller than the Gordon's. This is my go to gin for Corpse revivers and variants.

Plymouth {82.4 proof} Very different as it was the only non London dry style. Plymouth is its own style. Lighter, much closer to the Gordons befitting their lower proof. But the Plymouth has a delightful floral style and really has a delicacy.

I now know that I need a Plymouth Martini when I am looking to refresh and the Brokers when I want to be braced. The Plymouth is for times I need to be treated gently {like after a loud meowing session from Spot!} The gordons is being infused with 3 kinds of Chili's, Arbol, Gaujillo, and Aleppo with black peppercorn, allspice, cinnamon & clove. It is destined for bloody mary's. There is some straight Gordons left, and I will either do a fruit infusion or go for a G & T, with plenty of lime, on a hot day. The Bombay will still be my CR choice, and I will branch out into Bee's Knees.

3.5 x Vanilla

Liquid vanilla is measured in folds. 2x or double fold has twice the vanilla flavor and contributes a little less liquid. We have a really good beanilla 2x which I doubles in the recipe, so as far as liquid vanilla is concerned, this s a 4x vanilla. I used 3 beans instead of 1 for a 3x vanilla expression. Averaging things out, it was a 3.5x vanilla expression. 2 oz of dry spiced rum from cotton & reed added a nice spice undertone. 

We had some Restaurant Depot romaine that actually was several weeks old. Thanks to gladd storage bags, damp paper towels and a good fridge, it was still mostly in edible shape. We made a huge salad with an avocado. red onion, goya garbanzos, homemade spicy mustard mayo, garlic & rosemary olive oil, red, balsamico & sherry vinegar. Very filling and quite good from what surely could have gone into the trash.

Dessert: a small serving of the strawberry tequila sorbetti. Next time just onc cup tequila instead of the one plus a splash. After than a quality control bit of our

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3.5x vanilla. Still a little soft but incredible.

Spot came out and complained at the chow in his bowl. In an effort to reduce the puking, we are putting out all his dry food in the AM. A hour before pizza time, we pull any dry food left out. Then he gets his pizza at his reservations time {please finish your pizza in less than 2 hours and fifteen minutes, please do not be more than 15 minutes late or we might give way your pizza; we are trying to get his credit card number to guarantee his reservations but all he does is hold up one claw. Does this have some special cat meaning? Or is his cat express number just 1. And why the middle claw?} 2 hours after pizza time, we give him back his dry food. He gives us a piece of his mind for the rest of the evening.

He got a new brand of cat treats and he is willing to stand on his hind legs and gently hold my hand in his paws, claws retracted, in order to take it. 

We are not drinking these yet, but we have an abundance of strawberries and so...

Strawberry Tequila. 3 blends. Aleppo Pepper w/cloves is rich. Guajilllo Chili is stronger, it was fiery yesterday and by today it mellowed. The last is chili arbol and it is HOT. I even added a vanilla bean to mellow it. It will make great Bloody Marias when we have homemade tomato juice. The strawberries macerated in the spirits for about 4 days. The berries are almost completely white and the strawberry flavor has almost completely been infused to the spirit. But if you bite into ne of the berries, there is a stron bitter component to it which is not infused into the spirit. 

Pimm's. 4 quarts strawberries, limes, blood orange, lemon, grapefruit & lemon grass, indian cukes, fresh ginger, hard spices. We will have about 2 liters of each of two blends, one is with Bombay sapphire and the other will be with Seagrams. High end and lowbrow both. I will do a heat and cool infusion measure which will force the essential oils into the pimms. When these are done, we will pour 2 oz over ice, add maybe 1/2 oz gin, 1 oz lemon and top with fginger brew. Andrew's K & B or Blenheim's ginger beer. 

I have a good source for Key limes, so I am thinking of a Key lime rum or tequila or both. 

Coming up will be raspberry, blackberry and black raspberry spirits. For these, I use a half pint or pint per liter of spirit. I think I will make one gin, one rum and a brandy. 

Next winter, I will be making a buddha's hand gin for Buddha's backhand's, which sis a corpse reviver with a buddha's hand infused gin. 

We got some stray peas in our markt haul today. I cooked them on a couple of romaine leaves with some mint leaves and a bit of water. I added a couple of tablespoons of garlic scape butter. The peas weer  no that sweet to begin with, but it was good. 3 pint baskets of shelling peas is not a lot of peas!

Then some steamed octopus in ponzu w/wasabi and Indian cukes from Good Fortune. THey look like persian cukes but not as perfectly formed. They have more flavor. 

Last, fluke w/ponzu and wasabi. The fluke was outstanding but whoever fileted them did a poor job on the fin meat which is the best part.

Rice. 

More Onikoroshi

Strawberry Sorbet. 

Spot is feeling pooky and is not eating with gusto. We are watching with concern. He is drinking his water and pooping, so there is that. He might just be out of sorts. He got kicked out of the bedroom a couple of times this weekend. He might be pissed off. We told him Kay and I were playing poker and cats don't play poker. He proved me wrong when he filled an inside straight later on. 

Made strawberry tequila sorbet. The texture is quite soft. I love it, Kay thinks it will melt too fast. She needs to eat faster! Spot would be willing to teach her. 

Used about a quart of grotto made strawberry syrup, 1-1/2 cups tequila, 1 cup water, black pepper, aleppo pepper. I let the syrup infuse for a couple of hours. I\d say sorbetti are still a work in progress. 

Croissants from Atwater on the way home from Westover Market. Spinach & feta, ham and cheese. I think Atwater does savory croissants better than any of the bakeries at the Farmer's markets we frequent. 

Tuna with homemade mayo & sakura soy.

triscuits & feta and blue.

Thai banana. 

Bali Blue Moon coffee. 

Spot had, you will never guess! Pizza and cat chow. His meowing for the pizza, which started an hour before pizza time, woke the neighbors. 

Mul Naeng Myun: Korean bone broth, homemade water kimchi & juice, Asian snow pear, buckwheat noodles

Cheese & crackers: Shepherd's Manor Maryland feta and Bailey Hazen Blue on triscuit

Spot has pizza. For no more than 5 minutes before he puked. The poor guy spent almost the rest of the night except to go finish his pizza. He woke up at 5am loudly asking me to watch him eat his cat chow.

He posted a review to Meow: "Why can't they follow me from the poopateria to where I eat. 2 claws for cleanliness and small portion size. The service is friendly but slow. They do not offer seconds, thirds, or fourths! Maybe change that to 1 claw."

Last of the dashi, cabbage, tofu & mushroom soup.

Big plate of roasted and grilled veggies with three flavored mayos: fish sauce & red onion; Sakura cherry blossom soy, key lime juice & zest, & mint; home fermented mustard w/wasabi & kraut juice. 

Spot had a nap. But he did actually beg for cat treats wih both paws off the ground. His diet is working! 

The last of the Atwater Raisin Walnut bread, cream cheese {philly brand} capers, red onion, Acme smoked salmon. The second round was made with toasted whole wheat English muffins from TJs.

Spot here. Cat Dad seems to think it important to say what he eats for dinner on a daily basis. Well I want to say what I eat every day! NOT ENOUGH!!! Please send help. Pizza much appreciated but given my sad lack of opposable thumbs, please send them as well. Now back to Cat-Dad who will say blah blah blah. He is not very bright but I keep working with him. Cat mom is slightly better. What a disappointment they are.  😺😸🤎😹😻💞🙀🤎😿😾

We had duck cannelloni w/fra diavolo sauce and parm. A large mixed plates of veggies featuring grilled asparagus {Linda Vista Farms, Spring Valley} & garlic scapes {Linda Vista}, roasted radish, hakurei turnip {Linda Vista;} kohlrabi, fennel {Barajas Produce;} Celery hearts and carrots {TJ's and quite disappointing as compared to local.} For the roasting/grilling I used Grotto spice rub, salt & olive oil. For serving, we used Sakura Shoyu, Iwashi Whiskey Barrel Fish Sauce and homemade garlic & roasemary oil.

Blended Mandarin Daiquiri: Cotton & Reed dry spiced rum, mandrine juice, key lime, ice, blended. 

Wine: Valpolicella I Progni 2001 Ripasso by Le Salette. Black plum & prune flavors, spicy, good shape for a 19.5 year old ripasso.