For a record

La Trappe (White)
Port Ellen (BBR, cask strength, 1982 bottled in 2007)

Two drinks I tried for the first time last night.

Daiquiri

My last post was...well...about rustic snacks.

Today's post is about...well...a cocktail. It's origin is rustic, but it transcended to something more.

As you know I love beer and whisky. Recently I like wine too. More recently, I discovered some of the cocktails are nice too. Of course, if they are not nice, they are not widely known as they are.

Among cocktails so far, I especially found Daiquiri really fantastic. Though I do not know how the bartender made it when I first drank it, when I make it myself at home, I use rum:lemon (not lime) juice=3:1 with a little syrup. These simple ingredients make a yogurt-like flavor. I love this drink. It'll probably going to be my Christmas drink this year. I'm already thinking of my Christmas dinner.

Thanks to my dad who always keeps 20-30 kinds of liqueur and two different-sized shakers.

Two Snacks: Balut and Sardines in Oil with Mashed Potato

Balut: It is a boiled fertilized chicken egg. Filipino people seem to like it. I've been trying to taste it for a long time and last Saturday for the first time in my life I had it! Fr. Elmer had it and let me have one of them. I read about how to eat it in a book before. You crack one side of an egg. Then you drink the juice from the hole. After that you make the initial hole on the egg bigger and bigger and eat the chicken inside. I tried a balut of 21-day-old chick, which means the chick already fills the egg, but it doesn't have nails and stuff yet, so it is tender. So I made a hole on the egg. Gross. What the hell is this...? Give me a break. I was grossed out. I was pretty drunk by that time of night, but how can I possibly eat that greenish gray unborn chick...boiled? Anyways, I drank up the juice as if I were taking a tequila shot. It tasted somewhat like a chicken stock. Then I realized that what I was about to eat was just a chicken, a whole chicken. Just unborn, but it is still a chicken. I ate it with ponzu. In fact, I enjoyed it. I did a little anatomical studies on the chick and I ate it. It was good actually. We just need to improve the presentation. God knows how to make that look nice, though. When you eat balut for the first time, tell yourself that you are just eating chicken.

Sardines in oil with mashed potato: I boiled potatoes, unpeeled. Mashed them, added butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. Opened a can of sardines in oil (I confess that I didn't make sardines in oil.) and put it on the mashed potato. A little chili on top with a little olive oil. In a preheated 200-degree oven for 20 minutes (?) or so. It makes a rather nice snack for a drink or two. I did not boil the potatoes too long. After mashing them it still had some lumps. I just didn't want to make even textured mashed potato. I didn't peel the potatoes. After all, if you are not after the texture, why do you need to remove the skins? That is the flavorful part.

My latest Guinness stew

The picture is my latest "interpretation" of Guinness stew.

I wanted to make this rustic dish a bit posh. :p

I guess I can call this Guinness carbonade. I tend to use beurre monte instead of beurre manie or roux these days.

I think I could make a nice color. The taste was also alright. Dense enough.

But I cannot see potential in this dish, Guinness stew. Whenever I make Bouef Bourguignon or Coq au vin, I can see what I need to improve. The dishes you can never fail with are probably not interesting dishes. The dishes you always somehow fail have potential, room for improvement. I can of course, use different beers. Fortunately, I have drunk many different kinds of beer, so I'll experiment with whatever I think is appropriate.

Still, Guinness stew is a nice comfort food of all time.

Guide Interpreter Cerification Exam

I will know if I passed the written exam or not on the 13th. I don't think I passed it especially because I prepared for it only for 5 minutes, 10 minutes maximum.

If I pass, I'll have an interview on the 29th. No need to mention this. No need. (Because I won't make it.)

If I pass this, I will be able to work to show tourists around Japan, which is a good thing because I'll be able to go to different places and eat and drink different things. :)

I really think I should start to learn about Japanese sake. However, for that, I know I need to invest a lot. It is always the case. If you want to learn about one category of liquor, you need to spend a considerable amount on it. It is a lot of fun, though!

Chicken stock for coq au vin

I made chicken stock this evening. Armed with this fresh chicken stock, I'll make coq au vin again for the youth group meeting on this Saturday. I hope it will turn out alright because my coq au vin is still on its experimental stage. This time, I'll use an oven instead of a stove. Simmering gently may make a difference.

I got chicken legs today, the most flavorful part of chicken, right? With the bones, I expect deeper flavor.

My question is how can one give nicer color to the sauce. I usually simmer for two hours or so, and then I strain the sauce and reduce it, etc. It is still purplish. When I use beef, i.e. boeuf Bourguignon, the color gets more like brown and nice. I want that color to coq au vin too. Will using an oven helps? Maybe I should take more time to simmer it? But chicken will be cooked in one hour, right? If I put tomatoes, fond de veax or demi-glace, the color will probably be better, but what about the taste? The taste is acceptable by my standard already as long as I do not use non-stick pan. I just want to improve the color. Difficult....

Wish me luck!

Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe

You need:

beer, onion, carrot, garlic, salt, pepper, mushroom, bacon, butter, flour, stock, and red wine (pinot noir or something similar, not too tannic, not too sour, not too bitter).

1) Lightly brown onion and carrot. Remove them from the pan.
2) In the same pan, sear the beef.
3) In a deep pan, make roux with butter and flour.
4) Add some wine and allow it to reduce.
5) Deglaze the pan you sauteed vegetables and meat with some wine. Mix the liquid in.
6) Put the sauteed vegetables and seared meat in.
7) Add some stock, thyme and a bay leaf.
8) Simmer for 2-3 hours at least. (The lid on.)
9) Remove the meat. Strain the sauce. Say bye to the vegetables.
10) In a frying pan, saute mushroom, onion (pearl onions if you have them), pancetta/bacon. While doing so, reduce the sauce.
11) Add these in the sauce with meat.
12) when it's ready, whisk in some butter for shiny look and texture.

The ratio of wine to stock was, in my attempt, roughly 2:1. Using, in addition, parsley and celery should make it better.