e_bone's Profile
"The Rock" in Highlands Ranch / Lakewood
The yelpers don't appear to like the Lakewood outpost of this chain very much but I'll be trying the Highlands Ranch store soon as it just opened. Everything I see leads me to think it's not a place I'm going to like (classic rock.. really??) .. but I always approach wood-fired pizza with an open mind and a scientist's objectivity!
http://therockwfp.com/category/coming-soon/highlands-ranch/
(and yes- they play music on their website.. yay! Did they hire a teenager from 1998 to design their website?)
Anyone try yet?
Cooking with Buttermilk - guh!
Quick food science question, and yes, I *did* poke around a little before posting I promise. I had a clean out the fridge dinner-for-one last night and wanted to throw together a sauce for some frozen tortellinis. I had some fresh mushrooms and frozen peas/carrots etc.. so went "cream sauce" route rather than "red sauce" route. Alas... no cream! No half and half! So I could make a milk based bechamel foundation.. maybe go overboard on the butter component.. but HEY.. LOOOK! A fresh pint of buttermilk I hadn't used... and a hunk of Maytag blue cheese to melt into it! That's going to be tangy, creamy goodness!
Technique: Olive oil... saute some prosciutto scraps... add some garlic... then mushrooms and saute until they give off their liquid and the sauce tightens back up... then I add the frozen peas/carrots and get this warmed up... and here comes the buttermilk... and then... YUCK!! It separates immediately! The milk solids curdle up and I have a soupy, murky, gross looking mess. I try to re-constitute it with the blue cheese chunks melting in but it's a lost cause. It didn't taste much better than it looked.
So I assume that the acidic properties of the buttermilk caused the separation / curdling (anyone who has ever added cream to a wine-based sauce too aggressively knows what I'm talking about) but why is buttermilk "stable" in the fridge and yet separates with a bit of heat? If I had brought it to a boil, etc... I wouldn't question.. but this was immediate upon pouring into the pot.
Hopefully someone learns from my mistake!
Lower end Scotch tastes
Almost a year later.. but I did try a bottle last week. It was $16.99 (!!!) at our local big-box. I actually do find that I enjoy it.. I find it to have some citrus / floral notes to it and a sweetness that reminds me of a poor man's Balvanie.
Thanks for the rec- this will be a nice fall back when my Bowmore isn't on sale (it's back up to $24 right now).
pizza in south englewood/east littleton
Sorry for slow reply- especially since I offended previously. I meant *I* don't pretend to be an expert. My writing was "conversational style" and therefore easily misinterpreted. My bad.
And no- our tortilla emergency was solved by a friend that found some housemade at a Carneceria in north Aurora. Will find out where he got them- they were very good but not amazing.
pizza in south englewood/east littleton
don't pretend to be an expert about NY Style pie... I've had stuff I liked that was NY style before (Famous (Broadway) , I Love NY Pizza (Glendale), Anthony's, etc.. suggest you try one of the Garlic Knot locations down south.. or Frank the Pizza King on Broadway near you. Not saying they are NY pedigree.. but they make good pie. I'll keep thinking.
ISO: Tortillas - Denver
I know of great homemade tortillas in Longmont.. but is there a Denver alternative? I've been to Tortillas Mexico (11th and Santa Fe) but they didn't taste any different than their packaged products I can get at King Soopers. They aren't *bad* but they taste commercial and not house-made.. if that makes sense.
Another Brisket... another round of depression
In my post I explained that I braised it to start. I just finished it on the smoker to cheat and get some smoke taste in.
Another Brisket... another round of depression
Granted.. I *know* brisket isn't going to turn out like pork butt roast.. I *know* it's not baby back ribs.. but I've tried 3 times now and always get solid A flavor... B- texture... and a D or worse on moisture.
Today's experiment was a medium flat cut (3.5 lbs)... I rubbed it with the usual suspects (salt, brown sugar, garlic salt, peppers, powders, etc..) and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours.
Since my smoker seems to be too hot (and part of the problem at 235-245 deg) I cheated and slow cooked it over a bath of water, vinegar, juice, bay leaf for 5 hours at 220 deg and took it out. My meat therm has a dead watch battery so I have no idea what internal temp was... it "felt" like it was loosened up and soft but since it's brisket it wasn't exactly falling apart). I cooled it over night in the fridge again.
Today I stoked up the smoker until it was gushing hickory sweetness.. and put the brisket in for half hour and then flipped it to get another 1/2 hour and turned off the smoker. I pulled it out.. let it rest.. and then sliced it.. and as usual.. tasted nice.. steaky texture.. .but dry. It'll do with some sauce on it.. but I've had brisket from bbq joints that tastes similar but has a more moist, fatty taste to it... why not mine??
Popcorn in Denver?
Anyone ever see "unique" popcorn varieties anywhere in Denver? I want to try some of the versions shown by Alton Brown a few years ago but don't want to get eviscerated with shipping costs just to taste the difference (if there are actually differences). Especially want to try some of the baby / hulless varieties when compared to a larger variety like the Savannah Gold types described here:
http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/popcorn
Whole foods only appears to have organic yellow corn in the bulk aisle... same at Sunflower... King Soops and Safeway have Jolly Time and Orvilles.. nobody appears to have the stuff found online.
Le Grand Bistro- opinions?
It looks spendy although they claim to do "everyday French" on Facebook. I never got to try Brasserie Rouge due to the fact that having twins tends to send your Dining Out Plane into the side of a mountain.. but I'm always drawn to French and French-inspired fare. They even do frogs legs! And those of you without souls can get your foie gras Torch- On (get it??).
I've read they do happy hour specials but can't seem to sleuth out what that exactly means in terms of offerings / prices (as the happy hour menu just looks like a smaller version of the regular one). Nice looking space and menu though for sure.
http://www.legranddenver.com/
Anyone who's been to both- would you go here or to Z Cuisine?
Happy T-day !
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Brasserie Rouge
1801 Wynkoop St, Denver, CO 80202
Soon to be Gone.. never forgotten! Mount Gay Special Reserve
I still find it on the shelves but it won't be around much longer as they've discontinued it and the "Sugar Cane" bottling as well.. I've loved this rum since I wasn't old enough to drink it legally. I took about 15 years off from Rum and just a few years ago developed a taste for the sweet stuff again.
I know a lot of folks complained of the ripe banana / almond / vanilla flavors that were so dominant in Special Reserve but I found them to be unique, balanced and delicious. I absolutely love a strong serving in a tall glass, over ice, a big squeeze of lime and a splash of tonic water.
I am so mad at the distillery.. how dare they kill this treasure...
http://ei.isnooth.com/wine/Mount-Gay-Special-Reserve-Barbados-Rum.f_5_a.wine_3181253_full.jpeg
Lower end Scotch tastes
@NCYankee101 - I trust you so I will buy another bottle of Lismore and give it a spin around the glass. Report due next week. Thanks!
Why do so many people hate Gin?
I married a 'martini lover" who wants Vodka "martinis" only. We have a two shaker situation every night. It's outrageous, inefficient and wrong.. But I can't abide the tasteless sipping of Vodka. If she wasn't German I'd threaten her. But she kind of scares me.
Best "cheap" gin?
perhaps, my Iowa soul cousin, you can elaborate on why plastic is objectionable to you. Landfill issues? (If so I agree that it bugs me to contribute) Leeching effect of toxic chemicals? (If so I am open minded and want to read the stuides that motivate you as I am similarily curious) Don't want to show a plastic bottle to your friends? (tell them to suck it and go drink at their own houses) or is it a taste thing? (which I have never explored and am presuming is not necessary as the highly stuctured containers *should* be neutral reactive.. but again- I'm open minded).
tomato slices, roma tomatos pieces or sauce on margherita pizza
thanks for followup post and too-little too-late I understand now via context what your original question was.. you were talking, I wasn't listening. But if I understood it correctly THIS time I think you are making the assumption that both "sets" of tomatoes were of the same quality/ripeness/etc.. And I think i would have answered you that
1. I would have used the best tomatoes I had in terms of ripeness and quality of origin (unless I had the BEST tomaotes earmarked for something even better- like a non-cooked tomato dish)
2. But even with that- a "round" tomato, in my mind (not backed up by research) is going to have a higher water content relative to mass and so will bring less to the pizza party.
3. This goes back to why Roma/Marzano/etc... tomaotes were favored for this type of food- the acitidy and higher meat yield (my term) stands up to the demands of heat and fat from cheese and oil.
I like the fact that given the preparation methods you didn't see a discernalble difference in tomatoes. Win Win. Pehraps your unstated assumption was correct: shape was different, quality wasn't.
That has some typos.. I have my contacts in and my screen in bedside laptop is small. Hopefully I misspelled an Italian word so I will get 34 postings about how repulsively ignorant I am about true Naple-eze cooking.
Shame to waste the bell peppers
as they weren't peeled I would figure out something that requires long slow cooking as one of the posters mentioned- soup of some sort or a sauce.
Fancy,challenging dinner recipe needed
Not knowing what "type" of food you like to prepare I have a couple of suggestions that worked well in my past:
Beef Wellington- the old Continental Cuisine workhorse, when done right, is a fabulous and indulgent dish. It's challenging for the home cook to manage the pastry and cook the filet "enough" without over-cooking. And you can do incremental challenges to make the whole dish more difficult: make your own puff pastry instead of buying, you can make your own pate instead of buying (or using foie gras (sp?)), you can make high quality stock to make madeira sauce with, etc..
Easier stuff-
*making husemade "neo" raviolis/mezza lunas/tortellonis always please guests- and they are a nice blank canvas to work from so you can be as creative or traditional as you want
*ever made souffles? rough stuff with great results
*pick something from the French Laundry cookbook- I made salmon "poached" in olive oil.. crazy expensive to do but remarkable results
tomato slices, roma tomatos pieces or sauce on margherita pizza
"Authentic" (a loaded term if ever there was one) margherita can be made with canned or fresh tomatoes and they don't even *have* to be peeled. But tomato skins bring nothing to the equation so I don't see any reason to leave them in place.
For my pizzas I either use canned high quality tomatoes or I use fresh tomatoes done "concasse" style- peeled and seeded. I crush them by hand afterwards.
The only "sauce" that goes on a neopolitan pizza is olive oil
source: http://www.pizzanapoletana.org/images/file/disciplinare%202008%20UK.pdf
German roast pork & potato dumplings
I won't comment too much on the pork as I've never been to Germany.. but I would imagine that they grow a fattier hog than we yanks do and therefore get jucier meat. When I do pork loin roasts (pretty lean) I brine them to bring up the juice and flavor but that doesn't make it as good as a well-marbled piece of meat. Better to use shoulder/butt roasts or even sirloin roasts.
For the Kartoffelkloesse (yes I had to look up the spelling) I've made these many times and they turn our wonderfully. Not sure what recipe I used but they are very similar to these:
http://thuringian-recipes.search97.com/
Note that you brown the bread first to get that deeper flavor.
Beef Tenderloin: a little underdone. How do I correct?
My opinions- you're in trouble. To cook the thickest part more you'll have to cut it away from the correctly cooked part- not a terrible thing- but the presentation will suffer a bit I suppose.
But even with that... twice cooked meat- especially a lean cut like tenderloin is a practice that leads to tough meat and poor flavor. The juices and proteins were already changed by the original cooking so re-heating it is just awful. I would ask your S.O. to get over it- rare tenderloin is wonderful.
Best "cheap" gin?
@NCYank
Brokers is awesome but costs as much in Denver (right now more) than Beefeater, Bombay or Tanqueray. I love it and buy it when it's on sale.. but this thread was for us to share info on lower-tier priced gins. The Seagrams, the Gordons or the Pinnacle.
I love Boodles as well- especially with a splash of tonic and a wedge of sweet lime- but again.. price is same as the "Big 3" listed above.
Where to get the best green chili in Denver?
@LorenM- how do you get heat into the bowl at home? Dynamite chilies? I am always looking for more heat with the adding chile extract (feels like cheating) or habaneros (flavor doesn't taste right in Green). I, like you, love blazing Green Chile and have a hard time getting the knob up to 11.
Where to get the best green chili in Denver?
@crazytom- I went to Bubba Chino's yesterday for the first time (the original at 1st & Federal). As predicted it was very similar to Chubby's. They offer "extra hot" which is just what I needed. I had beef and bean smothered burro with a side of fries. Greasy.. delicious.. spicy... the beef in the burrito had been cooked perfectly- crispy on the edges.. it was very cheesy.. it was very unhealthy.. and I was in heaven. My brow was sweating.
I loved it- can't wait to revisit for a gilled breakfast burrito.
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Bubba Chinos
201 S Main St, Brighton, CO 80601
Visiting Greeley, CO
Always will have a soft spot in my heart for Alberto's and their great green chile. Friendly place for Colo-Mex cuisine.
Lower end Scotch tastes
Sorry to bump a dying thread NCYank but .. you say "Iodine" like it's a bad thing! :-)
Real reason I post- as several mentioned above (including you) I bought a bottle of Black Bottle for $19 recently and am very happy with it. It needs a few ice cubes.. and maybe a splash of water as it's a bit "hot".. but the flavors are Islay and it is smooth on the finish for the price. Very nice find.. Domo Ori-Thank-o!
Pork spoiling.. but.. how.. far...? Food Science n00b alert
Thanks D in MN and also JJ for adding to a discussion that fascinates me to a degree. I probably wouldn't be so curious if I'd just sit my ass down for a few hours and research but.. I haven't done that yet. FWIW- I have had 4 servings of the green chile.. and whereas I'm sad to report that it's still not perfect (although much closer) it certainly didn't taste off or make me ill in the least. The meat was certainly dodgy at best but the finished product is health-neutral.
So Staph is certainly in the category of things that could potentially be a culprit in a spoiled -but -cooked food poisoning episode. I know it's hugely common in the ambient environment. C.B. doesn't scare me as much in *this* scenario as it's unlikely to be present in a package of pre-processed pork due to controls in place in meat packing industry. (but as noted- I'm the king of dangerous assumptions).
I used to be even LESS cautious if you can believe it even though I have a sensitive nose and a fairly easily-triggered gag reflex. A few years ago I left some sausages in the freezer for nearly an entire winter.. and this freezer was a top compartment in a fridge that lives in the garage. We had a looong cold spell in Colorado that winter so the uninsulated garage probably stayed somewhere from 25 - 50 deg F for over a month. This of course made the compressor stay dormant (since the thermostat is in the fridge) but the freezer compartment was up in the "thaw" range frequently. I'm picturing the freezer going long periods at 30-39 deg or something. I pulled those wonderful Italian sausages out in Feb or something and they looked bad.. off color.. smelled off.. but I thought... "that's on the outside.. I'll just make sure I *really* cook 'em.... We Yanks need to be less fussy and respect the meat." One bite and I was emotionally scarred. I didn't get sick as I think my body knew not to swallow and I spit it out .. but it was foul with a huge capital F.
But.. back to the original post... why? What happened?? Was it Staph?
Rubbery Chicken
FWF- you have lean meat.. but you bought it on the bone and WITH the protective skin on the outside (good idea) you brined it (smart move).. you marinated it on top of that with acid and oil.. you're trying hard for the juicy! And you get rubbery.. are you SURE it was rubbery ?? :-) j/k
1) The obvious question.. cooking method.. did you cook this at high heat for a short time and then tear into it immediately? if so.. slow it down and let it rest before eating so the juices can return to the interior of the meat (if you are an experienced cook you just said "no duh dorklock").
2) You are probably close to solution on you comment - baking vs grilling - much because of what I asked above. Even cooking method and heat versus high heat / short cook time of a hot grill. When cooking anything lean on the grill- try to sear the meat and then move to a cooler part of the grill to cook "quietly" for a while until done.
3) Don't overcook chicken breasts! It's a very unforgiving cut of protein.
Pork spoiling.. but.. how.. far...? Food Science n00b alert
I'm working on iteration number 4 zillion in my effort to create really good Denver area Green Chile (see post http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/782583 ) ... the elusive orange-green wonderfulness that fills breakfast burritos with love and heat.
ANYWAY.. I found some pork sirloin chunks in the "manager clearance" section of my local groc shop. $2 something a pound and I can hack them into smaller bits for my sauce/stew.. and of course I grumble to myself that it's the treated "moist and tender" pork product and not natural pork which is getting damn hard to find in the big stores. ANYWAY
So I didn't get to the Green Chile project right away.. and several days past.. in fact.. 5 probably.. I uncover the shrink wrap this morning and yes.. it's got that sort-of-greenish glint that it's turning.. and you can smell some moderate sour.. nothing horrifying or vomit inducing.. but .. Captain.. she's listing.. and she's going down soon! All hands on deck!
Super cautious cook (eg: American) throws this out without a second thought. I've cooked "sort of questionable" meat before without incident.. so I'm inclined to roll the dice again. And this is just for me- I make my GC very very hot so there's no danger of family members (read: German wife) wanting a bite. It's my bed to lie in. And vomit in I suppose.
I've cooked it.. I've yet to taste the stew but it smells GREAT and it smelled like good pork when it was just pork browning in fat earlier. I'm not super worried.
That said- I've got an open mind and have much to learn... Since my pork was obviously turning.. what sort of bacteria / mold / etc.. was growing on it most likely? If that's not answerable... What's next? My limited knowledge tells me that the microbes will cause an off taste in my meat even when cooked.. and that if they lived there long enough they would create toxins that exist post cooking that will cause illness even if cooked at 200deg for eternity.
What ARE these toxins? Why doesn't cooking kill them? And before you ask- yes- I've done a little Google-research first and have yet to find anything that explains the results of bacteria feeding on meat and leaving behind a trail of poison. EVERYTHING I can find is some form of "cook everything thoroughly or you'll die".
What do you do with "Hot Dog Water"?
You piqued my curiosity - in my mind the "brine" would be perhaps too diffuse to be real meaningful.. but if you cooked a LOT of dogs... and then reduced the liquid to concentrate it.. you'd have *something*.. but what? It'd be fat from the dogs in suspension.. and some salt... and a little of the spices in dogs (which I don't know what spices make up a dog)... so I still don't know how flavorful the result would be.. would probably be a little tasteless. But poaching eggs- a good idea you have.. grits... sure.. making pasta for mac-n-cheese? sure... worth playing with I suppose just to rule it out. And if works- you're a genius. You can call it something like court bouillon aux chien chaud.
Black Arm Band time...
Buddy Bill sent me this today...
The Oven and Tarbell's closing in Streets of Southglenn complex.
http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/2011/05/tarbells_and_the_oven_both_close_at_the_streets_at_southglenn.php
Odd timing- we were just at The Oven Sunday night and it was very "off"- the wine list was decimated.. and they had very little oak for the ovens on hand... I didn't think about it much- but now it makes sense.
I'm bitter- I never DID get to try that amazing sounding Burger at Tarbell's / Home /whatever. Hopefully the spaces will be replaced by some bigger chain restaurants that can afford the rents. I see a Ted's Montana Grill in Tarbell's space and a Verizon store in the Oven's space.
I wonder if they'd give me one of those Pizza Ovens if I came with a truck to get it...
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Montana Grill
5480 US Highway 93 S, Somers, MT 59932
