i am sure your wife chose wisely but I would be hard-pressed to turn away a grouper fish taco!
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I forgot! The kiddo ate the cooked carrots! That’s a first.
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As mentioned earlier, i bought two more CBBs this week, but they were out of the brand i got last time, and both flat cuts - not my preference: Much leaner, and also much saltier. One was for these Corned Beef Reubens and the other will be for CB Shepherd’s Pie this weekend. On the side were the BF’s creamy potato salad and these really fantastic bbq beans he made with the last of our Rancho Gordo King City Pinks.
Despite the CB not being quite as good as the other night’s, i have to say these Reubens were A-OK. Homemade Russian dressing, too.
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Didn’t have time yesterday to make the c.b .
Local point cut sous vide at 180 degrees for 10 hours . This came out beautifully textured with a marvelous taste . The rest of the sides were all sous vide . Carrots were browned in butter to finish. Cheers .
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We had takeout Thai food tonight.
To drink: I made myself a Last Word for the first time since the summer. Equal parts Green Chartreuse, Luxardo Maraschino, gin, and fresh squeezed lime juice. Herby, tart, and slightly sweet. Refreshing and delicious!
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Potato farls, fried tomatoes, fried egg, corned beef with horseradish cream sauce, cabbage.
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I made spinach and mushroom soup with farro to warm our bellies on a blustery March night. Soup paired nicely with (not pictured) leftover Irish brown bread I made for St. Patrick’s Day.
A drizzle of balsamic vinegar in our bowls added umami and brightness.
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I’ve keep seeing more and more cocktails I want to try that call for green chartreuse. I’ve only seen it for $50+ and am hesitant to spend that much on something without having a sense of its taste. In the past I would have gone to a bar an ordered one cocktail to try something. Your description of the the Last Word sounds really good and so may be the incentive I need. Do you use Luxardo cherries too? I do love them.
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My husband bought a jar of Luxardo
cherries because he occasionally likes to mix up a Manhattan.
The Manhattan I can take or leave, but oh those cherries! I prefer mine as the cherry on top of a little ice cream sundae. Mmmm.
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Okay, so here’s the deal with Chartreuse: it is decidedly not for everyone. The easy way to remedy this is, as you mentioned, going to a bar and ordering a Chartreuse-based cocktail. However, not many bars carry this particular spirit. Probably because there are only one or two well-known cocktail recipes that use this. The craft cocktail movement and Instagram have created a new birth of Chartreuse drinks, but many of them look and sound cool, but I just cannot imagine them tasting great because I know what Chartreuse tastes like. The flavor is hard to describe. It is very herby and steeped in mystery. Supposedly only two monks in France have the recipe. When one dies, they give it to another. This was once true. I don’t know if it is anymore. It is 110 proof, ever so slightly sweet (but not as sweet as a typical liqueur), and just herby, herby, herby.
I would treat buying Chartreuse in the same way I would treat buying Absinthe: it is more of an investment than a typical liquor purchase because that bottle is likely going to last you for years. I have two absinthe bottles on my bar. One for six years and a new one I got for Christmas to replace another bottle that took me probably the same amount of time to finish. My Chartreuse I just bought yesterday ($51.99) because my previous bottle was finished in the summer…after three years. So is it expensive? Absolutely, but it is not like you will be running through it like gin, whiskey, or vodka. Ironically, I can give you the same description of Luxardo because I do not use that in much either, but you can get a 375 ML bottle of that at most stores for around $15.99. As for their cherries, delicious! But I rarely ever have them in my bar because of how pricey they are (they really luxuriate a Manhattan too).
As for me, I have only made The Last Word with my Chartreuse. There is another version called The Written Word which I believes swaps out the lime juice for Cointreau-- pretty sure I will like that. I did have a cocktail at a very fine restaurant in New Hope, PA last summer that was essentially a Sazerac that called for both absinthe and Chartreuse. I want to make that at home, but there are no recipes online and given the, uh, “volatility” of whiskey, absinthe, and Chartreuse all mixed together, I would need to get the ratio right or I probably won’t remember what happened the next morning!
I just gave you a very long response, probably longer than you were looking for. In short, treat yourself! I think you will like The Last Word. It calls for equal parts all four ingredients (usually 3/4 ounce but I go a full ounce of each) but you can tweak it to your liking-- a little extra lime juice never hurt anyone. Make sure it is shaken extremely well, so cold that your hands hurt on the shaker. The water from the ice cubes will release the oils in the Chartreuse and also cut the harshness and being ice-cold makes this a super summer sipper (try saying that five times fast!).
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So what is the difference between a luxardo cherry and a marischino cherry?
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There’s also the Final Word cocktail, which if memory serves uses bourbon/rye and maybe lemon in place of lime?
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It appears you are right:
Will have to try this one.
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Okay, so l I just read the back of the bottle. It’s actually three monks with the recipe, not two.
Anyway, it mentions that Chartreuse is best served in a tall glass with tonic or club soda and a lemon or lime wedge. This is really puzzling to me, because I challenge someone to find me a person that drinks “Chartreuse and tonic” and I’ll give you a hundred bucks! That being said, it sounds like an interesting combination that I’ll have to try in warmer weather. Maybe it’s a French/European thing?
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Since I’ve been tasked with making something other than Asian food (Chinese, Japanese, Thai mostly, Viet), I went for a chicken tagine yesterday, over couscous. It was actually dynamite delish and so easy. Mostly prep and forget. My favorite instruction was to let it cook for at least 2 hrs, more is better, but no end to the range after which it gets worse!
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Fancy version of the very bright red maraschino cherries that more of us are familiar with. If not for my husband’s Manhattan, I would not have tasted these cherries.
Luxardo is an Italian brand. According to the jar: “Luxardo Maraschino Cherries are candied cherries with Marasca syrup. The Marasca cherry is a fruit cultivated and distilled by Luxardo for its renowned Maraschino Liqueur.”
The jar contains half cherries and half marasca syrup.
I’m really fond of candied and dried fruits, which is why I think I enjoy the Luxardo cherries so much.
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Hi Barca! Is that a risotto and pasta dish in your photo? I’m intrigued by your delicious looking Friday lunch.
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Please share!
