Stempkowski's New Place(s): The Details

A couple of weeks ago, I got to break the news that Robert Stempkowski, chef at Urban Campfire in Tempe, was going to get his own digs going once more. He's done with logistical details, and now I can tell you just where he's going to be this summer. Like a great number of chefs these days, he's doing pop-up dining!

The first venue is going to be the Days Inn on Camelback and 5th Avenue, doing barbecue poolside on Saturday, May 21 from 11 AM to 7 PM. I have yet to check out the venue myself, but Stempkowski describes it as "retro-chic", with the current restaurant proprietors, Italian restaurant Raimondo's, "dripping with disco-era vibe". Sounds like fun!

After the day at Days Inn, the calendar at Welcome Diner fills in a little more with Stempkowski taking over the tiny kitchen (and setting up his smoker out back) on Fridays and Saturdays all summer, starting in June and going through August. He'll be doing long days there with lunch and dinner, 11 AM until 9 PM. From what I can tell, Payton Curry will still be at Welcome Diner Sunday through Tuesday at least through June.

Now to wait ten more days until the Days Inn gig...

Good Drinking: The Margarita

It looks like it's getting into margarita season. Tonight at work was on the slow side, and two people ordered them in a matter of fifteen minutes. At most bars that would be commonplace; when the house specialty is elaborate rum drinks, a frequency like that makes you sit up and take notice.

One of my guests said he wanted his margarita made the old-fashioned way, with agave syrup. Where oh where did people get this idea that the original margarita was made with agave syrup? It's even used by usually reliable food authority Alton Brown in his margarita recipe (the recipe is all kinds of wrong besides the agave syrup)! The only agave in a margarita should be fermented and distilled into tequila. Agave syrup is a very recent addition to the bartenders' stock; I hadn't heard of it when I first got behind the stick way back in 2007. Then out of nowhere, here's bottles of agave syrup (usually called agave nectar to make it sound more appealing), and people claiming that the original margarita uses agave syrup to sweeten in place of triple sec. What. The. Hell.

Folks, I'm going to say something that's going to pain a lot of amateur and professional mixologists: Stop using agave nectar. Its flavor profile is about as neutral as simple syrup. At $5 for a 12-ounce bottle of it, it's a hell of a lot more expensive than plain simple syrup, and more expensive by the ounce than a standard-grade triple sec! I'll let you finish what you have behind your bar since it isn't as abhorrent as bottled margarita mix or sweet and sour (you should only use these if you wish to ruin whatever cocktail you make with them), but once you've gone through your stock, just use simple syrup when you want sweetness, and use triple sec in your margaritas. It's how people have made them for decades, and it's how they should be made.

Recipe: THE Margarita

1½ ounces tequila blanco

1 ounce triple sec

½ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

Shake everything with ice cubes. Strain into a salt-rimmed cocktail glass, or strain over fresh ice cubes in a salt-rimmed rocks glass.

Frozen is not an option, even when it's blazing hot outside. All that ice gets in the way of tasting your drink. If you prefer a sweeter margarita, add a little simple syrup to taste; I find ¼ ounce does the trick. If you prefer your margarita more tart, just add a little more lime juice.

Oh, while I'm on this soapbox: The salt rim. Countless margaritas around the world have been ruined by those damned salt rimmer gizmos. You've seen them before: There's a plastic dish with a sponge soaked in (Rose's) lime juice, and another dish full of kosher salt. The bartender squishes the glass into the lime sponge, rubs the moistened rim of the glass around in the salt, and voilà, the glass's rim is salted. There's one problem with this, and it's a biggie: There's now a bunch of salt on the inside of the glass. As soon as the bartender puts the glass down, a bunch of the salt shakes loose and lands on the bottom of the glass. Then when they fill the glass, the rest of the salt comes off. The result is a drink that will be mostly salt with the first sip of a straw. Eeeeew. Let me show you the way I learned, the One True Way:

THE Way to Rim a Cocktail Glass with Salt or Sugar

Rub a piece of lemon or lime (e.g. the lime you had to cut in half to get the juice for your margarita) around the outside of your glass to lightly coat the rim with juice. Holding the glass sideways, dip the rim of the glass into a shallow dish of sugar or kosher salt, rotating the glass to cover the entire rim. Hold the glass upside down over the sink, and tap the glass a couple of times to knock loose any excess salt or sugar. Turn the glass right-side-up, and proceed with your recipe.

If you expect to use a great deal of rimmed glasses in an evening (such as for a cocktail party featuring margaritas), you can rim your glasses well in advance; the salt will stay put. Don't know whether someone wants salt on the glass or not? Easy, elegant solution: Rim only half of the glass. If you want to get fancy with your drinks and rim the glass with something novel such as shredded coconut on a piña colada, or graham cracker crumbs on a key lime pie cocktail, or maybe even tiny candies like Nerds or Pop Rocks? You'll use something close to the typical method. All you need is a shallow dish of honey, and another dish of the ingredient for the rim. Dip the rim of the glass in the honey, then into the rimming ingredient. There is a certain knack to this; too much honey gets messy fast, while not enough honey leaves you with an empty rim. And make sure the ingredient is in tiny pieces; for something like shredded coconut you might want to chop the shreds up finer with a knife or a couple of pulses in a food processor.

Coming (Back) Soon: Stempkowski's Own Restaurant

About three and a half years ago, local chef Robert Stempkowski opened his own restaurant after a good number of years working in Phoenix's finest kitchens. It was called Urban Campfire, and it was terrific. I yammered very enthusiastically about it to almost everyone I knew. It was a casual restaurant near ASU. Stempkowski cooked barbecue and smoked meats with a master's touch. Along with the great dishes came little fine dining touches with down-home flair, such as a deviled egg amuse-bouche, and Otter Pop mignardises. Then, he and the guy with the money behind the operation had a falling out; Stempkowski was gone. Without its driving force, the kitchen fell hard. The smoke in the meat disappeared, the meats were tougher, the macaroni and cheese's sauce broke... everything that came out of the kitchen showed they just didn't care anymore. Shortly after, the Campfire went out. Stempkowski stayed in the industry, this time working in the front of the house at notable local restaurants like noca and Rokerij.

Then today, I woke to an email from none other than Robert Stempkowski. It turns out he's getting set to open his own place again. The idea is going to be pretty similar, with a number of dishes from Urban Campfire making their return. There's also going to be some new things including smoked meats to-go and homemade sausage, a summertime snow cone bar (Is it too much to hope a liquor license will be involved?), and some Polish smokehaus-style comfort cuisine. Best of all, this time he's running the show all by himself.

Ya think I'm a little excited about all this? Oh, hell yes. Look for the new place to open in central Phoenix some time in May. And of course, look here for more details as Robert lets me know.

Event: Grow Your Own Mushrooms!

One of the interesting things about running a food blog is that you get emails from all kinds of people hawking all kinds of different events. For the most part, they aren't all that exciting (a couple of chain restaurants suggesting they're the perfect place for everything from Easter brunch to Valentine's Day), or don't have much to do with food to begin with (TV shows with a restaurant as a main setting). But every now and then, something genuinely interesting and cool comes along, and you want to tell lots of people about it. It's been a while, but this is one of those times.

On the 26th of April at 6:30 pm at SkySong (the ASU facility anchored by the Cirque du Soleil big top looking thing on Scottsdale and McDowell), the nice folks at Maker Bench will present a class about growing your own culinary mushrooms. They will show you how to culture and grow oyster mushrooms right in your kitchen. Even if you don't have a green thumb, . Once you have the hang of it with oyster mushrooms, you can grow whatever other fungi your heart desires... Shiitakes, morels, the list goes on. Even better, attending the event is FREE. They're even nice enough to provide dinner! They have kits available for sale with everything you need; they're $99 if you register by the 19th, and $129 after that.

If you're interested (I sure am!) just go to the event's webpage to sign up.

Recipe: Jester's Own Orgeat!

A couple weeks ago, I published on here a work in progress recipe for orgeat syrup. After some more testing, I now have the finalized version for you.

1 pound blanched whole almonds

2 cups filtered or bottled water, plus some extra

4 cups sugar

OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS:

1 oz vodka

1/8 tsp rose water

1/8 tsp orange flower water

Pulse almonds in food processor until coarsely ground. Alternatively, put almonds in a Ziploc freezer bag and beat the hell out of them with a rolling pin until coarsely ground. Combine almonds, water, and ½ cup of the sugar in a saucepan. Heat mixture until at a rolling boil. Remove from heat, and let stand overnight.

The next day, pour mixture through a double layer of cheesecloth (or a nylon straining bag from a homebrewing supply store). Twist cloth closed over almonds, and squeeze out as much almond water as possible. Add extra water to bring volume of liquid to 2 cups. Add remaining sugar, and heat until ALL of the sugar is fully dissolved. Let cool to room temperature. Add optional vodka and flower waters. Mix well, and store in the refrigerator. Will keep a few days without the vodka, a few weeks with.

The almond oils will separate in storage. To use, break up the oil layer with a chopstick if necessary, and shake well until fully dissolved.

Who knows, maybe soon I'll revise the recipe again soon. I'm inspired by gomme syrup, a pre-Prohibition version of simple syrup. It has a little gum arabic in there to stabilize the solution (keep crystals from forming), and has the added benefit of lending a silky mouthfeel. The gum arabic will serve triple duty in the orgeat since it will also keep the flavorful oils suspended in solution.

For the person who needs it

Don't know how secretive this person is being, but a request came via Twitter message for tiki punch for a party. This is going to be too long for 140 characters no matter how much I abbreviate.

Trader Vic's Tahitian Rum Punch For 100:

The day before your party, put 2 pounds of brown sugar in a VERY large vessel. Squeeze 5 dozen oranges, 4 dozen lemons, and 3 grapefruit, all medium-sized fruits. Add the juices and spent shells to the vessel, and mix well. Peel and slice 10 bananas, and add them to the mix. Add 2 sprigs of mint and 10 bottles of dry white wine. Let stand overnight. The next day, strain out the solids. Add 6 bottles of light Puerto Rican rum and 1 bottle of dark Jamaican rum. Stir well. Pour over a large block of ice in a punch bowl or barrel, and let chill.

When I said a very large vessel, I wasn't whistlin' Dixie; the final quantity is about six gallons. Yes, you have to have completely fresh-squeezed fruit. Enlist friends with electric juicers to help if you need to. This won't be the same with bottled juice. When selecting wine, just about any dry white will work except oaky ones. As for rum, no need to knock yourself out with the super-premium ones when they have to compete with all that juice and wine, but still get something decent. I'd go with my workhorse Cruzan (yes, it's from the British Virgin Islands, but it's what I use when the recipe calls for Puerto Rican rum) for the light rum, and either Myers's or Coruba for the dark rum. For a little extra flair with the ice, fill balloons with 1 pint of water, place them in (on?) a teacup to keep the shape, and freeze. Then, peel the balloon off, rinse off the powder coating from the balloon interior, and use in place of the blocks of ice.

Cooking: Blanching Your Own Almonds

I went out to get myself some blanched whole almonds the other day so I can (finally) get to work on my Mk II Jester's Own Orgeat.

I take back what I said in the original orgeat post regarding the availability of blanched whole almonds. You can't find the damn things anywhere.

At least, nowhere I looked. Wouldn't surprise me if AJ's has them (at their usual exorbitant upcharge), or the mega-Fry's up on Tatum and Shea (but I refuse to shop at places that have those goddamn loyalty cards, but that's a whole other post)... Maybe I should have ducked my head into a Middle Eastern grocer? Anyway, I bought myself a pound of raw almonds from Trader Joe's, and easily turned them into a pound of blanched almonds. Here's how, it's a piece of cake.

Get some water boiling in a saucepan. How much water, you ask? About enough to cover the almonds by an inch or two. The easiest way to figure this out is to put your almonds in the empty pan, fill with water to the desired level, then remove the almonds. Once the water is boiling, put the almonds in the boiling water. Cook for about 30 seconds. Drain the almonds, and either rinse the almonds under cold water or transfer them to an ice bath to stop the cooking. Then, just pick up an almond and squeeze the big end. The skin should slip right off. Aim towards a bowl with a clean dish towel in it. The dish towel will both dry the almonds, and help keep the skinned almond from shooting across the room.

Now that you have your freshly blanched almonds, proceed as previously directed with the recipe. Salud!

Mailbag: Homemade Orgeat

UPDATE 3/17/2011: I've done more testing; the recipe is all finished (for now). Check it out here! This version will stay up for posterity's sake.

UPDATE 3/7/2011: I made two batches by this recipe, a beta 1 by this recipe and a beta 2 with twice the almonds. Neither one came out with much of any almond flavor. There were a couple of hiccups during the first round of testing, so I think I'll retest this before going back to the drawing board, probably by adding even more almonds.

Some time this morning while I was slumbering, a bottle with a note inside washed up on the shore just steps from the back door of Casa de Jester. I popped the cork, slid out the note, and the magnificent calligraphy read:

Would you be so kind as to tell us about how one makes orgeat from scratch?
--Volstead's Conundrum

Why of course, Mr. (Ms.?) Conundrum, I would be delighted. First, a little background information: Orgeat is an almond-flavored syrup that is a tiki bar mainstay. Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron favored it, using it in such famous drinks as the Scorpion, the Samoan Fog Cutter, and his magnum opus, the Mai Tai. While there are numerous commercial orgeat syrups (including one made by Trader Vic's), making it at home is pretty simple.

Oh, a little secret: This is a work in progress, my untested Mk II version. If you make it, let me know how it turns out.

Start out with ½ pound of blanched whole almonds. Blanched slivered almonds are a poor substitute; they are inevitably stale. If you can't find blanched whole almonds, you can blanch your own; the technique is readily available online. You can use raw almonds with the skins as a shortcut, but you'll end up with a tan colored syrup instead of the opalescent white color orgeat should have. You may be tempted to toast the almonds for a deeper flavor. Don't do it! At least, not if you're trying to make orgeat. You'll get toasted almond syrup. Mind you, toasted almond syrup is quite delicious, it just isn't the desired end result. Anyway, chop up the almonds any way you see fit. A knife works well, a food processor will do it in a blink, a Ziploc bag and rolling pin is fine too. Don't worry about precision; some of the pieces can be coarsely chopped while others are close to powder. Add 1 cup of sugar and a quart of bottled or filtered water to the pot. Bring it to a boil, remove it from the heat, and let rest 12 hours.

Next step: strain out the almonds. Put a double layer of cheesecloth in a strainer, and pour the almond mixture into it. Once the liquid has stopped draining out, twist the cheesecloth closed over the top and squeeze out all the liquid you can. If you're feeling perfectionistic, you can give it a second straining through a coffee filter, but the cheesecloth should do just fine. Pour the almond liquid back into the pot, and add 7 cups of sugar. Heat this until the sugar is completely dissolved. Make sure that all the sugar is dissolved, but don't let it boil! There are consequences to be had either way! If the liquid doesn't get hot enough, the sugar will crystallize into almond rock candy. If it gets too hot, you'll have a very sticky boil-over on your hands. Bad juju either way. Once the sugar is completely dissolved, take the mixture off the heat and let cool to room temperature. Once it's cooled, add in rose water and orange flower water to taste. The taste of the flower waters should be a subtle background note. If it tastes like orange flowers or roses, there's too much in there. At this point, If you wish you can add a shot or so of vodka to the syrup to act as a preservative. Pour the cooled syrup into bottles, and store it in the fridge.

When homemade orgeat syrup sits, the flavorful oils will separate from the sugar syrup. Just insert a chopstick to break up the top layer, then put the cap back on and shake vigorously until the mixture is homogeneous once more.

There are some things I need to test on future versions. Foremost is the amount of almonds. I plan to test this by making a batch with ½ pound of almonds and another batch with 1 pound of almonds, then combining equal parts of those to see how a batch made with ¾ pound of almonds works. I also need to get a precise amount for the flower waters down. And it will be fun to test the effect on taste of various preservative spirits. Vodka will be neutral, but cognac or silver rum may add pleasant notes.

Now that I've told you all that, I'll tell you the quick-and-dirty version: Buy almond milk at a health food store (it's next to the soy milk), mix 1½ parts sugar to 1 part almond milk (2:1 if your almond milk is unsweetened), heat until all the sugar has dissolved, and once cooled add rose and orange flower waters to taste. Since commercial almond milk has soy lecithin as an emulsifier, it will not separate like homemade orgeat.

So to the elusive figures behind Volstead's Conundrum, there's your orgeat from scratch. I bid you, and everyone reading, good drinking.

Speaking of good drinking, you didn't think I'd leave you without things to do with your freshly made orgeat, did you?

Trader Vic's Original Mai Tai
Juice of one large lime (about 3/4 ounce)
2 ounces aged dark Jamaican rum
¼ ounce orgeat
¼ ounce rock candy syrup (simple syrup made 2 parts sugar to 1 part water)
½ ounce orange Curaçao
Shake everything with crushed ice. Pour into a double rocks glass, and garnish with a mint sprig and spent lime half.

Momisette
1½ ounces absinthe (or pastis)
½ ounce orgeat
Sparkling water to fill
Build in a Collins glass with ice cubes, stir gently.


Orgeat syrup is fun to play with. You can substitute orgeat syrup for some or all of a syrup ingredient (e.g. simple syrup, grenadine, etc.) in your favorite drink recipes. Yes, you can substitute it for grenadine. You'll have a different drink, but that's the idea! And don't stop at cocktails... Orgeat-sweetened coffee, iced tea, lemonade... the mind reels.

Scottsdale Sushi Fans: Good News!

Some years ago, I had the very good fortune to visit Shinbay, an incredible one-man show of a sushi restaurant, run by chef Shinji Kurita. This was one of the best meals I've had anywhere. I still remember a number of the delicious tastes even years later. Then one day it closed up, and aside from a short stint at Autumn Court, little was heard of chef Shinji Kurita again. I still wondered about his whereabouts here and there. Well, wonder no more. Late last night, a couple of anonymous comments were left on an old blog post here that Kurita-san is bringing back Shinbay in a couple of months, this time in the Scottsdale Seville shopping center on the northeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Indian Bend. A quick look at the Scottsdale Seville website confirms the news.

Sushi lovers, this is possibly better news than when Nobuo Fukuda opened his eponymous restaurant at Teeter House. Part of me hopes the exclusive service style (the original restaurant served no more than six guests at once, and almost exclusively served omakase dinners) will remain, but another part of me hopes I can just drop in whenever I want instead of making a reservation a couple of days in advance.