Day Twelve — The Tension Builds

What? Curling at 10 p.m. ET instead of 3 a.m.? I may have to nap through it instead of sleep through it.

You jinxed Bode!

Also, the one thing I really don’t get about curling at this point (i.e., after reading this) is why the player who’s throwing holds onto their broom while they’re throwing. I get why they need it beforehand, but not during. Is it for balance?

NBC promised me screaming curling announcers. WHERE ARE THE SCREAMING CURLING ANNOUNCERS?

Food porn threadjack: I posted this somewhere else tonight, and I felt like I was cheating on you all, so I have to give this to you too:

I have distilled the bloody mary, and let a little asian fusion into the mix.

You know that perfectly clear essence of tomato juice that will seep into the bottom of the bowl when you make a salsa out of all diced fresh tomatoes? I use that pure fresh clear tomato nectar, not tomato juice.

Whenever I make a fresh salsa, I make a point to put the diced tomatoes in a strainer, and let them sit a while and let that pure clear tomato essence drip down, if all I get is a quarter cup, thats plenty.

What I am making here is not a bloody mary per se, its a purified, distilled version of the bloody mary, its a bloody mary vodka martini. Because the Vodka is the dominant ingredient, all the other flavors need to be the most concentrated, strong essence of the flavor. So I start with that clear tomatoe essence, and I put it in the bottom of a shaker, for one drink, at most a couple of ounces of it.

Now comes the asian fusion. I will take a little tiny thai bird pepper, those tiny little fresh and very hot peppers, chop it a little, and throw it in the shaker. I will grind a good dose of fresh black pepper into the shaker. I will add 3 or 4 thin slices of lemongrass, and some fresh cilantro, say two stalks. A slice of a fresh garlic clove, or two. A thin slice of lime, and some salt, it needs salt, to bring out these flavors, you need salt in a bloody, normally there is plenty of it in the tomato juice, in the hot sauce, in the horseradish, when you make it this way, from pure fresh ingredients, there is no salt, so you do have to add an alarming amount.

Next I take a muddler and muddle this mix, crush it up, the hot bird pepper, the cilantro, the lime, the garlic, the lemongrass, the cilantro, salt, and pepper. Mixing and infusing the clear tomato essence with these flavors.

So, next, you make a vodka martini, but instead of vermouth, you use this asian-spiced tomato essence, OK, a bit more of it than you would of vermouth, say 1/3rd this mix, 2/3rds vodka. Strain this mix, you want a clear, maybe slightly pink martini, with little tiny red and green shards of the muddled peppers and spices dotting it.

Its a bloody mary, only slightly altered with the asian spices, distilled to the pure crystal clarity of a martini. Perfection to me is to have this, with a Bahamian conch salad. As the sun sets over the out-islands.

@Promnight: I was out of commission for a while (dead monitor) – did you post a crabcake recipe that I missed?

@blogenfreude: I did, its down there.

@Promnight: I will find it, and I will cook it … dammit.

@mellbell: He just had a bad run. I wonder if he’s just thrashed after medaling three times so far. He’s still running in the slalom on Saturday. He has that great run in the slalom portion of the super-combi the other day, so he maybe he could get more metal this weekend.

U.S. concedes? Can they do that? Do I have a fucking clue how curling works after white-noising it for two hours?

Canadian announcer: “He must have been having kittens on the bench.”

You guys up north really are polite.

Bulletin: Curling timeouts oddly similar to curling action.

@Promnight: Some day, Promnight, we will drink together. Unless my liver gives out first.

@nojo: Now I have to turn on the TV just to see if there’s any curling action still going on. Personally, I think it’s a great sport and we should totally build a special stadium downtown for that. If you build it they will come!

German biathalon star Neuner was feeling the pressure of instant celebrity and bailed out of tonight’s relay. Watching the racers blast around the track I am reminded that I can’t cross country ski for shit. I should give it another try sometime.