Category Archives: Adult Beverages

The History Stopper

[credit: B. Wacks]

So we had another big release so there’s another .0 celebration at work. The Fingerprint from the last one was such a success, I got to develop a new one for THIS time too. Now, was I asked or did I volunteer? Hmm …

I wanted to work with gin this time — I really love the botanical notes and it works so well with many edibles. I know there are LOTS of people who say they don’t like gin, so I wanted to develop a gin drink for them. I played with the Bombay Sapphire East last summer — it’s not an aggressive gin — not so much juniper-forward — with definite notes of citrus. Might be the lemongrass? I’d found that I really loved gin with cucumber, so that was my starting point. As to why I got inspired to throw in the kiwi — who knows. But it REALLY works with the gin and cukes.

So the Culinary Guinea Pig totally signed off on this. But sometimes I like a little extra verification, so I had my neighbor John try a little. John is more into super dry gin martinis over “craft cocktails” — so I felt he could provide some constructive criticism on balance — especially if it was too sweet. His response? “Why aren’t you a bartender?” LOL So I think you can serve this one without worry!

So, a sidebar before we get to the drinking. As I am developing a cocktail, I frequently start out using teaspoons and tablespoons of the syrups, liqueurs and liquors to check the flavor profiles. Then I ramp it up to a serving. Then, as needed, I up the proportions for a pitcher. I don’t take pictures until I think I’m final — makes sense, right? So I JUST NOW realize, as I’m about to upload the pictures — I FORGOT THE MINT in the final pitcher at home for the photos!! It’s KILLING ME — the drink is incomplete without the mint! Don’t be like me — get the mint in there. And of course this means I have to go buy another cucumber and more kiwi and take the pics all over again. Because I’m slightly obsessed that way.

The History Stopper
Yield: 6

1/3c to 1/2c Cucumber-Kiwi syrup (recipe below)
1/4c lime juice (no shame in using bottled Nellie & Joe’s Famous Key West Lime Juice)
1c Bombay Sapphire East
12oz seltzer (unsweetened)
Mint leaves
Lime, cucumber, or kiwi for garnish

Add the cucumber-kiwi syrup and lime juice to a pitcher. Stir well. Add the gin and stir again. Add the seltzer and stir gently. Fill a rocks glass with lots of ice. Place two leaves of mint in one palm and SPANK the mint with your other hand. Drop those leaves in the ice. Pour in the drink and garnish with a lime wedge and/or a cucumber wheel and/or a kiwi wheel.

*****

Now, for a crowd, I was making a double batch in EACH of my two party pitchers — doubling all the measurements above. I got more than 12 servings out of each double batch because we were using pretty small cups.

This sizes down nicely as well — it’s a 2:1:4:6 ratio, for you math geeks. For other people, it’s 2 tablespoons of the syrup, 1 tablespoon of lime juice, 1/4c of gin, and 1/4 of the can of seltzer.

Cucumber-Kiwi Syrup
Yield: 12 to 16 ounces

1/2 English cucumber, unpeeled, chopped into a medium dice
2 kiwis, peeled, chopped into a medium dice
water
sugar

Place the cucumber and kiwi in a saucepan. Add just enough water to cover. Bring to a bare simmer and cook gently until the cucumber and kiwi have softened and the water is a lovely green color. Strain through a fine mesh strainer, pressing and pushing the solids against the strainer to extract as much juice and puree as possible. Discard the seedy mush. Measure the remaining (strained) liquid and add just enough water to make an even measure (1 cup, 1.25 cups, 1.5 cups, etc). Pour this into a clean pan (or the same pan rinsed out). Add an equal amount, by volume, of sugar. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring often to ensure sugar is dissolved. Boil gently for 2 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Refrigerate. Should last two weeks — but not likely much longer, as there’s a fair amount of solids that push through the strainer.

Use in cocktails.
Mix with seltzer for the pregnant lady in the office.
Drizzle over ice cream.

The Fingerprint

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So I work for a pretty cool company called WealthEngine. We had a major product release a couple of weeks ago — WE Analyze — a point-and-click web-based solution that harnesses the power of one of the largest consumer data sets ever created. It’s been balls-to-the-wall for an extended period, with multiple parallel release sprints and, forget it, this is where everyone’s eyes to start to roll. Let’s just say it’s been intense.

After a major release or product launch, we throw ourselves a big party. So a couple of days before the celebration, I got called into a conference room by one of my VPs. Since the summons came on the tail of a conference call where I got snotty about a potential publicity stunt I wasn’t thrilled about, I assumed I was about to get a dressing down. To my relief and surprise, the VPs asked if I would create and serve a signature cocktail for the celebration — to be named The Fingerprint. Color me THRILLED!

We’ve had a few nice days (the flipflops have made an appearance!!), so I knew I wanted to go with something lighter and reminiscent of spring. So a clear liquor, not brown. And something fruity with a herbal or botanical accent. This is a tough time of year — the citrus has started to taper off and we don’t have a fruit in season yet. Many frozen fruits rival fresh fruit, in quality, so I had no worries about turning to the freezer for raspberries. I had a general sense of proportion of liquor to seltzer to citrus to sweet after years of mixing these, so I just need to experiment with the right liqueur and tweak the proportions. Of course, it needed to translate to a pitcher — we are a drinking crowd!

The Fingerprint
Yield: 6

1/4c Raspberry-Ginger puree (recipe below)
1/4c ginger liqueur (I like Domaine de Canton)
1/4c lime juice (no shame in using bottled Nellie & Joe’s Famous Key West Lime Juice)
1c silver rum (the cheap stuff is fine)
12oz seltzer (unsweetened)
Lime wedges
Fresh raspberries

Add the berry puree, ginger liqueur, and lime juice to a pitcher. Stir well. Add the rum and stir again. Add the seltzer and stir gently. Serve over lots of ice, garnished with a lime wedge and/or fresh raspberry.

*****

This sizes down nicely as well — it’s a 1:1:1:4:6 ratio, for you math geeks. For other people, it’s 1 tablespoon each of the puree, liqueur, and lime juice, 1/4c of the rum, and 1/4 of the can of seltzer.

On party day, I used a raspberry-lime seltzer. It’s just as good with lime seltzer or even plain seltzer. The key is that it is unsweetened seltzer.

For you tequila lovers — feel free to sub in silver tequila in the same proportions as the rum. Really lovely.

Raspberry Ginger Puree
Yield: ~ 16oz

1 12-oz package of frozen raspberries
3/4″ ginger, peeled and sliced into “coins”
water
sugar

Place the frozen berries and ginger coins in a saucepan. Add just enough water to cover the berries. Bring to a bare simmer and cook gently until the raspberries are mush and the water is a lovely deep berry color. Strain through a fine mesh strainer, pressing and pushing the solids against the strainer to extract as much juice and puree as possible. Discard the seedy mush. Measure the remaining (strained) liquid and add enough water to make an even measure (1 cup, 1.25 cups, 1.5 cups, etc). Pour this into a clean pan (or the same pan rinsed out). Add an equal amount, by volume, of sugar. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring often to ensure sugar is dissolved. Boil gently for 2 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Refrigerate. Should last two weeks — but not likely much longer, as there’s a fair amount of berry solids that push through the strainer.

Use in cocktails.
Mix with seltzer for a refreshing soft drink.
Drizzle over pistachio ice cream.

Branching out …

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So I’ve been playing around a little bit with rye whiskey lately. There was a dry spell leading up to my surgery and for some time afterwards, but once I was off pain medications, the CGP was relieved that I returned to my previous cocktail goddess status. I’d had a sip of a Manhattan at my neighbors’ sometime over the holidays — and it struck me as something I’d like to perfect.

I went with rye whiskey as it’s the traditional whiskey for a Manhattan. The typical Manhattan is a 2:1 ratio of rye to vermouth. I’ve even seen 3:1. I tried both and they were just too rye-heavy. Equal amounts of rye and vermouth were just too sweet. So I settled on the 3:2 ratio as being Just Right for me. The traditional method calls for putting the ice and liquids into a cocktail shaker, stirring about 50 times until the outside of the glass starts to frost, then straining into a martini glass and garnishing with a cherry. Again, a little too strong for me — I liked it on the rocks and sipped slowly.

I’ve been perfectly happy with Wild Turkey Rye and Martini Rossi sweet vermouth. Both are reasonably priced and easy to find. Turns out the CGP isn’t too fond of Manhattans, which means I don’t run out of ANY of the ingredients!

Michelle’s Manhattan
Serves 1

3 cubes of ice
2 stem-on maraschino cherries
3 – 4 dashes bitters
1 teaspoon juice from the cherry jar
2 tablespoons sweet vermouth
3 tablespoons rye whiskey

Place the ice in a rocks glass. Drop in the cherries. Dash the bitters onto the ice. Add the vermouth and rye. Stir about 15 times with a cocktail spoon. Let percolate a few minutes before you imbibe.

And Winter Is Here

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And so begins my lament … I hate winter.

Yes, hate is a strong word. But I am so over winter. I’m tired of the freezing pipes battle. I’m tired of the freezing furnace sump pump battle. I’m tired of throwing treats out the back door because otherwise the dog won’t go out to do his business. I’m tired of being cold, all the time. The high point of my morning commute? When the seat heater kicks in. The one bright spot until April I guess.

Winter has me hankering for lamb. So on Sunday, with a little sunshine and temps above freezing, I wandered up to the Lebanese Butcher to get a leg of lamb. There’s a very friendly, well-spoken young butcher who takes great care in deboning this near-primal cut for me. While he’s working over my leg, I usually wander around the market and fill my basket with interesting exotic (to me) condiments. This time, I found a carton of Guava nectar out of Egypt. The ingredient list was guava pulp (35%), sugar, citric acid, and water. That’s it. No HFCS. No artificial colorings. No preservatives. So I grabbed a box. Given that this is a Halal market and appears to be run by observant Muslims, I didn’t mention I was going to use it in cocktails

So with my veg-heavy lamb stew started (lamb, Penzey’s Lamb Seasoning, onion, celery, carrot, bell pepper, garlic, tomatoes, cubed acorn squash, chickpeas, homemade lamb stock), I set my mind to a little beverage experimentation. I tried a little of the nectar on its own — not as sweet as I expected. Slightly citrusy … slightly floral … very delicate. I mixed a little with gin and orange liqueur — but that wasn’t working. The gin was too herbal and I put in way too much liqueur. So I tried it with rum and reduced the liqueur — definitely on the right track. Understand — I’m doing this with teaspoons and squirts just to see if the flavors meld! So what we end up with is a guava-rum spritzy-punchy thing that really refreshes and kinda sneaks up on you!

I Hate Winter Guava Rum Spritzer
Serves 1

1/4 cup Guava nectar
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 tablespoon blood orange liqueur
3 tablespoons white rum
Ginger ale

Put the juices, liqueur, and rum in a cocktail shaker filled halfway with ice. Shake vigorously for at least 10 seconds until the cocktail shaker is icy. Strain over ice into an old-fashioned glass. Top with ginger ale and stir gently. Consume immediately.

Happy Holidays (and last post of 2014)

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Happy Holidays to you and yours! This will be my last post of 2014. We’re out of town for the holidays, spending a few days with my husband’s mother and squeezing in a quick trip to Vegas (a little perk of being an empty nester!). So I’m baking like mad even though I’ve caught the cruddy cold that’s going around. I’ve got a batch of these layer bars in the oven, using up my last jar of strawberry-rhubarb-ginger jam. I went nuts with home-roasted pumpkin, baking off some scones (a riff on this recipe, reducing the buttermilk and adding 1/2 cup pumpkin puree), a classic pumpkin bread jazzed up with some fresh cranberries (pictured next to the booze bottle below), and a batch of pumpkin yeast rolls from the King Arthur website.

One of our treats at the holidays is to order cheese from the Trappist Monks at Gethsemani Farms. They offer four varieties of their semi-soft cheese — our favorite is the Aged (aka “stinky cheese”). They make a pretty nice fruitcake, too. We love the cheese with crackers and salami, or in a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s available year-round, but it’s a holiday tradition for us.

So my last cocktail recipe of the year is **barely** a cocktail. At the end of the day nursing a cold, after a zillion cups of hot herbal tea, you really are sick of the fruity crap. But an iced cocktail is just NOT what the doctor ordered — you already have the chills! But a gentle hot toddy, well, that’s practically medicinal, right?

Hot Apple Toddy
Serves 1

Smidgen of butter
3 tablespoons Evan Williams Apple Orchard
Hot water
Cinnamon stick (optional)

Put the butter and liqueur in the bottom of a mug. Add hot water. Stir until butter melts. Garnish with a cinnamon stick if desired.

Spritzin’ the Sauce

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Yeah — I went there. I took an innocent Thanksgiving favorite, leftover cranberry sauce, and turned it into a cocktail. I couldn’t help myself. We had a fair amount left, and it was looking lonely in there, since we’d already eaten the leftover duck, dressing, brussel sprouts, and pecan pie. We’d had a nice sangria earlier in the week, so I wanted something that wasn’t so sweet. I already had orange in the sauce, so it was a natural to turn to an orange liqueur. And the CGP is always up for tequila, so a margarita-inspired cocktail just seemed to turn itself out.

Cranberry Sauce Tequila Spritzer
Serves 1

1 tablespoon leftover whole berry cranberry sauce
1 tablespoon orange liqueur
3 tablespoons silver tequila
2 – 3 ounces San Pellegrino Pomegranate and Orange Soda
Lime (optional, not pictured)

Put the cranberry sauce in the bottom of a sturdy glass. Add the orange liqueur and stir to loosen up the sauce. Add the tequila and stir. Add ice. Top with the Pom and Orange soda, stir gently to combine. You might want a little squirt of lime juice at the end.

Another fall flavor for sippin’

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Sometimes something will catch my fancy at the likker store. This weekend — it was the seasonal apple cider liqueurs. Both Jack Daniels and Evan Williams do one. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not the biggest fan of brown liquors, so I’ve been hesitant to buy these in the past. After a chat with the salesguy, who was a self-described whiskey nut, I decided to give the Evan Williams a try.

Once safely home for the evening, I poured a little in a glass for a taste. Sweet … apple-y … backnotes of fall spices. I imagine it would be tasty warm! But I was thinking more of an iced cocktail (it was pretty warm over the weekend), and I spied two orphan Shock-Tops in the back of the fridge, a Honeycrisp Apple Wheat and a Pumpkin Wheat. I don’t think I’ve ever attempted a beer cocktail, but I knew the Honeycrisp Apple Wheat had definite apple notes, so I said, what the hell. And so this cocktail was born. The two really do complement each other, and the mild bitterness of the ale tempers the sweetness of the liqueur. You’ll get three drinks out of a bottle of beer — so these really are on the milder side. But very refreshing!

As this runs a little under $10/bottle, it’s a nice addition to your fall larder.

When Evan Met Belgium
Serves 1

3 tablespoons Evan Williams Apple Orchard
Splash of lime
4 ounces medium-bodied Belgian-style wheat ale

Put ice in a rocks glass. Add the liqueur and a splash of lime. Top off with ale. Garnish with an apple chunk if you’re feeling fancy.

Standard caveat: This is a personal recommendation. I have been provided neither product nor compensation for this endorsement.

My take on a Hurricane

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So last Date Night, I threw together a little gumbo. Yeah, on a weeknight — I’m a bit of an over-achiever that way. This was NOT an all-day gumbo with land, sea, and air represented. Rather, I started with a peanut butter-colored roux, cod and squid I’d pulled from the freezer earlier that day, and a variety of non-traditional veggies from my produce box – like corn and green beans (I know someone’s mamere is rolling over in her grave). And okra. Gotta have okra. It was a respectable gumbo.

So I wanted to serve the CGP a New Orleans-inspired cocktail, and a Hurricane comes to mind. I google around for the ingredients, and one of them had equal parts of white rum, black rum, grenadine syrup, orange juice, and sour mix. I couldn’t even fathom that much grenadine. Another one added 151 and pineapple juice, but ratcheted back the grenadine. Pat O’Brien’s version has some passion-fruit syrup in there. But still not sure about that color — I’m thinking alot of food coloring too. I’ve got black and white rum. I’ve got Pama liqueur and a pomegranate. I’m not opposed to a little grenadine. So I throw together a lightened-up version, with a little fizz at the end from ginger-ale. This is a balanced drink — not too sweet — not too acidic. And not too red.

Hurricane-Lite
Serves 1

1 tablespoon black rum
1 tablespoon white rum
1 tablespoon Pama liqueur
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 to 1 teaspoon grenadine syrup
Pomegranate seeds
Ginger ale

Stir the rums, liqueur, lime juice, and grenadine syrup together in an old-fashioned glass. Add ice. Top off with ginger ale and some pomegranate seeds. Serve with N’Awlins-inspired entree of your choice.

A Taste of the Stary Kraj (Old Country)

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So this weekend, I took a field trip with a dozen like-minded ChoWhounds to Orchid Cellar Meadery and Winery, just outside Frederick, Md. Our goal? To sample as many small-batch meads as the mazer (mead brewer) would pour!

Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey. It is one of the oldest beverages — appearing to pre-date both beer and vinifera wine. In Poland, mead was made at home for many generations. Even my husband has made it in the past (I really should dig around that dark closet in the beach shack just in case there’s a bottle still hiding in the far corners!). The folks at Orchid Cellar are fourth-generation Polish mead brewers. They rely on traditional low-technology methods of fermentation and aging, with no artificial flavorings or preservatives added.

Meads can be on the boozy side — so probably not something you are going to guzzle. The can range from dry to fairly sweet. I wouldn’t call them subtle — they pair beautifully with sausages and cheeses. Andrzej Jr recommends serving them at “castle temp” — I like them chilled in the fridge and sipped in small portions — they warm up to “castle temp” pretty quickly. Unopened, these could keep for years. Opened and refrigerated, they should last for several months.

I purchased four varieties for my own consumption:

Melusine Dry Cyser – a fermented blend of apple juice and honey. Alcohol content ~12%, so more like a dry fruity wine. Versatile accompaniment to pork.

Beekeeper Kiwi Mead – inspired by Polish tradition of using gooseberries in mead. Alcohol content 16% – 18%. Delightful as an apertif with sausage and cheese.

Cobbler White Peach Mead – inspired by the availability of lush white peaches at a friend’s orchard in Pennsylvania. A little deeper flavor than the Beekeeper. Alcohol content 16% – 18%.

Archer Cinnamon and Clove Mead – my personal favorite. Dark and complex in flavor. Something to be savored in front of the fire this winter. Alcohol content 16% – 18%.