Posted by Cameron on 06.01.07 7:05 AM
I felt a bit odd concocting this week’s entry, given that I had never before had an authentic sangrita — by which I mean served in a roadside shack in Mexico, or in a dark Mission District dive drawing inspiration from our friends to the South. Truth be told, I’d never even had an inauthentic sangrita — served anywhere. Given my fondness for tequila, this seemed an odd state of affairs. A post from Steve over at Rancho Gordo extolling the virtues of “a shot and a sangrita” inspired me to correct this deficiency.
I was initially concerned that my lack of personal experience with the drink might prove to be an obstacle, but my research provided me with great comfort. As far as I can tell, if you ask fifteen sangrita aficionados to list the drink’s ingredients, you will get fifteen wildly different recipes and possibly an entertaining fistfight, depending on how many of the aficionados are in the room at the same time and how much tequila they’ve had.
Most of the sangrita recipes that I found started with some combination of tomato juice and citrus — usually orange juice. The next most common ingredient was grenadine or pomegranate juice. After that, ay dios mio, baby, just go to the vegetable market, close your eyes and point. I found instructions for chopped onion, chopped jalapeno, lime juice, chipotle powder, dried chopped ancho chile, Tabasco, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and lemon juice. I’m sure that there are even more exotic mixtures lurking in the darkness. I’m just happy that I stopped before I found anything that would require the services of an entomologist.
We tested recipes that included nearly every ingredient mentioned above, but ultimately settled on a combination of juices without a lot of additional hoo-hah. The key was achieving a balance between the tomato and fruit juice flavor — a process that required countless hours of selfless taste-testing… all in the interest of you, our faithful reader. With that done, we found that all of the other exciting additions just got in the way, added to the prep time, and made the drink grainy and unpalatable. Our winner was loosely based on a recipe from Rick Bayless’ Authentic Mexican. The beauty of this concoction is that you can easily adjust the proportions to your taste.
A few words about the ingredients: The orange juice was freshly squeezed; storebought juice will be more acidic and not as sweet. You can substitute grenadine for the pomegranate juice, but the result will be much sweeter. It’s worth the time to make your own good-quality tomato juice — all you need is a blender or food processor, a fine metal sieve, and some canned tomatoes.
Finally, skip the Tabasco, Tapatio, or other vinegar/cayenne sauces in favor of a good quality hot sauce that adds flavor as well as heat. We used Frontera Red Pepper Hot Sauce, which is, coincidentally, the bottled version of Bayless’ Chile de Arbol Hot Sauce, another recipe from Authentic Mexican. These days, the Frontera line is available in most grocery stores; you can also buy it online. Por supuesto, we got the very best results using Rancho Gordo Rio Fuego Very Hot Sauce, but we are impossibly biased.
Sangrita Casada
makes four shots
4 oz. tomato juice
2 oz. orange juice
2 oz. lime juice
4 tsp. pomegranate juice
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
1/8 tsp. salt, or to taste
6-8 healthy dashes Worcestershire sauce
Combine all ingredients in a glass container, and chill well in the refrigerator. When thoroughly chilled, divide into 4 shot glasses, and serve alongside 4 shots of good-quality gold tequila, preferably reposado. Sip… first the tequila, then the sangrita.
Drink of the Week, drinks, Mexican, recipes
11 Comments »
Posted by Anita on 05.27.07 5:51 PM
Although it’s a mainstay of American restaurants — one might even say it’s a cliché in eateries of a certain sort — the original Caesar salad was created in Mexico. The classic combination of romaine lettuce, croutons, Parmesan cheese, and a garlic-laden, egg-emulsified dressing has remained popular since its invention in the 1920s, enduring more than its share of variations throughout the years.
Such are the indignities that this venerable ensalada has suffered that pretty much any creamy, romaine-based salad can be called a Caesar nowadays. On the other end of the spectrum, there are purists who hold that an anchovy-free Caesar isn’t a Caesar at all (although Caesar himself used Worcestershire sauce, no little fishies at all). Adding some bacon or grilled chicken makes a Caesar suitable for a light lunch or simple supper… and that’s just the beginning of all the ways you can tinker with this highly adaptable recipe.
No doubt that sort of flexibility was what Katie at Other People’s Food had in mind when she selected Caesar salad for this month’s ‘Hay, Hay It’s Donna Day’ celebration. She even mentions Caesar wraps and Caesar pizzas — Ay, Dios mÃo, what would Señor Cardini make of that?
I set to thinking about a way to honor the salad’s historical birthplace, without going too far over into caricature — no multicolored tortilla confetti or salsa-spiked dressing, please. I played around with the basic method, adding a few south-of-the-border notes: A little chile, some avocado cubes, and a few sliced radishes in place of the croutons’ crunch.
This recipe yields a fair bit of dressing — certainly more than we ever need for just the two of us. It keeps for at least a week in the fridge, and if you prep a whole head of romaine on the night you make the dressing, the remaining lettuce will keep as long, provided you treat it right.
Here’s a trick we picked up from Alton Brown: Cut (or better yet, tear) the romaine into bite-sized pieces. Rinse and briefly soak the lettuce pieces in cold water in a salad spinner, then lift up the basket and dump out the water. Replace the basket and spin the lettuce in the usual fashion. Put half of the spun lettuce in the salad bowl, and set aside. Roll out a length of paper towels on the countertop, and sprinkle the lettuce along its length, keeping a single layer as much as possible. When you’ve laid out all the lettuce, roll up the paper towels loosely, and slide the roll into a plastic produce bag. Put the bag gently into your crisper drawer, but do not close the bag.
It’s a pretty neat trick: The paper towel wicks moisture away from the lettuce, but keeps the bag relatively humid. I’m not saying the romaine will be as good as new a week later, but it sure beats the pants off of those overpriced, half-wilted “salad in a bag” thingies.
Señor Caesar
4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper
1/4 tsp. anchovy paste, or a few dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup mild olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste
—
1/2 head romaine lettuce
6 to 8 radishes
2 oz Dry Jack (or other hard cheese, such as Parmesan)
1 small, ripe avocado
Roast the garlic and chile in a small, dry skillet, turning frequently until soft and blistered. Cool briefly, then peel the garlic, and roughly chop both the chile and garlic. (Split and seed the chile before chopping, if you prefer a milder heat.) Place the chopped garlic and chiles in the mini-bowl of a food processor with the anchovy paste (or Worcestershire), and process until smooth, adding as much of the oil as needed to form a paste. Add the lemon juice and the egg yolk to the paste, and process briefly to combine. Then slowly add the remaining oil, with the processor running, until combined. Be careful not to overprocess, or you’ll get mayonnaise. Taste, and season with salt and freshly-ground black pepper.
(Alternately, you can crush the solids with a mortar and pestle and then whisk with the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl, or use an immersion blender. Either way, be sure to follow the same steps; don’t just dump everything in together or you’ll end up with a broken mess.)
Tear or cut the romaine into bite-sized pieces; wash and dry. Slice the radishes into thin rounds, discarding the stem and end pieces. Shave the cheese with a vegetable peeler into wide, thin strips. Halve the avocado, and remove the pit. With the skin on, score the avocado flesh at 1/2-inch intervals in both directions, all the way down to the skin. With a soup spoon, scoop the avocado flesh from the skin; it should separate into neat cubes.
In a large serving bowl, toss the lettuce with a few tablespoons of dressing, until just coated. Toss in the radishes, half the avocado cubes, and half the cheese. Add more dressing if needed, but be careful not to overdress. Serve on chilled salad plates, garnished with the remaining avocado and cheese.
cooking, Mexican, other blogs, recipes
6 Comments »
Posted by Anita on 05.25.07 7:03 AM
After reading yet another post extolling the virtues of making your own ginger beer, I decided to take the plunge. Aside from the tedious (but strangely relaxing) task of peeling and grating 2 pounds of fresh ginger, it’s quite a simple operation.
Dale DeGroff’s homemade ginger beer recipe — recommended by Robert at Explore the Pour — isn’t very sweet at all: A mere 3/4 cup of sugar to 2 gallons water. If you want sweetness in your drink, it’s simply a matter of adding simple syrup to taste. Starting with a barely-sweetened ale, you’ve got the flexibility to use liqueurs or flavored syrups without fear of a cloying end result.
Other than a prominent ginger taste, the largest difference between the commercial stuff and the homemade variety is a lack of fizz. I experimented with carbonating part of my batch by running it through a soda siphon; it worked, although perhaps a bit too well. The relatively dense liquid hung on to the CO2 bubbles better than plain water would, resulting in a thick-headed mess. Not wanting to waste any of my brew, I emptied the contents of the siphon into pint glasses, allowed the foam to subside, and funnelled the result into an empty bubbly bottle (which I capped with a spring-loaded Champagne saver). The end result: A lightly carbonated, highly gingery, very dry ginger beer.
Of course, there’s no shortage of good cocktails that use ginger ale as a base: Moscow Mule, Headless Horseman, and Dark & Stormy, to name just three. But this week’s entertaining schedule included a fair number of parents with a sharp eye on their little ones. You can’t just whip up a strong cocktail under these sorts of circumstances (no matter how tempting it may appear to the bartender).
Riffing on Audrey Saunders’ Gin-Gin Mule, an increasingly popular Moscow Mule variation, I combined my ginger beer with the usual gin, lime, and mint, but in a simpler, lighter arrangement. No muddling, less gin, less lime, and a little added fizz… a few variations and you’ve got breezy Mule alternative that’s not the least bit watered down. It’s a faintly boozy drink, a good option when entertaining guests who lack the cocktail gene, or when the weather’s hot enough for multiple cold beverages around the barbecue. In short, it’s a perfect Drink of the Week for summer’s first long weekend.
Gin-Gin Cooler
1/2 oz simple syrup (mint or rosemary flavored, if possible)
1 to 1.5 oz dry gin
4 oz homemade ginger beer
juice of 1/4 to 1/2 lime
soda water
mint sprig
In a 12 oz highball glass filled with ice, combine the syrup, gin, ginger beer, and lime juice. Top with soda water to fill, and garnish with a mint sprig.
If you’re using commercial ginger ale, be sure to pick a quality brand with plenty of bite. Skip the soda water and reduce or eliminate the syrup, depending on the sweetness of your mixer; the end result will be more along the lines of a Shady Grove. If you decide to make your own ginger beer, be forwarned that DeGroff’s recipe yields a generous two gallons. It freezes well, however.
Drink of the Week, drinks, entertaining, recipes
5 Comments »
Posted by Anita on 05.18.07 7:07 AM
As you’ve probably noticed, I’m a sucker for any drink made with green Chartreuse. But I hadn’t found many cocktails that used the yellow version to good effect until Murray made me an Amber Dream during our most recent visit. This one’s a definite keeper; the gin and the vermouth counter the liqueur’s abundant sweetness.
As I sipped my Amber Dream, our friend Jason appeared beside me, grinning at his cleverness in having tracked us down. It dawned on me almost immediately that Jason’s wife is named Amber. Strange coincidence, no?
Jason and Amber welcomed their first baby Tuesday night, so now the drink is doubly apt: With little Cooper’s arrival, I’d guess there won’t be a lot of dreaming for Amber — or Zig Zag cocktails for Jason — for a while.
A number of recipes call for the drink to be garnished with a flamed orange peel, but just as many leave the cocktail ungarnished. And there seems to be some difference of opinion regarding the bitters, whether aromatic or orange are preferred. (If you prefer a garnish-free version, the orange bitters seem like a smarter accent, in order to keep at least some of the citrus tones in place.) Some recipes call explicitly for French sweet vermouth, and still others favor an Old Fashioned glass — and rocks — to the standard v-stem/up configuration.
Needless to say, there’s plenty of room here for tinkering. Try out a couple of variations, and raise a toast to the littlest foodie in our circle and his proud parents.
Amber Dream
1-1/2 oz dry gin
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
1/4 oz yellow Chartreuse
1 dash orange or aromatic bitters
Stir all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a flamed orange peel, if desired.
Drink of the Week, drinks, recipes
3 Comments »
Posted by Cameron on 05.11.07 7:00 AM
I can’t remember exactly when I first tried a tequila and tonic, but I can remember why: I was searching for a standard drink. I wanted to have a drink in my mental back pocket that I could order when the specialty cocktail list got too goofy. Or when I’d arrived late and everyone else was already halfway through their glasses and a waitress was asking, “And can I get you anything?” as she whooshed by on her way to another table. An easily-described drink made out of ingredients available pretty much anywhere, one that even the most ham-handed bartender couldn’t screw up too badly.
I started from a gin and tonic baseline. Rum and tonic was too sweet. Vodka and tonic just tasted like tonic. I never tried bourbon and tonic, because that’s just too weird even for me. But one night I asked for a tequila and tonic with a lime, and I’ve never looked back. Tequila and tonic trades on the same bittersweet, citrus pleasures as the gin and tonic, but substitutes spicy roundness for medicinal bite.
These days, I’m looking forward to a tequila and tonic at the homestead even more than usual, as the renewed national interest in cocktails has spawned a couple of boutique tonic waters. So, as part of the Drink of the Week and Mixology Monday festivities, we rounded up a couple of the new entries–Stirrings and Fever Tree–to put them to the test against the supermarket standbys: Schweppes and Canada Dry.
The results were interesting. Canada Dry was the clear loser with a Two Tongues Stuck Out in Disgust rating; “Overly sweet and chemical-tasting,” said our panel. Our tasters were also a bit disappointed by the Stirrings tonic. It had the advantage of tasting like natural product, but was nearly as sweet and oddly fruity as the Canada Dry. The second mass-market entry, Schweppes, fared better, although it brought out the boozy, horse-blanket nature of the tequila. The overall winner was the Fever Tree tonic, which balanced sweet and bitter and added welcome herbal notes.
Purely in the interest of science, we also compared the two supermarket brands in multiple formats: 10-ounce bar bottles and liter-sized big ‘uns. Just as I’ve always thought, the contents of the larger bottles were OK when fresh, but quickly took a turn for the flat and lackluster, which further exacerbated their chemical-y, medicinal undertones.
Tequila & Tonic
2 oz. aged tequila (we use El Jimador Reposado)
3-4 oz. good-quality tonic
lime wedge, for garnish
Build over ice. Sip suavely, Rico.
Drink of the Week, drinks, Mixology Monday, recipes
25 Comments »
Posted by Anita on 05.07.07 5:41 PM
I’m slightly obsessed with my tattered copy of Big Bowl Noodles and Rice by Asian food guru Bruce Cost. It’s my first choice when I need a comforting stir-fry or noodle dish, especially when I’m in the mood for Eastern flavors without a lot of fuss. But last week, while staring down a bunch of asparagus and looking for a suitable stir-fry side-dish, I came across one recipe that, shockingly, I’d never tried.
Like so many Big Bowl recipes, this salad manages to achieve a completely authentic flavor without any oddball ingredients. (Don’t get me wrong: I love the bottom shelf of my pantry, stocked with goodies from Uwajimaya and 99 Ranch, but sometimes even adventurous cooks don’t want another sticky bottle of imported exotica.) The simple dressing allows the natural beauty of perfectly fresh asparagus — one of my true springtime delights — to shine through, complementing and highlighting the fresh crispness without muddying flavors with overwhelming ingredients.
Asparagus Salad with Sesame Seeds
1 T sesame seeds
1 bunch (approximately 1 pound) fresh asparagus
2 tsp. rice-wine vinegar
3/4 tsp. red-wine vinegar
3/4 tsp. soy sauce or fish sauce
3/4 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 T fine peanut oil
2 tsp. sesame oil
In a small skillet, toast the sesame seeds until golden, shaking the pan so they don’t burn.
Remove any woody ends of the asparagus, cut the stalks into 2-inch lengths. Parboil them in 6 cups of heavily salted water for 2 to 3 minutes, depending on their thickness. Drain and run under cold water to stop cooking. Dry thoroughly. (Once perfectly dry, the asparagus may be chilled, overnight, in a loosely covered container. If you leave any moisture, it will make the spears mushy.)
Mix together the vinegars, soy or fish sauce, sugar, and mustard. Whisk in the oils, as you would for a vinaigrette. Toss the dressing with the asparagus, and sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds.
cookbooks, cooking, other blogs, recipes
3 Comments »
Posted by Anita on 05.06.07 11:00 PM
If you’ve spent any time on food blogs, I’m sure you know Barbara of Winos & Foodies — the creator of one of my favorite blog events, Hay Hay, It’s Donna Day. Barbara asked her food-blogging friends to participate in a new blog event called A Taste of Yellow by preparing a dish containing some type of yellow food. On May 16 — in honor of the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s LIVESTRONG Day — Barbara will post a roundup of the Taste of Yellow posts. She’s collected almost 30 so far!
Our entry for A Taste of Yellow has languished in my “to try” file for a while, and I wish we’d made it sooner. It turned out to be so easy and tasty, it’s sure to become a standby in our house. In honor of Barbara’s New Zealand locale, we served the yellow potatoes alongside grilled lamb chops (in a yellow curry sauce, just to be double-sure we had the theme covered). Both the curry and the potato recipe came from the Vij’s cookbook, which you may remember from the gorgeous paneer dish we mentioned last month.
Turmeric offers many health-giving effects. The ginger-like rhizome has been used medicinally in traditional Asian and Indian practice for centuries. It acts as an anti-inflammatory and antibacterial agent, and its antioxidant properties have been shown to prevent free-radical damage that’s been linked to cancer. In laboratory tests, turmeric’s active ingredient has decreased symptoms of skin cancers, and reduced the incidence of chemically caused breast cancer in laboratory animals. Three current clinical trials at the US National Institutes of Health are targeting pancreatic cancer, multiple myeloma, and colorectal cancer using turmeric’s main compounds.
And, of course, it’s a gorgeous shade of yellow.
Vij’s Turmeric Potatoes
1 pound yellow new potatoes
2 T canola oil
3/4 cup chopped onion (1/2 large onion)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 T water
3 oz baby spinach
Wash and scrub the potatoes, but do not peel them. Cut each potato in 1/4-inch rounds using a food processor or mandoline.
Heat oil in a heavy frying pan on medium heat for 1 minute. Add onions and saute for 5 minutes, or until golden. Add turmeric, salt, and cayenne; stir well and cook for 1 minute.
Add potatoes and water, and bring to a light boil. Gently stir the potatoes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for about 10 minutes. If the potatoes stick or begin to burn, add another 2 T water. Gently stir the potatoes again. Cover and cook another 4 minutes, or until potatoes are almost done, but not too soft. Add the spinach, cover, and cook for 1 minute longer.
cookbooks, cooking, other blogs, recipes
6 Comments »
Posted by Anita on 05.04.07 7:07 AM
When we visit Seattle, we always head straight from the airport to the bar at the Zig Zag Cafe. Our drinking patterns are possibly the worst-kept secret in the modern world, and so try as we might to keep first-Seattle-nights to ourselves, our friends often have other plans for us.
And so it came to pass that last Friday, while you all were sipping Cosmimosas with Sean, we were sampling a number (and a rather large number, I must confess) of flawless Murray Stenson cocktails with a rolling roster of the Seattle crew. We bumped into Wendy and Dayne on our way into the bar, and soon their friend Della and her fiance found two stools at the bar. Then, just as Wendy and Dayne headed home for the night, none other than Rocky showed up, followed closely by Jason. As you might expect with a group this cocktail-obsessed, we ended up sampling a serious portion of the drinks on the seasonal menu, plus a number of specials that Murray concocted, and a few old standbys.
We’ll get to all of the drinks in due time, I assure you, but — in case it’s escaped your notice on dozens of other blogs today — Saturday is Cinco de Mayo, so I couldn’t resist sharing a tequila cocktail. The Prado, which graces the current drinks list at the Zig Zag, shares many traits with that most famous of all Mexican cocktails, but the maraschino lends a Continental flair.
Prado
1-1/2 oz. tequila
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 egg white
1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur
Shake with ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
The Prado is our first entry into this month’s Mixology Monday. (Cameron’s planning to post another, closer to the actual day.) Over at My Bar, Your Bar, our host Matt is gathering tequila-based cocktails from far and wide. Be sure to head over to his place on the 15th, where he’ll be posting a roundup of all the entries.
Drink of the Week, drinks, Mixology Monday, recipes
8 Comments »
Posted by a Special Guest on 04.27.07 7:04 AM
Editor’s note: We’re off to Seattle, so our pal Sean has agreed to man the bar in our absence. He illustrates the maxim that you can’t judge a book by its cover, or a tasty cocktail by its (dreadful) name. And, look! — it even features a locally made vodka. Hmm… Drink Local Challenge, anyone?
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title.
— Juliet, “Romeo and Juliet”
Romantic notions aside, I’m afraid there’s more to a name than fair Juliet would have you believe. Especially when we’re talking about cocktails.
Case in point: Amy and I recently attended an event at McCormick & Kuleto’s designed to showcase their program of classic American cocktails. In a function room with sweeping views over the Bay and Fisherman’s Wharf, a pair of bartenders talked about the place of the cocktail in American history extending back some 300 years; for example, they spoke of the Mint Julep’s origins in Virginia as opposed to Kentucky, and how a classic cocktail should have four elements: Liquor, water, sour and sweet. To complement all this boozy banter, they were of course shaking, stirring and pouring up cockatils — eight in all. But why, then, when talking about classic American cocktails, did they choose to kick the evening off with what they called a Raspberry Cosmimosa?
If I saw this drink on a menu, it would be absolutely the first thing I would not order. The name alone sends up a series of red flags, starting with the portmanteau portion of the moniker: Cosmimosa = Cosmopolitan + Mimosa. You’ll never find me ordering a Cosmopolitan in part because I think of them as grown-up Kool-Aid but mostly because I have yet to have one in a bar that didn’t royally suck. Mimosas are somewhat less offensive … except of course for that whole orange thing. To top matters off, the dangling “Raspberry” at the beginning smacks of some kind of superimposed flavoring, an unwelcome artifice in what was already becoming an overcomplicated concept.
But here’s the thing: It was good. It was balanced, bright, refreshing, and all-around tasty. It certainly had the four major elements: Vodka and champagne made up the alcoholic components; lime juice gave it tartness; orange and simple syrup pumped up the sweetness; and the shaking over ice gave it just enough dilution to open up the flavors.
They were generous enough to share the recipe, and I can attest it’s as good in the home as it was in the restaurant. In fact, this makes a wonderful party drink, as you can make the body of it in bulk, shake it up in batches and just float the champagne on a per-serving basis.
So what’s in a name? Plenty. But if, like Juliet, you are willing to look past that barrier, you may find much to love on the other side.
Raspberry Cosmimosa
2 fresh orange wedges
1 1/2 oz. raspberry-infused vodka
(the original recipe called for Stoli Raspberri, but I used Hangar One)
3/4 oz. simple syrup
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. cranberry juice
1 oz. Champagne or, if you prefer, prosecco
In a cocktail shaker, add the orange wedges and crush with a muddler. Add the remaining ingredients except champagne. Fill with ice. Shake vigorously for 5 seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and top with champagne. Garnish with a twist of orange peel and a raspberry.
To make in bulk, change all measurements from ounces to cups, and mix everything but the bubbly in a pitcher. Follow the same instructions, shaking in batches. Serves 8.
Drink of the Week, drinks, locavore, recipes
1 Comment »
Posted by Cameron on 04.20.07 7:05 AM
![cabaret [c] AEC 2007 ** all rights reserved](/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/cabaretc2007aecallrightsreserved.jpg)
“What a party.”
I figured that we were in for a good time when we hosted Mixology Monday: how can you go wrong with champagne and fun-loving crew of cocktailian bloggers? But there’s no way that I could have prepared for this bash.
The place was the kind of mess that only a spectacular party leaves behind. Bottles of champagne stacked three deep on the kitchen counter. The compost bin overflowed with squeezed fruit and zested lemons and limes.
I shambled through the house, stumbling across glassware, napkins, and hazy flashes from the night before. I remembered a woman musing on the best cocktail for an Aquarian. An intricate lesson in granita manufacture. A heated debate over the qualities of rye. A dessicated pile of yellow strips reminds me of the impromptu peel-carving contest.
“Oh hell. It’s Thursday. ” Anita wandered into the kitchen. “That party lasted all week. I don’t know what I’m going to tell the office. And what are we going to post for Drink of the Week?”
“There has to be something here we can use,” I said, pawing through the regiment of half-empty liquor bottles standing guard on the counter: bourbon, brandy, gin, vanilla Cognac, homemade infusions, syrups. “What about this?” I waggled the bottle of Benedictine that we’d purchased to make the Pegu Club version of the Prince of Wales.
“Hang on.” Anita dove into the Web and came up with a recipe: gin, vermouth, Benedictine, and bitters. We mixed it up and clinked glasses. “L’Chaim,” I said, “Funny thing, isn’t it?”
A smile touched her lips. “Yes,” she said. “It’s a Cabaret.”
Cabaret
1 oz. gin
3/4 oz. dry vermouth
1/4 oz. Benedictine
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Stir with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry.
Drink of the Week, entertaining, recipes
5 Comments »
