Month: May 2009

The Daiquiri

Sips

Why is the rum always gone?!?!

I did have that thought tonight as I realized I was almost out of white rum. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself…

The little town I grew up in (Ponchatoula) may now be an antiques mecca but when I was small it was mostly known for it’s strawberries. And every April they would have (and still do) a Strawberry Festival that beats the pants off any of the community festivals they do around here. (No offense intended to my adopted home, but what do you expect from a place that’s an hour from New Orleans and in a state where it’s said they have a parade every time a pig’s born–they just know what they’re doing!)

Of course, the house drink at such a time (or anytime, for that matter) was a strawberry daiquiri, a smoothie-like concoction spiked with a good dose of rum. Granted, mine was the virgin variety, but this is what I think of when I hear daiquiri. Did you know that in Louisiana they have drive-through daiquiri parlours? It’s true! The leave the lid unpunctured so they can legally sell them to drivers, then you’re on the honor system til you get home (or to work, my cousin would routinely go on daiquiri runs for the doctor’s office she worked for).

So I was surprised to learn that the daiquiri did not start out as a spiked smoothie, but a shaken lime-rum concoction. Even though I learned this tidbit a couple years agon, I had never tried the original–until tonight.

Daiquiri

3 oz white rum
1 oz lime juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
crushed ice
lime wedge for garnish

Combine rum, lime juice and simple syrup in a shaker with ice, shake til a wee bit frothy and then strain into a glass 3/4 full of more crushed ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.

from Good Spirits, AJ Rathbun

Now, be prepared, folks, this is one TART drink. But after the bracing nature of the first sip, the rest goes down nice and easy.

Returning to the beginning of this post, I found out that I’d somehoe managed to nearly run out of white rum. How that happened I’ll never guess (especially since I’ve been drinking the spiced or coconut varieties of late), but I had just enough for the one drink. Wanting to make Todd one, as well, I figured I’d use the Appleton Special Jaimaican Rum from the cabinet (it’s a golden rum, for the record) for the second drink and he could have his pick.

Oh. Oh no. I’ve never had a truly BAD cocktail but this one was in contention. The golden rum just wasn’t the right spirit and it totally overpowered the lime juice. Just wrong, wrong, wrong. Stick to the white rum, folks, TRUST ME! Not wanting to waste the booze, though, I topped it off with 3 oz of pineapple juice and it actually was drinkable at that point. I don’t know what it was, but at least it didn’t make me shudder.

Have a good weekend, gang, and see you in 2 weeks when our blog features return to their normally sceduled content. Until then, safe sipping!

Grill Mastery

Nibbles

Ah, yes, weather permitting (and even sometimes not), thousands (millions?) of grills across the country will be fired up to char something with family and friends.

My first tip for the grilling-minded is for barbecue chicken and it comes from Mom. She takes leg quarters and marinates them in Italian dressing (straight from the bottle into a large baggie and if you can let it sit overnight in the fridge, even better), to start, and then pre-cooks them a bit in the microwave. Now, don’t shriek, it’s actually an excellent idea since it’s SO tough to get the chicken to cook evenly on the grill without one part getting over cooked or it taking forty forevers. So you par-cook the legs in the microwave and THEN put them on the grill to finish cooking and get that lovely caramelized finish and a good brush with the barbecue sauce of choice.

Did you know that chicken should be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees? Now you do. Get out those meat thermometers and make sure the fleshiest bit is up to temperature before serving yourself or your guests. Pork should also always be cooked fully (no pink!) to reduce the risk of trichinosis. Beef and lamb can be cooked anywhere from 140 (rare) to 170 (well done) without too much worry (though why you’d want well-done lamb is beyond me!).

Most recipes suggest throwing out the marinade once it’s been used but you can actually use it for a sauce IF you bring it to a boil and keep it boiling for several minutes (5 is a good number) to “cook” any of the raw meat juices that are in there.

Finally, a true tale of grilling no matter what. It was my high school graduation party and the house was pretty full of guests. The plan had been to grill but the weather was atrocious: rainy and grey. But, the show must go on so Mom changed into her swimsuit and shorts and went outside with an umbrella to tend the grill as needed. Of course, if you’ve got the grill lid in one hand and tongs in the other, how are you going to hold the umbrella? In your cleavage, of course.

So don’t let a little water dampen your party this Memorial Day weekend.

Coffee Liqueur

Sips

Mmmmm, coffee goodness condensed into a rich liqueur, what could be better?

I’m a devotee of the coffee drinks (lattes and the like) but not so much an actual coffee drinker, so Kahlua and others of it’s ilk are right up my alley. One little hiccup: I’m not supposed to have any caffeine. Granted, it’s tough to avoid ALL caffeine and it’s not like I’m allergic, but I try to keep as much as possible out of my system. Which leads one (me) to ask, how much caffeine is in coffee liqueur?

Apparently I’m not the only one to wonder but the information is just not out there for public consumption. Thankfully, Ted Carnahan not only asked the question, but asked it of the source and got an answer:

Kahlua actually has very low levels of caffeine, (approximately 4.85 mg in each 1.5 oz drink).

Which, compared to a cup of coffee that has 100mg or more caffeine, means that there’s virtually none in a shot and therefore safe for us decaf drinkers and anyone who wants a nightcap in their nightcap without the potential insomnia.

Now, what to DO with the liqueur… that’s the real question. I was going to post the recipe for Mudslide (probably my favorite coffee liqueur drink) as compiled by AJ Rathbun in his book,Good Spirits, but then I read the note. The note suggested that maybe using a chocolate vodka would be a nice touch. Me? Add chocolate to a cocktail? How could I resist?

I didn’t have chocolate vodka but I did have Godiva liqueur on the shelf so I figured a 3:1 vodka to Godiva would probably yield the same results (if not better). Plus, I happened to pick up some vanilla vodka during my last supply run so I thought I’d give that a whirl while I was at it. The result? Mmmmmmm. It was like drinking a rich, mocha milkshake (I actually got out the blender for this one).

CHF Mocha Mudslide

1 cup ice
1 oz coffee liqueur
1 oz Irish cream liqueur
3/4 oz Vanilla vodka
1/4 oz chocolate liqueur

Blend all ingredients together until smooth.

Enjoy the holiday weekend, folks! Have fun and be safe!

Nice Ice!

Nibbles

As the weather heats up, it’s only natural to be thinking about ways of keeping cool. Maybe that’s why ice seems to be a very popular topic (because there’s no such thing as coincidence!).

I loved shaped ice cubes. They’re fun. I started with a set of flexible square cube molds just for something a little different and then, on my first trip to IKEA, found some great cube trays in the shape of wine bottles (though I’ve never actually used them yet). But the folks at Fred Flare are taking ice cube novelty to new heights! Amuse your guests, or just yourself, with frozen smiles, a fossiliced pair, ice invaders, or–my personal favorite–the gin & titonic ice cube trays.

Novelty aside, ice can be very serious business. Both the current Food Network Magazine and Imbibe have ice on the brain. The former has this to say about choosing the ice for cocktails:

No ice for: precisely mixed cocktails, like martinis and Manhattans.
Crushed ice for: concentrated drinks that need some watering down, like mint juleps or swizzles.
Small cubes for: light, refreshing drinks, like gin and tonics and mojitos.
Large cubes for: strong, boozy drinks, like Negronis and straight-up liquor.

–Food Network Magazine, June/July 2009, p.139

And speaking of the mint julep, Imbibe has a great article about Chirst McMillian of Bar UnCommon in New Orleans, Louisiana, and their website features a Q&A with the same about the classic Mint Julep.

Imbibe: What about the actual practicalities of your idea of the perfect Mint Julep? For instance: crushed ice or cracked ice?
CM: I hand-crush my ice. I have a Lewis bag and a large mallet. While I have access to a crushed-ice machine at work, if I had to leave the bar every time I needed to go get crushed ice, it would be a disruption to service, and if I kept crushed ice in the well, it would slush up and become wet. And the coldness and dryness of the ice at the inception of the drink is really one of the key elements of its success. Like people say with everything else, “fresh is better.” From the moment you crush it and take it out of its cold environment, ice is going to start to dilute and melt down. I don’t know if you’d call it cracked or crushed. I’d call it crushed. I pound the shit out of it with that mallet.

–Q & A WITH CHRIS MCMILLIAN, Imbibe Online

Butterscotch Schnapps

Sips

Another (brief) walk down memory lane…

At a Victory Weekend in Daytona Beach, November 1994, one of the girls from Miami spent the entire first evening downing a bottle of Buttershots.

Now, it doesn’t seem like butter-flavored (well, technically butterschotch) liqueur would taste very good or be a good idea in general but I have to say, the more I experiment with shots and cocktails that employ it, the more I’m convinced that it is an idea most excellent, indeed. (And, as one of my chef-instructors said: fat makes things taste good! There may not be any fat in butterscotch schnapps, I’m not sure, but the idea is the same.)

At a party a few years back we were making Buttery Nipples (Irish Cream and Butterscotch Schnapps) when someone (not me, I’m afraid, but the details of who, exactly, are a little hazy) decided to add some Godiva liqueur that I’d also brought. Thus was born the Candy Bar “Shot.” Since then I’ve attempted to streamline the ratios and this is what we’ve come up with:

CHF Candy Bar Shot

2 parts Chocolate Liqueur
1 part Butterscotch Schnapps
1 part Irish Cream Liqueur

Combine in the glass of your choice, depending on your thirst. Pouring the Irish Cream over the back of a spoon (layering) is a nice touch but totally impractical if you’re in a hurry for some yum.

Now, more recently Todd and I were out at a local tapas bar and, after each ordering a “safe” cocktail from their martini menu, became intrigued by one of the offerings: the Oatmeal Cookie Martini. Unable to restrain my curiosity the entire evening, I eventually asked our bar mistress if we could try it as a shot. Oh. My. God. I didn’t think it was possible that a mixed drink could taste like a cookie but this did. In fact, it was like eating an oatmeal cookie with an ice-cold milk chaser. So good.

Of course we had to experiment. What follows is our best efforts to date (though I’ve dropped the martini title as there’s no vodka or gin in the drink):

CHF Oatmeal Cookie

3 oz Irish Cream Liqueur
1.5 oz Butterscotch Schnapps
splash of Cinnamon Schnapps (we, and the bar, used Goldschlager)

Combine in a cocktail shaker over ice, preferably crushed, and shake til really cold. Strain into a chilled glass.

You want to be really light with the cinnamon because it can overpower the drink easily and ruin the illusion that you’re drinking a cookie.

Bottoms up!