For the Indian feast of Diwali, Manisha hosted our stitch 'n' bitch group for an awesome dinner. Nichole suggested I bring a tamarind cocktail to go with the Indian food. Good idea!
This cocktail is courtesy of Epicurious. It calls for tamarind concentrate, which you can find in any Asian market. Be sure to check the labels and get the kind that has only tamarind and water in it, not a bunch of salt and preservatives, too.
You start by making a "base" of
8 cups water,
1/2 cup tamarind concentrate,
2 tablespoons lime juice and
3/4 cup sugar.
Mix it all together and refrigerate. This mixture by itself is tasty over ice for a virgin cocktail. You make two cocktails at a time in a shaker. Over ice, pour half a cup of the cocktail base, add 2 teaspoons tamarind, 1 teaspoon lime juice and 4 tablespoons of vodka. Shake it up vigorously, then strain into martini glasses and use a lime wedge as garnish.
(The Firestarter vodka is Moldovan, in an amusing dispenser, courtesy of the Sergeant's collection.) These were fun and tasty cocktails, slightly astringent, slightly sweet. The vodka was smooth in them; I could have made them a little stronger.
The tendency of the tamarind to precipitate to the bottom of the glass was a little disappointing; next time I would serve these cocktails over ice with a swizzle stick instead of in a martini glass.
It's good to have a decent bar within stumbling distance of home that stays open late. The Sergeant and I occasionally meander over on a Thursday night (my Friday) for a drink. The staff from the nearby fancy restaurants hang out there, too.
When we come in, they don't yell "Kitt!" or "Sarge!" but they know our drinks. Mine used to be an old fashioned with extra cherries. Now it's a "Wisconsin old fashioned." With extra cherries.
This was how I saw the bartender make it in the Green Bay airport: whiskey, dash of cherry juice, dash of bitters, then fill the glass with 7-Up. No futzing with sugar from packets, which muddles poorly anyway.
Yeah, it looks kind of lurid under the neon, but it's tasty.
The one I can't blame for ordering bulbs. The bouquet is from our garden. The picture is from my cellphone.
Pomegranate mojito
1.5 oz. rum (I used Pampero Aniversario)
.75 oz pomegranate simple syrup (heat 1 cup pomegranate juice, stir in 1 cup sugar, cool, store in fridge)
Juice of half a lime
7-8 mint leaves
Fizzy water
In a tall glass, muddle the rum, lime and mint, add the simple syrup and fill the glass with ice, then add fizzy water and stir. Enjoy it after a long, hard day. Order some flower bulbs. Then go to bed.
We had some friends over to sample the Sergeant's Scotch collection, which is extensive but largely unopened. He gets a lot of liquor gifts through his work. We couldn't possibly drink it all ourselves.
Of the 18 bottles, six were sampled. The goal was not to try everything. We asked our guests to note down their opinions.
The Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban seemed to be the favorite: "Warm and mellow" "Yummy."
The oldest, a 25-year-old Gordon & McPhail Reserve, was deemed too strong and peaty, though with a little water it was good.
I liked the 10-year-old Speyburn, which was lighter than the others.
The 14-year-old Oban was also "harsh at first, then nice and sweet."
I made a big pot of green chili and there were plenty of snacks to keep the group from getting too tipsy. The lampshades remained on the lamps.
The Sergeant loves to reference the French 75 as the icon of a dissipated and bygone era – the drink that F. Scott Fitzgerald preferred in Paris, and probably Hemingway as well. It's named for the French 75mm artillery gun of WWI.
When Stir Cooking School offered the French 75 as a special for the Paris Nights cooking class, you know I had to have one.
Recipes vary, but the basic ingredients are, roughly:
2 oz. gin
1 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. lemon juice
champagne to fill the glass
(Note: if your glasses are smallish, you should halve these amounts.)
Shake the first three ingredients with ice, strain into a collins glass or champagne flute, then top with champagne or sparkling wine.
Garnish with a lemon wedge and, if you like, a cherry jelly bean (or was it cinnamon?). The bar was out of cherries, so this was bartender Tyler's intriguing substitute.
I'm definitely keeping this cocktail in mind for a group occasion, when I can justify opening a bottle of bubbly. It's mighty tasty.
P.S. I just made eight of these in smallish flutes, halving the amounts, and that used up most of a bottle of champagne and the juice of about 5 lemons. Also, the half-strength is still strong enough to kick!
What's a tropical vacation without a fancy drink or two? Or ten? Left to right, top to bottom: Red Stripe beer at Lyming, rum and Ting (a grapefruit soda) at Bromley; Guinness stout, fresh coconut at Reggae Beach; Planter's Punch at Jamaica Inn, Daquiri shot at Reggae Beach; Dirty Banana and Pina Colada at Jamaica Inn; Ginger Beer and Magnum Tonic at Ratty's Auto Repair and Lounge; Mojito at Miami International.
If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know I like mojitos. They're so refreshing and tasty, and I like to see how different places make them. They're also quite easy to make at home. You need:
1 to 2 oz. rum
1 oz. simple syrup (mint-infused is best)
Juice of half a lime
5-6 mint leaves
Fizzy water (club soda, Perrier, San Pellegrino, whatever)
Muddle (i.e. gently mash) the mint leaves in the first three ingredients, add ice, top with fizzy water and stir to mix.
Traditionally, white rum is used, but dark rum is quite tasty, too. What really makes this drink, for me, is the minty simple syrup. Boil a cup of water, stir in a cup of sugar and then add several springs of mint and let the whole thing cool. Strain out the mint and store in the fridge.
When your mint is buried under winter snow, go to the Asian grocery and get a big bunch for $1.50. Put the stems in a cup of water in the fridge and a plastic bag over the top and it will last a while.
We recently got a package from Japan that I had to pick up at the post office. The pups went along for the ride. What could it possibly be? A little something for the bar! You may recall the Japanese ice ball maker we encountered in our cocktails class. We liked the concept, but not the price: $1,000 to make ice? How about $7, thanks to eBay?
The ice ball mold isn't nearly as cool, but it won't break the bank, and we can have fun playing with it.
It's easy enough to use: Fill the deep bottom tray with water, put the lid on and freeze.
After six hours or so, you have three ice balls just the right size to enjoy with your single malt or Old Fashioned. Because you've got the maximum volume of ice with the least amount of surface area, you get maximum cooling with minimal dilution.
Now, I did find that the mold tends to separate a bit as the ice expands, so it helps to clamp the sides. And you get the best-looking ice ball that doesn't split if you just let the mold thaw a little on the counter before removing the cover, rather than running warm water over it or trying to jimmy it open.
Looks almost as good as one from a copper mold, with enough money left over to buy a bottle of whiskey or twenty. I understand that distilled water will yield a clearer ice, so maybe I'll splurge on a jug of that, too!
One of the drinks we learned to make in our Cocktails 101 class was the Old Fashioned. Rittenhouse Rye was the suggested spirit, but you can use any whiskey you like the taste of. Jack Daniels works fine. Southern Comfort has also been suggested.
Here's what you need:
2 oz. whiskey
1/2 oz. simple syrup (heat a cup of water, add a cup of sugar, stir to dissolve, store in the fridge.)
Three dashes of Angostura Bitters
Orange peel (organic is best, for obvious reasons)
In a tall glass full of ice, add the whiskey and simple syrup:
Then carefully add three dashes of bitters and stir.
I say carefully because the bitters bottle has a little hole in the top to regulate the flow of liquid. When you tip a new bottle, it tends to spray the bitters across the counter instead of into the glass. Bright orange bitters that will stain your party frock or your housecoat.
As for stirring, you don't need to agitate the ice much, just spin the whole mass around in the glass a few times. This will cool down and blend the liquid. Then strain it into an Old Fashioned glass with fresh ice. Since you've already chilled your alcohol, the ice will be slower to melt and your drink will not get diluted as fast. Now you're almost done! Just that last special touch:
Slice off a strip of orange zest and give it a snap over your drink to release the oils, then drop it in.
Et voilà ! A drink that could cost you $10 in a fancy bar (yes, I've paid that much) for mere pennies. Not that I plan to stop drinking in fancy bars, but it's nice to have the option of staying in to enjoy a fine cocktail (and no one has to be the designated driver). Great for parties, too!
A few weeks back, a friend suggested we check out the classes at Stir Cooking School. He'd enjoyed a sauces class there. In particular, he said, "the bar/classroom setup is brilliant. How civilized to be able to grab another glass of a Spanish white midway through the course."
While the food classes intrigued me, the Cocktails 101 class looked like something the Sergeant could enjoy, too. We have a lot of booze at home but not a strong grasp of what to do with it beyond, say, scotch on the rocks or gin and tonic.
The class was taught by Mike Henderson, currently bartender at Lou's Food Bar, a new Frank Bonanno place. Mike is formerly of Colt & Gray, TAG, Beatrice and Woodsley and more, and well-regarded (as well as closely watched by Westword).
He began with an overview of bar tools, then moved on to the subject of ice. You can shake a drink with ice or stir it, depending on the drink. We tried a little gin chilled both ways and found it's true: your martini will be smoother if it's stirred, not shaken.
When you're stirring a drink, you don't need to agitate the ice, just spin it around in the glass with a spoon. Then you strain the drink into a chilled glass.
We all practiced our stirring technique with glasses of water.
Mike went over the many varieties of liquor you can put in cocktails and suggested some of his favorites. We are already set with the basic spirits, but it was good to have some idea of what to look for in vermouth, liqueurs and bitters.
The four drinks we made – Martini, Sidecar, Old Fashioned and Mojito – encompassed the main categories and styles of drinks. The Old Fashioned, shown here, was made with rye, simple syrup and bitters. And it was darn tasty, with a little snap of orange peel.
The mojito was different from my usual; it was a cucumber ginger mojito.
The Sergeant and I started with that one when we moved to the work stations (don't you wish all work stations looked like this?). You muddle cucumber, mint, lime and ginger liqueur, then add rum and ice, shake, pour, top with soda and garnish. Voilà !
I would suggest, though, that you taste the cuke before you use it. Some of them have a very bitter skin, so you may need to peel it.
We also got to try out the most awesome ice "cube" maker ever.
You start out with a big cube of ice (freeze a pan of water and cut it up, or use a silicone mold). You end up with a perfect sphere, with zero effort and no power tools.
How? Through the magic of thermal conductivity. Copper is so conducive that it can suck the cold right out of ice. With gravity helping, a heavy copper mold turns a cube into a sphere in seconds flat.
A big sphere of ice is ideal for chilling your expensive scotch, because you get the maximum surface area with minimal dilution. This novelty item, a Japanese invention, isn't cheap. The Macallan scotch folks got a bunch to use for promotion (very effective, I'd say), but if you want to buy your own, it'll cost you about $1,000. Here's a video I took of it in action:
Only silver and gold have higher conductivity, so there's no real cheap way to make your own device. Still, I covet! Stir has lots of interesting food classes: "All About Fish," "Not Your Everyday Chicken," "Pies and Tarts," "Moroccan Cooking," to list a few. And other drinks classes: "Martinis and More," "Perfect Valentine's Cocktails," "Cocktails from Your Fridge," etc.
The classes are not limited to weeknights (always a plus for us swing-shifters) and you'll get a lunch if you're studying drinks (really good pizza, in our case).
As our friend said, the layout is quite civilized, with the bar in front and a comfortable kitchen classroom behind a glass wall.
So even if you're not taking a class, you can stop in and enjoy a well-made drink and watch the fun.
Or you can swing by our place, where the Sergeant will be happy to serve you up an awesome Old Fashioned, a tasty Tequila Daisy or a sublime Sidecar.
Stir Cooking School www.stirtolearn.com 3215 Zuni Street Denver, CO 80211 720-287-4823
For the Indian feast of Diwali, Manisha hosted our stitch 'n' bitch group for an awesome dinner. Nichole suggested I bring a tamarind cocktail to go with the Indian food. Good idea!
Be sure to check the labels and get the kind that has only tamarind and water in it, not a bunch of salt and preservatives, too.
You make two cocktails at a time in a shaker. Over ice, pour half a cup of the cocktail base, add 2 teaspoons tamarind, 1 teaspoon lime juice and 4 tablespoons of vodka. Shake it up vigorously, then strain into martini glasses and use a lime wedge as garnish.
These were fun and tasty cocktails, slightly astringent, slightly sweet. The vodka was smooth in them; I could have made them a little stronger.
