Amateur Cocktail Guy

Last night’s Collins brought on tonight’s drink - a gimlet made with Rose Syrup in place of sweetened Lime Juice. It seemed fairly straight forward but the rose syrup proved to be a little too sweet on it’s own. Two dash of Angostura bitters helped nicely and brought this one in as a bit of a hybrid between a Pink Gin and a Gimlet.

Rose Gimlet

• 2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz Rose syrup
• 2-3 dashes of Angostura bitters

Stir in ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Lots of herbal goodness with a tinge of sweetness.

We’ve had several experiments going on the last week or so. Unfortunately, no big hits with any of them. Got around to trying out the barbecue pit. It worked fairly well, but I don’t think I let the fire go long enough to build the proper amount of coals to get the cooking done. It was fun sitting out by the fire early last Saturday morning while it was still a little cold outside. The area around the pit needs some work to make it more comfortable. Once that’s done, we’ll try again but shoot for three or more hours of fire to get a good bed of coals.

One other idea came up while walking the dogs. Honeysuckle is in bloom now. The flower aroma is strong when you go by a large patch of it - seemed like a natural to put into a cocktail. After the dogs finished their loop, I went back around with a jar and filled it with blossoms. That measured 3.5 gms of material. Covered that with vodka and let it steep overnight. It must have been too long. The Amateur Cocktail Spouse got some stemmy flavors in a cocktail I made with it the following day. I still have most of the bottle left. I added a little sugar to part of it. We’ll let it sit for a while and see how it evolves.

Pre-made cocktails components get a bad rep. A really good cocktail starts with really good ingredients. There are a lot of crappy pre-made things out there, but there are also a lot of well made products waiting to be discovered. It’s all relative. Everything can’t be made from scratch. And so, to a degree you have to allow for a little slack. The degree you allow probably defines your approach to other things as well. Last year’s tarragon soda was a nice find. I guess to some people it’s a kin to using Collins mix, but it was unusual for this cocktail drinker (and good).

The first attempt at Honeysuckle vodka didn’t turn out so well. The current rage seems to be St. Germain Elderflower liqueur. It’s a new product concocted by an American. It has shown up in our local ABC stores, but at $30 a bottle it’s a bit of a luxury. It is a modern riff on elderflower syrup. A little searching will turn up several commercial varieties of the syrup, the most promising of which is here. You can also make you own.

There are others. I turned up an artisanal Rose syrup made in Lebanon. This came from Kalustyan’s in New York, a great source for the unusual or odd ethnic spice or cooking ingredient. Digging deeper, turn up quince lemon syrup and Sekanjebin (?) syrup. These last two will have to wait, but with the rose syrup in hand, we made a standard Tom Collins, substituting the rose syrup for the simple syrup

Rose Collins

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz Rose Syrup
• 4 or so oz of sparkling water

Add first three ingredient to a Collins glass with ice, stir, add sparkling water and sir gently again. Enjoy on the back porch. Repeat.

Refreshing and enjoyable. One thing about the Lavender infusions from last year - Lavender gets used so much in toiletries, you could make yourself think you were drinking hand cream when your drink smells like lavender. The rose scent in today’s drink takes me back to the cheap hotel soap we encountered in China. The herbal tinge of the gin helps mitigate it a bit. I need to try it out one some friends to get an unbiased view.

I have several concoctions going on both real and in my head. A second batch of Pimento Dram, the Ginger infused rum, some creative math to recreate an old peach pit flavored liqueur - all in various stages of development. To keep us satisfied while those perk along, I cracked open a wonderful bottle of wine again. I had been searching for this one since I read a review for it back in July 2007: Château Larose-Trintaudon 2004. A French Bordeaux from the Haut-Médoc.

We’re partial to Bordeaux around here because it has so many wines to offer. There’s the standard reds, sometimes Cabernet sauvignon based, sometimes Merlot, there are dry whites for summer and sweet desert whites that can age forever. A few rosés even come out of the region, although not to the quality of the southern French rosés we’re drinking now.

Back to the wine at hand. It was $18.50 at the Harris Teeter in south Asheville, but I’ll bet could be had for less. It’s a wine to keep in mind over the next year or two and be on the look out for. It is distributed widely and seems to be a favorite of the people who buy for grocery stores. For the longest time all I ever saw was the 2003 version of this wine. Last week though, I stumbled onto a bottle the vintage I wanted to try.

Bordeaux (good Bordeaux) is enjoyable because it has black fruit flavors with acidity that makes the wine crisp and cleansing. The better ones also smell and taste of more than one thing - some fruit, but also some herbal notes, some oak, some tobacco. They’re interesting. This one has all that, plus soft tannins that make it enjoyable now without the astringency some young Bordeaux wines can have. (note: the picture is a bottle of the 02, not the 04 I’m discussing)

This is one to keep an eye out for over the next year or so-

One big hit from last summer was the Ginger Daiquiri. A really enjoyable citrus-rum-ginger chilled masterpiece. The secret ingredient was homemade ginger syrup detailed here. It was made for the daiquiri but worked equally well to make up homemade ginger ale or a cola-like drink when mixed with Aveena Amaro. Even with all these uses, I never finished a batch quick enough to feel comfortable with the last bit in the bottle. I dumped out about as much as I consumed. That got me thinking: The cocktail is just a vehicle for getting alcohol in the system by way of the mouth. Various flavor ingredients work to make the mouth time pleasurable. Does it really matter if the flavor compounds originate within a syrup or a liquor base? Not to the mouth, at least not unless one of the flavors is off because the base has gone bad. Why not just put the flavor compounds into the liquor so they keep longer thereby lowering overall cost and spreading out enjoyment? Done:

Ginger Infused Rum

• 8 oz of peeled and chopped fresh ginger
• 1/2 oz crystallized ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp crushed Cardamon pods
• 12 peppercorns
• 75 cl of white rum

Combine ingredients and allow to steep for ____ weeks.

I’ll get back to you on how long to let it soak, but I’m thinking at least until school is out. I’ll probably add some lime zest this weekend when I have time to process a few of the little guys.

Note: the crystallized ginger was added after I read that the people who make Domaine de Canton liqueur use both root and crystal ginger in their mix.

Note 2: I did add the zest of one lime yesterday (May 17)

Those of you following this blog know that we were out of our house for just over a year. We moved back in toward the end of October. I made a most remarkable discovery at the house we were renting shortly before we moved out - a timber sized Chestnut tree was growing in the back yard. Now the plight of the American Chestnut is a sad one. It went from the dominant tree species in the eastern US to a memory over the course of the first half of the last century. A fungal blight imported from the Far East laid waste to millions of trees. There are programs attempting to breed blight resistant trees, but they are works in progress. Hybrids of Chinese and American species exist, and that appeared to be what we had. Still, the sight of chestnut burrs and nuts on the ground under my feet was astonding. I gathered all the nuts I could and have tried to get them to germinate over the pat several months. Of the four dozen or so I started with, two are starting to put out a shoot. I’m still hopeful about the others, but they are terribly prone to mildew due to the high carbohydrate content of the nut kernel. Two is better then none, and I nurse them daily.

All of that is given as a prelude to say that I have started paying closer attention to my natural surroundings. After finding the chestnut tree, I found three apple trees growing in my part of town and one pear tree that must be over 100 feet tall. I also finally took notice of a large grove of black walnut trees on the main east-west road through our area. There grow like weeds on the roadside and were covered with green nuts last fall. I picked up several grocery bags worth and set about harvesting the meat from inside. This is no small task because the husk stains your hands and the shells are like concrete. I spent half a day shelling to get about 1/3 of a cup of meat. Not a productive way to spend my time. A little searching turned up a company in Missouri that processes black walnuts and sells the nuts commercially. Sure enough, the Ingles down the street had one pound bags for about $12. Not as fresh as home picked, but a quick analysis of my time vs. the cost lead me to pick up a bag.

Once I had the bag, I needed to figure out what to do with it all. I contemplated a walnut cake where the nuts are ground into a powder (like marzapan does with almonds) and then mixed with chocolate and others ingredients. An easier use is to simply stir them into some brownie mix. You get a bourbon-like flavor that is unusual but nice. Hey wait a minute, did I say bourbon? Yep, I decided to infuse. Half the walnuts got lightly toasted in the oven (250 degrees I think) then added back to the rest. These went into a glass jar that was then filled with 100 proof vodka. That was in October. I stuck it into the cellar and kind of forgot about it.

I recently went to work on an allspice-rum extraction. That got me thinking back to the walnuts. The jar was brought out of hibernation, and strained. I strained the nuts through a coffee filter held in a new, simple coffee maker I recently picked up. Worked like a charm. The filter clogged but it didn’t seem to clog as easily as my old method.

Starting with 750 ml of vodka, I ended up with about 500 ml of black walnut extract. It was pretty harsh stuff. The aroma really captured the walnuts but there was a burn to the palate. It needed some sweetener. I consider using a sugar syrup then remembered some Shag Bark Hickory syrup I had picked up last month. It is made like maple syrup but from hickory tree sap. The flavor is similar, but a little sweeter. Progressive additions lead to a final combination of 70 ml hickory syrup to 500 ml Black Walnut vodka. I’ll let it sit and “marry” for a few weeks before trying it again. It’s a bit too strongly flavored to drink straight, but I’m thinking it will work as a flavoring agent in a rye or bourbon cocktail.

Extra notes: It took about two weeks for the staining to wear off of my fingers. For a couple of days there, it looked like I had gangrene. Better to wear gloves next time. Also, as I was typing this up, I saw that Hammonds (the Black Walnut processor) has a black walnut extract available now. One or two drops of that in a drink might very well take the place of this concoction.

Cocktails are fun, but you can’t live on them alone. There’s also wine - the stuff we drink in between the pre-dinner cocktail and the digestif. Seriously, most of the alcohol floating around this household is a grape derived product. Two notable ones crossed the palate last week. Both were under $10. Worth seeking out: 2006 Cave de Saumur “La Réserve des Vignerons” blanc. This is the basic bottling from a cooperative located in Saumur along the Loire river in central France. Made from Chenin blanc it was crisp, bone dry, with light fruit flavors that held up just fine into the second night after opening (bottle recorked and stuck in the fridge). Saumur is one of Asheville’s sister cities, so you can bring that up. Greenlife has it, French section, bottom shelf, to the left. $8.99. This link should take you to a translated version of the web site: click here

The French wine cooperatives began at the start of the last century. They were formed by groups of growers who banded together to preserve and hopefully improve the value of their crops. They quickly began sharing equipment to make wine, therby further increasing the value of their farm production. Unfortunately many were driven by volume - the more grapes grown, the more wine made, the more wine sold - and quality suffered.  Now there are many cooperatives across France that have taken a step back to focus on improving the quality of their wines as the means of increasing value for their members. Good for us too. To the Caves de Samur, I would add the Société Cooperative de Castelmaure in Corbières. They have a really enjoyable red named Grande Cuvée that the Asheville Wine Market carries every year. Haven’t seen it yet this season, but they do have a lesser bottling (Clos des Vents) from the co-op that might be worth checking out.

Another treat for us this past week was the 2008 Domaine Houchart Rosé. This one is $10 at the Asheville Wine Market, $8.60 after we went a little overboard and got the case discount. It comes from Provence, the home of rosé. Another great one to drink chilled on a hot summer day.

Just an aside: I’ve noticed a lot of 2007 rosés on shelves around town. Rosé is (IMO) best when fresh. Use the vintage date as a kind of freshness dating and just buy last year’s wine. They begin hitting stores in late April. I never got into the Beaujolais thing, but I do keep an eye out for the arrival of south of France rosés each spring. The older ones may suffer from a dimunition in flavor, so they should be marked down to clear them out.

As summer approaces I’m obbsessed again with finding a way to enjoy Campari. Loyal readers will recall that Amateur Cocktail Gal enjoys a Campari and soda on the back porch whereas this author does not like. I enjoy a Negroni but that is pretty hard drinking for the leisurely pace of back yard lounge time. I’ve rededicated myslef to finding an ehjoyable Campari drink to enjoy with the spouse. I have had my ear to the ground over the winter and collected several recipes that we will try over the summer. I’m starting tonight with an attempt that approximates several drinks. No name for it yet because it isn’t quite settled.

• 1-1/2 oz Gin
• 1/2 oz Campari
• 1-1/2 oz blood orange juice

Shake with ice and strain. Garnish with an orange zest, or flame an orange peel on to the drink.

Beautiful color, and I think a great base on which a more complex drink could be built. This one isn’t quite interesting enough to stand on its own. It needs something a little sweet and a little herbal. One half ounce of sweet vermouth, Benedictine or Chartreuse may be the key. The South Beach did it with the addition of some Amaretto. A dash of acidity from some lime juice would also help. Updates to follow -

Whew! Been on break for a couple of months, but not slacking off. We reverted back to the first love - wine - the the last of the cold months this past season.  Many bottles consumed and many discoveries (good and bad) made. Aside from that, there’s a lot going on to occupy us. Scouts for the little ones, irritating issues with the new house for the big ones, trying to get more outdoor activities going, work, blah, blah, blah.

The past few weeks have been occupied digging a deep hole in the back yard to try out and old cooking method. Seemed like something fun to play with over the summer. It is quite a chore, but at this stage in my life I think of it as exercise and actually enjoyed working up the sweat. Keeping the proper pace is key. No back issues and much dirt moved over three sessions. If the hole doesn’t flood during the current downpour, we’re going to rediscover true pit barbecuing next weekend. The pit is sized to accommodate a small pig / goat/ lamb carcass. We’ll get some practice during the summer with butts, shoulders and other hunks of meat, then see if we’re up to the whole hog by the fall.

This past weekend was a wet one. Not the best timing as we had a Cub Scout family camping trip. We had intermittent rain, but it didn’t spoil a hike up Hemphill Bald in Catalochee with a return through the edge of the Smokey Mountain Park. Really beautiful and a ringing endorsement for the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy who helped the land owners set aside the area. Talk about wild pigs and moonshining came up during the  hike. Both are endemic in the area.  Seemed like one more subtle hint to get back to the blog. Cocktail recipes have been building up in the To Do Box. Time to shake one up.

Eric Felten had what looked like a good one in last week’s Wall Street Journal. A resposado tequila based citrus drink with pepper. I had most of a bottle of the tequila left from Christmas. Another sign that I needed to get busy with the shaker. Ingredients were gathered and the drink assembled tonight.

Pink Panther
from Aisha Sharpe

1-1/2 oz resposado tequila
3/4 oz fresh ruby red grapefruit juice
1/4 oz fresh lime juice
1/4 oz agave syrup
2 dozen pink peppercorns

Muddle half the peppercorns in a shaker together with the lime juice. Add the other liquids, shake with ice, and strain into a stemmed cocktail glass. Float the other pink peppercorns on the drink for garnish.

Definitely a keeper. Mine turned out a little less pink due to a slightly color-anemic grapefruit. I also cheated on the peppercorns and went with the black ones I had here at the house. There is an herbal earthiness to the drink that is pleasant and a bite on the finish from the crush pepper. I skipped the pepper garnish, it seemed like something you’d have to fish out of your mouth. Nice thing about being an amateur - nobody’s looking.

I like. I’m going to have another. Hate to waste the extra grapefruit juice, plus I need something to hold me while I watch the camping gear dry out. Cheers.

Back to the classics! I turned up some blood oranges while Cruising through Greenlife Grocery a couple of days ago. These hold a special spot in my heart. During a short stint in the Navy, they were the first fresh food we had after an extended time at sea. We were eating them (and stuffing them in our pockets) while we passed crates from the supply ship to storage areas below the deck. That was off the coast of Sicily - home of the best blood oranges.

Because of that memory, the Blood and Sand cocktail recipe stuck with me. I read about in Eric Felten’s column last year. It’s a drink from the cocktail golden age that on first glance seems like an odd combination. I had made some a while back with regular orange juice (fresh squeezed) and thought they were a little flabby. Blood orange juice has a little more acidity and makes the drink-

Blood and Sand from Eric Felten

• 1-1/2 oz Scotch
• 3/4 oz orange juice
• 3/4 oz Cherry Heering
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth

Shake and strain.

Lovely. You get the base liquor flavor up front, the fruit flavors in the middle and a lingering finish of vermouth.

I put a southern twist on it for my second round using Borboun in place of the Scotch. Not quite as good. Next test will be with some rye - cheers

Vermouth is something I never would have come across without the cocktail habit. Dry (French) Vermouth for Martinis, Sweet (Italian) Vermouth for Manhattans. I figured you needed some of each to have a well-stocked bar. Fortunately, they come in half bottles (less expensive, less to waste) so I picked some up last year. Never used either one of them. During a trip to Atlanta last year, I came across one liter bottles of dry and sweet vermouth at a Trader Joe’s. They were only $6 a bottle, about what I had paid for one third that much vermouth in the half bottles. It was an impulse buy - I didn’t need them, but the price was so just too good to pass up.

Well, they’ve been sitting around since I got them home. Every now and then I would try to figure out what to do with them. It finally dawn on me that the dry vermouth would work as a cooking wine. It has been pressed into service several times now. The most basic use is in a court bullion - a poaching liquid. It also works well in a white sauce for scallops. I used it most recently to poach a chicken and some rabbit pieces that were going into a Brunswick Stew. After boiling the meat for an hour or so, I strained the liquid, returned it to a pot on the stove to simmer until the volume was reduced by half. This made an aromatic stock that was the base for the addition of the stew components.

Court Bouillon from La Varenne Pratique

• 1 liter of water
• 250 ml dry white wine
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 small onion, sliced
• bouquet garni
• 6 peppercorns
• 1 tsp salt

Combine and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

The sweet vermouth was more of a challenge until Michael Bitten’s recent column gave a wonderful recipe for an ancient Italian steak marinade. His recipe includes red wine, cloves, ground cinnamon, orange zest and sugar. These are combined, simmered, cooled and then used to marinate a steak for several days (about 350 cc for two ribeyes). I tried it, and it was quite good. The steaks paired well with an Italian red wine. After giving it some thought, I’ve simplified it to this:

• 1 liter of sweet vermouth
• zest of one orange
• 18 cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks

Add spices to the bottle of vermouth, recap and set aside until needed.

This technique has several advantages - the wine is cheaper, and there are no pots to clean up from the marinade prep. Also, I’ve noticed when making ginger syrup that a cold soak infusion gives more delicate flavors. You’ll probably want to strain out the spices and zest after a few weeks, but from then on your vermouth is ready to go. Might want to store in a cool dark spot and downsize the bottle as you use it up to minimize the air in contact with the liquid.