N'awlins Night

One of my favorite places to grab lunch in South Bend is the Chicory Cafe, a little Cajun-inspired join on South Bend's restaurant row (Michigan Ave downtown). They have fantastic muffaletta and delicious beignets, but by far my favorite menu item is their fried shrimp po'boys. I've been waiting for the opportunity to try to make my own, and that opportunity presented itself last week when I went to visit my parents in Cincinnati. They were willing to bankroll my culinary experiment and I was more than happy to shop and cook dinner since I was there on "vacation."

I'm happy to report that the recipe we found was excellent. Say what you will about Emeril Lagasse and his "bam!" catchphrase, the man knows how to make cajun-style food! Emeril's recipe for his shrimp can be found in full here. The seasoning for the fried shrimp (which I will include in full below) was just spicy enough and the breading was perfect. Instead of using mayonnaise and hot sauce as condiments for the sandwiches, however, used another of Emeril's recipes to make from-scratch remoulade sauce (recipe here). Using the homemade remoulade made the po'boys ten times better, and we had plenty of sauce left over to use over the next few days for cocktail shrimp and other finger food.

Since I had some time on my hands, I decided to pair our meal with a true N'awlins style drink: the Hurricane. Originating in New Orleans at Pat O'Brien's bar, the Hurricane is a mix of fruit juices and two different types of rum (light/white rum and dark/black rum). My parents convinced me to use Malibu coconut rum instead of purchasing a new bottle of light rum, and I have to admit that this did affect the flavor somewhat (and not in a good way). The sweetness of the coconut rum made the drink, already quite sweet, a little too saccharine for my tastes, so I would not recommend making that substitution. The recipe also calls for passion fruit juice, which can be hard to find. My best suggestion would be to look at a local Mexican grocery store - they often have passion fruit and/or passion fruit juice from concentrate.

Okay, enough preface! Recipes are below!

From Scratch Remoulade Sauce

In a food processor, combine the following ingredients and process until well mixed:

1/4 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup vegetable oil (we used olive oil and didn't notice a difference)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/4 cup celery (we used closer to 1/2 cup, but we enjoy the celery spice)

2 tbsp chopped garlic

2 tbsp horseradish

3 tbsp Creole whole-grain mustard (I had to go to a specialty shop to find this one)

3 tbsp yellow mustard

3 tbsp ketchup

3 tbsp chopped parsley (fresh if at all possible - do not use dried parsley)

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/8 tsp black pepper

Make this sauce first and then refrigerate in a covered sauce bowl until you are ready to eat

Emeril's Essence Seasoning (used for shrimp and breading)

You could easily make this recipe with store-bought cajun seasoning, but since we are going for the "from scratch" theme this evening, I recommend you make your own!

Combine the following ingredients well:

2.5 parts paprika (my mother would disown me if I didn't encourage you to buy GOOD paprika instead of the cheap spice rack version. She suggests Hungarian paprika, such as Budapest's Best)

2 parts salt

2 parts garlic powder

1 part black pepper

1 part onion powder

1 part cayenne pepper

1 part dried oregano

1 part dried thyme (leaves)

 

You will need three tablespoons of this seasoning for the recipe below. If you follow the recipe as posted using a tablespoon measure as your "part" this should yield ~2/3 of a cup.

Fried Shrimp Po'Boy

For this recipe, you will need:

1.5 pounds of shrimp

1.5 cups of flour

1.5 cups cornmeal

4-6 loaves of french bread (6 inch each)

cayenne pepper and salt

lettuce, red onions and tomatoes to garnish the sandwiches

Peel and de-vein your shrimp. Coat the peeled shrimp with 1 tbsp of the pre-made essence seasoning (above) along with .5 tsp salt and .25 tsp of cayenne pepper. The easiest way to do this is to toss the shrimp in a covered Tupperware container. The shrimp should have a nice, reddish color once coated.

In a bowl, combine your flour and cornmeal with 2 tbsp of the essence seasoning, 1 tsp salt and .5 tsp of cayenne pepper. Toss your seasoned shrimp in this breading mixture - the shrimp are "sticky" enough that you will not need egg or any other coating to make the breading mixture stick. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and fry the breaded shrimp in small batches. The shrimp should not be in the oil for more than 2-4 minutes - they cook quickly and overcooked shrimp are not pleasant (they taste gummy - yuck). Once your shrimp are cooked, place them on a plate lined with brown paper or paper towels to drain the excess oil.

To make your sandwiches, cut your french bread loaves without fully splitting the bread - creating "pockets" in which to layer your ingredients. Spread a thin layer of remoulade sauce on your bread and then top with (in order) shredded lettuce, chopped red onion & tomato, fried shrimp and a second layer of remoulade sauce. Serve with chips and a pickle if you wish. If you get the shrimp right, they will come out a beautiful golden brown - these babies are delicious!

N'awlins Style Hurricane

If you want to win over the crowd, pair your po'boys with a matching New Orleans style drink. To make the Hurricane, combine the following ingredients in a cocktail shaker:

2 oz light rum (Bacardi, etc)

2 oz dark rum (Meyers is preferred - do not use dark, spiced Rum such as Kraken)

2 oz passion fruit juice

1 oz orange juice

0.5 oz lime juice

0.5 oz simple syrup

0.5 oz grenadine

Shake over ice, strain and pour into a Hurricane glass filled with ice (the drink is actually named after the glass - who knew!). Garnish your drink with a cherry and an orange slice. I highly recommend using real grenadine and not Rose's syrup. In the next few weeks, I am going to try out some recipes to make my own grenadine and I'll report back. But grenadine is NOT cherry syrup as some people assume - it is actually made using pomegranate! I'm hoping our home-made syrup will turn out well!

Enjoy your N'awlins night!

May Drink of the Month: The Apple Cart

My methods for picking a drink of the month vary greatly. Sometimes I pick a drink based on a friend's recommendation. Sometimes I find something while I'm out at a bar and want to try to replicate it. Sometimes I find inspiration from blogs like Imbibe Unfiltered or the Cocktail Chronicles. I have a few bar books, and sometimes the process is a simple as opening to a random page in the book and pointing. However, one of the most frequent ways I decide on a new drink of the month is by buying a liquor on a whim and then trying to find a recipe that I like that uses that ingredient. That's how I stumbled across the Apple Cart, a great, refreshing summer drink that is perfect for an evening on the porch. While I was visiting a friend in Minneapolis in January, we stopped by the local liquor store to pick up ingredients for Almond Cigars, a drink I will be sure to write up very soon. As we checked out, I saw a bottle of apple brandy on sale and bought it for a lark. I'd never heard of a drink that needed apple brandy, but I was sure there had to be one out there somewhere.

That night, we searched the internet for possible options. I wasn't at home (read: with my bar), so our ingredients were fairly limited. We did have a bottle of triple sec, however, and I had bought lemons just in case we needed them. That made the apple cart the easy choice. The recipe is below:

Apple Cart

1 measure Calvados*

3/4 meausre Orange Liqueur**

1/2 measure lemon juice

Optional: Add 1-2 dashes of Orange Bitters for a more citrus-y flavor

Combine ingredients in rocks glass filled 3/4 full with ice. Stir for 20 seconds and serve.

A few notes on ingredients: 

*Calvados is French apple brandy, and is by far the best quality liquor to use for this drink. However, any other apple brandy will work. Applejack is a similar drink made in the US which also works well in this drink. I much prefer Calvados, as it 100% distilled apple cider, whereas Applejack is cut with neutral spirits (like vodka). For more on the distinction, check out the article HERE. It is a matter of taste which spirit you choose. The price difference is not too much, despite what the linked article says. Calvados can be had from my local liquor store for around $20, compared to a $16 price tag for Applejack.

**There are three basic types of orange liqueur. The most common (and thus the cheapest) is Triple Sec, which can be found for $6-10 in any liquor store. Triple Sec is a great mixer, providing a little bit of alcoholic punch and sweetness without too much more in the way of flavor. I like to think of it as boozier simple syrup, and can be used in this way without altering the flavor of your drink too much. On the higher end of the spectrum are Contreau and Grand Marnier. Both of these liqueurs retail between $35-42 a bottle, but are worth investing in some time, simply because of the number of cocktails that call for them. Grand Marnier has the stronger orange flavor, which makes it less suitable for some cocktails that have subtle flavors, as the spiced orange flavor can drown them out. For the Apple Cart, I recommend Contreau first and Triple Sec second. Another option that I've been using in the past few weeks is my homemade Orangecello, which also works quite well!

The Apple Cart will feature the apple flavor most strongly, but will also have notes of citrus from the orange liqueur and the lemon juice. You can adjust your drink ratios to taste - for those people who appreciate sour flavors, you can get away with one part of each ingredient. But be careful not to overdo the lemon juice. While lemon juice is great in almost any cocktail, it can easily take over any drink if your hand gets shaky while you pour.

Hope you enjoy your Apple Cart!

June Drink of the Month: The Aviation

I will freely admit that I am not the world’s biggest gin drinker. While the Gin and Tonic is a classic cocktail and many people love it’s effervescence, I've never been a huge fan of quinine so it has been hard to jump on the G&T bandwagon. In the Aviation, however, I've found a vehicle for gin that I quite enjoy. The Aviation is a prohibition era cocktail that rarely shows up on menus anymore because of its unique ingredients, calling for both Maraschino liqueur (which tastes nothing like the violently red cherries of the same name) and Crème de Violette (a deep purple liqueur that tastes about how you image a violet may taste – floral and sweet with just a hint of “purple” flavor in there). The drink is a beautiful pale sky blue and has notes of citrus, the sweet hints of Crème de Violette and the slightly bitter/sour Maraschino.

The traditional recipe, which dates back to 1916, is as follows:

Aviation Cocktail
2 oz gin
½ oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
¼ oz Crème de Violette
2 tsp Maraschino (approximately 1/5 part if you are scaling the drink)

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with either a cherry or (preferably) a lemon rind twist.

I've found this mixture to work very well, but the initial few sips are quite sour. The Maraschino and lemon juice can overwhelm the Crème de Violette and leave you with a bitter citrus-y flavor that cancels out the slight juniper notes from the gin. For whatever reason, the first sip seems to almost always be loaded with bitter flavor, but the drink mellows nicely as you work your way down the glass.

I've been experimenting with a few different mixtures that I like a little better for my Aviations. This is the formula I've been working off of for the last week: 

Robby's Modified Aviation
 2 oz gin
1/3 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 oz Crème de Violette
1/4 oz Maraschino

The result is a much darker drink – the color of the sea in a storm instead of a pleasant summer’s afternoon. However, the initial bitter taste is mitigated extremely well. This is a much sweeter drink, so bear that in mind if your tastes run more to the bitter than the sweet.

 I should mention that there is a version of the Aviation that omits Crème de Violette. While Crème de Violette can be quite hard to find, it retails relatively cheaply (I found mine for under $25 from Rothman & Winter) and should be carried by any high-end liquor store. Maraschino is slightly pricier – my bottle cost around $30 (Luxardo is the preferred brand). However, you will get much more use out of your Maraschino – it is a “secret ingredient” in many cocktails, including the Beach Comber, a great summery rum drink with pineapple and lime juice.

Finally, let me include a few variations on the classic Aviation. The first is the "Blue Moon" which follows the Aviation recipe closely but omits the Maraschino:

Blue Moon Cocktail:
2 oz gin
½ oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
½ oz Crème de Violette

Combine in a cocktail shaker over ice, shake and strain to serve. 

The second option comes from the San Francisco Chronicle's wine & entertainment staff, an excellent resource for recipes and suggestions for budding bar keeps (follow the link HERE for the story that inspired this drink). Their reporters tried to find new uses for Crème de Violette and came up with the "Moonlight" cocktail, detailed below:

Moonlight Cocktail:
1½ oz gin
½ oz Contreau (or any orange liqueur – I like using homemade Orangecello)
½ oz Crème de Violette
½ oz fresh squeezed lime juice

Combine in a cocktail shaker over ice, shake and strain to serve in a chilled Champagne flute.

Enjoy! 

Meet my bar

Bar Kiley in all its glory.
One day I will have real bar furniture.
Until then, Target bookshelves will suffice.

The proper glass for the proper drink makes all the difference!

The last remains of my
grandfather's whiskey that got
me started bar tending

May's drink of the month, the
Apple Cart.

Thanks for the only decor
my bar ever needed Mom

Welcome to Bar Kiley

This journey that led me to this blog started five years ago when my mom asked me to come with her to Cleveland to help my grandfather move out of his old house. He was in the process of “de-cluttering” his lifestyle and was bound and determined to get rid of the things he no longer needed. Knowing that I was fond of whiskey, my grandfather offered to give me the remains of his home bar which had sat, almost completely untouched, in his basement for the past ten years. I gladly accepted, even though I had no idea what I was going to do with his generous present. My mom and I spent the next fifteen minutes combing through the twenty-plus bottles in his collection, many of them over thirty years old. My grandfather informed me that I was to leave the vodka so that he could still make himself Bloody Marys, but the rest was mine to keep. We packed up bottles of Crown Royal and Fleischmann’s whiskey that still had their original 1969 tax label affixed to the lid alongside one or two newer, plastic bottles of run and gin. Most of the bottles were so old and dusty, however, that you could barely see the liquid inside!

                I brought my newly-inherited home bar with me to South Bend and quickly filled up the cabinet in my back pantry with my haul. The aged bottles sat there for several months, only occasionally visited in order to fetch a finger or two of “Old Smuggler” (Scotch with a History!) or Chivas Regal (served neat of course). One night, however, as my roommate and I entertained a few guests, we decided it was time to mix a drink or two using our back bar, something I had never really tried before. Little did I know this would be the beginning of a hobby that would follow me through three cities, four moves and would eventually even lead to a part-time job that helped put me through Grad School.

                As I began experimenting with mixing different drinks, I adopted a “Drink of the Month” policy. I firmly believe this is the best and most economically responsible way to build up a home bar. After three years of experimenting with drinks of the month, my home bar tops out at over 80 bottles, and continues to slowly grow each month. The other benefit is that I now also know how to make thirty-plus cocktails and have even begun to make my own liqueurs, syrups and other mixers. By picking one drink a month to serve and master, I can give my friends something new every time they come over while keeping my bar expenses to a minimum. I try to select a new drink that only requires one or two new ingredients, and then I make sure to keep them stocked all month. I almost never go through my whole stock in a month, meaning my bar grows each month simply by adding one or two simple ingredients.

This blog is my attempt to share my “Drinks of the Month” with my friends and family and maybe help you build up your own home bar. I hope you enjoy the recipes I've included. We’ll begin with a few “best of” Bar Kiley from the past and new drink recipes will be added and tweaked in the months to come. I may even add a few other recipes from Bar Kiley’s kitchen if the mood is right. I hope you enjoy this project (and enjoy it responsibly)!