April (Its Still April!) Drink of the Month: Stronger Bones and Teeth

When I buy fruit juice for my children (not that I ever do that, pediatrician friends who are reading - only water and milk for my kids!), there are about 500 different "healthy" or "organic" options, and at least half of them come in low sugar options. Gross. When I was a kid, we drank weird mishmashes of fruits put into a cocktail, made from concentrate, and definitely boosted with sugar. Why did we do this? For stronger bones and teeth of course! The Fred Flintstone chalky vitamins couldn't do it alone, we needed Pineapple-Orange-Banana cocktail in our lives! And it probably started out life as a paper can in the freezer, because that's how things went in the late 80s and early 90s.

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, so when I read an article on making oleo saccharum (sugar syrup made from macerating peels to extract essential oils and whatnot) out of spent banana peels (a helpful hack, since my kids go through what feels like a dozen bananas a day), my mind went straight to POB(Last parenthetical in this overly long sentence: Had I been from Hawaii, I would have grown up with the vastly superior POG, where G = guava. The lids from the POG drinks became the kids sensation POG collectable game, but unfortunately POG doesn't help me repurpose spent banana peels).

8 hours later

Fresh banana peel

Lets pretend I didn't just write a run on sentence with three overly long parentheticals, and go straight to describing what banana peel oleo saccharum tastes like. The verdict? Definitely notes of banana, but also pretty vanilla forward and slightly earthy. There is enough banana to add flavor notes, but the added vanilla really plays well with dark rum. So that's where I took the drink. Our cocktail club decided to do breakfast forward cocktails last month, and I presented Stronger Bones and Teeth as my contribution. No one was appetized to see the leftover banana peels post-maceration, but everyone was pleasantly surprised by the result. Its not my favorite drink ever, but there are lots of fun little technique nods in the drink, so I'm adding it to the collection, run on sentences and all. (Note: This is the second drink in a row I've given faint praise by declaring: "Everyone thought it was going to taste nasty and then they were happy when it didn't." Apparently this is my new genre, sorry!).

Ingredients: 1.5 oz dark rum (Goslings preferred), 0.5 oz silver rum, 0.75 oz banana oleo saccharum, 0.5 oz moderately acid adjusted orange juice*, 0.25 oz pineapple juice, orange peel to garnish.

*I used 3 to 4 g of citric acid per 100 ml of orange juice. To adjust to lemon acidity, you would add just over 5 g of citric acid, and lime acidity is 3.2 g. So somewhere in between is the sweet spot for me.

 

Preparation: To make the banana oleo: Add equal parts by weight banana peel and sugar in a non-reactive container (4 banana peels is roughly 200g). Allow to sit 6-12 hours, stirring or shaking occasionally. Strain and bottle for up to 2 weeks.

Combine all ingredients in a Boston shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a coupe glass and garnish with an orange wheel. Don't try to add bruleed banana coins - they didn't add much. Definitely don't add bruleed banana chips - that was gross.

March (It's April 23rd, sorry) Drink of the Month: Nui Nuance

 I should probably read less, because sometimes reading gets me in trouble - especially if I'm reading about food and drinks. I read an article about tacos al pastor, and suddenly I'm trying to source ancho chiles and achiote powder. Or I read about re-purposing banana peels by turning them into simple syrup, and then I have a fridge full of banana sludge (more on that next week). Over Christmas, I read an article about savory cocktail ingredients, specifically using garum as a seasoning agent in cocktails. Garums are essentially ancient fish sauces (they can be made from lots of different matter however, including beef or mushrooms) that are made by fermenting proteins in their own enzymes (sometimes with koji added).

I understand if throwing fermented anchovy guts into a cocktail sounds gross, but the people in the article swore by the process (LINK). That was intriguing enough to get me started searching for recipes. I read through a few, and I found that most of the creators made their way to garums through the Noma Guide to Fermentation. With my curiosity sparked, I spent the better part of my Christmas break reading the 300+ page reference library of a book, learning about techniques I'd never have the time or space to master. It was a fun learning experience, but I ended up just buying some high quality colatura di alici (Italian fish sauce) instead of dropping $400 trying to make a home fermentation rig with buckets of meat slop. Maybe not the best overall use of my time, but at least I didn't add a greenhouse rig to the garage to harvest barley spores for fermenting.

Failed Batters

With my fancy fish sauce in hand, it was time to try my own drink boosted with an umami bomb. The Pearl Diver was the most recommended cocktail - basically a cold version of the hot buttered rum. I mixed up some hot buttered rum batter and then dosed portions of the batter with various umami sources - miso paste, colatura di alici, and oyster sauce. Unfortunately, none of these batters wanted to stay in suspension well, and the resulting pearl divers turned out too greasy (although I did pick up some cool pearl diver glasses to use for the occasion). Luckily, the Pearl Diver has a cousin, the Nui Nui, that contains virtually all the same ingredients, minus the butter. Cocktail Club spent the next hour playing with fish sauce in Nui Nui builds to get our proportions just right. Too much fish juice and the cocktail smelled like an old aquarium. But get it just right, and the umami helped the vanilla, cinnamon, and allspice really sing.

But was this just Stockholm syndrome? Had we invested too many hours into making garums work and trick ourselves into thinking that they added anything? Happily, I can report that I made another batch of Nui Nuis at our last club, when we had a few extra visitors. Despite being completely grossed out at the thought of adding fish sauce to a drink, our guests both preferred the garum dosed version, and finished their whole drinks happily. Add the gut sauce, you won't regret it!

Ingredients: 2 oz rum (I used a blend of .75 oz aged Jamaican pot still rum, .75 oz Haitian column still rum, and .5 oz Charanda blanco), 1 oz orange juice, .75 oz cinnamon syrup*, .75 oz lime juice, .25 oz allspice dram, .25 oz vanilla syrup**, less than one half barspoon of fish sauce (between 1/8 and 1/16 oz), tiki bitters.

Preparation: To make the Cinnamon Syrup - add two cinnamon sticks, roughly broken (not pulverized) to .75 cup of sugar and an equal amount of water (by weight). Allow to simmer on stove until sugar is completely dissolved, then remove from heat and allow to steep for 30 minutes until cool. Strain and bottle.

To make the Vanilla Syrup: Add two tsp of vanilla paste to .75 cup of sugar and an equal amount of water (by weight). Allow to simmer on stove until sugar is completely dissolved, then remove from heat and allow to steep for 30 minutes until cool. Fine Strain with mesh and cheesecloth and bottle.

Combine all ingredients except the bitters  in a Boston shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a Pearl Diver glass filled with crushed ice, and add bitters to top. Garnish with a lit cinnamon stick or (if the fish scent is too strong) a bouquet of mint.

February Drink of the Month: La Mula Verde (With Bonus Salsa Verde Recipe)

 If I've learned anything from The Cocktail Codex, it is that there are really only a few unique types of drinks out there. The folks from Death and Co. list their six fundamental drinks as: 1) the old fashioned 2) the martini 3) the daiquiri 4) the sidecar 5) the whiskey highball and 6) the flip (I'm still working on mastering a flip I really love - drinking whole egg is tough - but keep an eye out in this space for one made with sweetened condensed milk coming soon). Understanding these "mother" drinks makes creating new variations easier, and it also makes me less hard on myself when my ingenious creation is just common "well" drink with a new spirit. If there is really nothing that new, then why be mad that I didn't come up with a 10 ingredient bespoke drink? Why not just swap out vodka for Ancho Reyes, fancy it up with some Tajin and a muddled jalapeno coin, and call it a day?

That was the inspiration for the drink this month, La Mula Verde (literally the green mule, but it can also be a green tough guy, - helpful to remember if you're afraid of spice!). This drink takes the classic Moscow Mule formula, and subs out vodka in favor of Ancho Reyes liqueur. Ancho Reyes comes in Original (using fully ripe ancho chiles that are sun dried) or Verde (using immature chiles that are fire roasted and mashed). Either works for this recipe, but I find that the earthy, vegetal notes of the Ancho Verde pair nicely with ginger beer and lime.  For an extra kick, you can amp up the flavors of the drink by muddling a jalapeno coin and a lime wedge before pouring your highball and/or crust the rim with Tajin. In the instructions below, I'll do both.

Looking for an accompaniment for your drink? I've been on a salsa verde kick for the last few months, and I'm pretty happy with my oven roasted recipe, which you will also find below. This recipe makes excellent chilaquiles (another food product that comes in green or red!). Instead of avocado toast and mimosas for your next brunch party, why not make chilaquiles verde with la mula verde instead? Afterall, variety is the spice of life (and Tajin is the spice on the rim of your drink).

Ingredients: 1.5 oz Ancho Reyes (original or verde), 4 oz ginger beer (Goslings preferred), lime wedge, jalapeno coin, Tajin for rim.

Preparation: Slice the lime wedge down the middle and run the cut ends around your glassware (clay mug if you have it, otherwise a Moscow Mule mug or a highball glass). Sprinkle Tajin on the now moistened exterior of the mug. Put the used lime wedge and a jalapeno coin into your vessel and lightly muddle. Add Ancho Reyes (add up to .25 oz lime juice as well, to taste) and top with ginger beer. Add ice to fill glass and serve.

Notes: Note the option to add lime to taste. Too much and you overwhelm the ginger beer, but I do enjoy a little extra lime in my life. And use your own favorite ginger beer, but stray away from ones that are very ginger forward (Q) or overly sweet (Reeds).

Bonus: Here's a brunch pairing for your La Mula Verde. To make my salsa verde, start with the following ingredients: 12 tomatillos (husked and cut in half), 2 medium jalapenos (stemmed and seeded), 2 serrano peppers (stemmed and seeded), one half onion (peeled, quartered), 3 cloves garlic (peeled and smashed), .25 cup cilantro leaves (stemmed, tightly packed), juice of two limes, 1 tsp coarse sea salt. Prepare the ingredients as indicated above. On a roasting pan, place tomatillos, peppers, onion, and garlic. Set oven to broil and roast ingredients for five minutes. Flip and return to broiler for five additional minutes. Put remaining ingredients in a blender, add roasted vegetables and their juices, and  pulse until smooth. Store overnight in refrigerator before serving, ideally over old tortilla chips (because chilaquiles is delicious). If no vegans are around, then top it with a fried egg and come crumbled cotija cheese for a magical brunch.

January Drink of the Month - Nine Herbs Charm (A Soft Reboot)

 A happy new year to all five of my dedicated followers. My New Year's resolution this year was to do more writing, and that means a return to the blog - among other efforts. Careful observers may have noticed a concrete life event that precipitated my writing falling off a cliff - the arrival of my second child (born July 2020) in the midst of early COVID isolation. Two children, global pandemics, two parents trying to work from home with a very active three year old and infant, and supply chain shortages meant that my opportunities for creative drinking fell by the wayside for some time.

With some creativity in the early pandemic months, we were able to resume our cocktail club, even if that meant meeting in partially open garages in the middle of winter. And as the world has opened back up, we've managed some pretty excellent creations. If only I'd written them all down! A few things I picked up over the past few years that will likely be featured in the coming months:

1) I like gin now. The cocktail club rejoices. I still don't like Campari though, so don't look for a Negroni recipe any time soon. However, variations on the Gin Fitzgerald are common in the bar, including this month's recipe.

2) Did you know rice washing was a thing? I think rice washing makes everything better, more to come on this.

3) You can make a syrup out of almost anything. My personal favorite odd syrup ingredient is fennel fronds, which also feature in the recipe for this month.

4) My efforts at making a sourdough started during COVID cratered quickly, but I've found a use for many other ferments in the bar. Funky old fish sauce punches up tiki drinks in amazing ways, who knew!

5) We just began dabbling in fat washing. My first attempt was a whole cocktail that was milk washed. It, um, didn't go well. We sat for an hour and waited for milk solids to strain out of a clarified cocktail, and all I got was a heavy cream drink with a little wine float. Going to work on this some more, maybe starting a little more basic with a bacon wash and moving on from there.

I hope that gives you a small taste of what is to come for the next few months. For today, I'm featuring a Bar Kiley special, the Nine Herbs Charm. Named for an old Anglo-Saxon healing incantation, the drink features fennel, chamomile, and juniper. Juniper isn't one of the nine herbs in the charm (fennel and chamomile are), but its English as heck, so it worked in my head. If you feel the need to add crabapple, mugwort, nettle, and others for authenticity, be my guest. The drink is a play on the Fitzgerald formula (a gin sour with 2 oz gin, .75 oz simple syrup, .75 oz lemon, and 3-5 dashes of bitters), and makes great use of discarded fennel fronds left over from your latest meal. This was one of the recipes we gifted to the Imfelds at their wedding shower (along with the Mrs. Rita), and I hope you enjoy it too!

Ingredients: 2 oz gin (Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin preferred), 0.75 oz lemon, 0.75 oz fennel syrup (see notes), 3-4 dashes chamomile bitters.

Preparation: Combine all ingredients in a Boston shaker over ice. Shake and strain into a Nick and Nora glass, garnish with a dehydrated orange wheel.

Notes: To make the fennel syrup, you will want the tops and fronds from one bulb of fennel. Save the lower bulb for making an awesome pasta sauce or for your next taco night. In a saucepan, combine 1.5 cups of water with an equal weight of sugar. Bring to a simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the fennel fronds, simmer for four minutes, and then remover from heat. Allow to completely cool, then strain out fronds using fine mesh and cheese cloth. Syrup will keep for 2-4 weeks. 

July Drink of the Month - Casanier

For the past month, I've been running a "Saint Pius on the Rocks" series at our parish. Each week we feature a guest speaker, and I create a video to introduce them along with a cocktail for folks to make at home. Its been fun to channel my inner Bobby Flay, and I even got creative for my old program director from my Masters program, and created an original drink for him. Msgr. Michael Heintz is a lover of the Boulevardier (1.5 oz bourbon, 0.75 oz Campari, 0.75 oz sweet vermouth), which is only slightly ironic. You see, "boulevardier" in French means "man about town," and Fr. Mike is one of the biggest homebodies I know. So I created a "homebody" cocktail for him ("casanier" is homebody in French) using some of the same ingredients (just less bitter, because its my blog).

If you'd like to watch the video, you can find it here: https://vimeo.com/427125156 (I'll be awaiting my call, Next Food Network Star). The whole series can be found on the parish vimeo page (I also make a "Scofflaw" (rye, dry vermouth, grenadine, lime, orange bitters), Navy Grog, French 75, and a Last Word). For now, try out the Casanier, which was my first experiment in using grape juice in place of sweet vermouth (for shelf stability reasons).

Ingredients: 1 oz bourbon, 1 oz concord grape juice, 0.75 oz Aperol

Preparation: Combine ingredients in a Japanese stirring glass, or pint glass. Add ice, and stir until very cold. Strain into a Old Fashioned glass, add one large ice cube, and garnish with a lemon wedge.

June Drink of the Month - C.O.V.I.D. Punch

Quarantining with a three year old and a very pregnant wife means I've that if I choose to make a drink, I've had to drink alone. One way to make things interesting (and not feel like an alcoholic) has been to participate in drink making challenges with Zack via text, social media, or Zoom. During the month of June, we actually met in person (outside) with the rest of the cocktail club crew, and had to create something unique for the gathering. While its a little morbid, we took creating a "COVID" cocktail as a challenge, and the result is a pretty tasty beverage you will find below.

We chose to take COVID as an acrostic and use an ingredient per letter. The most challenging were "D" (Drambuie?), "I" (only weird, obscure stuff), and non-vodka "V"s. In the end, we cheated a little bit, using ice for the "I." Were we not in a pandemic, and able to make a shared bowl of punch, we would have had an elaborate ice mold with 19 slices of orange, but we made everything single serving to avoid possible contamination. Here was what we settled on:

Champagne

Orange Juice

Velvet Falernum

Ice

Diplomatico (my favorite Venezuelan Rum)

We added a few small ingredients to tie everything together: simple syrup, tiki bitters, and citric acid to boost the tartness of the orange juice (OJ by itself is usually pretty bland in cocktails, but add a little citric acid, and it shines!). I've included the recipe below for the individual portion version of the drink (including a block ice cube with a supreme of orange instead of the ice ring).

Ingredients: 1.5 oz Diplomatic Rum, 1 oz citric acid boosted orange juice*, 0.5 oz simple syrup, 0.5 oz velvet falernum, 2 dashes Bittercube Jamaican Bitters #2, top with 2 oz champagne

Preparation: Prepare citric acid boosted orange juice (see notes below). Add orange juice, rum, simple syrup, and velvet falernum in a cocktail shaker. Shake over ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Add the orange ice block and bitters, then top with champagne and serve.

Notes: To make citric acid boosted orange juice, add a barspoon of citric acid to 3-4 oz or orange juice. Test for desired tartness, add more orange juice if too tart for your liking.

May Drink of the Month - Mrs. Rita

Every so often, I trade texts with my old boss, Brad Sytsma. We both have a love for music, playlists, and challenges. So we'll offer each other a category and gift each other a CD with gems from our favorite eras (Brad is an 80's guy, whereas I love 90's power pop). Brad has introduced me to a number of bands that I now love, like the Indigo Girls and the BoDeans, and he's deepened my appreciation for U2 and R.E.M. I like to think I've given him some gems as well (Carbon Leaf, Shawn Mullins, the Alternate Routes), so we continue to send each other challenges periodically.

This month, I was in a rut, trying to come up with a name for a new drink I'd created. I had leftover sage leaf from making stuffed Cornish game hens (they were a Christmas present from work, and I finally got around to making them as we participated in the great quarantine freezer clean-out), so of course I made a batch of sage simple syrup. After some testing (the applejack/sage syrup/lemon cocktail was not as much of a home run as I had hoped), I found an excellent application in an Old Fashioned riff with mezcal and orange bitters. But the drink needed a name.

I spent a good hour ruminating, and then sent off a text to friend of the blog Zack with a picture and a name - "Once Upon a Thyme in Oaxaca." It's a well worn pun, but whatever! The only problem, as Zack reminded me, was that I used sage instead of thyme in my syrup - I had brain-farted on my ingredients in the name of making a pun fit. I still needed a name.

I put on some music while I cleaned up the bar. The Gin Blossoms have been in heavy rotation ever since I found The Great Albums Podcast and listened to their review of New Miserable Experience. I've always loved the Blossoms (I've seen them live more than any other band except Carbon Leaf), and their new album (Mixed Reality) is excellent. But it was when I was listening to the anniversary re-issue of New Miserable Experience that the name came to me. The third track (and third single) off the album is called Mrs. Rita, named for a billboard psychic from the 900-number, Mrs. Cleo boom. She was prominent in the American Southwest, where Mexican food and the mezcal boom started. A "sage" from the southwest? I found my winner!

Of course, this naming convention sent me down a rabbit hole, and I had to text Brad. Instead of coming up with a top ten list of break-up songs, or side 1, track 1s, my new challenge was to make a 5 drink tasting menu using a single artist. Brad enjoys good whiskey and margaritas, but he's not a full-fledged bartender. So the concept didn't require fully formed drinks - just concepts to match the song names. Following the recipe, I'll give you my Gin Blossoms themed menu. I may try to build these other drinks out over the coming months, so keep an eye back on this space for the rest of my top 5 (or maybe 7, I couldn't pick between some songs).

For now, here is the recipe for the Mrs. Rita - a simple, smoky drink with a savory backbone that sips
easy over a big block of ice:

Ingredients: 2 oz mezcal (Del Maguey Vida if you have it) , 0.5 oz sage simple syrup (recipe follows), 3 dashes orange bitters (Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6 preferred), sage leaf to garnish.

Preparation: In a mixing glass, combine mezcal, sage syrup, and bitters. Add 5 medium-sized ice cubes, and stir for 10 seconds. Strain into an old fashioned glass. Using a bar spoon, slowly add one large ice cube, and garnish with a sage leaf on top of the ice cube.

Notes: To make the sage syrup, combine 0.5 cups of water and 0.5 cups of sugar in a sauce pot. Stir to combine, and bring to a gentle boil. Add 10 sage leaves, allow to boil for one minute, and then remove from heat. Allow to cool for 30 minutes, then strain off sage leaves and bottle for up to three weeks.

Gin Blossoms Tasting Menu:
Lost Horizons (dry Manhattan with absinthe rinse) - New Miserable Experience (track 1)
Hey Jealousy (chartreuse/Last Word riff) - New Miserable Experience (track 2)
Mrs. Rita (Mezcal Old Fashioned) - New Miserable Experience (track 3)
Pieces of the Night (cobbler) - New Miserable Experience (track 11)
Follow You Down (beer with shot chaser) - Congratulations, I'm Sorry (track 3)
Learning the Hard Way (whiskey/hard cider tall drink) - Major Lodge Victory (track 1)
Idiot Summer (lemonade sipper) - Rarity/Bonus Track