January Drink of the Month - the Kiley Royale

The newest craze I saw on all the morning talk shows this year was to celebrate the New Year with a "bubbly bar." I love the idea of allowing guests to spruce up their NYE champagne with fresh fruit and syrups, but most of the offerings on the Today show and other were pretty boring. Of course a fresh strawberry slice would be nice in my champagne, but where is the creativity in that? If I had hosted NYE (instead of building IKEA furniture and falling asleep on the couch watching Life of the Party), my bubbly bar would have had a little more style and flair! Add some Chambord or creme de casis to the table so guests can make a Kir Royale. Add some bitters and gin or brandy for a French 75. Citrus is a must if you are adding more sweetness, so make sure to have some lemon or lime juice out for guests. And add in a curve ball for giggles - some Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur for sweet/spicy or some evergreen liqueur for herbaciousness. Surprise your guest, and encourage them to sample something unique, instead of adding a boring blueberry or three.

While my NYE plans were not the most epic, I was inspired to try my hand at a sparkling cocktail for the evening - yes, you can still drink bubbly on NYE, even if your plans consist of sitting in sweatpants and trying really hard not to fall asleep. I was inspired by the Kir Royale, which is traditionally made with champagne and creme de cassis, which is made from blackcurrants. The Kir Royale is named after it's creator (a Mr. Kir), who first created the Kir Cocktail (cassis and white wine), and then made it "royale" by swapping out the still wine for sparkling. My take (named the Kiley Royale, because if Mr. Kir can have an eponymous drink, then so can I!) adds raspberry syrup, brandy, and lemon juice (to balance the sweet with some acid), while upping the alcohol content to give it some punch. Brandy and champagne are natural pairings, but make sure to avoid other grape distillates - the first batch I made used pisco, and I can confirm that brandy is the far superior fermented grape product to use in this application.

Ingredients: 1 oz brandy, 1 oz raspberry syrup, 0.5 oz lemon juice, 2 dashes cherry bitters, 3 oz prosecco to top.

Preparation: For the raspberry syrup: combine 0.5 cups water and 0.5 cups granulated sugar in a saucepot over medium heat. Stir until combined, add in 6 oz of raspberries. Bring to a boil, and reduce to simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool, then strain and store for up to 3 weeks. For the cocktail: combine the first four ingredients in a Boston Shaker, shake over ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute. Top with prosecco, garnish with a whole raspberry.

December Drink of the Month - Alpine Spritz

Our annual visit to Chicago this year was... interesting. Last year was the first year that we had a Charlie with us for our trip to Macy's, the Kris Kringle Market, and the Millennium Park tree. We thought that trip was challenging (and we did have to bring a lot of supplies for our 9 month old), but it turns out that traveling with a almost two year old is a *little* more difficult. Especially when the aforementioned two year old misses his nap and is teething. We were hoping to take our family Christmas picture at the tree, but the picture here is the best we could do.

Despite the challenges of the Chicago cold with a grumpy little person, we did have one highlight (during Charlie's nap). We visited Eataly, a restaurant that has been on Ann's list for a few years now. While Charlie slept in the stroller, we enjoyed gnocchi, oxtail ragout, and raclette. I also enjoyed an "Apline Spritz" cocktail with brandy, a "cranberry pine shurb," Luxardo  Triplum, and lemon. It was good enough for me to recreate at home, with my own shrub recipe featuring charred rosemary (Ann gave me crap for "burning Christmas trees" again), black pepper, and cinnamon.

For the shrub, pour 1.5 cups of apple cider vinegar into a saucepan. Add 1 cup of sugar, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, and add 12 oz of cranberries, 8 whole peppercorns, and 1 stick of cinnamon.  Char the needles of three sprigs of rosemary, and add the needles only to the mixture. Boil for 5 minutes, until the cranberries begin to "pop." Take the mixture off of the heat, and allow to cool. Strain into a nonreactive jar, pressing the cranberries to extract the maximum amount of juice. Store for up to 4 weeks.

Ingredients: 1.5 oz brandy, 0.75 oz cranberry-rosemary shrub, 0.75 oz orange curacao, 0.75 oz lemon juice.

Preparation: Combine the ingredients in a Boston shaker. Shake over ice, strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a rosemary sprig. 

November Drink of the Month - Clash of Cultures or Southeastern

Our local Meijer store puts up a display every year of "scary" fruits for Halloween. This includes prickly rambutans, fearsome dragon fruits, and whatever the heck cherimoya is. It also includes buddah's hand citron, which looks (as the name suggests) like a gnarly, withered hand. Buddah's hand is a member of the citron family, just like lime, lemon, orange, and grapefruit. But unlike those other fruits, buddah's hand has no flesh, seeds, or juice. It is only peel and pith. Fortunately, the pith is not nearly as bitter as other members of the citron family, and the fruit itself is incredibly fragrant. It is used in some Asian cultures as air freshener, but in the Kiley household, it is used exclusively for drinks.

I found several recipes that made use of buddah's hand, and wound up turning the two buddah's hands that I purchased into five different products. I made flavored vodka, flavored simple syrup, flavored salt, flavored sugar, and candied buddah's hand. I won't use all of the recipes in this blog post (the candied citron makes a nice garnish, but I ended up using the salt instead), but three of these applications are featured below (no sugar either, since the simple syrup replaced it, but it would be good for doing a sugared rim). Most of the flavor of the buddah's hand comes from the peel - the pith is good for making candied citron, but it does add much to an infusion. For the vodka and simple syrup, use a vegetable peeler to cut long, thin strips of the peel, and allow them to steep - either in 1-1 simple syrup over medium heat or in a non-reactive container with vodka for 4-6 days. For the salt, use a microplane grater to zest the peel, and then place the zest in an oven at 200 degrees for 25 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of zest to 1/2 cup of kosher salt, and use a mortar and pestle to combine.

BH salt garnish on the Clash of Cultures

I've tried two original drinks with the fruits of my buddah's hand creations. Below are the recipes. One features mezcal, in the mold of the Mezcal Bisou. The other is a daiquiri riff, which adds vanilla-flavored falernum as a compliment to the buddah's hand. Of the two, I prefer the rum drink (which I'm calling the "Southeastern"), but both feature the unique flavor of the buddah's hand in interesting ways. Here are the recipes, for you to choose from:

Clash of Cultures
In a Boston shaker, combine the following ingredients:
1 oz mezcal (joven)
1 oz buddah's hand vodka
0.75 oz buddah's hand simple syrup
0.5 oz lemon juice
pinch of buddah's hand salt
2 dashes of orange flower water

Shake over ice, strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a sprinkling of more buddah's hand salt.

Left: Clash of Cultures - Right: Southeastern

Southeastern
In a Boston shaker, combine the following ingredients:
2 oz white rum
0.75 oz buddah's hand simple syrup
0.5 oz lime juice
0.25 oz falernum

Shake over ice, strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice.

I hope you enjoy one or both of the Clash of Cultures or the Southeastern!