Keeping Cool with Cocktails
Sorry--the camera broke, so no pix for awhile.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph--Seattle has had record heat this summer, and this in a city that doesn't truly get summer until July 15. And Seattle residents rarely have air conditioning, so just like when we get a few inches of snow, it seems like the whole city comes to a halt. Even the Pike Place Market looked deserted (from the the AC'd vantage point of my 35th floor office). In what seems like decades ago--because it was, unfortunately--such weather would have my fake-ID equipped friends and I down at hipster drinking joints, enjoying G&T's, over-the-top frozen cocktails and appetizers (Note: embezzling friends make the best drinking partners).
Drinks have come along way since then. And every six moths there is a slew of new articles on seasonal drinks. The LA Times Herbal cocktails, anyone? seemed promising but its Cool Cucumber Martini with cucumber and chervil was dismal at best. So I was pretty disappointed that last week the entire food section of the New York Times was devoted to drinks. But in what seemed to be just another ho-hum article on cocktails Frost on the Sun: Summertime Cocktails Pete Wells made three interesting points on that most important ingredient of cocktails: ice.
I know, it seems obvious, but think about it: how many cocktails have you had that are so boozy that you can’t enjoy them? Or what about those plastic ice cubes promising not to dilute drink you see for sale? Thus, it was interesting that in an accompanying article, A Contest Where Victory Goes to the Coolest, ice played such a minor in the Times’ winner in cocktail contest. The winning drink is called the Cuke, and is pretty similar to other cucumber-based cocktails I have had over the past several years, most recently at 22 Doors.
Dale loves cucumbers, and snacks on them like potato chips (which being one of my major weaknesses, I don't allow in the house) so I knew he would love this one. He did, but for the first time he suggested a way to improve it. He wanted the rim salted like a margarita. I thought this was a little too much, so we began adding kosher salt to taste, and bingo, we were fighting over the last ounces. The salt added that extra punch to the flavoring, making both sweetness and tartness stand out proudly and together and taming the mint and lime. It may have even made us thirstier for those last drops.
The recipe that follows the Cuke was published years ago in the New York Times in Grown-Ups Don't Nog Eggs and has become my house drink in the colder months and my most requested recipe. But hold back a bit on the syrup and add a bit more lemon juice, and you have a killer summer drink, too. Don’t let the price of the pear brandy or eau de vie scare you off—-a little goes a long way, and is the key ingredient in a Simple Pear Tart. Play around with different dried fruits and eau de vies or brandies to come up with your own drinks and tarts such as dried cherries with kirsh or dried apples with Calvados or Armagnac with prunes.
The Cuke Adapted from Adam Frank
1 lime, rinsed
1/3 cup packed mint leaves, no stems, plus 2 sprigs for garnish
1/2 unwaxed cucumber
½ cup table sugar
2/3 cup Hendrick's gin
salt
Sparkling water.
1. Roll the lime against a counter with your palm 8 times. Thinly slice 1/2 of the lime and place in a pitcher. Add mint leaves. Slice cucumber crosswise very thinly and add to pitcher, reserving 6 slices, then add sugar. Muddle ingredients, using the sugar granules to grind the ingredients before the sugar dissolves. Juice the remaining lime half and add juice to pitcher. Add gin. Add salt to taste. Place in refrigerator to steep 30 minutes or longer.
2. Fill 2 highball or other large glasses with ice. Strain mixture from pitcher into each. Top with a splash of sparkling water, garnish each glass with a sprig of mint and reserved cucumber slices, and serve.
Yield: 2 servings.
Parkhurst's Pear Adapted from Eleven Madison Park
For the base (5 drinks):
1/2 liter Stolichnaya vodka
1 1/2 dried pears, sliced (the smaller the pieces, the greater the overall surface area)
1/2 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
10 peppercorns, lightly crushed
For each drink:
1 teaspoon simple syrup, or less to taste (see note)
1 teaspoon lemon juice, or more to taste
3/8 ounce pear brandy such as Clear Creek or Poire William.
Twist of lemon rind
1. In a jar, combine vodka, pears, vanilla and peppercorns. Stir together. Seal tightly and let sit for two days, giving jar a shake a few times each day. After two days, strain through a colander into a clean jar. Chill. (The original recipe calls for it to be strained through cheesecloth but I like the vanilla seeds and bits of peppercorn floating amongst the ice chips and murky fluid.)
2. To make the drink, fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add 3 ounces of vodka mixture, simple syrup, lemon juice and pear brandy. Shake 5 or 6 times vigorously. Strain a little into a chilled martini glass. Taste, adding more lemon juice if needed. Garnish with a twist. Serve.
Yield: 1 drink.
Note: For simple syrup, gradually stir one pound of granulated sugar into 13 ounces of boiling water in a sauce pan until it is dissolved.
Simple Pear Tart Adapted from Martha Stewart
2 oz cream cheese
4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup flour, plus extra for hands
½ cup sugar + 1 ½ tbsp
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp pear brandy
1 Bartlett pear
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees with rack in center. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Combine cheese and butter in food processor. Add flour, ¼ cup sugar, salt, and process until combined. Dough will be sticky.
2. Turn dough out onto prepared baking sheet. With lightly floured fingers, pat dough out into a rough 8” circle. In medium bowl combine ¼ cup sugar with lemon juice and brandy.
3. Halve unpeeled pears lengthwise and core. Cut lengthwise into ¼” slices; transfer to lemon juice mixture; coat well. Places slices in strainer to drain liquid (strained and remaining liquid can be frozen for future tarts). Arrange length wise around border of dough, overlapping slightly. Arrange remaining slices in center. Sprinkle tart with remaining 1 ½ tbsp sugar. Dust pears with cinnamon.
4. Bake until golden, 25-30 minutes.
Serve warm or at room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream with pear brandy or vanilla ice cream.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph--Seattle has had record heat this summer, and this in a city that doesn't truly get summer until July 15. And Seattle residents rarely have air conditioning, so just like when we get a few inches of snow, it seems like the whole city comes to a halt. Even the Pike Place Market looked deserted (from the the AC'd vantage point of my 35th floor office). In what seems like decades ago--because it was, unfortunately--such weather would have my fake-ID equipped friends and I down at hipster drinking joints, enjoying G&T's, over-the-top frozen cocktails and appetizers (Note: embezzling friends make the best drinking partners).
Drinks have come along way since then. And every six moths there is a slew of new articles on seasonal drinks. The LA Times Herbal cocktails, anyone? seemed promising but its Cool Cucumber Martini with cucumber and chervil was dismal at best. So I was pretty disappointed that last week the entire food section of the New York Times was devoted to drinks. But in what seemed to be just another ho-hum article on cocktails Frost on the Sun: Summertime Cocktails Pete Wells made three interesting points on that most important ingredient of cocktails: ice.
As ice melts, it does two things to a cocktail. It chills
the ingredients, of course, but it also adds a new one. Melted
ice — you probably know it as water — lowers the concentration of alcohol,
making it easier to distinguish the taste of whatever spirit you're using.
Water also brings together [blends] flavors that don't
readily mingle. (Without ice to settle them down, the gin, vermouth and Campari
in a Negroni seem perpetually on the verge of a barroom brawl.
I know, it seems obvious, but think about it: how many cocktails have you had that are so boozy that you can’t enjoy them? Or what about those plastic ice cubes promising not to dilute drink you see for sale? Thus, it was interesting that in an accompanying article, A Contest Where Victory Goes to the Coolest, ice played such a minor in the Times’ winner in cocktail contest. The winning drink is called the Cuke, and is pretty similar to other cucumber-based cocktails I have had over the past several years, most recently at 22 Doors.
Dale loves cucumbers, and snacks on them like potato chips (which being one of my major weaknesses, I don't allow in the house) so I knew he would love this one. He did, but for the first time he suggested a way to improve it. He wanted the rim salted like a margarita. I thought this was a little too much, so we began adding kosher salt to taste, and bingo, we were fighting over the last ounces. The salt added that extra punch to the flavoring, making both sweetness and tartness stand out proudly and together and taming the mint and lime. It may have even made us thirstier for those last drops.
The recipe that follows the Cuke was published years ago in the New York Times in Grown-Ups Don't Nog Eggs and has become my house drink in the colder months and my most requested recipe. But hold back a bit on the syrup and add a bit more lemon juice, and you have a killer summer drink, too. Don’t let the price of the pear brandy or eau de vie scare you off—-a little goes a long way, and is the key ingredient in a Simple Pear Tart. Play around with different dried fruits and eau de vies or brandies to come up with your own drinks and tarts such as dried cherries with kirsh or dried apples with Calvados or Armagnac with prunes.
The Cuke Adapted from Adam Frank
1 lime, rinsed
1/3 cup packed mint leaves, no stems, plus 2 sprigs for garnish
1/2 unwaxed cucumber
½ cup table sugar
2/3 cup Hendrick's gin
salt
Sparkling water.
1. Roll the lime against a counter with your palm 8 times. Thinly slice 1/2 of the lime and place in a pitcher. Add mint leaves. Slice cucumber crosswise very thinly and add to pitcher, reserving 6 slices, then add sugar. Muddle ingredients, using the sugar granules to grind the ingredients before the sugar dissolves. Juice the remaining lime half and add juice to pitcher. Add gin. Add salt to taste. Place in refrigerator to steep 30 minutes or longer.
2. Fill 2 highball or other large glasses with ice. Strain mixture from pitcher into each. Top with a splash of sparkling water, garnish each glass with a sprig of mint and reserved cucumber slices, and serve.
Yield: 2 servings.
Parkhurst's Pear Adapted from Eleven Madison Park
For the base (5 drinks):
1/2 liter Stolichnaya vodka
1 1/2 dried pears, sliced (the smaller the pieces, the greater the overall surface area)
1/2 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
10 peppercorns, lightly crushed
For each drink:
1 teaspoon simple syrup, or less to taste (see note)
1 teaspoon lemon juice, or more to taste
3/8 ounce pear brandy such as Clear Creek or Poire William.
Twist of lemon rind
1. In a jar, combine vodka, pears, vanilla and peppercorns. Stir together. Seal tightly and let sit for two days, giving jar a shake a few times each day. After two days, strain through a colander into a clean jar. Chill. (The original recipe calls for it to be strained through cheesecloth but I like the vanilla seeds and bits of peppercorn floating amongst the ice chips and murky fluid.)
2. To make the drink, fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add 3 ounces of vodka mixture, simple syrup, lemon juice and pear brandy. Shake 5 or 6 times vigorously. Strain a little into a chilled martini glass. Taste, adding more lemon juice if needed. Garnish with a twist. Serve.
Yield: 1 drink.
Note: For simple syrup, gradually stir one pound of granulated sugar into 13 ounces of boiling water in a sauce pan until it is dissolved.
Simple Pear Tart Adapted from Martha Stewart
2 oz cream cheese
4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup flour, plus extra for hands
½ cup sugar + 1 ½ tbsp
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp pear brandy
1 Bartlett pear
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees with rack in center. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Combine cheese and butter in food processor. Add flour, ¼ cup sugar, salt, and process until combined. Dough will be sticky.
2. Turn dough out onto prepared baking sheet. With lightly floured fingers, pat dough out into a rough 8” circle. In medium bowl combine ¼ cup sugar with lemon juice and brandy.
3. Halve unpeeled pears lengthwise and core. Cut lengthwise into ¼” slices; transfer to lemon juice mixture; coat well. Places slices in strainer to drain liquid (strained and remaining liquid can be frozen for future tarts). Arrange length wise around border of dough, overlapping slightly. Arrange remaining slices in center. Sprinkle tart with remaining 1 ½ tbsp sugar. Dust pears with cinnamon.
4. Bake until golden, 25-30 minutes.
Serve warm or at room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream with pear brandy or vanilla ice cream.
posted by jaka at 9:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home