MxMo LVIII: Niche Spirits - Sourvit and Pisco Shenzhen Cocktails

Mixology Monday is here again, seems like the last one was so long ago, around the time of, well, my last post. I may be neglecting the blog, but the MxMo monthly gathering gives me a deadline that keeps me on my toes. And in any case, I've got a good excuse for the blog neglect, being a new dad and all. This month's theme comes to us via Filip at Adventures in Cocktails, and he has called upon us to celebrate Niche Spirits:

Junes theme will be “favorite niche spirit”, so any cocktail where the base ingredient is not bourbon, gin, rum, rye, tequila, vodka etc would qualify.  So whether you choose Mezcal or Armagnac get creative and showcase your favorite niche spirit.

UPDATE: Check out the recap post here.

One of my favorite classics it the Pisco Sour, a drink which itself already uses the niche spirit Pisco. The simple yet elegant recipe lends itself easily to successful tinkering, which I've done before, and will now do again. I first tried swapping the Pisco for Aquavit, a spirit close to my heart and if not a niche spirit I don't know what one is. While the simple substitution made for a delightful enough drink, I decided to dress 'er up a bit more, adding Celery bitters, which I find go well with Aquavit. Then I used Maraschino in place of some of the simple, rounding out the flavor and adding a bit of funky fruit in the finish to follow the herbal notes on the sip. An improvement, certainly, but I wasn't finished. Why not add a second niche spirit? I cut back on the Aquavit and added a nip of Mezcal, adding it's distinctive smoke, a yet rounder flavor, and perhaps even a hint of rebellion. (Though not to imply the Del Maguey line is something one needs to be dared to drink; it's fine stuff.) After all this, I give you the Sourvit, or "Sour of life", if you will:

Sourvit

• 1 oz Aquavit (Aalborg Akvavit)
• ½ oz Mezcal (Del Maguey Chichicapa)
• ½ oz Maraschino Liqueur
• ½ oz simple syrup (1:1)
• ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 oz egg white
• 1 dash Celery Bitters (Scrappy's)

Dry shake, shake, double strain, top foam with a few extra drops of Celery Bitters. Sip poolside whilst the sun slips slowly down the sky.

Since I've been delinquent in posting recently, and it fits the bill, I'll leave you with a bonus Niche cocktail (and another Pisco Sour variant) I came up with back in March for TDN:Citrus. (nb this was certainly more than inspired by the tangerine pisco I had seen on cocktail virgin slut days before.)

Pisco Shenzhen

• 2 oz Pisco
• ½ oz TraderTiki (oh, wait, I mean B.G. Reynolds) Orgeat
• ½ oz five-spice simple syrup (1:1)
• ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 oz egg white
• 1 dash Peychaud's Bitters
• A.B. Smeby Nasturtium-Cumin bitters to top

Dry shake, shake, double strain, top foam with a few drops of Nasturtium-Cumin Bitters. Sip whilst saluting TraderTiki and cursing Trader Vic.

Let me tell you, it was real torture methodically taste testing all the iterations. It is a fine drink with lime as well, but I had a slight preference for the lemon version, contra one of my guinea pig taste testers.



Hope you enjoy 'em, and stay tuned for Filip's roundup of all the entries in a few days. Though I'll be in Ireland, so I will have to wait 'til I return next week to peruse. Sláinte!

MxMo LVII: Flores de Mayo – English Garden

Mixology Monday time again, and I'm running low on time so I'll keep this sort and sweet. This month's theme is Flores de Mayo, dubbed by Dave at The Barman Cometh. Dave declares:

The challenge is to feature a cocktail that highlights a floral flavor profile or includes a floral derived ingredient, whether home-made or off the shelf.  With the ever expanding catalogue of spirits (and the kitchen labs of home enthusiasts), there’s a whole host of directions for you to choose from – elderflower liqueur, creme de violette, chamomile infused gin, hibiscus grenadine, rosewater, lavender syrup – or to create.

Floral flavors can be delicate, so I didn't want to over think this one; I'm keeping it simple, but amping up the florals. Floral gin, floral vermouth, floral bitters, and floral garnish. The gin I chose is Bulldog, as it counts among its botanicals both poppy and lavender. I reached for Dolin Blanc vermouth, which, while I confess to not know what flavors it may use, it always brings floral thoughts to my mind upon tasting it. Then I grabbed the A.B. Smeby Nasturtium-Cumin Bitters for some mellow spice. I had initially hoped to garnish with fresh Nasturtium, bu failed to procure some in time. I therefore went scavenging in my garden and found some not quite fully bloomed chive blossoms, which in the end I think worked out quite well, with their peppery notes echoing the hint of spice from the nasturtium. Putting them all together, I give you the English Garden:

English Garden

• 2 oz Bulldog London Dry Gin
• ¾ oz Dolin Blanc Vermouth
• 2 dashes A.B. Smeby Nasturtium-Cumin Bitters
• Chive Blossoms

Lightly muddle chive blossoms, then stir with other ingredients and strain, garnish with fresh chive blossom

Amor y Amargo - Cocktails and Bittermens Experimental Series

A while back a few friends and I popped into Amor y Amargo to see what was happening with the old Carteles sandwich shop space and to check out some of the  Bittermens Experimental Series flavorings that are only available there. We were treated to an excellent time, with our cocktails slung by none other than Avery Glasser himself, who along with his wife are the ones behind the Bittermens line.  More details here.

We started out sampling the cocktails that used some of the more interesting ingredients from their Experimental line, including not only bitters but Shrubs and citrates as well. First up for me was this:

Françause Four-Play

• Bonal Quinquina
• Yellow Chartreuse
• Cognac
• Lillet Blanc
• soda
• Bittermens Hellfire Shrub

(I've been making this at home using equal parts of the first four and leaving out the soda, yum.)

Meanwhile my friend tried this:

À L’Ancienne

• Cognac old fashioned
• Bittermens Spiced Cranberry Citrate
• Xocolatl Mole Bitters

These were both excellent, and all the more interesting due to the added dimensions from the new unique ingredients. For those unfamiliar with these types of products, a Shrub is a flavoring with vinegar used as a base to deliver the flavor, while a citrate contains the acidic citric acid to help tie a drink together, as opposed to bitters which use alcohol to deliver a bittering agents and other flavors. (Update: I originally wrote only the bitters use alcohol as a base, but frederic corrected me in the comments pointing out these shrubs and citrates also use alcohol as a base.)
The Hellfire is a Habanero Shrub, or as Avery put it a hot sauce specifically for drinks. The Hellfire Shrub does capture the heat from the fiery pepper, but not overpoweringly so. What I was most struck by when tasting a drop straight was how well it captured the lovely fruit notes of the habanero that pepper aficionados so enjoy.
The Spiced Cranberry Cream Citrate is another nice product that can add some bright notes a a little zing to a cocktail with a few drops.
It was at this point that Avery mentioned that what was left one the shelf behind us was all that was left of the first batch of the experimental series. Noting that a few of them only had a single lonely bottle left on the shelf, I quickly grabbed these three to claim for my own:

The last of the Hellfire Shrub, Peppercake, and Squirrel Nut Bitters.

The empty spots on the shelves after I did my initial damage:

Of course I didn't stop there and I ended up taking home one of each from the experimental series to play with at home:

Here's the whole Bittermens Experimental Series lineup:

• Hellfire Habanero Shrub
• Spiced Cranberry Cream Citrate
• Orange Cream Citrate
• Orchard Street Celery Shrub
• Peppercake Gingerbread Bitters
• Squirrel Nut Pecan Vanilla Bitters

These were all new to me, but Frederic from cocktail virgin slut tells me the Squirrelnut and Peppercake have been in Boston for a while; in fact Peppercake were made for Craigie on Main. I suppose that's why it says on the bottle "A cult favorite from 2007." These guys should keep me busy tinkering at home for a while.

Of interest also is how they prepare the stirred drinks: they stir the ingredients together without ice, and then add one large ice cube and serve, so the drink as presented is room temp and strong, but as it sits in front of you it evolves in the glass as the ice melts, thus simultaneously cooling and diluting the drink. It makes for an interesting experience, and you get a continuum of drinks and you can pick your ideal spot to savor. Avery figures that back in the day ice was a scarce commodity and they were not about to stir with ice and then dump out a bunch of frozen jewels for every drink and this method is more authentic. Avery noted that he has at times received complaints that a drink was too strong, at which point he had to instruct the customer to give it a minute and it would work out ok. I kinda liked the experience. Also note the space has at most a dozen or so seats so it's intimate enough to chat easily with the barkeep if that's your thing, I encourage it.

We also tried several more cocktails (another friend joined us after the first round), see the opening menu here:

Bittermens House Gin and Tonic

• gin
• tonic water
• maraschino
• Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit Bitters

A very nice take, the hopped grapefruit bitters are even better than the excellent grapefruit bitters they produced during the Bitter Truth partnership.

Orchard Street Cel’ry Soda

• Applejack
• Genever
• club soda
• Bittermens Orchard St. Celery Shrub
• Bittermens Peppercake Bitters

I'm still trying to figure out what I think of this drink, since I lacked a frame of reference to compare it to. As Avery said, you really need to like celery to enjoy it. I liked it, but probably need to try it more times before I wrap my head around it.

Tequila Gibson

• House-made amber vermouth
• Reposado Tequila
• Cocktail Onion
• Bittermens Boston Bittahs
• Bittermens Orchard St. Celery Shrub

The Tequila Gibson was a highlight of the night, I definitely need to try the house made vermouths straight next time I drop in.
A few snacks are also offered, but since we were headed to dine upon many many different parts of cow at Takashi, we only tried the crispy garbanzos with morcilla, which proved a tasty snack. Fyi, the Ribeye and sweetbreads are the winners at Takashi:

Laurent Gras dinner at BLT Fish - a few days left to try it

Last night a few friends and I went over to BLT Fish to sample a dinner from Laurent Gras, who was taking over the kitchen for a special meal Monday night. I had read about the dinner, but by the time I got around to calling for a reservation it was booked up, so I settled for making a reservation on Tuesday night, as the menu will be available as a special through this Saturday the 7th, although Gras was only going to be in the house for Monday night. I was quite excited about the opportunity to try the cooking of Laurent Gras, as I had seen his Michelin 3-star cooking at L2O in Chicago via his blog and on this segment from No Reservations where Bourdain and Eric Ripet feast and I was sold, but he left before I got a chance to make it over there. Chicago's loss is our gain however, as he now plans to open a restaurant here in NY after doing a few more pop ups and enjoying the summer. As luck would have it, I saw this BLT Fish tweet mentioning they had some cancellations, and this time I was quick enough to change my reservation to Monday to be there for the main event.

We only got to try a handful of items and not a 22-course marathon they enjoyed on No Reservations, but everything was great and only got me more excited about the chef's eventual new restaurant. We started with a nice amuse of mushroom dashi with lobster and ramps, before moving on the the main menu:

While everything was excellent, my favorite was the first course of Black Bass Sashimi with Ossetra Caviar Vinaigrette, nori, red Sorrel & baby Shiso:

The Bass was clean and sweet, the caviar added a subtle brininess, and the herbs and nori added just the right touch of texture and light flavor to bring everything together while keeping the pristine fish shining to the front.

Next we had the Shellfish Fricassee with a Harissa Bouillon poured table side. The clam, scallop,shrimp, and lobster were each cooked very delicately and perfectly for the protein they are. In particular, the clam and scallop were barely cooked, the scallop retained the lusciousness of a raw scallop while gaining a hint of firmness, while the clam was just gently warmed. This was the favorite course of some of my companions. The Spanish Garnacha rosé was an excellent foil to this dish.

For the last savory course we had the Arctic Char Schnitzel with Letttuce, Pinot Noir Essence & Morels.I wasn't sure what to expect reading the menu, but the Schnitzel referred to the topping crusted atop the fish, adding both flavor and texture. The Char was another example of restraint and precision in applying heat to the seafood, just cooked through but meltingly moist and soft. Another winner. The Patagonian Pinot Noir's young 2009 vintage belied its quality; it tasted to me significantly older given how well it's flavors came together. Note to self, I should see if I can pick up some of this "Barda" Bodega Chacra 2009.

We ended with the geometric box of chocolate containing several layers of goodness, paired with port. I especially enjoyed the fresh blueberries and jam betwixt chocolate ganache layers.

Even though Laurent Gras will not be in the kitchen for the rest of the week, these dishes will be offered as blackboard specials through Sat the 7th; you will not be sorry if you partake. I'm just looking forward to the opening of his new restaurant here, although if he does more pop ups I'll try those as well.

Oh, another tip, if you go, stopping by the Raines Law Room across the street for a pre-dinner cocktail would not be a mistake. I had an excellent Grapefruit Tom Collins using Beefeater 24 Bitters I spied behind the bar and wanted them to make me something using them.

Here's the No Reservations clip if you want more food porn and to see why I was so interested. If Eric Ripert likes seafood this much, you know it's good:

MxMo LVI: Your Best - Lumber Jill

We seem to have all skipped the Mixology Monday for March, but April is upon us and Chris aka DJ HawaiianShirt at Spirited Remix is wasting no time getting April's going. This month's theme is "Your Best", as Chris explains in his announcement post:

The theme is quite simple: your best. Give me the best drink recipe you've ever created...I'm talking about that one drink that you've worked on for quite a while. The one that you've carefully tweaked over time until you found that perfect recipe. The one you've made tons of times: sometimes alone in contemplation, sometimes for a guest so that you could get their opinion.
If you don't have a drink that fits the above mold, then perhaps this is your excuse to revisit your old "original remixes", as I call them, and decide or even tweak one to be your best. If you've never made such a drink before, then begin experimenting right now! I want to see what makes your taste buds tick. Use your favorite spirits or flavors. Show me what your "drink of the house" would be.
Maybe you have a blog and you've already posted it before; I don't care. Give it to me again. Let us have this MxMo be a review of greatness, a bass-thumping medley of original remixes.

Thus, with the requisite permission (Chris even made a remixed MxMo logo), I'm using a drink I previously blogged about. But damnit if it's not a fine crowd pleasing drink. In choosing the Lumber Jill for MxMo, I perused my past cocktail posts and made a short list of contenders. Even with a short list, I didn't have time to try them all, and retrying them is necessary because the concoctions do not always live up to their representation in memory. In fact the first contender I re-tried was good, but not nearly as great as in my mind, so he got bumped off. The Lumber Jill's virtues, however, remained true to memory. This drink also had two other things going for it: the fact that I half-assed my first post about it, lacking even a picture, and the fact that it was a bit incomplete, lacking a garnish. This gives me a chance to correct those oversights.
She was originally created for a Thursday Drink Night, specifically TDN:Bubbles, back in Feb 2010. (Anyone else have trouble hearing "Bubbles" without thinking of The Wire?) I quite enjoy the TDN and MxMo themes because they get me out of my comfort zone and allow me to try new ingredients or styles; I'd otherwise be likely to restrict my drinks to either up sours or brown, bittered, and stirred variations.
The inspiration for this drink was the trinity of Chartreuse, maple, and ginger I initially fell in love with in the Lumber Jacques cocktail I had on a visit to Montreal; this is a theme I've riffed on multiple times. While the Lumber Jacques uses Rye and muddled fresh ginger, I opted for Ginger Beer to provide the required bubbles and swapped out Rye for my newly acquired bottle of Smith&Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum. The Navy Strength funky beast of a rum quickly became one of my very favorite spirits too boot. Without further ado, here she is:

Lumber Jill

• 1½ oz Smith&Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum
• ¾ oz Green Chartreuse
• ¼ oz Grade B maple syrup
• ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
• ½ oz fresh orange juice
• 2 dashes angostura
• touch salt
• ~3 oz ginger beer to top (Reed's Extra Ginger Brew is an excellent choice here)

shake and strain over fresh ice, top with ginger beer; garnish with a slice of orange and crystallized ginger skewered with a rosemary sprig.

The derivation of the name remains as before:

The name is an obvious derivation of Lumber Jacques, but figured it was a bit less burly both with rum instead of rye and the fizzy ginger beer lightening it up a bit.  Not that a man should be ashamed to drink it, the drink proved reasonably popular at TDN and I very much enjoy and am proud to drink it.

Even though referring to anything swapping in Smith&Cross for Rye as "less burly" amused Frederic from cocktail virgin slut, girls do seem to prefer Jill to Jacques in this instance.
I'm very happy with the addition of the garnish, although I can not take much credit. The lack of garnish and the specific suggestion of a rosemary speared orange came from other TDN participants, although I don't remember who; sorry I can not give proper thanks, but thank you nonetheless. I just added the ginger. I find the ginger-maple-chartreuse to really play well with each other; the spice of the ginger is leavened by the richness of the maple with the chorus of herbal flavors filling out the band, all keeping the heat of the over-proof rum in check while still letting everyone play their part in perfect harmony. Upon taking a sip, the aroma of the rosemary really ties the tree-sourced maple to the chartreuse herbs while driving home the forestry theme. Adding just a touch of salt is a trick I learned from Dave Arnold from Cooking Issues; a little bit rounds out drinks with citrus while both amplifying and tying together the flavors.
So there you have it, enjoy, and treat 'er well.

Empellón - Alex Stupak's satisfying West Village tacos

Alex Stupak had enjoyed success as a pasty chef at groundbreaking haunts such as Alinea and, more recently, WD-50, so his announcement that he would open a Mexican joint was understandably met with great buzz around these parts. Last night was the official opening night of his new place, dubbed Empellón, so I wandered over tonight to try it out.

I had been craving good tacos for a while, as they are woefully underrepresented in NY, at least at places easy to find out about, or just plain find you way to anyway. (Excellent burritos and New Orleans fare are the only things I know of that just can't be found in New York, I know not why.) Tonight, anyway, Stupak was able to give me my fix, specifically with his beer braised tongue tacos.

The charming space was booked when I walked in, but I was able to secure a spot at the bar where they serve the full menu. I chose to start with a cocktail after perusing the interesting list, choosing the "¿Por Que No?" cocktail with Espolón Silver tequila, Seranno, Cilantro, and Pineapple. As you can see, it came with a sidecar with the portion of the drink that did not fit in the glass. It was a well balanced drink with a hint of heat and herbal notes from the muddled pepper and cilantro; a nice start.

There are some fun cocktails on Empellón's list, I next tried the "Drunk Monk", an obvious choice since I'm a sucker for both Chartreuse and new-to-me ingredients, and I had never heard of Hoja Santa, which the menu accurately described as an aromatic herb reminiscent of anise and sassafras. The drink was shaken with the herb and then garnished with an additional crumble, and the hoja santa played very nicely with the vegetal chartreuse.

I had read that griddled head cheese tacos might be on offer, but they were not on the menu tonight. It's just as well, because I had my heart set on the lamb barbacoa tacos, as well as the beer braised tongue tacos. It was all I could do to not order the Chicharon plate, resisting the head cheese as well would have proved overpowering to my resolve I am sure. Those items will live until another day when I shall return to eat them. Tonight's menu had plenty of good looking items to choose from.
Mustering all my will power to avoid ordering the Chicharon plate (labeled "for the table", so it would be harder to justify), I ordered a plate of each of the barbacoa and tongue tacos. Despite an early indication that the tacos might be sold individually, for the time being at least the are sold by the plate with three tacos, no mixing and matching. This policy of course is perfectly understandable for a young restaurant still finding its footing, no need to overly complicate things. The barbacoa tacos arrived first, with green olives and I believe cotija cheese. While they lacked the visceral lusciousness I enjoyed in the Texas hill country gas station barbacoa, the flavor was good and the lamb was a nice twist. While I would have preferred a bit more fat and rendered connective tissue, these were enjoyable nonetheless. I'm not sure if one could even source enough lamb heads around here to get enough off cut meat for the number of tacos they will probably serve. I would be remiss if I did not mention the top notch tortillas here as well.

The real winner tonight though was the beer braised tongue tacos. Moist, tender, lucious, just a hint of sweetness but slightly more than a hint of heat. These were what I was hoping for.

I did try one additional item, which was sent out gratis due to a slight delay on my tacos plates. They sent out the cauliflower salad with spinach, almonds, and chorizo vinaigrette. I would not have ordered it, but I will next time; it was delicious. The cauliflower was expertly roasted and had a hearty richness.

All in all, I look forward to going back with a bigger party to try more items from the menu, and definitely to get more of that tongue. And I'm always glad to have a place I can pop in to dine at the bar and enjoy an interesting cocktail or two.

MxMo LV: Some Like it Hot - Caramel Apple Toddy #2

Time once again for Mixology Monday, brought to us this month by Nancy The Backyard Bartender. Nancy proffers "Some like it Hot" as our theme for this go 'round. She calls for one simple rule: "make anything you want to, as long as it's served hot." Simple enough. Like last month's "See You on the Flipside" MxMo, I initially had designs to finally try my hand at making a Yard of Flannel, or more likely including rum, but like last month time grew short and my resolve proved insufficient, so I'm going with a simple, but tasty, Toddy variation. To begin I began by rereading the relevant chapter on Toddies, Slings, etc in Dave Wondrich's tome Imbibe!, which proved just as enlightening as the first time I read it. I had some Caramel Syrup I had whipped up a while back in the fridge, so set upon that to make a toddy using it and Laird's Straight Apple Brandy. I threw some Bénédictine in there as well just to add a little spice to the mix.

Caramel Apple Toddy #2

• 2 oz Laird's Straight Apple Brandy
• ¼ oz Bénédictine
• ½ oz Caramel Syrup*
• 3½ oz hot water
• cinnamon stick to stir and garnish

*For the Caramel Syrup, make a caramel by constantly stirring sugar in a heavy bottomed pot over med-high heat until it melts and then turns a deep caramel color. I like to add a dash of corn syrup as a cheat because I find the slightly different sugar molecule helps keep the sugar from crystallizing or otherwise acting up. Some recipes call for adding water, but that just makes you stir longer until the water evaporates so I don't do that. Once you get to the caramel stage add an equal volume (as the original sugar) of water and dissolve, the bottle and store in fridge.

I added the #2 because I noted "Caramel Apple Toddy" had been used in a previous MxMo back in 2007, and really didn't have a better idea for a name for mine. Despite the high water content, it's rich from the caramelized sugar and Bénédictine, reminiscent of a light mulled apple cider in some ways; it should do the trick to warm you up.

Even though I did not get around to fashioning a loggerhead with which to flash heat some ale for my drink, I find this a good opportunity to belatedly tell you who to look to to see how it should be done, for I witnessed the method back in 2009. I told you about and mentioned I would be attending the FCI Holiday Cocktail Course, but ashamedly neglected to blog about the excellent event. In any case, look no further than Dave Arnold and his Red Hot Poker(s) for the one true way. Read the articles at those links, and this is what I would have done had I the time:

Look at the fire:

UPDATE: Nancy has put up the roundup post, head over there to check out all the drinks while they're hot.