Herbal Liqueurs

Very pleased with B&B (Benedictine and Brandy) on ice. Am excited to try more herbal liqueurs. Have already tried Drambuie in a Rusty Nail, but am curious as to how it tastes by itself. Other liqueurs to sample: green Chartreuse and yellow Chartreuse, Galliano, straight Benedictine, perhaps Chambord, Grand Marnier...I'm more interested in herbal flavors than fruity, I must admit.

This quick review of major liqueurs is quite mouth-watering and enticing.

"The most famous of the herbals are the French "monastery liqueurs" Benedictine and Chartreuse. Benedictine, a proprietary blend of 27 ingredients, is the oldest of the herbal liqueurs. In 1510, Benedictine monks first made the elixir that we now know as Benedictine, reputedly to fight malaria. In 1873, production of Benedictine was placed in secular hands. Benedictine DOM is a wonderful, complex honeyed liqueur with a bouquet of spice and citrus blossoms. In 1938, a recipe from Manhattan's 21 Club was adapted to create B&B (Benedictine & Brandy), a spicy, slightly caramelized blend of the original liqueur and aged Cognac..."

Results: I am not crazy about sweet orange-flavored liqueurs. Cointreau/Triple Sec is alright with a bitter and sour aspect, i.e. added in small amounts to classic cocktails. I love Benedictine and B&B for it's herbaceous honeyed complexity - it does not hit me over the head with citrus, in other words. Galliano was a disappointment, with an overwhelming note of vanilla. (A Harvey Wallbanger tastes a bit like an alcoholic Orange Julius-type drink.) Still looking to try the Chartreuses. An absinthe imposter called Absente has an unpleasant tongue-numbing aspect, but is alright when used as a flavoring by the drop.

I look forward to being able to try different kinds of bitters - orange bitters, Peychaud's bitters, rhubarb bitters, artichoke bitters, etc - and I think it may happen eventually since they are usually around $9 for a 10 oz bottle or $4 for a 5 oz bottle. And they last a long time. Bitters add much depth and balance to my cocktails. Spirit + bitters + sour + sweet is a successful formula.

Portrait of a Breakfast as a Big Deal

A giant mug of hot "cream" of potato and corn, pureed and diluted with skim milk. Crumbles of salty feta hiding at the bottom of the mug, yum. Also, a poached egg sitting on top of some toasted challah. What could be more comforting on a cold, damp day! It took so long to assemble, and particularly to poach an egg in pyrex, but it was worth it. Sooo photogenic. So tasty.

One regret: monochrome! Ate all my beautiful beet greens yesterday, alas.

Breakfast Soup

Like so many other gastronomical wonders, the creation of Breakfast Soup was a happy accident. I had intended to make a puree/chowder of sorts with beautiful newly-dug potatoes from the farmer's market. There was some frozen broccoli in the freezer... I know, the travesty of combining the frozen with the fresh! In the end, the broccoli was so withered and freezer burnt, I couldn't use it. Who knows how long it had been in there.

But there was some frozen organic corn that I recalled buying. Into the steaming pot of boiled new potatoes went the corn niblets. Later, I added sage and white pepper and salt and milk. And pureed.

At first, it was glue. More milk. Still gluey. So I put it aside to cool, then slid it into the fridge, thinking of it as "potato corn pudding".

But this morning, I added several spoonful of pudding to a mug, added more skim milk, then microwaved - voila! Palatable and faintly sweet, faintly saged Breakfast Soup. Warming and easy to sip. I approve.

Also from the Copley Farmer's Market: red chard so beautiful, it breaks my heart. A little of that mixed into scrambled eggs with garlic, and it will handsomely top off my brown rice lunch.

More chard to cook up tonight. All the greens at Copley are organic, though lower priced than organic supermarket produce. And in fair temperatures, all the greens are ethereally beautiful. There was red Russian kale, which I had never seen before. They had Caribbean callaloo, Tuscan Kale, spring onions, fresh basil, broccoli so fresh I almost didn't recognize it.

Oo, wikipedia tells me that chard is another name for beet greens. A rose by any other name...

The Bitter Truth

I know, I'm punny. But this is a link to a great article about cocktail bitters - all kinds! Artichoke bitters, celery bitters, Peychaud's bitters, and the usual orange Angostura bitters. Also with several intriguing recipes. Article is called When Bitter Is Good, by Jen Karetnick.

Is it pretentious and old-fashioned, or is it interesting and old-fashioned? I'm still deciding, but I do like bitters and bitters-heavy cocktails. Below is an example of a cocktail that would go well with either Steam Punk or the American West. I can't decide.

The Ninth Ward
Serves 1

Created by Brother Cleve

Ingredients:
1-1/2 ounces Bulleit Bourbon
1/2 ounce St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
3/4 ounce Fee Brothers Falernum Syrup (substitute Orgeat Syrup)
3/4 ounce lime juice
2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters

Directions:
Shake all ingredients with cracked ice and strain into a 5-ounce martini glass.
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Also, there's an orange-infused Scotch whisky called Orangerie. Made from single-malt and the hand-zested peel of Navalino oranges. For drinking in cold weather, they say. Sounds like dessert.

Trash Day

What happens when you have some day-old bread in the fridge, some cans of dubious light tuna in the cupboard, a little shredded cheese, and some ancient corn niblets and asparagus tips in the freezer?

You make Trash Sandwiches. In this case, I made Trash Melts.

Found some mayonnaise in the fridge, steeled myself and mixed the disgusting tuna with the disgusting mayonnaise. GROSS, I hate the smell! Mixed in some pepper, cayenne, and Cajun seasoning to make the tuna taste at least tolerable. Then I grilled some bread with sprinkles of cheese on it. Heated up some of the veggies and pressed them into the melting cheese. Then topped with some tuna and slapped those sandwiches on a plate. Ugly food.

Trash Sandwiches. But now there's more cupboard and freezer space for things I actually want to eat.

Food Bucket, Ginger Punch

I made a giant container of bowtie pasta, spinach-feta chicken sausage, broccolini, green beans, and arugula. With garlic and olive oil and pepper. Tomato sauce optional. Not bad, and certainly nutritious. Would be even better with some nutritional yeast, in fact. But it's not terribly photogenic - could've used some red peppers for color, but those bastards are expensive.

One mini bottle of Cointreau later, I've created a cocktail for the summer (or the holidays?). I'm calling it Lindsey's Ginger Punch until a better name occurs to me.

1 oz ginger simple syrup
1.5 oz bourbon
0.5 oz Cointreau
1 big wedge of orange, squeezed
1 optional wedge of lime, squeezed
Topped off with a few ounces of club soda
Optional dash of bitters

Over ice in a Collins glass, maybe with a cherry. Would be lovely as a hard lemonade, too. Doesn't taste like it contains alcohol, which weirds me out. I enjoy the taste of whiskey/bourbon/scotch, so it seems odd to cover up the taste. But convenient for cheaper alcohol? It could be a fine party drink.

For the record, "Ginger Punch" is the name of a race horse (thanks, Wikipedia!). Which is even better!!! Derby cocktail, or Ginger Punch, anyone? We need a cocktail named after Barbaro, poor guy.

Maybe a Sazerac

In a bizarre turn of events, I have decided that rye whiskey with bitters, on ice, is possibly my favorite drink of the moment. This is like the minimalist version of a Sazerac cocktail; the recipe from cocktailmixer.com follows.

1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 oz rye whiskey
1 dash Deva® absinthe
2 dashes Peychaud® bitters
2 dashes Angostura® bitters
1 twist lemon peel
ice

Chill an old-fashioned glass by filling with crushed ice. In another glass mix the sugar with the bitters dissolving the sugar. Add some ice, stirring to chill. In the old-fashioned glass remove the ice and pour in the absinthe coating the entire glass. Remove the excess absinthe. Add the rye whiskey and bitters/sugar mixture. Add the lemon twist.

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Sounds grand. That'll be my next experimental bar order, I think. That, or a Negroni. Which will get me the weirdest look? Also, I was thinking that combining a Manhattan with an Old-Fashioned would make...an Old Man. Surely this cocktail pun has occurred to others.

I enjoy my rye with bitters, on ice.

After the BBQ

All the chicken sausages and veggie sausages have been eaten, all the peppers and potato salad consumed. What I had left: a 1/2 package of regular, convenience-store hot dog buns.

So I made my Saturday breakfast on griddle-grilled hot dog buns, yeah! Scrambled eggs and kale with a little cheese on top of toasted buns. How many times can I type "buns" here? Buns buns buns.

It was a tasty breakfast, alongside some blueberries and nectarines. Downright summery.

Rob Roy

It's a Manhattan made with Scotch, and it's a Scottish folk hero! It's pretty tasty. The inclusion of the maraschino cherries is really growing on me - for better or worse. My recipe so far is:

1.5 ounces Scotch
1 tablespoon sweet vermouth
2 cherries
2 ice cubes

It's a party in a rocks glass.

Today is also a historic day, because I finally broke down and bought a quarter of a Boston Cream Pie from the Co-op. Three bucks for a giant slice of cake/pie is not a bad deal. And it turned out to be way tastier than I expected; the custard is whipped so it's not gloppy and gross as I anticipated. It was more like...dense whipped cream, I suppose. Spongy, moist yellow cake. And a nice chocolate glaze. I have the rest of the slice to eat tomorrow. It only took me three years to sample Boston Cream Pie, and it was just right! I am pleased. I'll put a picture up when/if I find a prettier slice that hasn't smudged its chocolate glaze inside a plastic container.

Finally, I exchanged the bag of rejected food at the fancy pet store. Found some lighter food, which Aster is excited about eating. She seems much perkier now. I'm SO RELIEVED. Perhaps we can try something like a regular dog-breakfast tomorrow.