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Lisa M. Frame

cocktails

Eat Your Drink — Culinary Cocktails {Book Review}

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Disclosure: This book was sent to me to review by the publisher

I follow the cocktail scene closely in several cities around the world. Los Angeles is one of those cities. I’ve been following Matthew Biancaniello  and the innovative cocktails he has been creating for quite some time. Biancaniello started mixing drinks at the Library Bar, located in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and now consults on cocktail programs for many restaurants and bars. He has just realeased his book based on years of experience, Eat Your Drink: Culinary Cocktails

Eat Your Drink is set up in courses, starting with the amuse-bouche and ending with the after dinner drinks for a total of six chapters fusing “artisanal alcohol and foods.” Some of them I could definitely get behind, like gin-based Chai Iced Tea (but would also like to see it made as a vodka drink), the Mexican Apple Pie (tequila based) and Vin de Pamplemousse (a grapefruit liqueur made with white wine and tequila). A few of them stopped in my tracks, like the tequila based cocktail with uni puree (sea urchin) and cumin. There was also the okra infused cachaca (a sugarcane based liquor.) I prefer my uni as sushi and my okra fried, but that’s my taste preferences.

eat your drink is a cocktail experience for the truly adventurous foodie.

I do love some of the ideas for cocktails in the book, but I am unlikely to infuse an entire bottle of spirits to mix drinks one time. Most weekend bartenders are the same way. Instead of infusing 750ml at a time, I create infusions in very small quantities (pints). There is also the issue of availability. While I live in the Charlotte, NC, area, a booming region, we still have a long way to catch up on what is being sold in our liquor stores, as well as what is being offered by our state licensing agencies. (Our alcohol and food laws are somewhat archaic at best.)

Even without the availability of many of the ingredients in the book (fingerlimes for example) I am able to make substitutions. Like using the applewood smoked sea salt I already have sitting in my pantry for rubs. I also experimented with infusing some, but on a very small scale (just the amount required to make the cocktail and a much shorter time).

One recipe I haven’t made, but am going to try over the coming weeks is the candy cap bourbon ice cream. I’m only going to infuse 1 cup of bourbon with dried candy cap mushrooms instead of 750mil. I have been experimenting with savory ice creams over the past summer at home, so this is great inspiration. After all, mushrooms pull what is the new holy grail of taste, umami. It’s a savory taste that comes from glutamate in food. I’m always seeking umami, the flavor found most often in Japanese cuisine.

For the truly adventurous foodie and cocktail lover, Eat Your Drink is an investment that will make your bar a culinary delight.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Four Festive Christmas Cocktails

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Christmas is a time for entertaining and festivities. We’re getting in the spirit of the season with these great Christmas cocktails. Perfect for winter, you’ll use the recipes over and over until the spring thaw.

1. Hot Buttered Rum. We love the recipe from Eugene Walter’s “The Happy Table of Eugene Walter: Southern Spirits in Food and Drink”. He describes it as “a great drink and positively remedial for folks with colds, influenza, or fatigue or after visits from cousins.” Believe me, we agree. (via Garden and Gun)

Great Christmas Cocktails: Hot Buttered Rum

2. Eggnog . What would Christmas be like without a glass of eggnog? We’ve hunted high and low for the best eggnog recipes on the planet and our favorite to date comes from the Four Roses Life Magazine advertisement circa 1936. (via Bourbon Blog)

Great Christmas Cocktails - Four Roses Eggnog

3. Wassail has been a traditional part of English Christmas celebrations since the 13th century. We’re down for any cocktail that incorporates the Southern favorite Madeira wine. (via Epicurious)

Great Christmas Cocktails -- Wassail

4. Brandy Milk Punch is milky decadence served cold. Leaning to the sweet side, this clever cocktail disguises the punch it packs, so it’s best served on a night when you’re sitting by the fire, watching the lights on your tree twinkle. (via Always Order Dessert)

What are your favorite Christmas cocktails?

Wassail image courtesy of agphoto/iStock 

Cocktails as a life analogy.

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Life is like a cocktail. Cocktails are like life. When mixing a cocktail, you start with a base, the spirit (life). You add sweet (good, happy, exhilarating times) and bitter (disheartening, upsetting, negative times) to the spirit to balance it and make a beautiful amalgamation. If that balance is off, it’s cloying in the sweetness, and masks the rich aromas of the flavors and bitters. If too bitter, it makes the delicate perfume of the sweet and spirit.

When you get a dose of bitter thrown your way, especially when you’re already feeling strain, you become weary in a hurry. Too much bitter makes your entire body reactive negatively. Your face scrunches up, lips purse, shoulders curve inward, and sometimes you double over. Sweet gives you the dopamine rush. Your body relaxes, shoulders round out, and you float around on butts seemingly made of cotton candy. I was poured a healthy dose of bitter earlier today, and unbeknownst to me, it was thrown my way some time ago. Yet, when I’m face to face with the bitter, it’s simple syrup being poured out in a stream. (Thinking about this intense amount of bitter is what caused me to come up with this analogy. Let’s call it a stroke of creative luck.)

Balance in life is an illusive mirage and one millions of dollars have been made off of in the form of self-help tomes. If we’re lucky, we can carry about day to day and stay on track for the most part. Sure, the cocktail isn’t perfect, but we keep it fairly close to the original balanced recipe. But the days the recipe is thrown off by a large pour of bitter or sweet, your head is sent spinning and your thought process thrown into overtime. It’s not a feeling anyone relishes.

Unfortunately, you can’t correct an overly bitter cocktail with the addition of sweet and vice versa.The spirit is already compromised. The only thing you can do is start over. Reboot your mindset and not pour the same bitters, or sweet, in the other persons direction. By not pouring more of the same ingredients into your spirit, you’re starting over with a fresh glass. The other person might still be drinking the overly bitter cocktail, but you’re making the choice to cleanse your palate and find your balance. A life lesson no one can refute.

The Modern Screwdriver: Sparkling Blood Orange Vodka Cocktail

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Some nights I like to kick back and relax with a sparkly, fruity cocktail like Sparkling Blood Orange Vodka Cocktail — it’s my take on the modern screwdriver. When I do, I like to use Prosecco (a sparkling Italian wine) as a mixer. Prosecco is a great mixer but loses its bubbles quickly, so I learned to improvise with my favorite sparkling blood orange beverage, San Pellegrino Aranciata Ross. I decided to do a twist on the traditional Screwdriver (orange juice and vodka) mixed with Rain Organic Vodka.

the-modern-screwdriver

Rain Organic Vodka is distilled from organic white corn, which has created a superior taste profile. When you open the bottle and sniff it, you pick up smells of pear, moss, and hay. Leaving it open to aerate allows the aroma to deepen, leaving you an appealing earthy moss/wet soil perfume.

The sweetness of the blood orange was perfectly countered by the firm, satiny taste of sweet grain. It’s not cloying and avoids the syrupy sweetness of so many other mixed drinks. There is just enough sweet to make it a crowd pleaser, and a great cocktail to add to your bar or when mixing for a crowd.

If you prefer a less sweet taste, top your Sparkling Blood Orange Vodka Cocktail off with club soda (which will make it more fizzy.)

The Modern Screwdriver: Sparkling Blood Orange Vodka Cocktail

Recipe Type: cocktail
Author: Lisa
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
The Sparkling Blood Orange Vodka Cocktail is the perfect summer cocktail. Light and refreshing, it suits a variety of tastes. Try this crowd pleaser at your next gathering!
Ingredients
  • 2 ounces Rain Organic Vodka
  • 6 ounces San Pellegrino Aranciata Rossa
  • Ice
Instructions
  1. Add ice to glass (I prefer 3 cubes).
  2. Pour in vodka, top with San Pellegrino Aranciata Rossa.
  3. Stir gently.
  4. Garnish with a slice of blood orange
Serving size: 1

Gearing Up for Mad Men? Don’t Read This Post

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One of the most talked about television shows over the past few years is finally coming back. AMC’s “Mad Men” will begin its 5th season on AMC this Sunday. Like most of you readers out there, I can’t wait. Although we live in a day and age where there seems to be no end to the amount of programming that’s available for the small screen, finding shows we truly enjoy watching is at a premium. This is one of those shows and I’m glad they’re coming back.

And I know I’m not the only one. Everywhere I’ve looked this week there have been stories about “Mad Men” parties. AMC even has its own “Mad Men” party guide. We’re a nation that’s mad about “Mad Men.”

But I’m not going to do that. I mean, what would Don Draper say? What would Roger Sterling say? Don would probably yell at you and Roger would say something mean yet hilarious, both of which will probably have the same effect: you, leaving their presence feeling something between embarrassment and anger, leaving a trail of either perspiration or tears in your wake. We may like Roger and Don, but that doesn’t mean either of them are particularly nice to the people near them.

Instead, I’ll just tell you to enjoy the show however you want to enjoy it. You’re a grown-up and I don’t need to tell you how to watch your show. So watch it your way. But I know I’ll be pouring myself a Manhattan:

If you want to replicate it, here’s how I make mine:

  • 2 1/2 oz. of whiskey (I tried it with a clear whiskey from Few Spirits. Clean rye taste, but it’s bottled before it’s barreled).
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sweet vermouth
  • 2 dashes Angosturra bitters
  • 1 Maraschino cherry (I only realized we were out of these AFTER I snapped this Instagram)

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add whiskey, vermouth and bitters. Shake until frosty. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry. Enjoy.