Aroma Cucina

New Year's: Let's Drink Punch!

People are coming over, or you’re going to a house party. What’s an appropriate libation? Something that doesn’t require precision, can be made in batches, and won’t knock you or your guests on their fannys would be a good start.

Punch to the rescue! Yes, punch. Back in style, thanks to David Wondrich’s lovely book, “Punch”.

Punch, that communal libation, needs a new image.  It makes me think of 1950’s high school dances where someone snuck booze into the party. No, I’m not that old, I’ve only watched old movies. Our generation smoked pot. Hence my nostalgia for big crystal bowls with silly matching tea cups hanging on hooks on the rim of the bowl.

When did the idea of putting a delicious Champagne punch in a too small tea cup seem like a good idea?

Time for a make-over!

Here are two festive Bubbly Punch recipes, one a classic and one so modern it’s almost, nearly good for you.

*A note about the Champagne. These recipes date back to a time when Champagne wasn’t so expensive and you couldn’t find good alternatives like Prosecco or Cava. For these recipes, you only need to use a dry, sparkling, white wine.   But, we’ll keep calling it a Champagne punch because it sounds so ritzy.

The Ritz Champagne Punch
1 bottle sparkling white wine
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
3/4  cup simple syrup
1/2 cup Maraschino liqueur
1/2  cup Triple Sec
16 oz. Brandy
16 oz. Club Soda

Approx 16 servings.

Mix the lemon juice and simple syrup together and taste. If it is super sour, add more simple syrup until the mix is pleasantly tart.

Combine the lemon juice mixture, Maraschino, Triple Sec Brandy into a chilled pitcher and keep cold.

If you are juicing your own lemons, and of course you are, you may want to save 1 or 2 of the lemon skins to make the garnish. Cut the top and bottom off of the lemon and then core out the flesh of the lemon. Slit the lemon skin open and lay it on a flat cutting surface. Trim off any of the white pith, so you just have the lemon skin. It’s a little tricky, don’t get too crazy with this, just get as much of the white off as possible. Now roll the skin into a tight ball, and secure it with toothpicks. When it comes time to serve the cocktail, thinly slice the skin, and unroll the now-curly strips, placing one end over the edge of the glass and letting the unfurled skin dangle inside the glass.

In a champagne flute, add a small shot of soda water, a small shot of the booze and lemon juice mixture, and top with the sparkling wine.

If you don’t want to fuss at all, at the last possible moment, combine all of the ingredients in a large, chilled punch bowl and let the guests help themselves.

This punch could be called the double whammy: it’s very drinkable but very strong! Be warned.

And now, for our nearly healthy punch!

Midnight in Mumbai
2 bottles of sparkling white wine
4 oz. brandy
4 oz. cointreau
1 bag of frozen cranberries
2 thinly slice oranges
1-2 boxes of raspberries frozen into a block of ice

First, everyone must dress like an extra from a dance scene in a Bollywood movie. It totally sets the mood.

Clean the raspberries and place in a square plastic container. Fill the container with water and freeze.

When it is party time, add all of the ingredients into a large chilled punch bowl, float the raspberry block in the punch and start dancing!

 Happy New Year from Jude, Jeff, Raffaello and Dante!

New Year’s Resolution: Craft Cocktails at Home or Why Cocktails are Like Sex

It’s time to take the plunge and start making some creative cocktails at home. Discovering cocktails leads you down the same path as learning about sex:

*Infatuation:  you throw vodka and rum into everything, pretend your are Capt. Morgan and drink with wild abandon.

*Experimentation: oh, gin is good; scotch is interesting, what happens when I add some bitters to the mix!  

*Regrets: I went home with who?? I’ll never drink tequila again.

*Getting selective: no more dark Latin rums after 10:00 pm

*You are a Player: you know what you like, you control the situation. Your cocktails are complex, interesting and you know when to walk away.

And just like sex, you build up your repertoire of satisfying moves. Adding a garnish, finessing with bitters, whiffs of exotic flavors, all make for an enhanced cocktail experience.  You fall in love with the classics and understand why you can keep going back and never get tired of them; just like your mate.

Ease into the home bar slowly as you learn what you like and don’t like. Start grasping the fundamentals of balance: sour to sweet, sweet to bitter, strong to weak. Learn when to shake (anything with citrus), and when to stir, and when to break the rules. Make room in your freezer and clear a shelf in the cabinet, because it’s exactly like when your significant other started staying over all the time..they need some dedicated space of their own. Bottles, tools, ice, and nice cold glasses all need to be treated with respect.

To get you started, here are a seleciton of gin cocktails that will fast forward you into Player status in no time.
Do not make that “I don’t like gin” face! Gin is vodka infused with flavors. Get out of your rut and go taste some gin. Some of our fav’s are Hendricks that has a whiff of cucumber crispness, or a newcomer Death’s Door, or Bulldog. Each one has a unique botanical flavor. Vodka is like drinking water, nice, but why not go bigger?

I’ve talked about these cocktails before, but these are go-to cocktails around our house so I know they are tried, true, and delicious libations.

And what makes a cocktail a ‘craft’ cocktail, you ask? Attention to ingredients, just like you do with your cooking.  

There are a few cocktails tips that you need to know before you start shaking.
1) Cold is your friend. Our recommended method, is to agitate by shake or stir, rest for 45-60 seconds, and agitate again. Keep your glasses, your bar tools, your hootch in the freezer, if you can.
2) Measure, don’t eyeball. Even if you don’t have a nifty jigger, use one small glass as your unit of measure.
3) More than 2 cocktails and you will be useless the next day. You are responsible for your actions.

Start with the Italian national cocktail: Negroni.

Negroni
1 part gin
1 part Campari
1 part Sweet Vermouth
Stir, serve on the rocks and garnish with an orange wedge.

The Americano variation: replace the gin with sparkling water. Lighter, still delicious.
The Sbagliato: (it means mistake in Italian) replace the gin with Prosecco. Perfect in the summer, actually perfect anytime you have some open Prosecco around. 

Now watch what happens when you swap out the Campari for Sweet Vermouth, you have a Martinez. The bitter element is gone, the vermouth turns the drink a whiskey color, and the palate embraces the complexity.

Martinez
2 oz gin
1 oz Sweet Red Vermouth
1/4 oz Triple Sec or Cointreau
Dash Orange Bitters

Stir, serve with a slice of orange.



The Avatrix is a variation on a classic Aviation...light, lemony, with an elderflower sweetness. The Aviatrix comes directly from the talented mixologist Katie Loeb in Philadelphia.  In fact, I'll credit Katie with being the person who made me realize that there is more to life than a good glass of wine.

Avatrix
2 oz gin
1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur
1/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz St. Germaine
Shake, rest, shake, serve

Maraschino Liqueur is not the cherry juice from those dyed, icky cherries! It’s a rich, profound liqueur made from the marasca cherry.
St. Germaine is an elderflower liqueur that is sweet and marvelous.

A classic Aviation has Creme de Violette liqueur instead of the St. Germain, but to be honest, that violette stuff is a lot like chewing on a bag of old Sen-Sen that your grandmother kept in her  pocketbook.

Then there is the French Pearl, created by Audrey Saunders. With it's tasty cousin, the Italian Pearl, invented by us in Montone, because limes are nearly impossible to come by and it's OK to substitute. Substitution is the love child of desire and necessity.

French Pearl
2 parts gin (Plymouth Gin is preferred)
3/4 part freshly squeezed lime juice
3/4 part simple syrup
Pernod rinse
1 mint sprig, lightly muddled
Shake, rest, shake and pour.

Simple syrup is equal parts sugar and water. We make it up in batches and keep it in the fridge. 
Muddling means lightly crushing the fresh mint in the bottom of the cocktail shaker. The classic beginner mistake: muddling the hell out of the mint. This causes two problems: the mint becomes bitter and you wind up with little tiny green bits of mint stuck your teeth. Then you spend the next few minutes compulsively licking your teeth because  you’re sipping partner has green bits stuck to his teeth and you don’t want to mention it because it will totally ruin the mood, so you keep wiping your teeth hoping he’ll get the hint.

The Italian pearl uses lemon juice and Pastis or Sambuca in place of the Pernod.

Pomeranian is a true craft-tail because you need to make your own grenadine syrup. Relax, it’s equal parts unsweetened pomegranate juice and simple syrup with a little dash of vodka or gin to keep it from going fermented.

Pomeranian
2 oz gin
1/2 oz lime juice, fresh squeezed, but you know that
1/2 oz St. Germaine
1/2 oz fresh grenadine syrup

Shake, rest, serve. It’s a beautiful color; just the right shade for cocktails around holiday time!  In fact, Jeff invented this lovely crowd pleaser one Christmas night a few years back.

And speaking of holidays, our next post well be some good New Year’s Eve libations. Merry & a Happy, indeed!

Crackling Prosciutto Wrapped Potatoes: Perfect for a Party

“What can I bring?”
 It is the holiday season after all!  As the words are coming out of your mouth, your brain is flipping thorough your stockpile of recipes.
What can I make that is awesome and quick because you know your ToDo list is more frightening than the thought of a fat man in a red suit stuck in your chimney. Seriously, who came up with that story? An overweight guy squeezing down a filthy dirty chimney?

Crackling Prosciutto Wrapped Roasted Potatoes to the rescue. Tasty, simple to make, pretty and transportable. What more could you ask for?

Ingredients
Scrubbed potatoes cut into bite size wedges
Strips of prosciutto to cover each potato wedge (an average slide of prosciutto will cover  3 to 4 potato wedges)
Grated parmigiano cheese
Sliced shallots
Olive oil

Bring a pot of water to a boil, large enough to hold all the cut potato wedges, and lightly salt the water.
Boil the potatoes until they are just about soft. Usually no more than 10 minutes.

Drain and run cold water over the potatoes. This stops the cooking process and it’s so much easier to work with cool potatoes instead of scalding hot ones.
Cut or tear the prosciutto into small strips and wrap a strip around each potato wedge.

If you are transporting: wrap the potatoes, and lay them into a plastic container with a cover. The less loose space in the container, the better, but don’t crush the potatoes.

I use the ‘caterer wrap’ to make sure nothing spills or leaks. Using plastic wrap, don’t just cover the top of the container, but literally wrap it around the container. Just like they do with suitcases at the airport. Nothing leaks out and nothing seeps in.

Peel and thinly slice 1 or 2 shallots. Mix with the grated cheese. You want a generous coating of cheese, enough to form a crust. Sprinkle a little salt and a generous amount of pepper into the cheese and mix thoroughly.
If you are transporting: put this cheese mixture into a plastic bag and seal it tight.

Ready to Bake:
Coat the bottom of your baking dish with a thin film of olive oil.
Arrange the prosciutto-potato wedges in a single layer in the baking dish. Use a pretty baking dish that can also be used to serve the potatoes.

Sprinkle the cheese mixture over the potato wedges and bake in a 375F/190C oven for approximately 15 minutes. You’ll know the dish is ready when the cheese is brown and crispy and the potatoes are hot.

Finish with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil.
Buon’appetito and enjoy your holidays!

Everyday is a Holiday Fennel Gratin

What’s gorgeous enough to serve at a holiday gathering, but easy enough to indulge in whenever you feel like it?
It’s that time of year again, lots of parties, potlucks and bring-a-dish moments, when you have very little time to be messing around in the kitchen.

Fennel gratin to the rescue! It can be easily transported, made ahead of time, and did I mention delicious??

Ingedients:
1-4 whole fennel bulbs
1 handful of grated cheese per fennel bulb
1 tablespoon of heavy cream per fennel bulb
Butter, salt, pepper

This recipe is easily scaled according to how much you need to make or want to eat.

Cut off the fennel fronds and save them for a salad, or sprinkle on top of boiled potatoes.

Cut the fennel bulb into wedges. Depending on the size of the bulb, cut into either quarter or eighths.  Cook the fennel wedges in salted boiling water until tender, about 10 minutes.  Drain.

*Bringing a dish to the party note: If you’re traveling to a friends and you know you’ll be able to put this in the oven to finish then stop here. Gently place the drained bulbs in a plastic bag, along with the heavy cream. Bring along the oven dish,  butter and grated cheese. It will take you about 2 minutes to assemble the dish and 15 minutes to bake.
And Miss Manner says, “Always bring your own baking dish. Don’t expect the host to have to dig through her cabinet to find you a dish!”

For the rest of us who aren’t going to a party: Place the fennel bulbs in a bowl and add the heavy cream, gently stirring to coat the bulbs.
Arrange the drained fennel wedges in a flat oven-proof dish so they are in a single layer. Most likely the wedges will have fallen apart, so try and put them back together so they look pretty, ok? Arrange in rows so that it will be easier to serve.

Generously dot the fennel with bits of butter, and even more generously, cover the fennel in lots and lots of grated parmigiana cheese. Bake at 350F/180C until the fennel bulbs are hot and the cheese is gloriously brown and crunchy.

Buon’ appetito and Happy Holidays!

12 Cookbooks Good Enough to Give

‘Tis the gift giving season, and nothing warms a cooking person’s heart like a new cookbook. Here is my completely subjective list of favorite books to give to deserving friends.  Arranged in delicately nuanced categories, and in no particular order, I give you the best 12 cookbooks to give or hoard!  

*Boyz with Toyz: If the idea of messing around with sous vide, iSi canisters with  N2O chargers, dehydrators and optional induction cooktops makes your heart beat faster, then “Volt Ink” is for you. The Brothers Voltaggio have created an approachable, that looks like fun, cookbook that will turn your kitchen into a laboratory of good tastes.

*Damn Girl, You’ve Got Balls: Laura Shockey’s charming, inspiring, you did what???,“Four Kitchens”. After graduating from the French Culinary Institute, Laura packed up her knife kit and went a-staging in Hanoi, Tel Aviv, France and NYC.  Who goes off to Hanoi with just an address she got in an email from a stranger?

*Fun to Read and Cook: Kathy Gunst’s “Notes from a Maine Kitchen:  Seasonally Inspired Recipes”
Her essays are like being invited into her warm kitchen where story telling and the aroma of roasting meats blend together.
May we all pause for a moment of silence to remember Kathy’s egg laying chickens who were recently slaughtered by a nasty fox.

*Crazy Gorgeous Cookies: Julia Usher’s “Ultimate Cookies”. Move over Martha Stewart ‘cuz there’s a new girrrl in town and she knows how to create a party with her cookies. Super cool, she breaks down the fine art of cookie decorating so that even I think I can do it!

*Defies The Imagination: Matt Armendiaz’s “On A Stick” will entertain you and get your creative party going juices going. “Spaghetti and Meatballs on a Stick”, “Scotch Eggs”, “Cake Pops” or a “Frozen Elvis” will certainly get people talking.

*Pasta, Because You Can Never Have Too Many Pasta Cookbooks: Domenica Marchetti’s “The Glorious Pasta of Italy”, with my kinda hunger inducing photos by France Ruffenach. This glorious book has ‘in the time it takes to boil water’ recipes and all day “make the house smell amazing” recipes. It’s great inspiration when you just don’t know what to make for dinner.

*Light my Creative Fire: I get a daily dose of Aki and Alex’s kitchen creativity delivered to my inbox in their “Ideas in Food” blog. Now they’ve put out a nifty cookbook called “Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work”. Not only do they explain how to pack flavor into tomato stock or brown butter Hollandaise; they also explain the science behind thickening agents and other good to know stuff. My only complaint about this book is that it is missing Aki’s wonderful photos!

*Art + Food: Elaine Tin Nyo’s “Three Legged Pig”, A Gascon Pig Tale is an evocative exploration of pig raising, slaughtering and eating in the south of France.

*Big Enough to Be A Doorstop: While not as hefty as last year’s Modernist Cuisine, Molly O’Neill’s “One Big Table” is no slouch. This giant homage to home cooks, farmers, fishermen, pit-masters and chefs is a satisfying and comfy look at how America eats.  Any book that has a whole chapter on “A Social History of American Stoves” has got my vote. Come on, admit it, you love looking at pictures of old stoves!

*I’m a Groupie: I love all of Paula Wolfert’s books and “The Food of Morocco” is  high on my list of favorites. This woman is an amazing story teller and her easy going way must be her secret to seducing Moroccan chefs into sharing their recipes.

*Near & Dear to My Heart: Kathleen Flinn’s new book “The Kitchen Counter Cooking School”. Kat follows nine women and helps break down the fear that keeps them from becoming rock solid home cooks.

Last but not Least, Timeless Classic: The book you’ll return to time after time, Cooking Simply: The Italian Way because you know a little bit of video mixed in with great, simple recipes goes a long way when you are learning how to cook. Wouldn’t a nice focaccia be just the thing to bring to a party?

Full disclosure: some of these authors are friends, but you know, I’m speaking from my heart when I say we’ve got some fine friends who can cook and write!  Happy Holidays!

Where Have We Been Lately?

‘May you live in interesting times.’ - ancient Chinese curse.
“They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history.” - Robert F Kennedy

Not that we’ve been in any danger, and that phrase about interesting times is most likely not a Chinese curse at all, but lately we have been roiled and rolled by life! 

Planning for the upcoming IACP Conference in NYC next spring has dominated our days, but it has been interesting, entertaining and stimulating. The collective creative energy of everyone involved is making this one wild and crazy time.

Earlier this week we went on a ‘dry run’ of one of our optional tours that will be offered during Conference. Escorted by the charming Kian Lam Kho of Red Cook,  we fearlessly boarded the No. 7 train to Flushing Queens.  He took us to three of his favorite restaurants: a Taiwanese, a Shanghai and a northern Chinese restaurant where we had the most amazing cumin crusted rack of lamb ribs. Cumin lamb ribs are Chinese? I would go back to Flushing in a heartbeat to eat these crispy, crunchy cumin-y ribs!
 Our last stop was the huge New World mall Food Court and I confess, I barely had any belly room left for tasting the hand pulled noodles that would normally be tops on my “To Slurp” list.

Grace Young, the Stir Fry Guru, was also along on our excursion and kept us entertained with stories and recipes from her family in China. We sampled the sticky, sweet, savory, succulent “3 cup chicken” at the Taiwanese restaurant. This launched a conversation about regional cooking variations that sounded as much like Italy as it did about China.  Grace’s uncle’s version of 3 cup chicken included equal parts rice vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. While Kian’s version was equal parts rice vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil.  All I know is Jeff kept jabbing me with a chopstick saying, “You have to make this!!” So I guess I’ll be experimenting with this tasty glaze in the very near future.

Sea intestine just doesn’t sound appetizing, does it? Does it make you any more intrigued if I say it’s actually a sea worm? Or that one description of the live sea worm described it as a phallic filled condom?
Here are two of our cohorts watching a YouTube video of a tank of sea intestine worms. mmm...

But for all that buildup, it’s a mild flavored, toothsome, ingredient that when it is cleaned and cooked, looks a lot like whole wheat ziti and tastes great paired with braised Chinese celery.

One of my surprise favorites was the curdled soymilk soup. Despite it’s off putting look, I could see craving a bowl of this savory soup on a blustery cold day.

I’m late to the party when it comes to soup dumplings.  It seems like everyone else has been singing the praises of xian long bow. I thought soup dumpling meant the dumpling was in a bowl of soup, but it’s the other way around: the soup is inside the dumpling! (How do they do that??)

I needed a lesson on the proper way to eat soup dumplings and the beautiful Maya was happy to show me the ropes. Most important: eat them hot, hot! Carefully pry the dumpling out of the steamer with your chopsticks and into your spoon, add some ginger flavored vinegar to the spoon, bite the top off of the dumpling and then slurp up the soup and the dumpling. I believe this causes an instant addiction reaction.

And that, my friends,  was just one afternoon of Conference planning! I mean we had to do a ‘dry run’ of one of the tours we are planning, right?

 If you want to take this tour you’ll have to join IACP and come along on Kian’s next tour of Chinatown!
Buon appetito indeed.