Aroma Cucina

You say Vermouth, I say Vermut

Did your parents have a bottle of vermouth? Somewhere in the back of the liquor cabinet, the label was yellowed and the bottle was dusty? Maybe they even left it to you in their will. Dust off the bottle and throw it in the recycle.

Now, get thee to the store and buy a fresh bottle of red vermouth. If we have a choice, we usually try to get Antica Formula Carpano. Around Montone, we have no choice and have to settle for Martini. (Not that Martini is a bad product, but it’s dumbed down for the masses; it doesn’t have the alluring eccentricites you find in smaller batch vermouths.) I know. It’s a rough life here in Umbria.

But wait a minute.

“What exactly is Vermouth?, you ask.

It’s aromatized, fortified wine. 

“Yeah, but what is it?, you ask again.

Antonio Carpano is given credit as the creator of vermouth, back in 1786 in Turin Italy. It gets its name from the German word “wermut” or wormwood. (Yes, the same stuff that is supposed to give you hallucinations in absinthe, just makes you happy when it’s in vermouth.)

To make vermouth, you need a base of a simple white wine. Make a ‘tea’ of various herbs (wormwood, cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, cardamom, angelica) steeped in a neutral alcohol. Various recipes will have anywhere from 22 to 50 botanicals used to flavor the vermouth and the exact amounts are kept top secret. Some vermouths use caramel to sweeten the wine and frequently the vermouths will be barrel aged.

This is on our To Do list as soon as I can track down the necessary botanicals, which is not easy in this part of Italy.

Our Vermouth affair started with Manhattans. Once you go down the road to finding your most desired version of a Manhattan, you are sure to start experimenting with your vermouth.

Then we went to Barcelona where vermouth becomes vermut. There is a well-established vermut culture in Spain; there are barrels of the stuff at various wine shops and you come in with your jug and fill up. Street side cafe tables are set up with bottles of spritz so you can mix your vermut as you like it. Here is where we fell in love with the Vermut cocktail; it’s light, refreshing, mysterious and complex.

But perhaps, San Sebastian is where you need to go to truly fall in love with vermut? In an altered universe, say in Brooklyn, this would a hipster thing. Guys with gravity-defying moustaches would be making their artisanal vermouth in the back of their tattoo parlor, whilst thinking up esoteric names like Verboten Wermut and hiring graphic artists to create a unique and ironic label.

 In San Sebastian, it’s a pretty girl who runs the Vermut  Society, and sardonic is not in her nature. She just loves vermut and wants to share the love. Things are simpler, and joy is to be shared.  She was happy to pour us a tasting and we had a long discussion about the merits of the various vermuts. Things like: when to drink it neat, when a cold spritz makes it come alive, and should we buy only 1 bottle and which one?

The fine shop where she works sent us to Bar Txurrut to sample their vermut cocktail which uses their house-made vermut.

And now things were getting interesting. There were skeptics in our group; one of us was channeling memories of that old bottle in the back of the cabinet and was just being polite to play along with the gang. However, one sip led to a 100% conversion rate of the gang. Everyone loved this gorgeous, balanced, rich cocktail that won’t knock you on your butt. We actually started scheduling vermut time into our dally routine.

  

Eventually we got the bar keep to share his recipe with us and now we’ll share it with you:

 

Txurrut Vermut Cocktail

Vermut

Sparkling Water

Elixir

 *The exact proportions are up to you. As strong or light as you like

The Elixir:

2 parts Compari

1 part gin

1 part Ramazotti (or a similar amaro)

1 part Angostura bitters

Ice the cocktail glasses, then remove the ice when the glass is good and cold. Drop a Spanish olive into the bottom of the glass. Start tapping your foot in time to your favorite flamenco tune.

Fill the bottom of the glass with vermut, add a small measure of the elixir, a spritz of sparkling water and then, if there is room in the glass, add a bit more vermut.

Rub a bit of orange peel on the edge of the glass, drop the peel into the glass, put a rose between your teeth and serve immediately. Now, drink responsibly. But, dance with abandon!

 

 

Secrets and Seduction in San Sebastian!

Surprise! For months Jeff has been sweetly plotting a surprise trip for my birthday. Finally, our bags were packed and we were off to the mystery destination…San Sebastian, Spain! Woo-hoo!! This has been tops on my Food Mecca Pilgrimage list for quite some time.

It’s not easy to get to from Montone. Drive to Pisa, fly to Barcelona, stay overnight at the Barcelona Airport Hotel (not bad, but wins the prize for worst acoustics in a hotel bar) Then, at last, a crack of dawn flight to San Sebastian.

First reality check: what-the-hell language is on the signposts? What gibberish is Ms. Google Maps speaking? This isn’t Spanish! No, dear, that's because you are in the Basque or Euskal Herria country. Why does San Sebastian have two names? Because Donastia means Sans Sebastian. The Basque language looks like a Scrabble board that’s been upended and has an over abundance of x’s and y’s.

 

We follow Ms. Map’s directions into town, and frankly I’m getting nervous. It’s looking like a very well manicured suburbia. Then we come around the bend and it is jaw droppingly gorgeous. The city has its arms wrapped around the Baie de La Concha like a protective mother. There is a white tiled walkway as far as the eye can see that separates the beach from the city, people are swimming and paddling around, and most of the buildings are stunning Beaux Arts beauties.

  As it is too early to get into our apartment, we start walking around the old part of town until it’s lunchtime.

It’s easy to fall in love with San Sebastian; we were seduced within moments of watching what was happening on the streets. Guys in suits were standing at the corner next to barefoot dudes heading to the beach. Kids were coming back from gym class, holding their surf boards.Stern matriarchal women stopped to listen to street musicians, and every restaurant and bar begs to be explored.

We choose El Caserio as our first restaurant, because it’s old school and thought this might give us some grounding in the local cuisine. Within moments, the restaurant filled up with regulars, except for one large table of French people and us. Jeff had a mildly flavored, but meltingly tender and homey tasting oxtail. I had the traditional baked spider crab, where all the edible meat from a crab is mixed with a roux and baked. The dish is incredibly rich and tasting of the sea.  At this moment, we realize we know absolutely nothing about Basque cooking and like grasping for a life-jacket, we need to get a grip as quickly as possible.

Eventually we wander back to the apartment and lo! And behold! There is another surprise… our siblings and spouses are all there to celebrate with us. They’ve been decorating the apartment while we were lunching and they are hungry!! But we have become The Magnificent Seven and the celebration begins in earnest!

 We are a family that takes its food seriously, so San Sebastian was like being on one of the best treasure hunts you could imagine.  In San Sebastian you do something called a txikiteo or a pintxos crawl.  (I told you it was a crazy language!)  Pintxos are like tapas, only they are bits of food artistry skewered by a pick to a piece of bread. (Pintxos literally means stake or spear.)  The txikiteo is what you do when you go from bar to bar sampling pintxos. It is a fine, fine way to eat, even if you do have to do it standing up. Not to worry, the counters and tables are all chest high, so you can lean and eat.

The advantage of having seven people in your entourage is that you can taste a lot of dishes. The disadvantage is that you usually only get a single bite, and just going silent and hoping no one will notice the dish you are trying to devour does not work with this group. It’s a tough group!

San Sebastian has the highest concentration of Michelin stars per capita. That means there are some extremely good restaurants to tempt you, although this wasn’t the trip for a Michelin exploration. Frankly, I didn’t feel that I knew enough about the basics of Basque cuisine to understand what the top chefs were achieving. This is also my way of making sure we go back.

 

Here’s some of our picks:

Atari

Calle Mayor | Nagusia Kalea

Yeah, it’s touristy, but it’s also a “Pintxos Palace”. As I’m wandering the length of the long bar admiring the beauty of the pintxos, the bartender laughs at me and says, “Welcome to Atari!” in a way that meant, of course they are gorgeous, you are in Atari.  Then he explained the system. You take a few pintxos from the bar, onto your plate. Then you catch the eye of the bartender who mysteriously adds them up and starts running a tab. Now, bear in mind, there are seven of us wandering up to the pintxos offerings, and somehow they kept track. If you want kitchen items then order those at the bar and these are the really good stuff. Dishes like a perfectly seared piece of steak, with a light smear of teriyaki sauce, set on a bright orange puddle of tangy pumpkin sauce, with a swirl of vivid green olive oil. Or small bits of perfectly cured salmon accented with a vanilla cream. Artistry on a plate.

 

Borda Berri

Calle Fermin Calbeton 12

 

Come with a group. Order everything you can. This was my favorite: super crispy salty crunchy pigs ear. The exterior was brown and crunchy, the interior was molten and you swabbed your bite in a slightly sweet sauce that played rock n roll with the rich meat. (I’m using the word meat, but it’s really melted cartilage, but if I say that, you’ll never try it and you won’t know what you are missing.)  Balance the richness of the pig ear with a pleasantly refreshing gazpacho. They do lovely things with foie gras, so be sure to try that as well. And remember to hang on to your fork because if they clean up the plates, you won’t be getting a second one.

 

Casa Valles

Calle de los Reyes Católicos, 10

 Casa Valles is one of the oldest bars in town, near the cathedral on a pedestrian side street. You’ll recognize it by all the hams hanging from the ceiling. Order the jamon (cured ham). Order a large plate of the jamon. It literally melts in your mouth, no chewing required.

I’m also an anchovy addict. I admit it and have no desire to overcome my addiction. They serve the plumpest marinated anchovies I’ve ever had. It’s as if they did a foie thing and pumped them up before they caught them. The fried anchovies, covered in garlic chips, also brought tears to my eyes. Not tears of joy, but of frustration. I had to share the damn anchovies with my Magnificent 7.

Gandarias Jatetxea

C/ 31 de Agosta, 23, 20003 San Sebastian - Donostia, Spain

This taberna is another old-time pintxos bar and restaurant known for its aged steak.  The steak was the perfect combination of aged funk and char. Only word of caution, is to be cautious. The steaks look so good you are tempted to over order.

  But what about the cocktails you ask?

Bar Txurrut

Plaza De La Constitución, 9

Located in the grand Constitution Plaza, Txurrut is the place to go for vermouth cocktails. House-made artisanal vermouth combined with their ‘secret elixir’ will make you a very happy visitor.

And if you are into artisanal vermouth (and if you’re not….why not??) be sure to look up “The International Society for Preservation and Enjoyment of Vermut.” They hold monthly vermouth tasting parties and you can find someone who knows about the society at Pantori, a lovely food shop dedicated to all things local and delicious. They’re still working on their website, but there’s enough there for you to find them.

In the digestive category, give Patxaran a try. It’s a mildly sweet, raisin tasting wine that goes down very easy at the end of a meal.

More than anything, San Sebastian is a place to wander and explore. Try not to go with a set list of places to see and do things, leave plenty of time for serendipity.

We also highly recommend Go Local San Sebastian for a great tour of the city. They offer pay-what-you-want walking tours, or very reasonably priced bike tours. (Go on the bike tour! Our guide Inigo was outstanding, informed, enthusiastic and willing to scale tall walls in search of the last of the season’s blackberries.) Ask Inigo where to go for the best croquettes and cider. It’s way off the tourist track, but worth the short bike ride. GoLocalSanSebastian.com.

Looking forward to our next trip to this warm and welcoming part of the world. Thank you Jeff and thank you Steve, Chris, Rhona, Nancy and Peter for making this one outstanding birthday!!

 

Grappa Grab: Cooking with Grappa

“Oh, how can you drink that stuff?” ask the tourists and the unintiated. Yes, some grappa can be like drinking throat-stripping hi-test fuel oil, but a good grappa has a grab that tickles your palette and warms the innards. Cheap grappa may be nasty as a digestivio, but it's great for cooking as it has an inherent sweetness that plays nicely with a bit of spice.

The other night we were at Enoteca Wine Club in Umbertide, and they had baby chicken marinated in grappa on the menu. Patrick, one of the owners, and an outstanding sommelier, said he was surprised how much people enjoyed the dish. I was surprised too, because when I cook with grappa, I keep it a secret so I don’t have to go through the whole spiel of “I know you don’t like grappa but…” 

 So Patrick has given me the courage to come clean. I cook with grappa and I’m proud of it.

 

Go out and buy a bottle of cheap grappa. Also buy a bottle of good grappa so you can become better acquainted.

 

Drunken Quail with Garlic Chips on Crispy Saffron Rice

2 quail per person

Grappa, white wine

½ cup of aborio or bomba rice per person

1 ½ cups warm chicken or vegetable stock per person

2 large cloves of garlic per person

1 cup frozen peas (totally optional!)

Olive oil

Salt, fennel pollen if you can get it, smoked spicy paprika, saffron

The Birds

Marinate the quail in grappa for 4-6 hours. Be generous; drown those birdies in the booze.

When it's roasting time, remove the birds from the grappa and discard the grappa. Using scissors, cut the bird open lay each one flat on a baking sheet. Generously salt the birds, and sprinkle them with fennel pollen. Roast at 350F/180C for 30 minutes.

 

The Rice

Use an aborio or bomba variety of rice as these absorb moisture without coming apart like a basmati rice would do. Plan on approximately ½ cup of rice per person, and you’ll need about 1 1/2 cups of stock per ½ cup of rice. Use a vegetable or chicken stock.

 The saffron is optional, but I love saffron so for me, its obligatory. Place a few strands of saffron in a small glass of white wine and let steep while you cook the rice.

Place the rice in a flat-bottomed pan, like a paella pan. I’m hesitant to use the word paella here because people make all different types of paellas and I don’t want to get into a what-is-an-authentic-paella-pissing match, ok? Let’s just call it crispy rice.

Much as you would with a risotto, add a glug of olive oil, turn on the heat to medium and toast the rice. That means roll it around in the oil until everything gets hot and toasty, but don’t brown the rice.Start adding the warm stock to the rice, enough stock to cover the pan and float the rice.

Keep adding stock and stirring the rice as the pan dries out. You want the rice to be about ¾’s cooked. (How to tell if the rice is nearly done: taste a few grains, they should be soft almost halfway through, with still a bit of hard crunch in the middle.) This should take about 10-12 minutes.

 Add the white wine and saffron and the remaining stock to the pan, stir in the frozen peas if you are using them and put the pan in the oven on a rack above the quail.  The liquid will evaporate and the rice will become brown and crispy on top.

The Garlic Chips

Peel 3 to 4 large cloves of garlic. Using a mandolin, thinly slice the garlic. (I use the 2.0mm setting on my mandolin.)

 

In a small pan, add enough olive oil to form a shallow pool to fry the garlic. They need to be able to float in the oil. Heat the oil to 350F/180C (use a thermometer when you fry things, its hard to do this by eye or feel).  Add the garlic slices and fry for 1-2 minutes until they just start to turn golden. Remove the slices from the oil and drain.  Turn the oil off, but don’t discard it because you are going to fry the garlic slices one more time right before serving.

Assembly Time

Remove the quail from the oven and liberally dust with the spicy smoked paprika.

Turn the oven on to broil and broil the surface of the rice. Not too close to the broiler coils; but close enough to give the rice an extra crispy finish.

Reheat the oil to 350F/180C or even a bit hotter. Add the garlic chips and fry again until golden, about 30-45 seconds. Drain the chips and discard the oil.

Remove the rice from oven, arrange the quail on top of the rice, cover with the garlic chips, open a nice bottle of chilled white wine, and now eat!

Great! Now you’ve got one grappa recipe and a mostly full bottle of industrial strength grappa. Mushrooms to the rescue. 

Intoxicated Mushrooms

Fresh mushrooms, whatever kind you can find or that you like

Grappa

Olive Oil, Butter

Shallot, Garlic, Lemon Juice, Salt and a lot of Pepper

Roughly chop the cleaned mushrooms. Finely chop the shallot. Place both in a large sauté pan (big enough so the mushrooms have room to dance around the pot), add a glug of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, turn the heat onto medium high and cover the pot.  When the mushrooms start to give up their moisture, add a good size glug of grappa to the pan, cover the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes, then uncover the pan and let all of the moisture evaporate.

When the pan is dry and sizzling, turn off the heat, swirl in a knob of butter, add a generous sprinkle of pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice. Eat while they are mad hot!

 

The mushrooms are so quick, easy and delicious, you’ll use up that bottle of grappa in no time.

 

Now, as for the good grappa? Look for a golden color grappa, that means it’s been in oak and is a softer, warmer flavored grappa. Enjoy a small amount after dinner as a digestivo. Enjoy a large amount after dinner and you risk a magnificent headache in the morning. Always respect the grappa!

Wine Philosopher: Paolo Rodaro

According to Paolo Rodaro, there are only four kinds of wine: red, white, good, or bad. If you taste a wine and think, “Hmmm...might be off.” and you taste again, and maybe a third time, Paolo thinks you are wasting time. You were right the first time, send the wine back. He uses real corks, dismissed screw tops as an abomination, politely listened to the virtues of glass caps and then changed the subject to sex. If you do not look a person in the eye when you clink glasses you will be condemned  to seven years of bad sex! And so the conversation meandered during a lovely evening at the Enoteca Wine Club in Umbertide as we ate Antonella’s delicious food and tasted the wines from the Rodaro cantina.

The Rodaro Winery has been producing wine in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of Italy since 1846. Unlike their famous brethren in Tuscany and Piedmonte, the Friulian wines fly a bit under the radar and are an excellent value for the price.
Nearly eighty percent of the wine produced in Friuli is white, the rest are reds and a little desert wine. Although it produces very good international varietals like Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, for my money, I find the indigenous grapes like Friulano, Ribolla gialla, Malvasia, Schioppettino or Refosco far more interesting. 

Maybe it’s the snobbish thrill of tasting a wine that can only come from the dirt, sun and rain in Friuli, or maybe because I was tasting something new, but we were having fun! Like meeting an intriguing person: will you be my new best friend, or is this just a moment of flirtation?  As we were sipping the Refosco, I kept sticking my glass under poor Jeff’s nose and pestering him, “Do you think this would work with grilled steak? Would it be better with lamb?”  The unique flavor of the Refosco had my cook’s mind clicking away, wondering what would be the best way to showcase this bold wine.

So why aren’t they planting these luscious grapes everywhere, you might ask. The simple answer is because these vines have a lot of trouble growing anywhere else. Some California vineyards made a gallant try at planting Umbria’s Sagranatino grape, but it hasn’t been successful, mostly due to viruses like leaf roll.  Apparently Sagranatino needs to stay in Umbria to be happy.  

These smaller varietals take a lot of extra TLC, like the thin skinned Malvasia, or the late  to harvest Ribolla gialla. They don’t lend themselves to mass production or consistent flavors like the hardier Sauvignon or Chardonnay grapes.

We started the evening sipping a Ribolla gialla. Gialla means yellow, and this wine is a honeyed golden yellow, light but silky on the tongue; it makes an excellent aperitivo sipping wine, or for lighter antipasto dishes.

For the antipasto course of ‘frico’ (a typical Friuliani dish of melted cheese and potato), Rodaro paired this with a light, fresh Friulano. His white wines are never oaked, so the acidity in the wine played very nicely with the rich frico.
Our fish based ravioli course was paired with a Sauvignon. Others at our table enjoyed the Sauvignon more than the Friulano, but not me. I preferred the lighter touch of the Friulano.

Now it was time to move into the reds. This wine dinner was not for the faint hearted. If you want to discuss wine...you must drink wine! 

We started with the Schioppettino, a light bodied wine, very fresh tasting with floral hints. It reminded me of a young pinot noir, but a bit rougher, sexier, more playful.

Then we moved into the Refosco 2007 which is a much more substantial wine, with a more disciplined structure. Tannic but not over bearing, like a strict but good hearted headmaster. 

Of course, the conversations were getting louder and a bit sillier, when Paolo got up, grabbed one of his wines off the shelf and opened his Refosco 2006.  It was shockingly different...light on the pallet, but full, round, silky. Instead of a headmaster, we had a ballet dancer in our mouth.  Paolo was pleased, he had made his point...the beauty of wine is this difference from year to year. Who needs consistency? This is why we all love wine, why he makes the wine he does. It’s a living souvenir of the summer of 2006.
Then came the sweet Picolit, accompanied by tiny morsels of gorgonzola. And finally, when we thought we couldn’t possibly drink anymore...he brought out the refreshingly light, sweet Verduzzo with plates of biscotti for dunking. 
Thank you Patrick for being the eternal charming host, thank you Antonella for your delicious cooking, thank you Alex for being such an attentive waiter and thank you, thank you Paolo and Laura for sharing your knowledge and your wines!

 

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!

World Cocktail Day: The Bloody Pearl

"Twas cocktail time in Montone. The swallows are circling overhead, the sun is setting and the moon is rising.

Our World Cocktail turned out to be the The Bloody Pearl:

2 parts Gin
2 parts freshly squeezed blood orange (double strained)
1/4 part Pastis
Mint (lightly muddled)

And it was a fine cocktail to start the evening. Now we're off to trip the light fantastic at the Hotel Fortebraccio, where they actually serve fish in Umbria! Will wonders never cease?

Happy Friday! Happy Weekend! Happy Cocktail time wherever you are.

 

World Cocktail Day, What's shaking?

Could there be a better day for World Cocktail day than Friday the 13th? Cocktail makers have a weird sense of humor.  I mean, who names a cocktail The Corpse Reviver?

It's not quite cocktail time in Montone, but we're getting close. We've got the last two of our blood oranges in the wings, but Jeff won't say what's he's making.

Let's have some fun...post your cocktails pictures on Aroma Cucina's Facebook page. Or Tweet your photos to @judithklinger or @jeffaromacucina. #cocktail Get creative! Show me what's shaking for your world cocktail celebration. 

Seasonal Cocktail: Bloodthirsty

Go now! Go find ‘em! Get thee some blood oranges now! One of Jeff’s best cocktail inventions ever.

The Bloodthirsty
1 part freshly squeezed & strained blood orange juice
1 part gin
1/2 part Campari

Shake. Rest. Shake some more. Serve.

Sip your antioxidant, high fiber, holy moley- this-is-good cocktail without one drop of guilt.

Here’s a shoutout to Bluecoat Gin who’s tweet inspired Jeff to create this cocktail.  Unfortunately, we can’t find the amazing Bluecoat Gin in Italy. It’s slim pickin’s here in the boonies of Umbria.  But rest assured, the moment we’re back in NYC, we’re on the case...then the problem will be the blood oranges...it’s tough drinking seasonally!

Seasonal Cocktail: Tangiers

Happy First Day of Spring!  The tangerines are in season in my neck of the woods, and they were Jeff's inspiration for the Tangiers Cocktail.

2 oz. gin.

1/2 oz Maraschinio 

1/2 oz freshly squeezed tangerine juice

Delish. Next time we'll try it with a Campari rinse, just to keep things interesting. Looking forward to all colors and flavors of springtime!