Spanish Kiss

Spanish Kiss
(makes 1 large drink to share or 2 martini-sized drinks)

2 oz Vodka
3 oz Fresh Meyer Lemon Juice
1 tsp. Simple Syrup
1 1/2 oz Pedro Ximenez Dessert Sherry (PX)

2 generous pours of Ginger beer

Put first 4 ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, shake vigorously
pour up, top with ginger beer


Valentine's Day may be over, but you can keep the romance alive with this sumptuous drink after your next ceremonial dinner. 

This drink is form The Salt House in San Francisco and is again, one of those drinks that make you ponder the interesting blend of flavors. 

I discovered Pedro Ximenez on my honeymoon in Madrid. We had dinner at Zalacain, heralded at the time as one of the best restaurants in Europe. What we didn't know is that NOT ONE SOUL spoke English in this place. Before you roll your eyes, mentally chiding me for inexcusable philistinism, know that I grew up on the east coast and took French all through high school and college. I erronesouly assumed that my new husband, who grew up in California, would know enough Spanish to get us around Madrid. WRONG!  After a lot of pointing, an uncomfortable exchange, trying to explain we didn't want the 15-course meal that included intestinal treats, we were mentally spent.  The bright spot in the meal was our Sommelier.  He was charming, with his silver necklace tasting cup draped proudly around his neck and he gave us plenty of gracious smiles.  And more importunity, he introduced us to Pedro Ximenez after dinner. I was transported, away from the overly-served fried ham balls that we had been served at every tapas place across the city.  Oh! THIS! This sherry drifted me, and my mouth, to some happy Spanish netherworld of consciousness, as the rich, sweetly luxurious liquid slid off my tongue and down my throat.  I had never tasted anything like it. The sherry is made by drying the grapes in the hot sun, concentrating the sugar.  Vin Santo, Amarone  and other straw method wines dry the fruit on matts in the sun to achieve that dark, prune fruit.  This is just another lovely example of the treasures the earth and sun produce for our drinking pleasure. 

When my mom was visiting we made a flan and drank with the PX that my friend Virgie gave me. Perfect pairing.  So when you buy a bottle, make a Spanish Kiss, then make a flan the next day and enjoy the rest of the bottle. 

WARNING: May cause conception


"If penicillin can cure those that are ill, Spanish sherry can bring the dead back to life." 
- Sir Alexander Fleming

Cheers! 

Smoking Goat

Smoking Goat

Makes 1 Drink

2 oz Noah's Mill Bourbon
1 oz Campari
2 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
2 Tb Fresh Orange Juice
3/4 Tb Agave Nectar
3 dashes of Peychaud Bitters

(1/2 shot glass of Macallan 10 for a rinse)

Pour Bourbon into a cocktail shaker that is 1/2 full of ice, add remaining ingredients and shake vigorously.  In a low ball glass, pour the Macallen scotch and swirl to coat the inside of the glass, fill with crushed ice then strain drink over the ice and garnish with orange. 

Important Note: this cocktail is for someone who enjoys libations on the bitter end of things, like a Negroni, for example. If you are a Cosmo drinker you might want to skip this one. 

Notes:
One of my very favorite people, David, was working in Hawaii for the last few weeks, dining out regularly with clients.  One night, he sent me a photo of the cocktail menu from the Salt Bar & Kitchen in Honolulu. He had ordered, and very much liked, the Smoking Goat, which listed Rye Whiskey, Aperol, Luxardo, Lagavulin 16 & Mole bitters as the blend.  Since I didn't have Rye, only had Campari and, more importantly, didn't have the time to gather the long list of unbelievably esoteric ingredients to make the mole bitters, I made my own version with what I already had in my bar.  This goat smoker is a VERY interesting combination,  I would say a great choice for a pre-dinner cocktail, which has the magic to prepare your appetite in the most perfect of ways.

CHEERS!

Grapefruit Buck

Grapefruit Buck     (makes 2 large drinks)

3 oz Vodka (a smoother vodka like Grey Goose works well with this drink)

3 oz  St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

6 oz of freshly squeezed white grapefruit juice

1 splash of ginger beer

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice and serve up in martini glass, add a splash of ginger beer as a float

This drink is from the Four Seasons San Francisco and was long a favorite until I made them so often, that yes, I burned out on them. Two or three years later, I am ready to bring them back. I made them for my mom while she was visiting and she made the happy cocktail noises-- and even claimed: "Lynnie, this is one of the best drinks I have ever had in my life." Now granted, I come from a long line of women who get verbally excited over all the particulars regarding food and drink and often recklessly spout out loads of praise invariably laced with superlatives.  This, paired with my clear understanding that everything in life is about expectation, requires me to implore that you, perhaps, lower yours.  Because... I do in fact hope you love this drink.  It is brightly acidic, pleasantly floral and has so many complimentary flavors dancing about in your mouth. It may not be the best drink you have ever had in your life, but it is damn good my drinking friends. 

The Fruit:
My friend Virginia moved to Aptos and along with her move came the loss of my dear friend AND the loss of my fresh grapefruit supply. We used to make salty dogs at her house every January when the grapefruits came in and sit outside and watch the boats go by on the Delta. She would always drop huge bags of grapefruits at my door, freshly picked from her tree. She was like cocktail citrus Santa. 

So my mom and I are driving back from the market, lamenting that we did not know someone with a grapefruit tree, and she screams: "pull over!"  She had seen a grapefruit tree peeking out over someone's fence, and it was loaded. Ten minutes later, Reba had made friends with Karen. It was Karen's parent's house and she had just lost her mom. We talked to her, my mom consoled her and she gave us a HUGE box of grapefruits. As we picked them, we talked and we laughed about various things while exchanging recipes. It was such a lovely moment of human connection. She encouraged us to come back anytime to get more.  Needless to say, the visit ended with a lot of hugging. I should also mention I come from a very long line of nurturing, gregarious, fearless, do-anything-for-the-recipe-women. 

CHEERS!

Japanese Kiwi

Japanese Kiwi (makes 4 martini-sized drinks)

7 oz of Vodka
4 oz Sake
Juice of 4 limes
5 oz Simple Syrup
5 kiwis 

Puré kiwis in a mini food processor, pulse until smooth with some small chunks remaining. You can add a quick pour of simple syrup depending on the ripeness of your kiwis. 

add first 4 ingredients in a shaker of ice & strain into martini glasses. Add about 3 heaping table spoons of kiwi into the martini glass & stir to incorporate.

garnish with a lime wheel 

(because sakes have varying sweetness and limes have varying tartness…once you make the drink in the shaker, pour a little into a glass, taste and you may need to add more lime or more simple syrup to taste). 

I had this drink at Paragary's, a Sacramento restaurant that opened in downtown Stockton several years ago (it is no longer there). I ordered this drink and could not believe how interesting the combination of flavors was. They called it The Lounge Lizard which I changed for obvious reasons… I told the bartender that night that her tip would double if she could manage to sweet talk  the ingredients out of the bartender. She returned --after what I can only assume was a lot of eyelash batting- with it written on a napkin.   It was worth every penny!

Cheers! 

Classic Champagne Cocktail

Classic Champagne Cocktail

1 bottle of Dry, Extra Dry or Brut Champagne or Sparkling wine
Sugar cubes
Angostura Bitters

drop 1 sugar cube in the bottom of a Champagne flute, add 3 dashes of Angostura bitters, top with Champagne. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

The first time I had this classic version I was 32 and living on the east coast. I was at the bar at The Ryland Inn, a culinary wonderland in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. We had stopped off to have a cocktail before we were seated for dinner and, unusually enough, I was stumped on what I wanted as an aperitif. The bartender recommended this to me and I was instantly a lover of this elegant and simple drink. It is the liquid equivalent to stately posture & wearing pearls. 

The Ryland Inn



Film Buffs Enjoy this trivia:

In the film "An Affair to Remember" 1957 Deborah Kerr's character asks a champagne cocktail at the bar in the ship she travels with Cary Grant. In the Woody Allen film "Match Point", Emily Mortimer orders a champagne cocktail at a restaurant with Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

In the Francis Ford Coppola/Mario Puzo film The Godfather Part II FRANK PENTANGELI says-"MICHAEL, your sitting high up in the Sierra mountains. And your drinkin' - uh, what's he drinkin'?" WILLIE CICCI says "Champagne", FRANK PENTANGELI replies "Champaign, Uh, Champaign Cocktails -- and you're passing judgment on how I run my Family."

Negroni (Franzia style)

Negroni 

(makes 1 drink)

2 oz Gin

2 oz Campari

2 oz Sweet Vermouth

Splash of Ramazzotti (Medium-Style Amaro)

Splash of Cynar (Artichoke based liqueur) 
Orange peel

Pour all ingredients into a lowball glass and stir. 
I like them at room temperature, but if you prefer a colder version, simply pour the ingredients into a shaker and strain into your glass. 

My friends Paul & Michelle Franzia are seriously on the short list of my most favorite people to hang out with. They possess that beautifully rare combination of cultured, worldly and smart with healthy doses of humility and grace. But they maintain a few key ingredients that move them beyond the liking designation into the category of loving them. They are real, there is no pretense, and they are often wonderfully, inappropriately edgy, especially Paul!  When sitting and talking with them, I am never bored--and never censored.    

A few months ago when I conducted a blind Champagne tasting at a dinner party to start off the evening, Paul pulled me aside and tentatively asked if he could have a Negroni instead.  I lead him to my freezer where I have a shelf all for gin and vodka,  then to my bar with the other goodies. He hugged me in a way that said: "thank you for understanding." It was really funny.  So when I photographed their family a few weeks ago, Michelle had made an amazing meal and they asked if I wanted a drink. Naturally I asked for a Negroni. The way Paul makes them does not lack ceremony, but his production comes not out of pomp, but out of love.  And so here is to Paul & Michelle, who are in  Milan celebrating their 20-year Anniversary, I say to them "Cheers."  

Paul enjoying his Negroni

I also photographed Paul's brother's Family a couple of weeks ago, and I shot this of Brian's Negroni he brought on the shoot into the orchard. I love this! After the shoot with Jenn & Brian, Brian too made me a Negroni. I love my job. 

I personally discovered the Negroni in 2003, while on a work trip to Italy. We were at our hotel bar and let's just say, after a few Negronis in, there was some overly-spirited dancing.  Don't let the herbaceous goodness fool you, this is a one drink deal. 

The History:
While the drink's origins are unknown, the most widely reported account is that it was invented in Florence, Italy in 1919, at Caffè Casoni, ex Caffè Giacosa, now called Caffè Cavalli. Count Camillo Negroni invented it by asking the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the Americano, by adding gin rather than the normal soda water. The bartender also added an orange garnish rather than the typical lemon garnish of the Americano to signify that it was a different drink. After the success of the cocktail, the Negroni Family founded Negroni Distillerie in Treviso, Italy, and produced a ready-made version of the drink, sold as Antico Negroni 1919. One of the earliest reports of the drink came from Orson Welles in correspondence with the Coshocton Tribune while working in Rome on Cagliostro in 1947, where he described a new drink called the Negroni, "The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other." According to the Corsican newspaper Nice Matin Corse of 1980, Pascal Olivier Count de Negroni is among those who it is believed invented the drink.

Bitter Bourbon Lemon

Bitter Bourbon Lemon (make 2 small drinks)

2 1/2  oz Bourbon
2-3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 oz Simple syrup
Juice of 2 lemons

Put in shaker with crushed ice, pour up in glass of choice with more crushed ice.

(for a sweeter version, add more simple syrup)

I cooked this up, or more accurately, poured this up for our FRIENDSGIVING later tonight. 

CHEERS!