November 24, 2009
Posted by Paul Clarke, November 18, 2009 at 9:55 PM
Read more about this recipe here.
Ingredients
3 to 4 fresh quince at peak of ripeness
1 bottle cognac
3 to 4 whole cloves (optional)
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
Procedure
Wash and dry quince and either grate or finely chop. Fill quart-size canning jars approximately 3/4 full of quince, add spices and top with cognac. Seal and keep in a cool, dark place until well matured, a minimum of six weeks and anywhere up to a year (or more?). Strain before using, passing the liquid through fine mesh or a coffee filter to remove small particles. Enjoy.
Posted by Melody Kramer, November 18, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Read more about this recipe here.
- serves 1 -
Adapted from fakeplasticfish.com
Ingredients
8 ounces of whole milk
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vanilla
Procedure
1. Mix sugar and cocoa together in a bowl. Add water and salt.
2. Pour mixture into a pot and bring mixture to a boil. Stir constantly.
3. You'll start to feel a difference in the consistency of the mixture. When it's thick, remove from heat and let cool.
4. Add a heaping tablespoon to a glass of ice-cold milk. You're going to want to stir with the cadence of a fast-moving foxtrot. You hear the spoon making a light clinking sound. This And it's saying: guess what you're going to be drinking soon. Guess what you're going to be drinking soon. Over and over.
5. Drink and enjoy!
Posted by Lucy Baker, October 30, 2009 at 9:55 AM
- makes about 3 cups dry mix -
Adapted from Alton Brown.
Ingredients
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Procedure
Sift all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container. It will keep for up to six months. To make hot chocolate: place 3 tablespoons of the mix in a mug and top with hot water or milk. Stir until combined.
Posted by Kristen Swensson, September 7, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!
When you’re trying to lose weight or maintain a weight loss, one of the trickiest areas to navigate is alcohol. Beer, wine, liquor, and mixed drinks are a caloric minefield, and too many pints can sink a diet faster than a box of doughnuts. (Mmm, doughnuts.) Of course, a life without booze is nigh unthinkable for some of us. (Note: me.) So, how do we reconcile our desire to get healthy with our desire for a Mudslide?
Moderation is part of it, as is planning ahead, pacing ourselves, and quaffing water between drinks. Choosing lower-calorie mixers like diet soda, seltzer, and fruit purees helps as well. And of course, some beverages are naturally lighter than others. An average glass of red wine should only run you about 110 calories, while a full-size frozen margarita will cost you 750. (For more calorie counts, see here.)
Two of my favorite ways to imbibe intelligently are mimosas and bellinis. Usually served with breakfast, they mix small amounts of fruit juice or fruit purees with champagne or a sparkling white wine like Prosecco. Generally less than 100 calories a pop, you can nurse them for awhile without feeling guilty. Oh, and they’re delicious, too.
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Posted by tressa eaton, September 3, 2009 at 11:15 AM
[Photographs: Tressa Eaton]
Last month I got slammed with a bizarre mid-summer 103°F fever. The sky-high fever, chills, and achy body knocked me out completely. Being home alone and sicker than I've been in a long time made me realize how important it is to have a couple stand-by recipes that can be made no matter what condition you're in. There is no more important time to feed your body with comforting, nutrient-dense foods than when you're sick. Not to sound like your mother, but even if you don't feel like eating anything, you probably need to.
These three dishes below are so simple that they barely need recipes. The coconut chicken soup can be made with or without almost any spice in the recipe. The smoothie can be made with any type of frozen fruit languishing in your freezer. The green pea recipe is so easy, it's almost laughable. Most importantly, the recipes use items that I always have around the house—a can of coconut milk in the pantry, a lemon or lime in the corner of the crisper, a clove of garlic on the counter, or some peas in the freezer.
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Posted by Grace Kang, August 6, 2009 at 11:45 AM
My cousin who lives in Flushing has the luxury of a backyard that's grown to become about fifty percent garden, one hundred percent fun times. This leads to an inevitable feast (or famine, if they're not ripe yet) of zucchini, thyme, pears, and countless other crops. So, the basil limeade slushies from the August 2009 issue of Food & Wine struck me as a convenient way to use up some of the enormous bounty of basil stashed in her fridge.
I followed the recipe to the letter, tasted the result, and my face immediately puckered. Even after doubling the amount of sugar, a fellow taster still found them too tart! Seriously. Next time, I'll have to use Splenda. Besides being overly tart, the mixture was too strong and definitely not slushy enough. I wanted it to be almost smoothie-like, similar to Slurpees at 7-11, and what I initially had was very liquid in consistency. So add more ice, soda water, and sugar, and you're all set for a supremely refreshing slushie. Sadly, I made these around 7:30 a.m. so I couldn't add alcohol (unless I wanted to come to work drunk), but the flavors would make perfect partners with tequila.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 5, 2009 at 12:25 AM
I just finished watching Esquire magazine's resident cocktail historian Dave Wondrich on the Colbert Report.
After sipping a daquiri and some rye whiskey, Colbert, true to megalomaniacal form, had Wondrich create a signature cocktail for him. Called The Colbert Bump,* it's based on cherry bounce, a cordial that both Wondrich and Eric Felten of the Wall Street Journal say George Washington used to drink.
The recipe for—and the video clip of the making of—the Colbert Bump, after the jump.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, July 27, 2009 at 10:05 AM
"When I make the lemonade again, I’m going to add some club soda and possibly a little vodka."
On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Today, a perhaps-not-so-obvious combination of basil and lemons makes its way into a refreshing summer drink. Photograph from kdybiec on Flickr
After last Monday’s riveting cherry adventure, I decided blending produce with lemonade should usurp crying about the Mets as my primary hobby. It’s tastier, cheaper, and most definitely healthier. (Confidential note to the Queens faithful: You know it’s bad when you catch yourself thinking, “Man, I miss Armando Benitez.”)
I’d only read about basil lemonade before last week and decided it sounded better as a sauce for chicken than as a drink. But that was before I accidentally bought two extra lemons and 18 metric tons of basil. Part of the herbs went toward basil fried rice, and another part toward stuffed eggplant. Still, there was a good cup-and-a-half left over, and I wasn’t in the mood for pesto.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, July 20, 2009 at 10:55 AM
Note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!
Whenever Aunt L. held family parties while I was growing up, I remember slinking furtively to her mixed-drink table, palming a few lemon wedges, hiding behind a nearby door, and sucking the life out of them. I loved lemons. I loved them more than oranges and apples and bananas and every other kid-appropriate fruit moms tend to shove at their elementary schoolers. And I didn't know it was weird until about third grade, when Aunt L. caught me, raised her eyebrow quizzically, and said, "Kristen, is that a lemon? You know, we have cake."
Twenty (OK, 25) years later, the lemon fixation has morphed into a slight obsession with lemon-flavored food: lemon bars, lemon meringue pie, lemon chicken, and of course, lemonade. I've never been a big soda drinker, but I'll quaff lemonade until my esophagus puckers. A few years ago, I began making my own, and have since been unable to return to powdered mixes. Apologies, Country Time.
Given these preferences, plus a longstanding affection for cherries, I thought I'd try them both together. So I created a basic simple syrup-style lemonade, and taking a cue from Martha Stewart, dropped in a half-pound of halved, pitted supermarket cherries. A few hours of refrigerator chilling later, I had the most refreshing summertime drink in five boroughs. Aces.
Tart with a subtle cherry-flavored undertone, this Cherry Lemonade contains no preservatives, has 27% less sugar than soda, and would probably be divine mixed with vodka. Plus, it sates my lemon craving without having to suck on the fruit itself. And being an adult, it's probably better that way.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, July 3, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one for the three-day? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
For all its reputation as a warm-weather refresher, on a truly hot afternoon when you’re relaxing outside with the smoke from the grill blowing across the yard, a beer has a hard time keeping up. No matter how thick your beer cozy, by the time you reach the bottom half, the heat of the day has sapped the beer’s refreshing character right out of the bottle, leaving the rest of your drink tepid and disappointing.
Fortunately, there’s this stuff called ice, and it has a wonderful way of keeping your drink cold even on the most sultry Fourth of July weekend. Pack a highball glass with big chunks of very cold ice, add a measure of something sharp, and leaven it with something crisp and bubbly, and you’ve got a drink that keeps its backbone long after your average beer has turned flaccid and unappealing.
Here’s a highball that’s easy to prepare and immensely refreshing. Named for an opera singer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Mamie Taylor was quite fashionable at the turn of the last century, though by the middle of the 20th it had almost completely disappeared. For fortification, the Mamie Taylor relies on blended scotch, but while this dark spirit can evoke the cooler months, fresh lime juice lightens the spirit’s ponderous demeanor, and a spicy ginger ale or ginger beer places it firmly in summer-cooler territory—making it just the thing to help celebrate a long holiday weekend.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, July 1, 2009 at 1:15 PM
I consider myself lucky for the fact that my childhood dentist's office was located in very close proximity to an ice cream parlor. When it came time for my brother's and my twice-yearly dental exams my mother decided that we should forgo lunch and have milkshakes instead. In hindsight, I assume she thought that if we had a liquid lunch then the dentist wouldn't find any nasty pieces of sandwich residue in our teeth. Even in my seven-year-old mind this plan didn't make the most sense, but I looked forward to going to the dentist, so I guess it worked like a charm.
My choice was always a mint chocolate chip shake and to this day it's my favorite. When I stumbled upon this recipe for Fresh Mint-Chocolate Speckled Milkshake in Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes, happy childhood memories came flooding back to me. Any recipe that recalls positive memories of the dentist should be taken to heart because I am not sure that many of us have happy ones. I guess that the moral of the story is that a milkshake makes anything better, even going to the dentist.
Win 'Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes'
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes to give away this week. Enter to win here »
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Posted by Paul Clarke, May 29, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
Mojitos and mint juleps are wonderful warm-weather drinks. But sometimes a late-spring or early-summer day requires a drink with a bit of an edge, a spark bright enough to match the waning light of a late sunset.
The Contessa has such an edge, and a flavor that to me is particularly seasonal. Created several years ago by bartenders in Boston, the Contessa is a slight tweak on the classic Negroni, substituting the bright bitter-orange flavor of the Italian aperitivo Aperol for the deeper, more assertive bitterness of the garnet Campari.
With a pleasantly bitter bite and the color of a sunset, Aperol makes the Contessa an excellent aperitif—or simply a refreshing cooler for an early summer weekend. The recipe, after the jump.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, May 25, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Note: This recipe is part of Kerry Saretsky's series The Secret Ingredient. This month's featured ingredient is rose water. Kerry also gives recipes that use rose water for Melon and Mozzarella Salad with Rose Water Vinaigrette and Crisp Prosciutto and Blackberries and Raspberries with Rose Sabayon.
This simple but unique cocktail pairs good rosé wine with a splash of rose water. The pair obviously plays on the color pink, but the rose water also accents the often fruity-floral notes of a good rosé. As an optional crown, I whirl sugar and dried rose petals together for the prettiest in pink wineglass rim.
-serves 6-
Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried roses (optional)
1 bottle rosé wine, lightly chilled
About 6 splashes of rose water
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Posted by Paul Clarke, May 15, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
Empire-building is thirsty business. Way back when, after the British took control of what was then known as Burma in 1852, the colonial rulers and administrators maintained a private club in Rangoon where they could conduct the important business of the empire over strong beverages. And while several enduring drinks came out of the British adventures in Asia—the gin and tonic and pink gin readily spring to mind—the drink named for this club has sparked exceptional interest in recent years, even lending its name to one of New York’s most prestigious cocktail destinations.
The Pegu Club is a remarkable and deceptive cocktail. Seemingly a simple mix of gin, lime juice, and orange curaçao, the drink has a flavor that is given robust depth by the addition of two styles of bitters. Rich, tart, and crisp at the same time, the Pegu Club has enamored countless cocktail geeks over the past decade—and while there are several recipes for this drink floating around, they’re all variations on the same theme. Each is worth trying to find the one you like best. Try one this weekend and see what all the fuss is about.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, May 11, 2009 at 3:20 PM
Mixing up elaborate cocktails at home might scare off the average cocktail-maker. The truth is that you don't need a fully stocked bar, gleaming silver shakers, or even exceptional bartending skills to make great drinks. The wonderful infused spirits served at fancy cocktail bars are surprisingly easy to make at home.
Limoncello is a southern Italian lemon liqueur that is made primarily in Sicily and Sardinia and traditionally served at the end of the meal as a digestivo. Limoncello works equally well before the meal as an apertivo, which is how we're presenting it this week as part of the menu for a full Italian meal. It's light, refreshing, and perfect for the spring and summer. This recipe for limoncello from Frank Stitt's Bottega Favortia is wonderful served chilled on its own, mixed with some Italian lemon or orange soda or prosecco. The recipe is simple; the only real work here is zesting the lemons and oranges.
Win 'Bottega Favorita'
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Bottega Favorita to give away this week. Enter to win here »
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Posted by Paul Clarke, April 24, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
While the practice of serving cocktails at breakfast is mostly relegated to history books and weekend brunches, putting breakfast-table ingredients into the cocktail shaker is a practice that’s only picking up steam. Drinks containing eggs or egg whites are now fairly common at craft-cocktail bars; here’s one that takes another familiar morning food and uses it to very good effect.
Created several years ago by Seattle bartender Jamie Boudreau, the Marmalade Sour matches the tartness of marmalade (preferably low sugar, to keep the sweetness in check) against a backbone of the coarse Brazilian sugarcane spirit called cachaça to create a rich, citrusy flavor. I put this on a menu for a cocktail party several months ago, expecting I’d only serve a few since some are squeamish about drinking raw egg white; once the first Marmalade Sour went across the bar, the drink became so popular that the crowd quickly went through all of the cachaça in the house and did serious damage to the marmalade supply. Try one this weekend, and you’ll see what the fuss was about.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, April 10, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
The bitter Italian liqueur Fernet Branca is a beneficent bully. Formulated as a digestivo in the mid-19th century, Fernet Branca has a blend of botanicals, including cardamom, chamomile, saffron and rhubarb, that together work some sort of gastronomic magic to dispel the discomfort of overindulging at mealtime. And the bully part? This same mix of ingredients has a flavor so bracingly bitter and complex that a first encounter is usually seared into a drinker’s memory.
This powerful flavor makes Fernet Branca tricky to work with as a cocktail ingredient. Not content to play a supporting role, Fernet Branca has a knack for taking over any drink that incorporates it as an ingredient. Fortunately, there are a few cocktails that play to Fernet Branca’s strengths; we’ve previously explored one of them, the Toronto, but here’s another that uses the digestivo to good effect.
The Hanky Panky originated at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in London in the early 20th century. Developed by head bartender Ada Coleman, the Hanky Panky matches Fernet Branca’s distinctive character with the botanicals found in gin and sweet vermouth to create a rich blend of flavors—a blend that lets the pushy liqueur remind you of its better side.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, April 3, 2009 at 6:15 PM
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
While the weather in much of the country seems determined to deny that spring is here—snow in Seattle in April, really?—the calendar doesn’t lie, nor do the ambitious daffodils in the yard that are biding their time until warmer weather comes.
Even though I have to don my heavy coat just to go outside and check the mail, my palate knows that spring is here. And along with the asparagus and spring onions that will soon be popping up in the farmer’s markets, one thing I’m yearning for as the season starts to change is a crisp, bitter brightness in my cocktails.
Sure, you can drink Campari at any time of year, but for me there’s something about spring and early summer that makes the garnet Italian amaro exceptionally appealing. A Negroni is a standard go-to Campari cocktail; here’s a variation on the Negroni that also makes a lot of sense. Developed by German bartender and drinks writer Bastian Heuser, the Agavoni replaces the Negroni’s gin with the bright spark of a silver tequila. Accenting the Campari’s citrus notes with a couple of dashes of orange bitters, the Agavoni breathes new life into the venerable classic.
To me, it simply tastes like spring. Even if you have to turn up the heat and put on a sweater to ward off the arctic chill while retrieving the ingredients from the liquor cabinet, mix an Agavoni this weekend and reassure your palate that sunny days are indeed ahead.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, March 27, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
Earlier this week, Rachel Maddow’s appearance with Jimmy Fallon sent countless thirsty web-surfers Googling for the Bijou Cocktail. I consider this a public service on her part: the Bijou is one of those full-flavored cocktails that defined drinking in the late 19th century, with the kind of big, elaborate character that fell out of favor once vodka martinis and Bud Light came to dominate the bar.
The earliest listing I know of for the Bijou is in Harry Johnson’s Bartender’s Manual, which was first published in 1900. With equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and green Chartreuse, accompanied by a dash of orange bitters, the Bijou is bombastically herbaceous—too much so, some might say. If you find yourself fitting into this camp, there’s no need to turn away from the Bijou; the recipe is easily updated for 21st-century palates by raising the amount of gin by a half ounce, and by rolling back the other two ingredients by the same amount. This will result in a somewhat drier, crisper drink with all the flavorful interplay of the original.
Whichever way you decide to play it, the Bijou is worth seeking out. Thanks to Rachel Maddow, this may just be the drink guests are talking about this weekend.
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Posted by Ed Levine, January 11, 2009 at 8:00 AM
If you've been following Erin Zimmer's search for the best hot chocolate in New York (here's a taste) you must be in the mood to make your own serious hot chocolate at home. I know I am, so I was thrilled to come across Simon Hopkinson's easy recipe for hot chocolate in his terrific new book Second Helpings of Roast Chicken. His recipe only made two servings, which is clearly not enough hot chocolate, so I've doubled it.
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