Drink of the Week: Jasmine Cocktail

We were introduced to the Jasmine by our bartender (Tara? I can't read my notes from that night.) at The Gibson in Washington, DC last week.

It's a refeshing, not-too-ginny drink. Some versions use more Campari and Cointreau (up to 1/2 ounce of each). If you're not familiar with Campari's bitterness, start at the lower end of the scale. Depending on how sweet your lemons are, you may want to add a little simple syrup to your drink. Give it two sips before you add sweetness though, you might find that your palate adjusts to the puckeriness.

BTW, The Gibson was a lovely experience. It's a "speakeasy": no signage, reservations strongly recommended, dim lighting and a fun selection of music to drink to. I suggest you try to visit if you're in the DC area. Note: They do not serve any food at this time, so don't think you'll be able to grab a munchie or two there. Fortunately, it's just off U Street, so you can hit Ben's Chili Bowl, Dukem, Next Door, or any of the many eating establishments nearby (do NOT go to the exceptionally frightening McDonald's on the corner of U and 14th - scary, and I have a pretty high threshhold for scary eating spots).

The Jasmine Cocktail
Combine in an iced cocktail shaker:

• 1 1/2 ounces gin
• 3/4 ounce lemon juice
• 1/4 ounce Cointreau
• 1/4 ounce Campari

Shake until very cold. Strain into a cocktail glass.

Daring Bakers January: Extra Credit

I was so inspired by the savory nori tuiles over at Cafe Nilson, that I immediately had to try a sweet version. I made the tuiles, using the same recipe in this post with a few tablespoons of black cocoa powder for color (King Arthur sells it). I filled them with rice pudding and used a piece of blood orange as "tuna" and some pomegranate seeds as "salmon roe".

Daring Bakers January: Tuiles

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Baking Soda and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

So this is my first experience with Daring Bakers. I have been watching Daring Bakers posts pop up over the last few years and thought it was finally time to join the fray.

This month's challenge was to make tuiles from the provided recipe and pair them with something light. The recipe suggested that the tuiles could be decorated with a little batter that was colored with a "food coloring of my choice". So I pulled out some beet powder and made a pink batter to provide contrast. I prepared a leaf-shaped batch and a batch of "twirlies". I had never really attempted tuiles before, so this was a great kick in the pants to give them a try.

I paired the tuiles with a buttermilk panna cotta and pomegranate gelee. I made the gels in little 1/4 cup ramekins. I used some pomegranate seeds for garnish.

What is wonderful about tuiles is their lightness and delicacy. They taste of butter and sugar and that's about it. If you add a flavoring like vanilla or a fruit liqueur, it will be a major component of the cookie's flavor, so use good quality flavors.

Here's the tuile recipe I used for the challenge. It's taken from a book called “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.


Buttermilk Panna Cotta (from Claudia Fleming)
Makes about 6 full servings, a lot more if you are making layered desserts (for this challenge, I made a half recipe and ended up with 10 gels total)

• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered gelatin (about half an envelope, but measure directly)
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• pinch salt
  

Measure out 1/2 cup of buttermilk. Sprinkle the gelatin over the buttermilk. When the gelatin is softening, heat the cream and sugar in a small saucepan. When the sugar is dissolved and the cream is hot, stir in the buttermilk/gelatin mixture. Stir over low heat until the gelatin is dissolved (not long, about 2-3 minutes).

Pour the hot mixture into the remaining 1 1/2 cups buttermilk. Stir to combine. Pour the panna cotta into molds or serving dishes. Put in refrigerator to set.

The panna cotta is ready to serve when it has set, about 2-3 hours. To unmold, if desired, dip the molds into warm water to loosen. Or run a thin-bladed knife around the edge of the mold to loosen and release the panna cotta.

Pomegranate Gelee
Makes 2-4 servings

• 1 cup pomegranate juice
• 2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
• 2 - 4 tablespoons sugar (depending on how sweet your juice is)

Measure out 1/4 of juice, sprinkle it with gelatin. While the gelatin is softening, heat remaining juice with sugar. When sugar is dissolved, stir in the juice/gelatin mixture. Stir over low heat to melt the gelatin (about 2-3 minutes).

Pour into molds or serving dishes. Let rest in refrigerator to set, about 2-3 hours. To unmold, if desired, dip the molds into warm water to loosen. Or run a thin-bladed knife around the edge of the mold to loosen and release the gelatin.

Tuiles
About 10-20 cookies, depending on the size

• 1/4 cup softened unsalted butter (make sure it is very soft, but not melty and greasy)
• 1/2 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 2 large egg whites, whisked
  
• 1/2 cup ounces sifted all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice (I used beet powder)
  

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cream butter, sugar, salt and vanilla to a paste using a hand mixer. With the mixer on low, slowly add the egg whites. Make sure the mixture is homogeneous - no clumps of butter should be visible. Add the flour slowly until the batter is smooth. Take a large spoonful of batter, and in a separate bowl, blend in the food coloring you are using. Chill the batters, covered, for at least 30 minutes. You can make the batter a day or so ahead, just take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you make the cookies.

To form the cookies you'll need a stencil (made out of a yogurt lid or some other stiff plastic) or you can pipe the dough directly onto the baking sheet. If you're using a stencil, just lay it on the baking sheet and use a spatula to spread the dough within the stencil. Lift the stencil, place it on an empty area on the sheet and repeat spreading the batter. You'll probably get about 6 cookies per sheet. Until you're used to forming the tuiles, only do one sheet at a time.

If you are using the piping method, you can just put the batter into a ziploc bag and squeeze strips of batter out on the baking sheet.

Decorate the tuiles with the colored batter. You can use a piping bag or a ziploc with a small hole cut in it.

Bake the tuiles in a preheated oven for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Lift the cookies off the baking sheet and gently curve them over a rolling pin of bottle to shape them. To make my twirlies, I wrapped the piped cookies around a spoon handle.

A Pantry Pasta

Another pantry-staple pasta dish. You can pull this together using what you have in the pantry and refrigerator. The only have-to-haves are some kind of pasta (shells or orchiette are preferred - stay in the short and chunky family), canned beans and tuna (I used ultra fancypants Italian oil-packed tuna last night, but a can of Starkist is fine too).

For crunch, I used some celery (you could use fresh bell peppers or turnip or jicama or what have you ...) and I had some scallions and dill in the fridge, so they got thrown in for freshness. Finally, I tossed in some capers for tang (try olives, giardinera or pickled onions) and chopped almonds (sub in breadcrumbs or toasted pinenuts) for crunch.
This recipe is a common fall-back for me: it's easy to adjust based on what I have on hand, and it's fast (by the time the pasta ia cooked it's just about finished). I looked back through my archive and found this tuna and bean salad (which is basically this dish, sans pasta). Here's a version where I used orzo (violating my chunky pasta rule).

So, at the risk of repeating myself, here's how you do it:

Pasta with Tuna and Beans
Serves four

• 1 pound pasta
• 1 8 ounce jar of oil-packed tuna, or 2 cans of tuna (olive-oil packed is best, but water-packed is ok)
• 4 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 can of beans
• 3 tablespoons capers
• 4 scallions, chopped
  
• 2 handfuls chopped dill
• 1 handful chopped toasted almonds
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Boil the pasta.

While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce: Saute the celery until a little softened. Add the beans, capers and scallions. When the pasta is cooked, drain it (reserving about a cup of cooking water) and add two-thirds of the pasta to the skillet (you may not need it all - add more until you have a pleasing combination of pasta and the other ingredients). Toss in the dill and almonds. Heat everything together, drizzling in a little cooking water to make the dish saucier if needed.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot or warm.

Any leftover pasta can be used in a frittata.

Drink of the Week: PDT's Bacon Old-Fashioned

Um yeah, this cocktail does contain bacon. Sort of. It actually contains bacon fat. Well ... not really. It contains bacon-infused bourbon. (Which sounds way better than fat-washed bourbon, which is another name for it. Yum.)

Read on, bourbon drinkers and bacon lovers. This is a delicious drink, although it's probably best if you don't disclose the bacon element until after your guests have taken a sip or two.

This cocktail was developed by Don Lee for PDT (Please Don't Tell), a speakeasy in Manhattan. The story of the recipe is here.

The bacon garnish is my fun little addition to the drink, it should be served with an orange twist to stay true to the original.

Bacon Old-Fashioned

Combine in an iced mixing glass:

• 2 ounces bacon-infused bourbon
• 1/4 ounce Grade-B maple syrup (or a little less, the full 1/4 ounce made for a fairly sweet drink)
• 4 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir until extremely well chilled. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist (or a super snappy twirly bacon stick).

Making bacon-infused bourbon is ridiculously easy:

• Cook 4-5 pieces of smoked bacon (the smokier the better).
• Reserve bacon fat, let it cool.
• Eat bacon.
• Pour bacon fat into 2 cups of bourbon in a mason jar or bottle.
  
• Leave it on the counter, give the jar a shake every once in a while.
• After at least six hours, but as long as 3-4 days, put bourbon into freezer until bacon fat solidifies.
• Lift off fat and discard.
• Strain bourbon through a fine strainer.

1/26/10 Update: On the bacon front, folks are in love with Benton's Bacon these days. Benton's is very good. I am also partial to North Country Smokehouse's cob smoked bacon. Whatever bacon you choose, make sure it's smoky. Like house-on-fire smoky.