Tony's Food 101: Improving and Inventing Cocktails

Hi guys and gals,

Things have been wildly busy lately, with one of our residents out on medical leave, medically leaving the rest of us to shoulder his calls. I did get out of the hospital recently, for a cocktail holiday party at my best friend's house. The premise was great: everybody dressed in sports coats ties and dresses, with a huge assortment of liquor with mixers left on ice, and some pretty interesting cocktail recipes framed on the wall above. The guests were hesitant at first, making slow circles around the bottles, except me. I dove right in, egg in hand, and whipped up a Ramos Gin Fizz for my girlfriend. After that, all sorts of drinks were flying off the bar and into the eagerly waiting hands of party guests. A couple of things needed to be tweaked here and there (especially with the more complicated libations like the Ramos), so I had to do some quick thinking on my feet. An altered Ramos recipe is below, as well as an off-the-cuff cocktail present for the party's hostess, who's a die-hard amaretto fan.

The Ramos Sans Flowers
Not having an ethnic grocery store near his house, we didn't have any access to orange flower water, an arguably essential ingredient to the Ramos Gin Fizz. We made due with some substitutes, or equally incredible results:

• 2 oz gin. I like New Amsterdam in this one because of it's great citrus notes (plus the architectural bottle looks impressive on a home bar).
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/4 oz triple-sec
• 1/2 oz orange juice
• 1/2 oz. St. Germaine (which everyone at the party is now officially obsessed with).
• 1 egg white
• 1 oz. heavy cream

Combine all ingredients, more or less in that order (but definitely cream last due to the acids in the citrus juices) in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until your arms literally hurt. The key is to get a huge amount of delicious foam on the top of the drink. Pour into a tall glass then add club soda until the foam rises to the very very edge of the glass, then enjoy. As an aside, a bartender once told me that this drink tastes like "lemonade and a creamsicle making sweet love."

The Christmas Cookie

This was my small gift to the party's hostess, who loves amaretto. She is also very much a franophile, so the inclusion of two wonderful french liquors was an added bounus.

• 2 oz. Domaine de Canton ginger liquer.
• 1 oz. amaretto
• 1/2 oz. St. Germaine
• 1/2 oz. heavy cream

Shake with ice until creamy and foamy, and strain into a martini class. It could be garnished with one of those Pirouette cookies that are ubiquitous around the holidays.

I will try to post more now that things are slowing down, I hope everyone enjoys their holidays and has a great New Year!

Rhubarb Errata

I recently tried adding a dash of aromatic bitters to each of these drinks, and it really changes their flavor. I highly suggest it. I've been using good ol' Angostura bitters right along in cocktails, but I recently also picked up a bottle Fee Brother's Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters, which are amazing. Both are great, although I would stay away from fruit-based bitters, as they really detract from the rhubarb's flavor.

Summer Semester '10: The Last of the Rhubarb

I've never really interacted with rhubarb on any level prior to this year, now that my girlfriend and I have joined a local community supported agriculture farm (CSA). My grandfather never grew it in his garden (at least, during my 28 years eating from it), and my mom, never one to whip up pies, cakes, or other desserts without a good reason, never baked with it. I would walk by it in the grocery store every year and turn up my nose at what I thought was pretty much equivalent to ugly red celery.

One of the joys of participating in a CSA is that you never know what you're going to get in your share. For 3 weeks now, we've gotten big bundles of rhubarb (see figure 19.i). My girlfriend took some, promising to make jam or a cobbler or something. The problem is, she's away at her family's summer beach cottage while I'm stuck here working over night shifts every four nights or so while the new residents "acclimate" to the hospital (I swear, they get softer on the new neurology residents in my program every year). I was also stuck with this week's rhubarb, which is apparently the last of the season. A quick search on my go-to food resource CHOW.com showed me a neat little trick to do with the scarlet stalks - rhubarb syrup. And thus, as a welcome back surprise for my girlfriend, the Rhubarb Basil Martini was born. Then along came it's younger brother, the Rhubarb Gin Fizz.

Figure 19.i - A quick before-and-after shot.

Rhubarb Basil Martini

• 1/2 oz. of rhubarb syrup - recipe linked above
• 1 & 1/2 oz. of vodka
• 1/2 oz. of dry white vermouth [note: we ran out of dry vermouth and tried using sweet red vermouth, and the drink came out disgusting. I do not suggest this substitution.]
• 6-7 small basil leaves, and one large basil leaf for garnish.

Place the basil leaves in your cocktail shaker, then add ample amounts of ice. Pour the liquors and syrup over the ice and basil, cover and shake. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with one large basil leaf.

Rhubarb Gin Fizz

• 3/4 to 1 oz. rhubarb syrup, depending on how sweet you want your drink.
• 1 & 1/2 oz. of gin. I have a bias towards Henricks, which I think a) is one of the smoothest gins on the market, and b) just feels right in a quirky drink like this one.
• Ice.
• Club soda.

Pour the syrup and gin over the ice in a rocks glass, fill to the top with club soda and give it a gentle stir.

Enjoy! Next week, we'll look at my #1 favorite thing to do after a deep sea fishing trip with my buddies (other than sober up and maybe take a nap).

Tony's Drink 101: The Legend of the Beer Margarita

It all started in fourth year medical school. Some of you may be (or have been) fourth year medical students, so you know that much like during your senior years of high school and/or college, you're sitting pretty. Well, I happened to be sitting pretty in my apartment, flipping through the channels, when I started watching Knocked Up. Not realizing that this is the second worst movie ever (the worst being one I was forced to sit through by my high school friends), I quickly turned it off and went down by the apartment complex pool. A friend and fellow medical student was there, so we shot the shit for the rest of the afternoon. Later, he and his girlfriend (yet another medical student) invited me over for pulled pork and margaritas.

This is where the revelation of the Beer Margarita began.

That's right. A margarita that contains beer. It may sound disgusting, but trust me on this one: As long as you use the right beer (certainly no porters or stouts), these are crisp, refreshing and lack the sticky-sweetness that you get with most commercial mixes. I have been making them regularly for a variety of events, not limited to nights when my girlfriend and I make burritos, or my residency program's "Annual International Guacamole Competition," and they are always wildly popular.

Beer Margaritas

• One can of frozen Limeade concentrate
• Tequila
• Triple Sec (or Grand Marnier)
• One 12 oz. bottle of beer. I usually use Corona, Coronal Light or Bud Light with Lime. Any lightly colored beer is great in this mix, but feel free to experiment. A few microbreweries make raspberry or blueberry lagers that I can imagine would taste pretty good.
  

Dump the frozen concentrate into a pitcher. Fill the empty can all the way with tequila, and add it into the pitcher. Fill the empty can half way with triple sec and pour it on in. Finally, pour in your beer and give it a gentle stir to make sure the concentrate is dissolved - don't stir too much or you'll flatten the carbonation added by the beer. Pour over ice and enjoy!