Nermo

Lately, I’ve been writing more about drinks, and decided the topic deserves its own site with richer content than just a blog, not to mention a slicker design and its own Twitter account.

The angle will be the same, explaining and demystifying the things you experience in bars and restaurants, documenting my bar experiments, reviewing products and sharing recipes for amazing cocktails.

All of the drinking articles from this site and new writing will be available at LibationLab.com along with printable guides, recipe cards, and cheat sheet for the home bartender.  I’m looking for other content to include, and am thinking of adding a social network for SF Bay Area cocktail enthusiasts and a database of local happy hour specials.  If you have any thoughts on what else a drinking site needs, please share your ideas.

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After stealing two sips of a friend’s Ramos Gin Fizz at Rickhouse, I wanted to make my own.  It’s one of those drinks that you don’t order just anywhere and it’s rarely worth the effort to make unless you are really trying to impress someone.

Ramos Fizz

• 2 ounces Hayman’s Old Tom gin
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 ounce lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce lime juice
• 1/2 ounce Clement’s Creole Shrubb
• 1 ounce heavy cream
• soda water

Combine all ingredients but soda and shake with ice for 2 minutes.
Strain into a collins glass and top with soda water.

Lots of Tips:

1. When making the Ramos Fizz for others, use a three-piece shaker instead of a Boston shaker, because nobody wants to see the cream in their cocktail curdle with lemon juice in glass.
2. Using a soda siphon enhances the drink aesthetically, because adding soda under pressure allows you to create a bubbly head on the drink that simply pouring soda will not allow. Lacking a siphon, you can use a trick I learned from mischievous students when I was teaching middle school.  Poke or drill a hole in the cap of a plastic soda water bottle and squeeze it into the glass in a sharp stream to froth the drink.
3. The traditional recipe calls for orange blossom water, but it is absurdly hard to find outside of the middle east, so Clement’s Creole Shrubb, or another orange liqueur, such as triple sec, Cointreau or Grand Marnier, can be substituted as above.  Alternately, rosewater can be used.
4. Drop the spring from a cocktail strainer into the shaker and shake before adding ice and shake again to expedite the emulsification of the egg white.
5. If you don’t have an Old Tom gin, use a regular London Dry gin like Beefeater and add a barspoon of sugar.

            

Wine was a four-letter word Sunday morning, which I spent at the SFChefs.Food.Wine beer pairing boot camp with Beer Chef Bruce Paton and City Beer Store owner Craig Wathen.  I would have liked a few hard and fast rules, but there doesn’t seem to be a simple formula for matching food with beer.

The gist was that beer can be paired as a contrasting flavor, a complimentary flavor, or as a palate cleanser.  Even the beer chef said he doesn’t actually pair his appetizers with beer, but rather puts out a lot of really great apps knowing that a lighter beer compliments just about anything.  My favorite pairing of the day was Temptation from the Russian River Brewing Company, with a lemony bite that was gangbusters with ginger-scallion shrimp cocktail.

Ultimately, you need to consider all facets of the beer (sweetness, bitterness, additional flavors, alcohol content, carbonation) and of the food (flavor, richness, sweetness, acidity, heat, texture) when pairing.

Here are my beer-pairing guidelines, a combination of personal experience and tips picked up in the seminar:

1. Light to Dark: over the course of a meal, beers should progress from lightest in color and flavor, to darker, heavier, higher in alcohol and more bitter.
2. Match intensity: pair stronger flavored food with stronger flavored beer and subtler food with subtler beer.
3. Red or White? White meats (poultry, fish, pork) match best with sweeter, maltier beers, while red meat pairs best with richer, more fruit-forward ales, and most anything off the grill rocks with a smokey porter or stout, unless it’s spicy, and then a crisp lager will cut the heat.
4. Home brewery advantage: ethnic food often pairs best with its regional beers, brewed to suit the local cuisine.
5. Sweet and Sour: When matching sweet or sour flavors, choose a beer slightly sweeter or sourer than the food.
6. Barley wine goes well with just about any flavorful foods.  Keep a few bottles on hand at all times.
7. At the end: Porter, stout and barley wine pair particularly well with desserts and end of meal cheese courses.
8. Large bottles, small glasses: If you are going to serve multiple courses paired with brews, diners won’t want a full 12-ounces with every course, so put out smaller glasses and pass around a bigger bottle.  Like Belgians, many craft beers are available in 750 ml bottles (just over 25 ounces).  It’s always good to keep a variety of larger bottles on hand.  They are easier to store than six packs and make it possible to have a variety, and thus “the perfect beer” on hand when needed.
9. Not too cold: remove beer from refrigerator 15-30 minutes before serving.  If it’s super cold, you won’t be able to get the full effect, because beer is most flavorful at 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit.

My admin just informed me that Miller Light pairs nicely with everything from cookies to caviar, but if you want a second opinion, download the Brewers Association pairing chart (.pdf) by clicking below.

            

I just found out that it’s National Oyster Day.

Pairing drinks with food may consider the flavors, smells and even textures of a dish, but rarely the motion involved in its consumption.

Pairing shots with oyster shooters is a great way to enhance the sensory experience, and to move the accoutrement off the oyster and into a glass.

An for those of you who don’t like oysters, just remember that taking a shot first makes anything more palatable.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Colorado Rattlesnake (Pepper/Spicy)

• 1 ounce  Tequila
• 3/4 ounces tomato juice
• 1/4- 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
• course ground black pepper

Aviation (Citrus/Sour)

• 1 ounce gin
• 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 1 dash maraschino

Last Word (Citrus/Sour)

• 1/2 ounce gin
• 1/2 ounce green Chartreuse
• 1/2 ounce maraschino
• 1/2 ounce lime juice

Bourbon or Mezcal (Smoky)

• 1.5 ounces cold bourbon or mezcal

Dirty Martini (Brine/Salty)

• 1.5 ounces vodka
• 1/2 ounce olive juice

            

As promised, I bought an ice cream maker and started concocting my boozey Vice Cream.  The first batch is fantastic.

Cherry Chocolate Port Ice Cream

1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded
1 1/2 cups cream, cold
1/2 vanilla bean (about 2 inches), scraped
3/4 cup dried bing cherries, reconstituted in port
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Stir together sugar and starch and whisk in egg yolk, then milk.  Over medium heat, stirring constantly, bring to a boil and continue stirring for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and pour into a chilled bowl, stir in vanilla scrapings, cover and chill.  Once cold, whisk in cream and put in ice cream maker (mine took 20 minutes, but follow the instructions on your own), and then stir in cherries and chocolate before covering and putting in the freezer to harden.

Notes:  scalding milk is simply bringing it briefly to a boil, which will cause solids to separate from the milk and stick to the pan, so they are left behind when you pour off the milk.  To make the cherries, put a cup of dried bing cherries in a cup of good port and let them sit, covered at room temperature for a few days.

            

I am tired of hearing people say they are, “going to cheers,” when a round of drinks is delivered. That involves a trip to Boston, as far as I am concerned, and I’m not sure how it has come to the point that I hear “to cheers” used in place of “to toast” more than I hear toast used as a verb.

• toast: verb [trans.] drink to the health or in honor of (someone or something) by raising one’s glass together with others : he toasted his family’s health.

• cheer: verb [intrans.] shout for joy or in praise: he cheered from the sidelines.

• cheers: Not a verb! You cannot cheers someone. The phrases, “let’s cheers,” or “we should cheers to him” should never be uttered. Cheers is an informal exclamation, expressing good wishes, in particular before drinking, not the action of toasting: “Cheers,” he said, raising his glass.

::end of rant::

            

It’s the little cup your bartender uses to measure, and no matter how good he or she is, you should be grateful if it’s being used at the end of the night.  Free-pouring a drink accurately is tough for anyone, and after a few hours with a shaker, fatigue can throw off even the most skilled.

For the home bartender, it’s just essential. Don’t be ashamed to use one in front of your friends. They will be more impressed by an exceptional cocktail and it’s not nearly as emasculating as asking for directions at a gas station.

The trio below came into my possession at Tales of the Cocktail last week and they offer a good range. On the left is a traditional jigger, which can also come in clear plastic with measurement lines.  In the middle is a measuring cup that lists measurements in milliliters, ounces and fractions of a cup. In a pinch, a standard coffee scoop is a one ounce pour, equivalent to 2 tablespoons if you are really desperate.

On the right is an innovative piece from Ubertools, which I noticed in heavy rotation at the Carousel Bar while I was at Tales.  One side is a full ounce measure and the other side is separated into three sections (1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 ounces), each of which is on a corner to facilitate easy pouring.

            

Inspired by the Carnivorous Cocktails seminar at Tales, I started Sunday brunch with the BLTini, a sandwich in a glass.

I like my BLTs on potato bread, so I opted for vodka over gin, squeezed the bejeezus out of a gorgeous heirloom tomato, then decided that lettuce was lame and so opted for basil as an aromatic garnish.

Tip: bacon is best for this purpose when crispy, flat and most of the fat has been rendered off, so I devised this little trick.  Lay raw bacon in a hot pan and then put a Pyrex baking dish on top, pressing the bacon flat while it cooks. Creates perfect cocktail bacon.

BLTini

• 2 ounces vodka (plain or citrus)
• 2 ounces tomato water (see note)
• 1 dash dry vermouth
• 1 piece crispy bacon
• 1 basil leaf

Shake vodka, tomato water and vermouth with ice to chill and strain into a chilled martini glass.  Stir with bacon, and literally clap once with the basil leaf on your palm to release the aromatic oils before floating it in the glass.

Note: to make tomato water I diced the tomato, wrapped it in cheese cloth and squeezed out as much liquid as I could.  When my hand got tired, I put the whole pulpy package into a citrus squeezer, extracted the rest and filtered the tomato water through a fine mesh strainer.  A medium-large heirloom yields about 2 ounces of juice, less than you will get with a roma of comparable size.

            

Because I couldn’t just spend the weekend celebrating the 4th and packing for Tales, I:

1. made a batch of hot sauce from farm-fresh chilies
2. created a tincture of shiso
3. made a gallon of traditional umeshu
4. improvised almost a gallon of apricot/pluot “umeshu”
5. infused a bottle of Hendrick’s gin with cucumber and persimmon
6. devised the Tomcat Collins with the aforementioned gin (recipe posted soon)
7. hosted the “Squash Blossom” dinner party with the lovely TSB (we may not be together any more, but we still throw one hell of a dinner party), where I served the aforementioned cocktail the following hors d’oeuvres
8. deep-fried two kinds of cheese-stuffed squash blossoms (chevre and mascarpone) with 4 dipping sauces (southwestern salsa, spicy tomoato, lemony aioli and a green onion sour cream).

            

Tinctures, bitters and infused spirits are all created by steeping culinary components in alcohol to extract flavor.  It really is just that simple and it is easy to do at home, so I will keep an eye out for how they’re being used at Tales of the Cocktail next week and update you on any trends or exciting uses I discover.

At a gin tasting workshop last night (many thanks to Right Gin and Nirvino) I asked a favorite local bartender, Josh Harris of 15 Romolo, what exactly a tincture is, having only recently encountered the term as a cocktail ingredient.

He defined it as being like aromatic bitters: herbs, spices or other ingredients with intense flavor steeped in over-proof, neutral spirits (strong grain alcohol like Everclear) to extract the flavor, which is added to cocktails in dashes or drops. He said that while bitters are a combination of flavors, tinctures are made with a single flavor.  I’ve since seen tinctures online that were composed of more than one flavor, but none so complex as bitters, so a stronger distinction may be that tinctures need not be bitter in flavor.

Note: the definitions of these terms in bar-speak differ from their traditional usage.  Technically, all three are tinctures, defined as an alcoholic extract of plant material with an ethanol percentage of at least 40% (assuming the spirit you are “infusing” is at least 80 proof).  Infusion is the result of steeping plants in water or oil, not alcohol, so infused vodka, rum or gin is a contradiction in terms. Vinegar is also an acceptable medium, so shrubs are really tinctures too.

I would offer recipes, but frankly, all you do is soak stuff in stiff spirits.  Just go try it.