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Ah, Valentine’s Day. It can be so many things – dinner for two at White Castle, waxy chocolates, and poorly-made sadfaced teddy bears. Or it can be something truly special – like drinks, finger food and romance in your own mack daddy love pad. Personally, I prefer the latter to the former. We here at the Cocktail Hour believe in love and romance, but even if you will spending February 14th alone, we have something to keep you happy.
The color red is popular during the period up to Valentine’s Day, so we’ve invented a special red cocktail just for you, Dear Reader. Red is the color of blood, passion, and vampires, who seem to be quite popular these days. Male vampires seem to loom quite large in the sexytime fantasies of many a shy maiden, and we wouldn’t be surprised if a certain number of people drag out the old Halloween cape on the 14th to live out certain esoteric fantasies. But drinking blood is so old Angelina Jolie, so why not drink a blood-like cocktail instead? We call this little concoction the ‘Vampire’s Kiss’, and we hope you’ll like it.
The Vampire’s Kiss
juice of one blood orange
1/2 oz. Maraschino liqueur (we prefer Luxardo Marasca)
1 oz. Combier Royale or 1/2 oz. Grand Marnier
1 oz. white or gold rum (we used Don Q)
Combine, shake over ice, and serve in a martini glass. Garnish with a speared half slice of blood orange bent around a maraschino cherry.
Let’s say you are going on a trip. And let’s say that you can’t afford to stay in a posh hotel. We can’t always stay at a W, can we? No- sometimes we are stuck at the Knockem Inn, which is clean, cheap, and pleasant enough when the other choice is Aunt Martha’s cat-filled menagerie or the sort of place that looks like Norman Bates might be the proprietor. Thank goodness we brought along our own Hendrick’s Gin and a bottle of Q Tonic, since the Jethro who owns the local liquor store has clearly never heard of either. We pick up a lemon from the lone market in town, take out our Swiss Army knife, and we are off to the races. But wait- don’t we need some decent ice?
Island Ice - for the perfect cocktail
This is where Island Ice comes in. Yes, someone has actually thought to package water in ice cube packs, ready to be thrown in a freezer. Where do you get the freezer? That I can’t tell you. one hopes that our gentle reader will be at a place with a mini-bar in the room, or can beg the front desk for use of their freezer.
Island Ice is a hermetically sealed ice trays containing Tasmanian spring water sourced from deep within the South West Wilderness area. This pure, leak proof, ice tray contains 10 individually sealed cubes that can be carried in your luggage without worry, and put in your hotel fridge for freezing. A wide range of contaminants can be found in drinking water and ice made from contaminated water is a major cause of illness for travelers. Be prepared and enjoy your mini bar cocktail.
Now, what happens if you need to go through customs? Heaven knows. But think of the story you’ll be able to tell.
Island Ice can be bought at Flight 001.
Years and years ago, I used to teach high school. It was a demanding, unforgiving job, but I’m proud of it. Most of the schools where I taught (technically I was a substitute, but in reality I spent a year or so at three different schools with a full teacher’s load) were in poor and working-class neighborhoods where we had children whose only hot meal for the day would be the ones in the lunch room. for some of them, it was the only time they got to eat, period. I Was very young at the time, and I didn’t really understand poverty, but my students taught me a great deal about what it does to a person. They also taught me a lot about survival, and keeping a sense of humor in bad situations, and why a sense of dignity and decency is important.
You might wonder why I’m talking about this in a frothy cocktail blog. Well, as it turns out, I was invited to a fundraiser for Haitian relief, and it borught back a lot of memories of my teaching days. Most of my students were from the West Indies, and a good number of them were from Haiti. Ever since the disaster in that country, I’ve been wondering- how many of my former students – my children, whose names I’ve forgotten but who are still ever-present for me - have lost family members? How many are dead? In New York, it’s freezing outside and I have no desire to go out, but I’m going to trek out to Brooklyn for this fundraiser – for all I know, my $40 might help to keep one of my former students or members of their families alive just a little longer.
There will be lots of bartenders at this event, and food, but I always remember what I learned from my students – always give of yourself. So I made two cakes this morning, and even though I don’t have any milk in the house, these will be wonderful cakes, and I’ll be donating them, at a dollar a slice, for Haitian relief. They’re made with condensed milk, which is a Caribbean staple. However, to make the cakes special, I decided to give them a tropical flair- and I came up with a simple syrup glazes made from spirits. While the cake recipe isn’t mine, I’ve given the dessert my own particular twist. I hope you like it. This particular version is from mykitchensnippets.com.
Condensed Milk Pound Cake
2 sticks of butter (1 cup)
100 gram of sugar
½ cup condensed milk
5 eggs
250 grams flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
1. Prepare a baking pan (loaf or an 8” round). Grease well and line it with parchment paper. Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in egg, one at a time until well incorporated.
3. Add in the condensed milk, vanilla and mixed well.
4. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Slowly add the flour into the batter. Mix well.
5. Pour the batter in to the baking pan, give the baking pan a few knocks on the working counter (take out the air bubbles) and bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown.
It’s at this point that I made some additions.
Recipe No. 1
Mix together 1 tsp. St Germain Liqueur and 1 tsp.. VeeV Liqueur. Stir into 1 oz. condensed milk until smooth. Pour over the still warm cake.
Recipe No. 2
Before pouring the cake, decorate the bottom with maraschino cherries and wild hibiscus flowers.pour the cake mix over them, very slowly and carefully. While the cake is baking, make a simple syrup by mixing 1/2 c. water and 1/2 c. sugar in a sauce pan. in a bowl, mix together 1/2 c. St. Germain, 1/2 c. of VeeV, and 2 tsps. wild hibiscus syrup. Bring the simple syrup to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Add the liqueurs and simmer for 3 more minutes. Turn off heat, and spoon over the cake when it has cooled. What you have is an upside-down cake. You can then sprinkle it with powdered sugar, if you want, just to make it pretty.
Photo Credit: Lush Life Productions
Happy Houred screenshot
GN Bannerman here. Yes, I am one of those obnoxious people with an iPhone. I have drunk the Kool-Aid, and rave about it every chance I get. But before you hate me, please understand that my little box is actually a bar tool, not just a toy for me to fiddle with and wave in front of those unfortunate enough not to have one.
At least half the apps on my phone (and on my iPod Touch – see what I mean about being obnoxious?) are food and cocktail related.
Epicurious has a marvelous free app that includes cocktail and bar snack recipes. Happy Houred is also free, and tells you where to find the nearest bars with happy hours by category and type of drink. Good Food and Urban Spoon help you locate restaurants, and well, most of those have bars. Gucci has an app that well tell you, among other things, where to find upscale tipples in select cities around the world. And then of course there’s Open Table, because you never know when you’ll need to make a reservation at some place like Perry Street or Yerba Buena while you’re walking down the street or chatting up your friends.
Why so many frees apps? Because while I like expensive drinks, I can’t pay for them if I’m spending a fortune on iPhone apps.
What are your favorite bar-related applications, iPhone or otherwise?
Courtesy of The Cocktail Times
Consider the Sidecar. It’s a very simple, basic cocktail. However, like many simple things (love, roast chicken, croquet) it’s easy to get it wrong. Yet when done well, it’s a perfect cocktail, especially in the winter, when anything with brandy in it tastes extra special.
Here’s a recipe from the classic Savoy Cocktail Book for this nonpareil. The recipe gives the proper proportions; you can figure out the rest yourself.
1/4 Lemon Juice.
1/4 Cointreau.
1/2 Brandy.
Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.
That’s it. No umbrellas, no flavored syrups, no flames, no hoopla at all. I would make it with 1 oz. lemon juice,, 1 oz. Cointreau, and 2 oz. brandy, and maybe a twist of lemon peel, but nothing more. If you really wanted to be fancy, you could substitute Combier for the Cointreau, but I wouldn’t get any more hysterical than that.However, one should eat something with this, as Sidecars are delicious and addictive, which could lead to unfortunate results.
Thank goodness we have a delightful solution – cheese. Why cheese? Think of the main component of canapes and cocktail snacks. The reason why they are filled with buttery and oily goodness is to keep your tummy from absorbing alcohol to quickly. Otherwise you will end up banging into walls, and that’s not a good thing at all.We spoke recently to Wendy Levy of Wendy’s Cheese and Tea Shop about the matter, and she came up with several suggestions.
My first instinct is to recommend a nice, beefy washed-rind cheese like Livarot, Taleggio or Forsterkase; or a great Alpine mountain cheese like Appenzeller or Hoch Ybrig. Try ‘em together and let me know how it goes!
So there you have it. Please let us know what you think, and let Wendy know, too.
We here at The Cocktail Hour love what we call ‘snacky things’. Things like cheese crackers, spreadable cheese, seasoned nuts- the finds of things that make cocktails so yummy. But we also like more substantial ‘snacky things’ too. One of our writers remembers that as a child, her idea of bliss was pigs in a blanket, and other frozen food canapes that her mother would bake off for parties. Still another remembers his first cocktail party, which was held in his dorm room. He’d received a care basket from his parents, one of those presents from a fruit-and-sausage catalogue that included tiny logs of cheddar cheese, sliceable pork and beef products, and crackers. He used his hot plate and frying pan (both totally contraband) and made tiny grilled cheese canapes for his neighbors to enjoy along with their rum and cokes.
Recently, we were inspired by a 1930 reprint of a book entitled Shake ‘Em Up! by Virginia Elliot and Phil D. Stong. The slim book contains a section called ‘Commissary’, which gives a laundry list of items one might wish to keep around the house just in case a cocktail party should break out, as well as paired cocktails and canape recipes. Apparently, what people lacked in money and gourmet cuisine, they made up for in enthusiasm. For instance, simple snacky things are made from peanut butter and crackers. A mock pate is formulated from skinned liverwurst, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Chopped salted peanuts and chopped gherkins are mixed with cream cheese and spread on white bread. The book is incredibly charming and funny, and an inspiration to those of us hit by the recession.
While it would be nice to Martha Stewart-ize every cocktail party, the truth is that we often don’t have the time, money or patience to do so. And sometimes we want to have a cocktail party for only two, or even just one. That’s where simple but lovely snacky things come in.
These are some of the items we here at The Cocktail Hour keep around just in case we get the urge to have an impromptu party.
Carr’s crackers (we especially like the entertainment pack, because it includes some crackers with raised edges- perfect for holdng lumpfish caviar)
Hard cheese (usually a decent Cheddar, which freezes well)
Rolled anchovies with capers (put them on a cracker with seasoned mayonnaise, and you have an instant canape)
A log of sopressata sausage (tangy, sweet, and just a little salty, it looks great cut thin on the bias)
Mayonnaise (some of us aren’t picky and will use Hellman’s, but GN Bannerman prefers to make his own from scratch)
A small block of cream cheese
Smoked Hungarian paprika (to season the mayonnaise or cream cheese and to sprinkle over anything pale ‘to give it color’, as Mother used to say)
A tube of tomato paste (you can also mix this with the mayonnaise or cream cheese)
Soft cheese (usually Brie or Camembert, in one of the tiny wooden crates, because it keeps for a while)
French parsley or chervil (chopped fine and sprinkled over anything, it just looks pretty)
Potted meat (anything from crab meat to deviled ham)
Lumpfish caviar in two colors (can be used alone or as a topping)
A can or bag of nuts
A small container of olives in brine
A loaf of bread (with cookie cutters or a knife you can trim or cut the pieces into any shape you want)
Now, for a planned party we might only use a few of these items. However, if you have some friends stop by after work, or you’re watching an old movie and want to entertain yourself, these items will do quite nicely. They won’t win you any awards for deep creativity, but they will allow you to offer simple, gracious, hospitality.
So tell us- what simple canape ideas do you use at home?
You know you want to go!
We met Fredo Ceraso the other evening. His card described him as a cocktailian. We would call him an bon vivant of the highest order. His site is perfection itself, and we feel it is our duty to introduce him to you. Please peruse it, and learn from the Master. We also recommend an event which he is touting, as it includes both burlesque and cocktails, a captivating combination.
Naughty and racy never looked so good.
One of our writers has been under the weather for a few days, but hasn’t minded too much, since he’s been watching smutty movies all week. Dipsomaniac mothers who starve their children while throwing cocktail parties? Yes. Handsome chauffeurs who smack women and old men around? Check. Bootleggers and adulteresses as heroes? Check. Women constantly falling out of their clothes for no good reason? Double check.
And no, he hasn’t been watching HBO; he’s been watching TCM’s Forbidden Hollywood second boxed set. It contains such movies as Night Nurse, which shows an amazingly young Barbara Stanwick as the nurse getting smacked in the face by an equally young and totally degenerate Clark Gable, decked out in a chauffeur’s rig that could double for a bondage master’s at-home wear. Three on a Match features a floozy so foul that she runs off with the first man who flirts with her when her husband isn’t around, and turns to a life of sin, including wild parties, child neglect, and drugs. Plus, in both films Joan Blondell cracks wise, acts sassy, and in Night Nurse she takes off her clothes. Why? Because she knew that nearly a century later, some of us would like to drink martinis at home while leering at her in her step-ins.
The other movies in the set include A Free Soul, about a woman who takes up with a sleazy gangster (Gable again) while her father defends him in a murder trial, Female, about a distaff auto company owner who keeps her male executives to decorate her bed and keep her motor running, and The Divorcee, about a woman who steps out on her husband with his best friend after the husband is caught cheating. Run these in the background at your next cocktail party, and we guarantee your guests will be shocked.
