Summer juice

We had a party a couple of weeks ago, and we served this agua fresca, and we liked it!  It’s quick and easy, it’s cool and refreshing, and it’s made from lemon juice and celery.  I’ve made it several times since the party, and it is just right to celebrate the first weekend of summer.

I found the recipe on Cocina al Natural, which has recently morphed into Cocina y Comparte (which means Cook and Share – the site still features recipes and videos by Sonia Ortiz, plus many more uploaded by contributors).

Following the tradition established by Kara’s Winter Juice and Spring Juice, we’re calling this Summer Juice (in Spanish, it is Agua de Apio, or Celery Water).  It’s the perfect thing for a warm day – don’t let the celery scare you… this is just right to cool your tongue if your menu trends toward spicy like ours did.

Summer Juice with Lemon and Celery

• 4 lemons
• 2 cups sliced celery (2-3 ribs)
• 2 cups water
• ¼ cup agave nectar
• Sparkling water or club soda and ice

Juice the lemons, removing the zest first to save for another purpose if desired.  When you squeeze the lemons it is fine if some of the pulp gets mixed in, but pick out the seeds.  You should have about a cup of lemon juice.  Whiz the juice in the blender with the celery and 2 cups water until the celery is finely pureed, then pour through a fine sieve into a pitcher.  Save the ground up celery (see below).

Stir in the agave nectar until well-blended.  Pour over ice and add sparkling water or club soda (or simply dilute to taste with regular water if you don’t want bubbles – equal parts juice and water or use more juice if you want a stronger taste).

Fortify as desired.

Remember that ground up celery?  Here’s a nice little appetizer.  Squeeze the excess liquid out of the celery and chill it in a little bowl.  Take some flour tortillas, brush them on both sides with melted butter, and cut them into chip-sized pieces.  Bake on a parchment-lined sheet at 400 F until lightly browned and crisp, keeping an eye on them and turning after about five minutes.   Cool and store in a zip bag until time to serve.

Put the chips out on a plate alongside a little dish of cream cheese, the bowl of celery puree, and some kind of spicy pickled peppers – I highly recommend Candied Jalapeños.

Happy summer!

Tami

No quarter

Hello, again. I didn’t mean for my next post to be another cocktail, and I even asked Braeden if he thought you all would mind if I posted two, two! recipes for cocktails in a row. He responded, “They’re people. They’ll like it.”

So, here we are!

Have you heard of ginger beer? If not, allow me to introduce you.

This drink, which Braeden calls No Quarter, showcases ginger beer quiiiiite nicely. It’s Braeden’s take on a Dark ‘n’ Stormy, of which there can be only one. We take some rum, juice of a freshly squeezed lime, a few dashes of bitters, and shake them with ice. Then, simply pour in a glass and top with ginger beer.

It’s. So. Good.

No Quarter

Notes: We highly recommend Mount Gay Rum, or “the rum that invented rum.” We used the Eclipse rum, which is a nice amber and my favorite of the Mount Gay rums.  For bitters we used Peychaud’s, but I suspect Angostura would also be nice (and if you don’t have bitters, by all means make this drink without. But then go buy bitters.) As for the ginger beer, we were only able to conveniently find Goya brand at a nearby supermarket. It’s very good, and a bit spicy – I didn’t love the spicy at first, but quickly grew to find it addicting. There are other brands of ginger beer out there which are a bit more mellow, such as Reed’s. If you do a little research or have a Jamaican or other Caribbean restaurant near you, you can easily find many different kinds of ginger beer. *UPDATE: So we tried Reed’s, and it wasn’t our favorite – too mellow, not quite as kicky as other ginger beers I’ve found in little DC markets. I suggest starting with Goya, then trying other ginger beers you happen to find.

For two drinks:

• 2 – 3 ounces rum (see notes)
• juice of one lime
• 3 drops bitters
• 12 ounces ginger beer (see notes)
• ice

Combine rum, lime juice, and bitters with ice in a shaker; shake 10 seconds until chilled. (Or, you could stir together rum, lime juice, and bitters in a glass, then add ice later). Pour into two tall glasses filled with ice; top with ginger beer.

Cheers, to an excellent weekend.

Also,

Kara

Spring juice

A haiku:

It’s actually spring

blossoms, berries, and herbs, yum

the sun shines hooray

    

Ahem, remember that drink I told you about in the depths of winter? Tonight I made a spring version, and I openly admit that it’s only slightly more like a springtime drink because it uses gin. Doesn’t gin seem like a drink meant for the spring? To me, it signals gin and tonics being sipped on the back stoop after a day of classes, a nice little cap to a stroll outside, the start of the weekend. Or, a de-stresser on a Thursday evening before you make dinner and get tackled by the puppy.

Spring juice 

• juice of one ruby red grapefruit
• juice of one lime
• agave nectar to taste
• gin – I used Bombay dry –  to taste (start with, say, two shots? Then add more if you’d like)
• ice
• water or seltzer water, optional

Method 1: Whisk together juices, agave, and gin in a tall liquid measuring cup. Pour over a tall glass filled with ice, top with water or seltzer water if you’d like.

Or, method 2: Shake juices, agave, gin, and a few ice cubes together in a cocktail shaker for about 10 seconds. Strain over ice into a tall glass, top with water or seltzer water, if using.

For more gin and grapefruit inspirations, check this out.

Kara

The cure to winter blues II

I don’t know if you all heard the news, but DC now has its own groundhog. That’s right, Punxsutawney, make way for Potomac Phil. Since Phil predicted that there would be six more weeks of winter, I thought everyone could use a little drink.

All this citrus in the stores has made me go a little citrus happy; I’ve made lemon curd, lemon pasta, eaten lots of oranges over the sink, and attempted a few orange daiquiris. But last night’s drink tops them all. It’s a spinoff of a fresh juice I found over at 101 Cookbooks for Lime, Grapefruit, and Ginger Juice - with a few little changes. Instead of using ginger in the juice, I infused vodka with ginger and mixed that in with fresh grapefruit and lime juice, then sweetened it a bit with agave nectar. Yep.

And so, in honor of six more weeks of winter, leaking pipes, and broken hot water heaters, I present to you my winter juice.

Winter Juice
makes one cocktail

Note: The measurements I’ve given for agave and vodka are, as usual, more guidelines than actual rules. Adjust to your own tastes, but also know that the citrus masks any taste of vodka, well, quite nicely.

• juice of one grapefruit
• juice of one lime
• 1 to 2 tablespoons agave nectar
• 2 to 3 ounces ginger infused vodka (recipe below)
• seltzer water

Combine grapefruit and lime juice in a tall glass. Add vodka and agave to taste, stir everything around to combine, and top with seltzer water. Throw in a few ice cubes to finish it off, and watch your worries about no hot water and fears of scurvy melt away.

Ginger vodka

• 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
• 4 cups vodka

Place vodka and ginger in an airtight container (such as a quart sized Ball jar), give it a few shakes, and place in a cool, dark place (but not refrigerator) for at least two days, shaking jar every couple of days. I let my vodka infuse for four days, and I’m going to keep the ginger in the jar to keep it infusing. Take ginger out if you don’t want a strong flavor.

Cheers!

Kara

A party, a spread, and a drink

And now for a history lesson:

Back in 45 BC, Julius Caesar implemented the Julian calendar, which is slightly different than the Gregorian calendar we all know and love today. Fast forward a few years (or so) to 1918, when the Soviet Union officially adopted the Gregorian calendar and the Orthodox church kept on celebrating its holidays by the old calendar, thereby making the New Year a holiday celebrated twice each year. Not a bad deal, right?

In honor of Starii Novii god, Old Russian New Year, we had a little gathering complete with infused vodkas, so many pickled things, herring, some Russian salads, spreads, and breads. I went to a Russian store out in Maryland to gather supplies and was pleased as punch to discover they even had Sovetskoye Shampanskoye, which was undoubtedly responsible for the slight hangover I had the next day. No matter, when throwing a Russian-themed party, champagne must be had, and Sovetskoye it must be! Anyways, if you’re ever in the DC metro area and want to get a peek at Mother Russia, go to this store – it’s almost exactly like every little corner store I walked into in Moscow. When I asked the woman which kind of pickled herring is samaya fcusnaya (most delicious), she replied “Devushka, oni VSE fcusniye!” (Girl, they’re ALL delicious!) Typical.

Today I will share a recipe for a cheese-carrot-garlic spread. I first sampled this spread when my host mother prepared it to celebrate her late husband’s birthday (which, coincidentally, also happened to fall on the day of the Russian Revolution. Yep, he was born on November 7, 1917. Cray. Zee.) It’s a mish-mash of finely grated white cheese, finely shredded carrots, and crushed garlic, all bound together with a touch of mayonnaise.  In Russia they use what is simply called “Russian cheese” – when I asked for cheese at the Russian store, she gave me Havarti, which I liked quite a lot in this spread.

Syrnyi Pashtet s Chesnokom i Morkovyu
Cheese garlic carrot spread
Adapted from The Art of Russian Cuisine by Anne Volokh

Note: This is one of those recipes that is hardly a recipe. You can add more or less of anything depending on your taste, just be sure to use enough mayonnaise to hold the spread together.

• 1 pound Havarti cheese, or other mild, soft cheese
• 1 – 2 medium sized carrots, peeled
• 2-4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise

Finely grate or shred the cheese (or use a food processor). You want it to be grainy, not mushy. Do the same with the carrot. Mix together the grated cheese, carrot, and garlic in a bowl. Add as much mayonnaise as needed to bind the whole mess together. (I suppose if you really like mayonnaise, you could use more). If you want to be super fancy and slightly retro, you might even fashion a cheese ball out of it. Serve with crackers, bread, or toasts.

The cheese garlic spread is the orange-y one in the white bowl with a plastic fork. Classy.

But wait, there’s more!

I also infused two kinds of vodka: a lemon vodka and a black pepper vodka. Did you know that infusing vodka is really easy and tastes really good and is also kind of awesome? You heard it here first.

Note: These vodkas take two weeks to infuse, so plan ahead.

Limonnaia Vodka
Lemon vodka
Adapted from The Art of Russian Cuisine by Anne Volokh

• 4 cups good quality vodka (I used Stolichnaya)
• 1 lemon
• sugar to taste

Wash the lemon well and scrub off any wax that may be on the rind. Slice lemon (thickness doesn’t matter) and remove seeds. Place vodka, sugar, and lemon into an airtight container (a quart sized Ball jar would work nicely here), shake it around a bit to somewhat dissolve the sugar, and let sit in the refrigerator* for two weeks. Shake the jar whenever you happen to think of it throughout those two weeks. After two weeks strain vodka through cheesecloth and store in airtight container.

Pertsovka
Pepper vodka
Adapted from The Art of Russian Cuisine by Anne Volokh

• 10 – 20 whole black peppercorns (depending on taste), slightly crushed
• 4 cups vodka

Combine pepper and vodka in airtight container, give it shake, and let sit in refrigerator for two weeks. Shake the jar occasionally throughout those two weeks. After two weeks strain vodka through cheesecloth and store in airtight container.

 

Infused vodkas are all well and good, especially if you like to drink vodka straight. I highly recommend at least trying them straight, just so you know what they taste like. If you don’t like to drink vodka straight, then I have just the thing for you: A cocktail! I call it the Slippery Russian. I wanted to make a cocktail that combines Russian flavors but that wasn’t too sweet or too fruity. What I got was a very refreshing drink that kind of sneaks up on you, as the citrus does an excellent job of hiding the vodka taste. Cheers!

Slippery Russian
makes one cocktail

• 1 shot lemon vodka
• 1 shot pepper vodka
• juice of 1 lemon (or half a lemon if you’d like to taste the vodka more)
• 1 tablespoon of dill simple syrup (recipe below)
• seltzer water

Combine all ingredients except seltzer water in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake for 10 seconds, strain into a glass, and top off with a splash or two of seltzer water.

 Dill simple syrup

Note: The next time I make this, I’ll let the dill infuse overnight. I could definitely smell the dill in the syrup but when it was all mixed in the drink the dill disappeared; I think I’d like to at least have a hint of dill. Also, if you don’t think you’ll use a cup of dill simple syrup within a week, I suggest only infusing half of the recipe. The non-infused simple syrup will last almost forever in the refrigerator, whereas the dill should be used within a week or so.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• a few sprigs of dill

Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, transfer syrup to an airtight container, and place dill sprigs in syrup. Allow dill to infuse for at least two hours. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

~~~

And there you have it – the cure to your winter blues. As the Russians say, shto-to stalo kholodat’, ni pora li nam podat’? – It seems to be getting a little chilly out, shouldn’t we have a drink?

Happy Old New Year, everyone.

Kara

 

*Apparently, many vodka infusing recipes specifically say not to infuse vodka in the refrigerator. But, I really liked the outcome of my vodka, so no harm done I suppose. Next time I’ll do as recipes suggest and place the vodka in a dark, room temperature spot and see what happens.

Piloncillo Kahlua

Hi, all.

I meant for this post to be about a recent Old Russian New Year’s/Housewarming party we had last weekend. (Also, aren’t you glad Wikipedia is up again? Dear oh dear.) But, alas, I’ve been distracted by something so delicious and easy and relatively (or at least comparatively) inexpensive that I have to tell you about it before you go gallivanting out in the cold this weekend and need a little somethin’ somethin’ to add to your coffee or hot chocolate.

I have made kahlua, and no ordinary kahlua at that. Yes, oh yes.

When I visited Janessa a few weeks ago, she gave me a sample of some homemade kahlua her sister-in-law’s husband had made. The thought had never occurred to me; make your own kahlua? So simple, so ingenious! And after the previously mentioned Old Russian New Year’s party (which, I promise, will be featured in a post soon because we made some really yummy things that everyone in the entire would should know about), we had a surplus of vodka that was just  begging to be used. I racked my brain (ish) and thought back to the homemade kahlua, which is where we find ourselves this chilly evening.

Homemade kahlua is as simple as coffee, a sweetener, a little vanilla extract, and vodka. That. Is. It.

I adapted my recipe from a lovely cupcake blog, and you can find the original recipe here.  Instead of using light brown sugar, I used the rest of a piloncillo cone I had laying around. Piloncillo is the Mexican version of brown sugar, but comes in solid cones or discs and has a deeper and more complex taste than your average brown sugar. I’d recommend finding it at a Mexican/Latino market, as it will probably be more inexpensive than in a supermarket (if a supermarket even carries it in the first place). We don’t have a drip coffee maker, just a French press, so I used that to brew my coffee. (I’m not at all a coffee connoisseur and couldn’t really tell you the difference in taste, but, well, it turned out very well.) The last change was completely by accident: I added more than twice as much vodka as I was supposed to. You see, I was only making half a recipe, but somehow misread the directions and thought that it called for 1.5 liters (which, not-so-coincidentally is how much the yield is, not how much vodka you add, oops), so naturally I said “Ok, simple math, .75 liters = a little over 3 cups of vodka, boom.) But, well, as you already know, that is over twice as much vodka as I should have added. The result? It’s good. My kahlua isn’t exactly like what you’d buy in the store, but it is good. You can drink it straight, over some ice. Or, added to hot chocolate. Or, you could mix it with milk and have some nice calcium with your cocktail.

In sum, make this now.

Homemade kahlua

Note: I didn’t weigh or measure how much piloncillo I used but rather sweetened the coffee to taste (making it a little sweeter to make up for the vodka). I ended up using about half of a cone, which I think might be about a cup to a cup and a half. You can really just use as much or little as you want, depending on how sweet (or not) you want your kahlua.

• 4 cups brewed coffee (Make it stronger than you normally would)
• piloncillo to taste
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups vodka (of a medium to good quality – I used Stolichnaya)

While coffee is still hot, stir in piloncillo to dissolve. I chopped the piloncillo a bit first to make it dissolve more quickly, but you can leave it solid and still be fine.

Let coffee and sugar mixture cool, then add vanilla extract and vodka. Stir to combine, and you are done. Store in an airtight container or pitcher. (I’m not sure how long it lasts, so I will report back if it goes bad ever).

Enjoy!

Kara

p.s. I found another recipe for kahlua that has you steep whole coffee beans in vodka and dark rum, which sounds really very, very good. I’ll be trying that next.

Tagged coffee, kahlua, vodka