Nibbles & Sips

Fun with food and beverages: recipes and opinions about what, how, and why we eat.

A Quartet Fit for the Games

Sips

I’m in Jacksonville at Ancient City Con, promoting What to Feed Your Raiding Party. In the mean time, why not try out a few cocktails in the spirit of that big sporting event about to commence across the pond?

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On your mark… get set… GO! On July 27th, the final torchbearer will light the cauldron in London, thus marking the official start of the 2012 Summer Games!

The Games offer not only a time to cheer for the familiar, but also a chance to learn about and appreciate the new. With this mindset, check out these cocktails— which will you deem fit for the gold?

Blueberry Medallion Mojito

Blueberry Medallion Mojito

1.5 oz Flor de Caña 7 yr Grand Reserve Rum
8 sprigs of fresh mint
.75 oz simple syrup
.25 oz fresh lime juice
8 fresh blueberries
Club soda
Sparkling blueberry juice

Muddle mint leaves from 7 sprigs, simple syrup, and lime juice in a mixing glass. Add Flor de Caña 7 yr Grand Reserve Rum and 6 blueberries and shake. Pour into a cocktail glass, and top with club soda and sparkling blueberry juice. Garnish with remaining sprig of mint and 2 blueberries.

Glowing Gold

Glowing Gold

1.5 oz CAMUS VSOP Elegance
.75 oz Punt e Mes red vermouth
.25 oz simple syrup
.75 oz lemon juice
Champagne Laurent-Perrier Brut NV
Edible gold flakes

Shake all ingredients with ice, except champagne. Strain into champagne flute rimmed with edible gold flakes. Top with champagne.

Trophy Coconut Cocktail

Trophy Coconut Cocktail

1 oz Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur
1 oz coconut rum
1 oz almond milk
Coconut flakes

Mix ingredients in a cocktail shaker over ice. Strain into a martini glass rimmed with toasted coconut flakes. Garnish with a piece of coconut.

The Flaming Torch

The Flaming Torch

1 oz Lucid Absinthe
1 oz simple sugar
.5 oz grenadine
2-3 dashes of Angostura Bitters

In a shot glass, start with Lucid Absinthe and add ice cold simple syrup. Next add grenadine, which will sink to the bottom to form the lower “layer.” Float the dashes of bitters on top to form the top layer.

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These recipes were provided by Deussen Global Communications. I haven’t tried any of them myself, but that Trophy Coconut Cocktail sure sounds tasty!

ICC | Poush Parbon er Pati Shapta | Bengali Coconut Crepes

Nibbles

After many months absence, I finally had a chance to participate in this month’s Indian Cooking Challenge once again!

Now, if you think back a couple of weeks you may remember those scrumptious Banana Crepes I posted about. The reason I was making crepes on a summer Sunday morning was this month’s ICC recipe and I seized the opportunity to not be stuck eating them all myself by making them when we were expecting guests. The banana filling came about because Todd’s not fond of coconut, but the original version was delicious, too.

Pretty Coconut Crepes all in a row!

Poush Parbon er Pati Shapta

courtesy of Sandeepa of Bong Mom’s Cookbook

Filling
3 cups grated Coconut
1 cup Sugar
12 oz unsweetened Khoa

Crepe Batter
3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Semolina Flour
1/4 cup Rice Flour
4 cups Milk (or more, as needed)
additional butter for the pan

Topping
Sweetened Condensed Milk

The only “foreign” ingredient for this recipe was the khoa, which I understood to be milk solids. I didn’t take the time to research it thoroughly but I thought large-curd cottage cheese (drained) would fit the bill and it did just fine. Later I learned that ricotta cheese would have been a closer substitute.

Coconut and sugar starting to cook

Start by mixing together the coconut and sugar in a saucepan and heat until the sugar starts to melt and maybe browns a little bit.

Completed filling for coconut crepes

Stir in the khoa (or your substitute of choice) and continue to cook and stir until the filling starts to smooth out. After about 30 minutes or so the milk solids will break down and filling will be a nice light golden brown. Set aside until needed.

Batter ingredients for crepes

Combine the dry ingredients for the crepe batter in a large mixing bowl, preferably one with a spout. Mix together with a whisk or fork and then gradually stir in the milk until the batter is thin enough to easily pour into the pan. It’ll be a bit thinner than regular pancake batter.

a freshly poured crepe

Heat a crepe pan (I use an 8-inch non-stick omelet pan) over medium/medium-high heat and prep the surface with a bit of butter (yes, even a non-stick pan needs the prep). Pour some batter into the prepared pan and swirl the pan around to spread it out until it’s a thin, even layer on the bottom of the pan.

Once flipped, the filling goes into the crepe

Once the first side is just barely cooked (the top will lose all it’s shine) flip the crepe over to cook the second side. (You can use tongs or a spatula for this, but it’s really not tough to shake the crepe over to the side of the pan’s edge and use your fingers to flip it.) Add a bit of the filling to the center of the crepe.

Crepe, filled, with one side folded over
Fold the first side over the filling, let it set for a second, and then fold the other side over and transfer to a plate or serving tray. It’s important not to cook the crepes too long or make them too thick or else they will not want to roll up and will be more likely to crack instead of gently fold.

Glazed coconut crepe

Drizzle a bit of the sweetened condensed milk over the finished crepe and garnish with a bit of extra coconut if you want.

The batter made about 3 dozen crepes but the filling only filled 2 dozen (another good reason to have made the banana filling). I even threw out some of the batter because we were at critical mass already and I was tired of making them and ready to have fun with my guests.

This particular crepe recipe is pretty sturdy and, once cold, can be quite chewy. It reheats fine, though, with a little zap in the microwave.

I never thought the ICC would have me making crepes, but I was glad for the excuse!

Cosmic Cocktails | Pisces | Sleeps With the Fishes

Sips

And here we are, at the end of our jaunt among the cosmos, with our final sign in the zodiac: Pisces.

Sleeps with the Fishes, Pisces cocktail

I’ve dated to astrological fish in my time and, with a little reflection, I see that they are each on totally opposite ends of the Piscean spectrum.

The high school Pisces definitely had that little-white-lie habit down, along with the straying eye. The creative version of the truth may have made things nice and rosy for a while, but a tissue of lies is pretty flimsy, and eventually fell apart. But boy did he have charm.

The fiance Pisces, on the other hand, uses his creativity for good, not evil, but doesn’t have a lot else in common with his sun-sign generalities (which tells me that there’s gotta be some super-strong influence elsewhere in his chart, to reflect the better qualities he exhibits).

What things are common to many a Pisces that are totally lacking in Todd?

Well, money flows through fish-fingers like water, but my atypical Pisces is an accountant–managing other people’s money as well as his own–and is amazing at sticking to a savings plan. Our fishy friends are not the best student, often day-dreaming during class but excel in socializing. He is sometimes shy and reserved, but is pretty good about making decisions (though professes to have gone through that in the past).

But lets leave the personal comparisons aside for now and move on to larger Piscean virtues.

They are compassionate, forgiving, and often in touch with the concepts of past lives, future potential, and the multiverse. Their charm can cross the line into smarm and once they decide they love someone, all faults are ignored and nothing can possibly go wrong. Which might sound like a good thing at first glance but seldom holds true for long. They also like to change ideals mid-stream, it’s that whole mutable sign thing.

Swims With the Fishes

1 oz Vanilla Vodka
1 oz Mango Nectar
3/8 oz Melon Liqueur
1/4 oz Lime Juice

Combine over ice and shake until the mixture is as icy cold as the streams salmon swim in. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a Sweedish Fish candy.

Snipping the candy with some kitchen shears to make a notch will help perch the candy on the edge of the glass rather than leaving it to drown in the melony depths.

And our resident Pisces approves.

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This series has dealt with a lot of personality generalities. If you’re interested in a cocktail made just for you, check out my Character Cocktail service.

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To finish out the month of July I’m going to be sharing cocktail recipes from other sources (aka, not my recipes, but ones that have been sent to me to share), starting with a fun round-up of Olympic-inspired drinks next week. In August we’ll be doing another Meet the… wine series before starting our new cocktail series in September.

Cheers!

Sunday Chicken in a Clay Roaster

Nibbles

A roast chicken is one of those meals that is super simple to accomplish and just as easy to screw up. I’m sure we’ve all experienced of overcooked, under-seasoned bird that feels like so much sawdust in your mouth, right?

Over the years I’ve found a slow-cooker to be a near foolproof way to “roast” a whole chicken without it drying out. Of course, it’s usually falling off the bone at that point, but I was willing to trade presentation for flavor in those instances. It’s tough to say no to such a simple, one-pot meal sometimes.

I recently had a wonderful oven-roasted chicken experience, thanks to the Romertopf Ovenpot or Clay Roaster* that showed up on my doorstep last month.

Roast Chicken and Peppers in Romertopf Clay Roaster

I’ve used a clay roaster in the past–they look great when brought to the table for serving and it’s fun to use something different now and then–but mine have always been glazed on the inside. The Romertopf is not glazed, and uses the porosity of the clay as part of the cooking process, cutting down the need for additional fat in your recipes.

The Romertopf is made from the finest red clay and works by holding moisture in th epores of the clay which prevents the dish from drying out as it cooks.

Before you load up the clay roaster, you soak (for the first use) or rinse (subsequent uses) both the base and the lid with cold water. The clay absorbs the water and the steam that’s released in the oven contributes to the cooking process as well as retains moisture in the food. According to the inserts, this property also made the roaster non-stick, which was probably the one claim I was most skeptical about.

Since I’d been craving a good roast chicken for a while, I opted to try out the roaster with this included recipe:

Roast Chicken and Peppers

Serves 6

3 1/2 lb oven-ready chicken
7 oz small onions
1 small red pepper, deseeded and sliced
1 small green pepper, deseeded and sliced
1 garlic clove
4 oz baby sweetcorn
4 oz button mushrooms
4 oz mange-tout (or French or runner beans)
1 Tbsp tomato puree
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
6 oz red wine or chicken stock
cornflour

1. Soak the Romertopf.

2. Place the chopped garlic,  sprig of thyme and salt and pepper inside the chicken. Place the chicken in the Romertopf and surround with onions, peppers and more sprigs of thyme and salt and pepper.

3. Mix the tomato puree with the wine/stock and pour over the chicken.

4. Cook in oven at 400 F.

5. Remove the pot from the oven and add sweetcorn, sliced mushrooms and mange-tout and cook for further 30 minutes.

6. Remove the chicken and vegetables and keep warm. Strain off the sauce, reduce if necessary. The amount of sauce can be increased by adding 5 oz of chicken stock to the sauce and thickening with 2/3 tsp cornflour dissolved in 3 Tbsp cold water. Whisk well until the sauce is brought to the boil and thickens.

7. Adjust seasoning and serve with the chicken and vegetables.

Boiled new potatoes sprinkled with chopped parsley are a delicious complement to this meal.

Cal. 660, Protein: Medium, Fat: Low, Carbohydrate: Low

Romertopf is German, so there are some minor translation might be necessary for folks who haven’t cooked with European recipes before (references to Gas Marks, Celsius, and metric measurements have been omitted in deference to my mostly-US readers). I couldn’t find baby sweetcorn in the store, so just skipped that ingredient, and skipped the tomato puree out of personal preference. I took small onions to mean pearl onions, and par-boiled and peels them while the roaster was soaking–pretty good time-management. For mange-tout I used snow peas and, for those who are wondering, cornflour is the same as cornstarch in this instance, not cornmeal.

The one puzzle I had was how long to cook the chicken in step 4 (that wasn’t an omission on my part, it wasn’t in the directions). Thankfully the next recipe, for Spring Chicken in Lemon Sauce, listed the initial cooking time as an hour, so I went with that and it worked fine.

Which reminds me of another cool facet of clay roaster cooking: no waiting for the oven to pre-heat. Because you don’t want to subject this sort of vessel to abrupt temperature changes, you place it in the oven cold and let the oven and the roaster warm up together.

And not a thing stuck. Not the chicken, not the vegetables, the sauce poured right out without trouble, I was pretty impressed by that part. And the meal was excellent, a perfect Sunday supper.

Roast Chicken with Peppers, served with drop biscuits

I opted for drop biscuits over roasted potatoes, just because.

I’m looking forward to using the Romertopf again.

*FTC Disclaimer: I was given a Romertopf to use for the purposes of review. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my experience with the roaster.

Cosmic Cocktails | Aquarius | The Bleeding Heart

Sips

As we wind down our trip through the cocktail cosmos, we come to our next-t0-last sign: Aquarius.

The Bleeding Heart, Aquarian Cocktail

Symbolized by the water-bearer, Aquarians often find themselves happiest when helping others–both in face-to-face, person-to-person encounters as well as large-scale humanitarian efforts that benefit many. They also tend to be incredibly idealistic, but with follow-through: eschewing businesses that employ third-world factory labor, for instance, or even those without corporate recycling programs. With this idealism can come a rigidity, though, that we wouldn’t normally expect in an air sign.

What is in line with their air-sign brethren is the propensity to do their own thing, society be damned. Often ahead of the curve, if you find an Aquarian you click with on something, watch them! They will spot trends and spout truths yet to be proven and be off on the next thing by the time it catches on. But you have to be quick, our Aqua slips down that stream of consciousness and keeps moving right along.

Loyal friends, once you’re in sync with an Aqua you can count on them for life. They are often strikingly handsome, though not always in a conventional sense, and often so likable, even if you don’t agree with anything they say. “New Age” medicine is much more their speed, when ill, than the more Westernized “there’s a pill for that” theory, even to following not-exactly-legal sorts or regimens.

Now, if you happen to be born between January 21st and February 18th and do not recognize yourself in the above, have no fear. Probably the most over-riding feature of Aquarius is their different-ness. Not just from all the other signs, but within the sign, from member to member. It’s not even a matter of being outwardly quirky, sometimes the individuality is more subtle, in a can’t-quite-put-my-finger-on-it way.

The Bleeding Heart

2 oz Vodka
1 1/4 oz Banana Liqueur (like 99 Bananas)
1/4 oz Creme de Menthe (clear)
2 oz Club Soda
1/8 oz Grenadine

Combine vodka and the liqueurs in a mixing glass over ice and shake until icy. Stir in the club soda, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Pour the grenadine (preferably homemade or locally-sourced) over the back of a bar spoon or add with an eye-dropper. Swirl just before ready to drink.

I mean bleeding heart in the best possible sense, of course, but you probably already figured that out.

Making your own grenadine is not tough at all (equal parts pomegranate juice and sugar, cook until sugar dissolves and the mixture reduces by half–simmer slow or you’ll end up with more of a brown mixture–and a splash of orange flower water to finish) and worth it, especially if you like Shirley Temples and other non-cocktails.

This drink might sound a little bananas, but it’s bracing, gets straight to the point, and is definitely ahead of it’s time. Strong-willed, too.

Cheers!