Nibbles & Sips

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

It’s Very Easy in the Keys

Sips

Key Lime Pie MartiniA couple years ago, at my now-sister-in-law’s graduation dinner and engagement, I ordered a delightful cocktail: the Key Lime Pie. It was dessert in a glass.

And ever since then I’ve wanted to recreate it.

This is a prime opportunity, don’t you think?

Key Lime Pie martinis are quite common and I easily found 7 recipes within half a page of Google results. There was a unanimous agreement that vanilla vodka is the perfect base for this cocktail (and who am I to argue in the face of vanilla vodka?) but from there the ingredients diverged quite a bit. Some added pineapple juice to the line, some used juice while others used lime liqueur. One added a splash of Frangelico while others added Cointreau. And one? One included triple sec. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time you know I wouldn’t even bother with a recipe that included triple sec, these days.

But of the recipes I found that I did try, something was missing. They just weren’t pie-y enough. Frankly, it all came down to one ingredient common in the pie but not in these recipes. Most of them used heavy cream, some used half and half. And my past experience combining dairy and alcohol were not pretty, those these held up better than expected. Still, even with the addition of sugar syrup or other liqueurs, regular cream wasn’t cutting it.

Ultimate Key Lime Pie Martini

2 oz Vanilla Vodka
2 oz Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 1/2 oz Ke Ke Beach Key Lime Cream Liqueur
1/2 oz Lime Juice
Crushed Graham Crackers for rimming

Combine the vodka, condensed milk, key lime liqueur and juice over ice and shake to the rhythm of a steel drum band on speed. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass rimmed with crushed graham crackers. Drink and chill. Or chill and drink, your choice.

I ended up trying out 3 of the found recipes and 2 of my own. That was a lot of alcohol to be tested, folks. But hey, somebody’s got to do it! And we do enjoy our work here at Sips & Shots.

The sweetened condensed milk was, as I suspected it would be, the key to a smooth, scrumptious cocktail that echoed the original dessert so much better than the thinner cream. (And when did you ever think you’d be hearing someone call heavy cream too thin?!)

The only downside to this cocktail is the color. Because of the Ke Ke Beach it has a greenish tint. And a good key lime pie will never be green. Seriously, you should run from it if it’s green. But because the Ke Ke Beach does such a good job of getting the key lime flavor across, we’ll forgive it the green tinge just this once.

What dessert would you like to see in cocktail form?

Pumpkinfest, Unexpected Muffuletta, and the Splits

Nibbles

There was a metric ton of fun things going on this past weekend in the Tallahassee area–wine events, local festivals and farm tours abound.

After weighing our options we finally settled on nearby Havana’s Pumpkinfest.

Pumpkin Patch Barn Photo Op at Havana Pumpkinfest

This little barn made a cute photo op for families on the hunt for pumpkins and the perfect fall picture of little ones.

A great thing about small towns is that they go all-out for their festivals. The Pumpkinfest may have been small but Main Street is also lined with all manner of antique stores providing ample browsing opportunities along with the craft booths, festival food booths and people watching these sorts of events provide.

Instead of availing ourselves of the food vendors on the streets we opted to stop into Joanie’s Gourmet Market and Fabulous Cafe. Now, normally I’d snark about setting yourself up pretty high for putting Fabulous in your name but in this case I just can’t do it: they are pretty Fabulous.

Joann's Gourmet Market and Fabulous Cafe

Not only do they have a charming selection of gourmet food items and wines, they have a short and sweet menu that was so tasty, I wish I lived a little closer. Todd ordered the Chicken Quesadilla and I had the Muffuletta Wedge. In fact, seeing Muffuletta on the menu posted at the front door was what sold us on stopping in for a late lunch.

Chicken Quesadilla from Joanies' Gourmet Market Muffuletta Wedge

The key to a good Muffuletta is the olive salad. Their house olive salad isn’t the same as what you’d get in New Orleans, but it’s very good on it’s own and certainly made for a good sandwich–it featured capers, which is not something I would normally include but it was an interesting choice. And there was so much olive salad on there that it was falling out of the pressed sandwich. Not that that’s a bad thing–you can be sure I didn’t let it go to waste.

They also had fabulous old-fashioned bottled sodas. Todd enjoyed his Vanilla Cream soda and I could have taken a nap in my Root Beer, it was that wonderful. Oh, sorry: Fabulous!

On the way home we started to crave something a little sweet. So I suggested a stop into Lofty Pursuits for some delicious ice cream. We were happy to see they were in the midst of a mid-afternoon rush (always good to see your favorite places busy) and happily perused the extensive menu to decide what we wanted to top off an already fun day.

Chocolate Banana Split from Lofty Pursuits

That, my friends, is a Chocolate Banana Split. Wanna know what’s in it?

  • 3 scoops of Deep Dark Chocolate Ice Cream
  • the requisite banana
  • chocolate, marshmallow and butter caramel sauces
  • chocolate whipped cream
  • chocolate sprinkles, chocolate chips, a waffle-cone sail
  • and a trio of cherries on top! (there’s another one hiding behind the sail)

It was perfect for 2; might have been a bit too much to try and tackle singly.

Did you do anything fabulously foodie this weekend?

Arabian Nights

Sips

Juniper Genie Cocktail

The metamorphosis of this week’s cocktail was a bit of a long and winding road. A road, in point of fact, that begins France or thereabouts* and ends somewhere in or near Morocco. Neither place I’ve been but both I’d like to visit one of these days.

At any rate, it started back when I was, oh, 10 or 11 years old and a family friend was being cute(?) and singing the song “Jennifer, Juniper“ and saying that my name (Jennifer) meant Juniper. Now, being the precocious child I was I had already looked up the meaning of my name in the massive Encyclopedic Dictionary we had at home and knew full well that Jennifer is a modernization of Guinevere and had absolutely nothing to do with junipers. And told them so. Snootily.

Despite the misleading connection in the song, it did make me think of Gin–one of our two base spirit options for this series–which only left me figuring out what to add. I went through several j-possibilties and eventually devolved into j-sounding ingredients and ginger was the winner.

Now, at first I was going to be cute and spell it Jin and Jinger but I needed something else. Namely, another ingredient, another flavor. And looking around my bar shelves I found rosewater and that was all it took. Suddenly my mind was filled with the scent of chai, we needed spice and we needed it now!

Juniper Genie

1 1/2 oz Gin
1/4 oz Rosewater
1/4 oz Grated Ginger
a generous pinch of Cardamom
1 oz Ginger Ale
Crystallized Ginger for garnish

Combine gin, rosewater, ginger and cardamom over ice and give it a good shake to wake up the genie inside. Double-strain (to get out all the ginger bits) into a chilled cocktail glass, top with the ginger ale and garnish with a piece of crystallized ginger.

The flavors of the drink are well-layered, each one asserting itself as you continue to sip. First comes the rosewater–the scent is very strong and dominant, followed by the warm, sweetish flavor of the cardamom. Under that, the bite of the ginger starts to assert itself and, subtly at the bottom is the herbal taste of the gin. It’s what I imagine a small spice market would taste like.

Usually I’d infuse the alcohol with the spice but this time it really wasn’t necessary. Cardamom is so expensive that a suitable quantity for infusion would have been risky and the dried spice shaken in was plenty to get the point across. If you’ve never had cardamom that you know of, it reminds me of Apple Jacks cereal.

*Further research shows that the singer, Donovan, was actually Scottish and became famous as an English folk singer but the last verse of the song in question is in French, hence my misunderstanding.

Crazy for Tapas!

Nibbles

If you’ve ever gone to dinner and decided to order several appetizers and “graze” your way through the meal rather than eat a single entree selection, you may be a fan of tapas, too!

Tapas, a series of appetizers or snacks originating in Spain, have become a bit of a trend in recent years but one I’m happy to welcome. They can consist of both hot and cold items and, I think, are perfect for a communal supper among friends with plenty of wine or cocktails.

In it’s country of origin, tapas are usually small hors d’oeuvres-size portions, one or two bites, and frequently served on a piece of bread. In the U.S., of course, the traditional has given way to the idea of small plates with small portions, enough for a single snack or to share. We have a local restaurant/lounge (101) that features a fairly robust tapas menu in addition to larger appetizers. It’s fabulous for a girls night out or a late night supper after a movie.

Our best tapas experience, though, came in Jacksonville, Florida, on my birthday where we lucked into a table at the small but mighty 13 Gypsies. And when I say lucked-into I mean it: the couple at the table next to us had been trying to get a reservation for 6 months!

Honey-Garlic Hummus from 13 Gypsies The exterior of 13 Gypsies, Jacksonville, FL Garlicy Green Beans from 13 Gypsies
Quixote Style Beef from 13 Gypsies Coconut Mango Curry Chicken from 13 Gypsies Shrimp Piri Piri from 13 Gypsies

While 13 Gypsies does offer full-sized entrees, we were in a grazing mood and ordered a series of small plates, 6 in all, that added up to an amazing dinner with each plate better than the last. We went for both simple pleasures, like Honey-Garlic Hummus and Spanish Peasant Bread, to the more exotic Quixote Style Beef and Coconut Mango Curry Chicken, rounding out the meal with Shrimp Piri-Piri and crisp, fresh steamed Green Beans (gotta add a vegetable somewhere). Had we limited ourselves to a single entree a piece, I think we’d have short-changed ourselves. Washed down with glasses of Spanish wine it was a dining experience we’ll not soon forget.

In fact, it was so good that when Todd and I started discussing our wedding reception, I began the campaign for a tapas-style spread and meeting no resistance from the groom-to-be. Now all we have to do is find someone to carry it out for us!

In the mean time, I’ll be doing more research and experimentation on tapas (and the cousin-cuisines of the Middle Eastern mezze).

Have you tried the tapas craze, yet?

That’s a White Sauce of a Different Flavor!

Nibbles

Up until recently, I thought of white sauce in two ways: Bechamel and Veloute.

This past month, though, I’ve encountered a different sort of white sauce  on two separate occasions and I’m thrilled with this new addition: White Barbecue Sauce.

Unlike traditional white sauces which start with a roux and are thinned by either milk or stock, this white sauce has a totally different base: mayonnaise.

And I adore mayonnaise.

It all seems to have started in Decatur, Alabama, at Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q and several versions of the recipe are available online. For those who dislike the gloopy, giggly texture of my favorite emulsion, have no fear as this spicy sauce is thinned to the consistency of heavy cream or ranch dressing. And, sure, mayo ins’t the healthiest food ever, but it’s a condiment–a little goes a long way!

To make your own, you’ll spice the mayonnaise of your choice with horseradish, black and cayenne peppers, adding sugar or corn syrup if you prefer a little sweet in your spice, and thinning with vinegar (white or apple cider seems to be the most common) or water to the desired consistency.

I’ve had this, now, on both pork and chicken and it’s been amazing on each. We’re planning to barbecue for this year’s Pumpkin Party and this might need to be available as a topping option!

Have you ever tried White Barbecue Sauce–what did you think of it?