We’ve reached the point where the nights are still cold but the days are warm — not Las Vegas warm, but warm enough for people like us, who have been looking at our own breath since Thanksgiving. In other words: maple sugaring season.
So let’s make something mapley. A quick internet search will turn up any number of cocktails that use maple syrup, but we’re smart.
Most of the time.
OK, some of the time.
Anyway, we can almost certainly come up with something delicious on our own, last week’s pasta experiment notwithstanding.
My first step in working up a recipe around a particular ingredient is The Flavor Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg.
This isn’t a cookbook as such. It’s a reference work that discusses which ingredients go well together. Karen Page has interviewed a large number of chefs and picked their brains for which flavors go well with which other ones, and annotated their suggestions so that the reader can tell which flavor combinations are classics, and which ones are outliers with one or two passionate chef-advocates.
In our particular case, let’s look up “maple syrup.”
OK, this is interesting — Jerusalem artichokes. That’s worth remembering for another time, but I don’t think any of us have the patience right now to figure out a Jerusalem artichoke cocktail.
Moving on.
Oh. Bananas. This seems to be a popular combination with chefs. And, as it turns out, I just made a bottle of banana-infused rum. Let’s make a little checkmark in pencil next to that. What else? **mumbling** “Buttermilk, figs, mascarpone, winter squash ….” Oh, hey — chiles. And, as it turns out, I’ve got a bottle of Fresno pepper-infused rum downstairs, too.
So it looks like we’re going with a rum drink.
I don’t know about you, but I think I’d like to go with something fairly simple and straightforward this time, something that will let the maple shine through but give it another flavor to play off.
Something like a daiquiri.
Daiquiris, margaritas, gimlets — these all use a similar set of recipes — a base alcohol (in this case rum), something sweet (the maple syrup) and lime juice. The Flavor Bible doesn’t list limes in maple’s complementary flavors, but at least one chef suggests lemons, which would give us the same acidity as the lime juice. I say we go for it.
So, let’s make two different versions of our Maple Daiquiri, one with the Fresno rum and one with banana rum.
Verdict: The Maple/Chili Daiquiri is sweet and spicy. The lemon juice was a good call; it adds the acidity we were looking for, without elbowing its way to the front of your palate and distracting from the maple. It might be just a little too spicy, though. The maple syrup definitely adds sweetness, but its specific flavor gets a little lost.
The Maple/Banana Daiquiri comes across as a bit sweeter, but the maple definitely shines through. The banana is the first flavor that hits you, but you are left with a mapley feeling that makes you 8 percent less likely to scream in traffic.
Wait a second. I wonder …
** Pours about ¼ of the chili daiquiri into the banana daiquiri glass, then swirls it around pretentiously.**
Yup. This:
March Maple Daiquiri
Ingredients
- 1½ ounces banana rum – see below
- ½ ounce Fresno rum – see also below
- ¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- ½ ounce amber maple syrup
Combine ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake.
Strain into a martini glass.
Infused rums
Banana rum – Muddle one very ripe banana (the type you might use for banana bread) in the bottom of a large jar. Add two cups of white rum. Put the top on the jar, then shake well. Store in a cool, dark place for seven days, shaking once or twice per day. Strain, filter, and bottle.
Fresno rum – Roughly chop four fresh Fresno chilies and add them to the same type of large jar. Top the jar off with the same type of white rum. Store and shake, as above. Taste after four days, then every day thereafter, until it is spicy and flavorful enough for your taste. Strain and bottle.
Featured photo: Maple Daiquiri. Photo by John Fladd.