Category: Drink

I put it to you that your house might be infested with elves. Think tiny, mischievous, Iron Age creatures with a dancing fetish. My theory is this:

The whole Elf On a Shelf thing is a clever ploy on the part of those other elves. With a creepy elf grinning at you maniacally from the mantel, you won’t notice the tiny elves going about their elvish business, sneaking cookies, changing your music settings and raiding the liquor cabinet while you’re at work.

You come downstairs one morning with your heart set on eating the last blondie from the weekend for your breakfast, only to find that half of it is gone, leaving just enough to be frustrating.

“Honey! Did you eat half that blondie?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Then you turn around to see the elf sitting on the counter, next to the toaster, just grinning at you.

“You!” you accuse it, so focused on its smile — which has to be sarcastic, by the way — that you fail to hear the faint giggles coming from the philodendron in the next room.

• 1 1/3 ounces blanco tequila
• ½ ounce dry sherry
• ½ ounce elderflower liqueur
• ¼ ounce orange liqueur – I use a dry orange curaçao
• ½ teaspoon grenadine or cranberry syrup

Fill a coupé or Nick-and-Nora glass with ice to chill it.

In a mixing glass, pour tequila, sherry, elderflower liqueur and orange liqueur over ice. Stir for about a minute to chill it completely.

Dispose of the ice in the chilled glass. Strain the cocktail into the now cold glass.

Pour the half teaspoon of grenadine or cranberry syrup in the center of the drink. Because the syrup is heavier than the alcohol it will sink to the bottom, creating an absolute painting of a cocktail. Hold it up to the light, then sip it appreciatively.

There are several competing flavors in this cocktail, originated by Difford’s Guide (diffordsguide.com). Surprisingly, the one that stands out the most is the sherry. It is very good, but is definitely a sipping drink. I recommend leaving one out overnight to see if it’s still there in the morning.

Featured photo: An Elf on the Shelf, for grownups. Photo by John Fladd.

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

From my cranberry extravaganza in last week’s cover story, here’s one more cranberry recipe.

One of the most popular cocktails of the early 1900s was something called a Jack Rose. There are all kinds of theories as to who Jack Rose actually was, but the most likely explanation for the cocktail’s name is that it is made with apple brandy — apple JACK — and it is a rosy pink color.

There is an alternate theory that it is named after a mob enforcer from the 1880s named Jack Rose. Unlikely as it is, I like this theory, because I can just see a florid giant of a man in a bowler hat and with a nose that had been broken too many times, sitting in a dimly lit tavern with sawdust on the floor. The place is hot, smoky and crowded, but there is about five feet of empty space around this lug in every direction. He holds a tiny cocktail glass in his ham-like fist and lifts it up to the light to admire its delicate pink color before taking a sip and sighing with pleasure.

Traditionally this drink gets its color from a few dashes of grenadine. If you made the cranberry syrup from the Nov. 21 cover story (you can find that in the digital library at hippopress.com), you can use that instead.

1½ ounces apple brandy

1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice

1 teaspoon cranberry syrup or grenadine

Combine the brandy, juice and syrup over ice in a cocktail shaker, then shake thoroughly. Pour into a Champagne flute or the smallest cocktail glass you own. I have one that I rescued from a thrift shop. I suspect it might have actually been a candlestick originally and the whole cocktail situation must confuse it.

Be that as it may, this is an extremely tasty Tiny Drink. Lime juice, as always, goes well with everything and provides an elegant link between the apple brandy and the cranberry. Ask your digital assistant to play some ragtime music during cocktail hour and serve several of these on a tray.

“At five o’clock I was in the Hotel Crillon, waiting for Brett. She was not there, so I sat down and wrote some letters…. I went down to the bar and had a Jack Rose with George the barman.” — Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises.

Featured photo: Jack Rose. Photo by John Fladd.

Wine Club takes some of the mystery out of wine

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

The world of wine can be daunting. Nobody knows this better than Emma Round, the owner of Unwined Wine Bar in Milford.

“Wine is something that so many people are interested in and they enjoy,” she said. “But not many people know much about it. Some people find it a little intimidating, I think, because there’s so much to know when it comes to wine. What makes it worth drinking? Why are we paying $50 for this bottle of wine and $20 for this one? Wine can be very pretentious. And people in the wine industry can be very kind of elitist, if I’m completely frank. You don’t need to spend lots and lots of money on a really great bottle of wine and you shouldn’t be afraid to kind of ask questions and learn more about it.”

In order to answer some of these questions, Round has started a Wine Club that meets at her wine bar once each month. The club is designed to give an introduction to curious wine newcomers, and to introduce experienced wine enthusiasts to new labels and varieties of wine that they might not know about. Participants try a handful of wines, which Round uses to explain qualities like “tannins,” “astringency,” “dry versus juicy” and the differences between different types of wines. The wines are served with a charcuterie board of meats, cheeses, fruits and other foods with flavors that complement or contrast with them.

“So many people are very hard and fast about pairing food and wine,” Round said. “For me this is an opportunity to show how many things you can have with wine and how those different flavor profiles will affect the wine. Some people, for example, drink red wine and really enjoy sweets, fruits and chocolate, and other people really enjoy a peppery salami. But they both bring out very different profiles. It allows people to kind of get an understanding of their own palate and to also see what other people like and how other people react with it.”

At the first meeting of Unwined’s Wine Club, participants tasted wines from five basic categories: a white, a red, an orange wine (which, Round emphasized, is not made from oranges, but is orange in color), a rosé, and a sparkling wine (in this case, a dry prosecco). Round said future Wine Club presentations might feature different wines from a particular region, from within one particular style, or from one variety of grape.

After the first Wine Club, Round tried to get a feel for what the participants were interested in learning about.

“I handed out questionnaires to allow people to influence the direction that we’re going to take,” she said. “The majority of people seem to want to learn more about different regions and the wines that come from those regions. So going forward, I think that’s what we’re going to do. I think we’ll be starting in Italy, just because I am partial to my Italian wine — if you look at our wine list, there are a lot of Italians. … We’ll try to highlight some of those more like unknown grapes … like they’re on the shelves in the liquor store but you might not always pick them up because you don’t know what they are.”

“I spent a lot of time getting qualifications in wine,” Round said. I’ve spent a lot of time studying it abroad. And most people don’t really have the time or the energy to do that; I completely understand that. I think Wine Club is a chance for us to just kind of get to know wine better. For me, Wine Club is an environment where no one’s going to judge you. When we taste [wine] together, people will come up with some really interesting notes, but nobody is wrong, because everyone’s palate is different. It’s all so subjective.”

Wine Club

Where: Unwined Wine Bar, 1 Nashua
St., Milford, 213-6703, unwinednh.com
When: Third Wednesday of every month,
6 to 8 p.m.
Cost: $50 per person.

Featured photo: Photo by John Fladd.

I picked up my first wooden cookie mold at a flea market. After a little online research I discovered that in Germany and Scandinavia, and in most of the Middle East, cookies made from hand-carved wooden molds are very traditional. You can find hand-carved wooden cookie molds in specialty shops or online. Etsy is a good resource for finding cool ones. A lot of cookie doughs made for molds need to be thoroughly chilled, but this one works straight out of the mixer.

Cinnamon Butter Cookies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, cold
• 1 glug (probably 1 to 2 teaspoons) vanilla
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3 cups (400 g) all-purpose flour
• Vegetable oil and powdered sugar to coat the cookie molds

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Whisk the cinnamon, baking powder and flour together in a medium mixing bowl, and set aside.

In your stand mixer or with a hand-held electric mixer, beat the butter until it is reasonably fluffy. Add the sugar, and beat the mixture until it is even fluffier.

Mix in the egg, then the vanilla.

Turn the mixer down to its slowest speed, then spoon the flour mixture in, a bit at a time, so you don’t get covered with flour.

Use a small paint brush — preferably one you haven’t actually painted with – to completely coat the inside of your wooden cookie mold with oil, then use another brush to cover the inside surface of the mold with powdered sugar. You will not have to re-oil the mold, but you need to powder it Every. Single. Time you use it.

Pinch off a chunk of dough — you’ll have to play around to see how much fills your mold, but start with a piece about the size of a ping-pong ball — and press it into the mold, making sure you get dough into all the corners and crevices.

Turn the mold over and smack it sharply into the heel of your hand, over a silicone or parchment-lined baking sheet. You might have to smack your hand several times before the cookie falls free. The more sore your hand gets, the more diligent you will be about thoroughly powdering the mold.

These cookies won’t spread, so feel free to arrange as many on the baking sheet as you wish. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and cool completely on the baking sheet, before removing the cookies to a plate for serving.

With the holidays approaching, these cookies are good ones to start your pre-season cookie training with. They are buttery, almost like shortbread, and mildly cinnamon-y. They are delicious warm with ice cream, or ice cold from the freezer, with a small glass of sherry.

Featured photo: Dehli Cooler. Photo by John Fladd.

• 2 ounces London dry gin
• ¾ ounces pineapple juice
• ¾ ounces fresh squeezed lime juice
• ¾ ounces curry syrup (see below)

Combine all ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker and shake thoroughly, until the ice starts to break up. Strain over fresh ice in a small Collins glass.

The ingredients in this drink all get along, but they all maintain their own identities. The result is less like the mosh pit at a concert and more like a collegial workplace. Each ingredient stands out. If you concentrate, the lime seems to be the dominant flavor, or the pineapple, or maybe the gin. If you were a little nervous about the curry syrup — and admit it, you probably were — you can relax. The garam masala lends a gentle spiciness to this whole operation, with the tiniest bit of heat on the very tail end of each sip.

Calling this a cooler implies that it would be a good conclusion to a hot, dusty afternoon, but in fact it’s a very good way to embrace a rainy November one.

Curry Syrup

• 1 cup (198 g) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (227 g) water
• 1 Tablespoon ground garam masala — Most whole spices should be replaced once a year, but ground spices and spice mixes go stale much more quickly and are really only good for six months or so. This will be a good excuse for you to buy some fresh curry spices. The pre-ground stuff is fine for this application, but if you decide you want to go a step further, buy a bag of whole garam masala spices, toast them in a dry pan when you want them, and grind them yourself.

Heat all three ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let the mixture boil for 30 seconds or so, to make certain that the sugar has gone completely into solution, then remove from the heat. Let the mixture steep for 20 to 30 minutes, then strain it, and store it in your refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

Some thoughts on straining:

Swirling this syrup around in its pan will show you that the spice mixture has not dissolved into the syrup. It has flavored it, and largely sunk to the bottom of the pan, but has not completely committed to this operation. Letting the syrup sit for an hour or so to let the curry precipitate out will help, but you’ll probably want to filter the syrup even so.

A fine-meshed strainer will not be fine enough to catch the small curry particles. Yes, you can use a coffee filter, but that might be too fine and will clog up easily. A year or two ago I bought some slightly coarser strainers from a science lab supplier, but if you don’t need to strain things like this very often, go ahead and use the strainer and line it with an old T-shirt. Just wash it first.

Featured photo: Dehli Cooler. Photo by John Fladd.

These apple bars might actually be bars. But this might also be a cake. Or it could be a pan of apple blondies. This dessert’s status depends on the belief of an individual snacker.

• 12 ounces (340 g) diced apples, about three fist-sized apples; I like to mix it up and use a couple of different types – Granny Smiths and Braeburns, for instance
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter
• 1½ cups flour (180 g) – I find whole wheat works well for rich, brown baked goods like this, but regular all-purpose flour will work just as well
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• 1½ cups (320 g) brown sugar
• 1 egg plus one or two egg yolks – you probably have some yolks left over from making the pumpkin soufflé (see page 17)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or dark rum
• pinch of coarse salt

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Line an 8×8” baking pan with parchment paper. If the parchment seems reluctant to stay in the pan, put a dot of butter between the pan and the paper to hold everything in place.

Melt the butter in a small skillet, then pour almost all of it into a dish to cool off. Fry the apple pieces in the remaining butter until they start to brown slightly, then remove the pan from the heat.

In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and spices. Set the mixture aside to psych itself up for its big moment.

In a second bowl — it could be the bowl to your stand mixer, but it doesn’t have to be — whisk the melted butter and sugar together thoroughly. Whisk in the egg and extra yolk, then the vanilla or dark rum. When the gloppy ingredients are all mixed, stir in the dry ingredients, one half at a time, then stir in the fried apples.

Transfer the apple batter to the parchment-lined baking pan, and bake on the center rack of your oven for 40 minutes or so. You can use a toothpick to judge how done it is, or just pat it gingerly, like you would a lizard. It should be golden brown and not squishy. The apple bars, not a lizard, though he probably shouldn’t be squishy either.

Let the bars — or maybe it’s a cake — cool in the pan. Eat warm with vanilla ice cream, or cool and chewy for breakfast.

Featured photo: Apple bar with ice cream. Photo by John Fladd.