Category: Food

OK, this one is going to be fun.

First, you’re going to need about a pound and a half of bee pollen — the Italian stuff, if you can get it, otherwise whatever you can get your hands on. After that, you’re going to need some small-batch bourbon. This particular label is a little hard to track down, but if you—

No.

And, of course, you’re going to need to sculpt some ice into—

No.

I beg your pardon?

I said no. Every couple of weeks, you come here and get very excited about some fancy, or exotic, or, worst of all, “interesting” cocktail, and I go along with it, because it’s mildly amusing and you seem like you need the attention.

But I just can’t do it this week. Do you have any idea how many soccer games are involved in the end of a season? And I hurt my knee in Zumba class. And my mother-in-law has decided that she’s coming for a visit. Not at Thanksgiving, not at Christmas — next week. Do you have any idea how much house cleaning that involves?

So, no. Don’t come at me with freakin’ bee pollen. What else do you have?

A Champ—

If you’re about to say “Champagne,” you can stop right there.

[A thoughtful pause.] What if you can get almost everything at the supermarket?

[Suspiciously] How many ingredients?

Three. Four, if you count ice.

Special artisanal ice?

No. Just ice.

[A pause.]OK, hit me with it.

Dark and Stormy

A Dark and Stormy is a classic drink. If you’re making it for yourself, it is cold, refreshing and quick to make, but just a little different from your standard highball. It feels a little bit like giving yourself a treat. If you’re making it for a special friend, they might have had it before and if so it might bring back that summer they spent with Fancy Yacht People. If not, it will probably sound familiar and thus non-threatening.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces dark or black rum — I like to use a black rum, but Meyer’s will work very well.
• ½ jalapeño or Fresno pepper — My preference is for the heat and flavor of a jalapeño, but they can be undependable. You never know what you’re going to get heat- and flavor-wise.
• 5 to 6 ounces ginger beer — I like Goya, but whatever they have in the soda aisle at the supermarket will be fine. Just remember to get ginger beer, not ginger ale.
• A lime

Cut your pepper in half lengthwise. Cut a little bit off the tip and taste it to see how hot it is. If it seems a little too aggressive for your taste, scoop out the seeds and membranes with a spoon; that should knock the heat down a little bit. If you’re happy with the heat level, put it in a cocktail shaker.

Muddle the pepper thoroughly against the bottom of the shaker. You can use an actual bartender’s muddler for this, but a wooden spoon will work just as well. I use the pestle part of a large mortar and pestle to do this sort of thing.

Add the rum, and dry-shake the two ingredients. Dry-shaking means shaking it without ice. The reason you’re doing that in this case is that the capsaicin in the pepper is not water-soluble but it is alcohol-soluble. That means that the rum will be able to strip away a maximum amount of flavor and heat from the chile. Ice and melt-water would only get in the way at this point.

Strain the rum over ice, in a tall glass. Top with ginger beer, and stir gently.

Garnish with a quarter of a lime. I would slice the lime in half lengthwise, then again, but that’s a personal preference.

Rum goes extraordinarily well with lime, and just as well with warm spices, like ginger. This is a cold, delicious drink that will help you get a little distance from the chaos and entropy in your life. This is the “self-care” people are always encouraging you to practice.

Though maybe not at work. Although it might make budget meetings more interesting.

A robust red for a robust dinner

Over the weekend, we were invited to dinner at a friends’ house. I asked what we could bring, and the response was: the wine! I then asked what was being served. Beef osso buco, made with locally grown organic beef, was the response. Immediately, like a Pavlovian dog, my mouth started to water.
Osso buco, translated as “hole-in-the-bone” from Italian, is a slow-cooked shank crosscut of meat. It originated in northern Italy and traditionally was made with veal, but beef and lamb are also popular. The recipe includes a mirepoix of onions, carrots and celery, that fundamental base for all stews and braising. There are numerous recipes for osso buco, some calling for tomato paste, others not, but a traditional addition is gremolata, a mixture of parsley, orange peel and garlic, as a side or included in the final steps of the hour-long slow cooking of the dish. The singular appeal to this dish is the intense flavor and richness imparted by the marrow found within the bone. Osso buco is typically served on a bed of mashed potatoes or polenta.
“How wonderful does all this sound?” I thought to myself.
Following a couple of days of rain, the skies have cleared to a deep blue, a beautiful backdrop to the incredible colors of fall we are blessed with every year. With warm days and cool nights, we begin to enjoy the late growing season of our gardens turned into hearty fare. And so the question arises: What kind of wine do we begin to roll out, to pair with this shift in menu?
The wine should be able to stand up to the richness of the food that is slowly simmered in thick sauces. This is the time we set aside the cabernet sauvignons and even the lighter sangioveses and opt for wines with “tooth.” A malbec or a grenache and syrah will pair nicely. Among my favorites are the wines of the south of France, the wines of the Rhone River Valley. The wine I brought to this dinner was a bottle of Domaine de la Charbonniere Vacqueyras that for the moment isn’t available in New Hampshire. Fear not, though, as New Hampshire has several wines from the Vacqueyras appellation that are superb.
One wine worth recognition is Les Seigneurs de Montrevel Vacqueyras (available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, priced at $29.99 and reduced to $24.99). I found this to be an equal to the bottle brought to the dinner. It is a blend of 60 percent grenache, 30 percent syrah and 10 percent mourvedre. The color is a deep red. To the nose, there is an abundance of black cherry, wild berry, plum. This follows through to the tongue with subtle textures of dark chocolate and oak, from the time spent in barrique. This wine needs decanting.
The Vacqueyras appellation is in the southern Rhone wine region. It is primarily a red wine region, with some white and rosé wines being produced. It lies alongside the Gigondas and Chateauneaf-du-Pape appellations, who both grow the same varietals but are more prestigious. The Vacqueyras wines are more approachable, frequently offered at half the price of the others. Slight differences in terroir, their soils and exposure to sun and winds add complexity to those finer wines. However, the wines of the Vacqueyras should not be dismissed and offer one the invitation to try a wine that would otherwise be dismissed because of price.
Enjoy these beautiful fall days with a hearty slow-cooked meal, joined by a bottle of wine that will stand up to the robust flavors of this simmering delight. Enjoy the fruits of your harvest with a bottle of wine from the Rhone River Valley that seems to be made to fit exactly with that wonderful meal.

Fred Matuszewski is a local architect and a foodie and wine geek.