I was joking with someone the other day, who was making Judy Rodgers’ Pickled Red Onions. Judy was the chef and owner of Zuni Café in San Francisco and published one of the best books on cooking that has ever been written: The Zuni Café Cookbook. Like a number of her recipes, the method for pickling her famous red onions they serve on the Zuni…
When I rediscovered cocktails a while back, rye whiskey was the spirit that reeled me in. I loved its spicy, smoky notes and each one I tried was different than the others. Here, in the Algonquin cocktail, the rye is mixed with fruity pineapple juice, which gives it a suggestion of the tropics, but the whiskey brings it back to the “serious” category. But not…
Not as famous as its “other borough” cousin, the Manhattan, the Bronx is a fruitier, lighter alternative to the rough-and-tumbler whiskey-based cocktail. However one sip and you may find yourself visiting the Bronx a little more often!
Gentian is a root unearthed in volcanic soil in France. Its bittersweet flavor is very popular in France, sold as liqueurs and apéritifs; Suze, Salers, and Avèze are the most well-known. If you’re in France, Distillerie de Grandmont makes an excellent artisan gentian liqueur that I like very much, but isn’t widely available. (Google it to track a bottle down from online sellers.) Also in…
I’m a big fan of traditional Cassoulet. And I’m not alone; a repeated question I get is “Where can I get a good cassoulet in Paris?” The short answer is: To the Southwest of France. Sure, one can pick up a jar of Cassoulet from Castelnaudary, or make it, which I sometimes do. For those who want to tackle the project, there’s a recipe in…
Invented in Burma, at a British club called the Pegu Club, this tropically-tinged cocktail found its way into the Savoy Cocktail Book. It’s pleasantly tangy and fruit-forward. The ingredients come together in the glass, resulting in a savvy cocktail with gentle citrus notes. One sip and you’ll understand why it’s still a cocktail classic!
This cocktail gets its name from the three main ingredients, and their relationship to bijoux, or jewels or gems. The clear gin is like a diamond, the red vermouth is like a ruby, and the green from the Chartreuse is the emerald. The original recipe called for those ingredients to be used in three equal parts but cocktail expert and bartender Dale DeGroff, who resurrected…
Weeks before Drinking French came out, people were asking me what liquors and spirits to buy in anticipation of the book’s release. Skimming through the 160 recipes in the book, many of which are for cocktails and apéritifs, I offered up tips here and there, suggesting a few essential bottles that could be used for a number of recipes in the book. I also added…
While green Chartreuse has been around for nearly four hundred years, Yellow Chartreuse is a relative newcomer, introduced in 1840. Because it’s such an iconic French spirit, Chartreuse is featured prominently in my book, Drinking French. Yellow Chartreuse is lower in alcohol than green Chartreuse, and both come by their color naturally. The yellow a touch sweeter and milder in taste than green Chartreuse, so…
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