My Kind of Mai Tai

Here's a little summer sipper for you if you worry you don't produce enough insulin for a more typical tiki drink. Because this one mostly contains gin. That's the Empress Mai Tai, featuring Empress 1908 gin, which, thanks to the addition of butterfly pea blossom, is strikingly blue-violet (if you're old enough, think Liz Taylor's eyes). Some of the other botanicals in addition to the pea blossom are ginger and rose petals and Fairmont empress tea, so it's a quite bright and floral gin, not a piny juniper bomb like some.

Which means it somehow plays well with rum. Lately I've been fond of that Appleton Estate you see in the picture, a solid cocktail rum in that you don't feel bad paying for it and not just sipping it. As for the necessary orgeat (a French almond syrup, originally made from barley and used as a shelf-stable substitute for milk) to make anything be mai-tai-esque, I've been using one from Small Hand Foods. Their website description helps: "Made from California almonds and a small proportion of apricot kernels to give it a distinct 'marzipan' flavor without the addition of extract. Organic cane sugar, orange flower water and biodynamic California brandy are added to result in a rich, flavorful syrup with delicate floral notes."

If you're going floral, might as well garnish with an edible flower, too, and our yard is so blanketed with volunteer nasturtiums this year, I figured I could sacrifice a couple for mixology. (Do check them very carefully for bugs, though. Lots of places to hide.)

The recipe comes from the Empress 1908 website, that even features boozy popsicles we might get around to freezing up as the temperature keeps rising. 

for two cocktails

3 oz Empress 1908 gin

1 oz dark rum (Appleton Estate suggested)

1 oz Triple sec (I subbed Citronge and that worked well)

1 oz orgeat (Small Hand pods suggested)

1 oz freshly squeezed lime juice

lime wheels and edible flowers for garnish

Shake all ingredients on ice. Strain into chilled rocks glasses over fresh ice (one big cube per glass is a good way to go to prevent too much dilution of the drink). Garnish with a lime wheel (nicely retro) and an edible flower.

Basil So Nasal (Yes, This Is a Cocktail)

There's always that temptation to save dinner's leftovers for tomorrow's breakfast scramble, or if there's enough remaining, the next supper. My suggestion is this--throw those leftovers into a cocktail. Tonight our daughter and daughter-in-law kindly made us a scrumptious vegetable red curry dinner that got some Thai basil as garnish. So while we devoured every last curry drop, we still had a bit of the basil left.

I'm drinking it right now. I had a bag of limes that desperately asked to be juiced, and I had that lovely curry still warming my palate. You can guess where the flavor profile will go from there for The Curiouser Cocktail. And yes, buy some Aperol. Think of it as Campari light (not lite)--less alcohol, less bitters, less color. But lots of exotic citrus and spice. It gives the ginger, lime, and basil mid-range they'd never have on their own. As for that shrub, you can buy it in Santa Barbara at Still, where all you discerning drinkers should be shopping.

The Curiouser Cocktail

(makes two drinks)

2 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
1 TBS. or so of torn Thai basil leaves
4 oz vodka (I used Snow Leopard)
1 oz. ginger shrub (I used the one by Shrub & Co.)
1 oz. Aperol

Muddle the basil in the lime juice. Add the vodka, ginger shrub, and Aperol, ice, and shake well. Strain with a mesh (to keep out all the torn basil) into two old-fashioned glasses that each have one large ice cube. Garnish with a star anise per drink, if you got them, but that's all for added aromatics, a nice plus but not crucial.

Drinking Gingerly

It seems like it's been awhile since I posted a new cocktail (and have you been reading the Drinkable Landscape column in the last two Edible Santa Barbara's? they are in the print issues only) so thought it was time. We were having curried garbanzo beans last night with cucumber raita, so that meant coming up with something that could stand up to and complement all that flavor and spice (it's not too hot a curry, at least). That led to....

The Salty Star

4 oz. Russell Henry Hawaiian White Ginger Gin
2 oz. Hangar 1 Mandarin Blossom Vodka
1 oz. Cointreau
3 star anise, whole
4 thin strips of preserved lemon (rinsed)
a few cilantro sprigs

Lightly muddle the cilantro and preserved lemon in the gin in a shaker. Add the vodka and Cointreau and one of the whole anise. Add ice. Shake to chill. Strain into up cocktail glasses. Add one star anise per glass for garnish.

makes 2

Note: The gin can be ordered from Caddell & Williams. It adds a lovely floral but not overdone touch of ginger. Preserved lemon is just too fun to play with in drinks and food. Even rinsed, it adds a nifty saltiness to whatever you use it for, and that salt helps the cocktail work with food.

Night with the Museum Chef

Our irregular feature “Make Me Dinner!” is back, with another story of a pro doing the cooking in the humble home kitchens of regular folks, while keeping costs low, technique not too tricky, and end results tasty. And there will be wine — this is Santa Barbara, after all.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Indy's site.

Douglas Does Dinner

Come six o’clock, who hasn’t thought how great it would be to demand from someone, “Make me dinner!” — without getting laughed at or punched? In this new series, we’ll do just that — with pros doing the cooking in the humble home kitchens of regular folks, while keeping costs low, technique not too tricky, and end results tasty. And while we can’t share the actual spoils with you (sorry, no leftovers!), we’ll do the next best thing: We’ll introduce you to the players, let you know what we learned, what we ate and drank, and send you away with a recipe or two.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Indy's site.

Rye Runs Red

It''s been awhile since I've dropped a cocktail on you, so here goes. Since it was just Easter that meant it was time for this Slovak-boy to whip up some kolache, and that meant a trip to the European Deli & Market, a treasure trove of items labeled in foreign tongues, some no doubt containing actual tongue. Upon entering, they had the most luscious display of blood oranges front and center, so we had to buy a couple of those in all their sunset-palette beauty. The first one became part of some refreshing blood orange margaritas, something true but very much tried (don't get dyslexic typing there!).

Last night it was time to be a bit creative, and thus the Rye Runs Red was born. It's pretty simple, but the flavors layer wonderfully, the citrus providing just the right sweet tart zip, and the Carpano Antica adds a depth just a regular sweet vermouth might lack. (Chryss suggested the finished drink almost had a hint of Amaretto, which isn't surprising since people claim Carano Antica has a bit of almond, among all its other flavors, from fig to toffee.) The color, thanks to the vermouth and the blood orange, is a wonderful deep red, and the little slash of peel adds to the drink's visual appeal. Cheers!

Rye Runs Red
(makes two)

4 oz. rye (Old Overholt is fine, but if you want to splurge, go for it)
2 oz. Carpano Antica vermouth
1.5 oz. freshly squeezed blood orange juice
.5 oz freshly squeezed lime juice (preferably Bearss lime--the lime equivalent of the Meyer lemon, if you ask me)
 narrow peel of blood orange, tied in a knot for each drink as garnish

Juice your citrus and add to shaker. Add the rye and vermouth and ice. Shake vigorously. Pour into chilled cocktail glasses and add the peels for garnish.

Wishing I was Clever Enough to Make a Good Joke about Big Star's "India Song" and This Post

Summer (at last it's summer here in Santa Barbara, and sorry, rest of the country already broiling, burning, and droughting) has arrived, which calls for long drinks and afternoons on the porch with good books after a morning at the farmers' market. Hence the re-invention of a classic above, what I dubbed the Green and Tonic. And I realize the blog has been a bit obsessed with cocktails lately, but there are a few excuses for that, not the least being writing about cocktails seems easier to do quickly. And, we head off to New Orleans next week for the Tales of the Cocktail, and I'm slowly trying to ramp myself up--it's like training for a marathon, and I haven't found the running shoes that fit my liver yet. In the meantime, this drink....

Green and Tonic

(makes two tall drinks)

1/2 a small cucumber, not peeled, cut in thin slices
1 lemon
8 sprigs lemon basil
4 oz. Hendrick's gin
tonic water (will be less a can)
two cucumber wheels
two flowery tops of lemon basil

In a cocktail shaker, combine the cucumber slices, 8 sprigs basil, and juice the lemon. Muddle thoroughly--really break-down the cucumbers and get the basil to extrude its oils. Add the gin. Muddle a bit more, but watch splashing. Add ice cubes and shake shaker. Evenly divide the contents of the shaker into two tall glasses--it's best to strain as you pour to avoid getting seeds or torn basil into the drink. Top with tonic water to about 2/3 full. Add crushed ice to fill (you do have an ice crusher, don't you? I go with a hand-cranked one, as I can feel even more virtuous having had to expend a bit of effort). Garnish with a cucumber wheel and a flowery basil top per drink.


As you can see, it makes for a lovely color (especially through a frosted glass). then when you go to drink, the aromatics of the cucumber and basil garnish right next to your nose really wake you up. The taste, too, is sublime. Here's a soundtrack for the drink, too:

A Macaroni-less Feather in the Cap

This cocktail is a Yankee Muddle Dandy, and it was born on the 4th of July. Yes, it is a pink drink for Independence Day, but that's just how we roll at our house, commie pinkos that we are (I mean, if Obama is a socialist, what does that make me?). Even with the sun in hiding for the day here in Santa Barbara, we decided it was time for a drink meant for summer and grilling. We didn't try it this way, having done just one test batch, but it would probably be great with a jalapeno/serrano in the muddling process to give it a bit of zing, too. Seed or not depending upon how hot you like things.

Yankee Muddle Dandy
(makes 2 cocktails)

1/4 a shaker full of watermelon sliced thin
leaves from 5 sprigs of mint
juice of one average-sized lime
4 oz. Hangar One Mandarin Blossom vodka
1 oz. Citronge
mint tops and watermelon wedges for garnish

Slice up some watermelon thin (this is why god made personal-sized watermelons--so you can butcher them for cocktails and still feel good about yourself) and put that in a cocktail shaker. Fill about 1/4 of the way. Pull of the leaves of 5 sprigs of mint and add to the shaker. Juice the lime directly into the shaker. Muddle, and don't be polite about it--you want to bruise those mint leaves so they express their oils and want the melon to mush a lot. Add the vodka, Citronge (or a Cointreau-ish liqueur of your choice), and a lot of ice. Shake the shaker well.

Get out a strainer, as it will be easy to get mint floaties or seeds into the drink if you're not careful. Pour into two, chilled up/martini glasses. Float the mint top and afix the watermelon wedge--so make it a dainty wedge--to the glass rim.

Putting the Fun in Gumbo

Last night's Mardi Gras meant it only seemed appropriate to turn to New Orleans for menu inspiration (and a cocktail, of course, in this case the delightfully layered Vieux Carre), and after a bunch of internet and cookbook searching for some sort of gumbo that didn't lay on the links too much (sausage sausage everywhere, and not a gumbo for pescatarians to drink!), we found this Shrimp and Collard Greens Gumbo. So, yes, this isn't my recipe, but we did some tweaking and have some warnings, so I'm going to run through it our way for you to enjoy the next time you want a big bowl of slowly simmering Louisiana heat. Plus one more excuse to eat collards, not that you should need one.


4 TBS. safflower oil
2 TBS. flour
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 medium sized green bell pepper, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 pound frozen cut okra
2 bunches collards, washed, stemmed, torn into bite-sized bits
5 cups shrimp or seafood stock (we used Kitchen Basics seafood stock and it was perfectly fine)
1 14.5 oz can whole tomato, undrained
3 cloves garlic, crushed (these will fall apart more in the soup and be delicious)
1 bay leaf
2 robust tsp. Creole seasoning blend (of your choice)
1/2 TBS. hot sauce ( we used Caribbean Chile Habanero)
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined, 72-90 count best size

In large skillet make a medium roux of 2 TBS of oil and the flour. Stir constantly over medium high heat till the mixture gives off a rich smell and is peanut butter colored--at least 10 minutes. Add onions, bell pepper, and celery and cook till the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

In soup pot cook okra over medium heat in remaining 2 TBS of oil for about 10 minutes or until soft and a bit gooey (that gooey will add to the dish's consistency). Add the collards and stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmering, and cook for 15 minutes. Add roux-vegetable mixture, tomatoes, garlic, red pepper sauce, bay leaf, Creole seasoning, salt (start lightly as boxed stock can be sodium-full), and pepper. Stir to combine and break up the tomato a bit. Simmer for another 20 minutes. Add shrimp, cover, and cook slowly for no more than 10 minutes--keep checking on how much those shrimp have pinked up and tightened their little circles.

This goes well with a mixed greens salad and some crusty bread, maybe even a crusty-garlicky-cheesy bread, would be great.