fafner's Profile
Best Ginger Beer for a Dark and Stormy?
make your own -- This is the recipe from pegu club's. It isn't carbonated, but it is still delicious.
* 10 cups water
* 12 ounces fresh ginger, finely chopped (for a lighter colored ginger beer, peel the ginger before weighing it)
* 1/4 cup light brown sugar
* juice of 1 lime
* one bay leaf
Bring the water to a boil; turn off heat and add the ginger and the bay leaf. Cover the pot and let steep for no less than four hours, or overnight. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth, squeezing and pressing to express the last, very flavorful drops of liquid from the ginger. Add the sugar and the lime juice, stir, bottle and refrigerate.
Fish Market in Park Slope
If you want fresh shrimp your best bet is go to go chinatown. They have live shrimp as well as head on shrimp. Typically head on shrimp are never frozen as the heads don't freeze well.
Pineapple &...?
I would make a pineapple syrup (diced pineapple + simple syrup left in the fridge overnight) and then use that in a cocktail.
Either pineapple syrup, dark rum (such as barbancourt 7), lime juice.
Or if you want to be really cool, do a punch with it -- multiply by the number of drinks you want:
3/4 oz Pineapple Syrup
2 oz Gin
1/2 oz Lemon juice
1 oz Green tea
Top with Champange
Holiday Party Bar Suggestions
Why don't you do a big punch bowl to serve eveyone? You can always have a few bottles of booze as a backup.
Check out the latest issue of Saveur for some punch recipes from Dave Wondrich.
Travel Cocktail Kit
The defacto bar kit for most bartenders in NYC are Koobi Kits. They make an awesome ballistic nylon and have numerous compartments to hold your tools.
In mine I have
Hawthown Strainer
Julep Strainer
Horizontal Peeler
Vertical Ceramic Peeler
Microplane
6" paring knife in holder
Numerous mixing spoons
Mongolian Ice fork
Ice Pick
Metal Straws
Numerous Jiggers
Hand Juicer
Channel Knife
Church Key / Wine Key
Pug muddler
Small strainer (for double straining)
Plastic travel case with various dropper bottles of bitters
Metal on Metal shaker set
It all fits in that bag with room to spare.
ISO Navy Strength Pymouth Gin
Plymouth NS isn't available in the US, only in the UK.
Looking to perfect a Mojito
wow, I didn't realize mixing sugar and water together made me a sucker.
I know there are suckers that actually BUY premade simple syrup from stirrings.
As far as your recipe, I think I will stick with the classic. I suppose you like limeade in your margaritas too?
Your best Margarita recipe.....?
doesn't get much easier.
2 oz 100% agave blanco tequilla
1 oz cointreau (not cheap triple sec)
3/4 oz FRESH lime juice.
Shake, strain over rocks or up if you prefer.
The two biggest things to remember is use fresh lime, none of the bottled lime juice or even worse sour mix. And use cointreau. The generic triple sec you see in the stores is all artificial flavor and rotgut booze.
Martinis? Is it just me...
no, not you -- MichaelG. I could tell you were snarky. ;-)
Martinis? Is it just me...
As much as it bothers me to hear everything called a martini or even worse -tini it probably has to do more with the fact they are serving it in a martini glass than anything else.
A lot of restaurants don't want to stock any more glasses then they have to, so even though Libbey makes a passable cocktail coupe, most people won't stock it.
Not to mention that consumers tend to like their cocktail served in an oversized glass so they get the perception of value.
Vodka is like the training wheels to other spirits
I am probably not going to make many friends with this statement, but it is very easy to come up with Vodka cocktails. Mainly because you don't have to worry about how the base spirit works with other ingredients -- its neutral and mixes with anything.
It takes a lot more effort and skill to mix complex spirits like tequilla and gin.
I never drink Vodka -- much prefer the brown spirits.
Margarita - Blanco or Reposado
ugh -- why would you add limeade? That isn't a margarita.
Stick with the simple recipe --
2 oz Tequila
1 oz Cointreau (don't use triple sec, its aweful)
3/4 fresh squeezed lime juice
Simple as that.
Bacon Vodka
Putting the bacon into the liquid you want to infuse is not the correct way to do it. You want to just take the fat from the bacon and pour that into the liquid. Let it sit then freeze and filter through a micron filter to get the solids out. You will be left with a perfectly clear end result. The technique is called enfleurage.
What Hemingway was talking about...
A daiquiri is 2 oz rum, 3/4 oz lime, 3/4 oz simple syrup
A hemmingway daiquiri is 2 oz rum, 3/4 oz lime, 1/2 oz grapefruit juice and 1/4 oz Maraschino (Luxardo or Maraska)
A papa doble is 4 oz rum and 1 oz lime. (no sugar)
How to Make a Manhattan [Moved from Home Cooking board]
I highly suggest picking up a copy of the new cocktail book called imbibe, it goes into the history of the manhattan in one of its chapters. The original Manhattan club Manhattan is basically a 50/50 Rye and Sweet Vermouth drink with a dash of orange bitters, stirred, served up with a fat lemon twist. (as it is outlined in the book)
Ice Maker - Clear Ice, Cubes not Crescents?
You want a kold draft machine. Hands down.
http://www.kold-draft.com/
Need $200+ gift cognac recommendations
You should see if you can find a bottle of Hennessey Paradis. It retails for around 400, but I regularly see if in the 200-240 range on sale. It is amazing, one of the best cognacs I have ever tasted for the price.
WhiskyFest - What not to miss?
I had a pretty specific hit list of things to try last night and of my list, the top 3
Wild Turkey American Spirit -- amazing, well worth the $ if you can find it.
Stag Antique Collection -- mind blowing
4 Roses Barrel strenght -- my new favorite
Suntory Yamazaki -- awesome.
QUICK! How do I open my Pitu Cachaca??
The plastic thing on the top is to prevent tampering. It is a one way valve so people can't refill the bottle with cheaper stuff.
Cocktails with Cassis?
El Diablo
2 oz silver tequilla
1 oz house made (or other spicy jamican ginger beer)
3/4 oz lime (or lemon)
3/4 oz cassis
shake, serve in rocks glass
Secret Eating and Drinking Places
PDT which just opened on St. Marks place for super cocktails. You enter it through a phone booth in Crif Dogs.
Need mediterranean cocktail - old or new
How about a nice Juniperitivo -- by Jerri Banks.
2 oz Junipero gin
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz : simple syrup
1/2 oz : pomegranate molasses
2 sprigs of mint
Muddle all ingredients minus, gin. Add gin and ice, shake, serve up.
Martini ordering question
Neat is the way I refer to drinks that is basically 2 fingers of booze in a glass. No ice, no garnish.
Bakers - Neat
Makers Mark - Neat
Glass, 2 oz of booze. period.
Real Grenadine Syrup?
Just make your own.
The simple way is to just got a bottle of POM, mix that with an equal part superfine sugar in a jar and shake it every now and then until it dissolves.
You can also heat up the POM and sugar in a saucepan to dissolve and let it cool.
It was better than anything you can buy premade.
pre-dinner cocktail reco needed
Try Death and Co, 433 E 6th street between 1st and A.
Favorite Summer Drink? (Alcoholic)
Gin Rickey
2 oz Gin (beefeater)
3/4 oz lime
build in a collins glass over ice, top with soda.
So tasty and refreshing.
Best "T" for a G&T?
The problem with the recipe is that cinchona bark is not water soluble. It is much better to let the powder soak in 1/2 cup of neutral spirits first to hydrate, then add that paste back to the other mix. It extracts much more of the flavor.
Mint Juleps Anyone?
They can be a simple or complex as you want.
The easiest way --
Take a julep cup (or other rocks glass)
.25 oz simple syrup
2 oz makers or other good bourbon
Fill halfway with crushed ice.
Stir a few times. Fill to the top with more crushed ice, creating a small mound over the top. Add 3-4 big mint springs.
You can alse use the same recipe but add change the simple from 1/4 oz, to 1tsp and add 1 tsp of peach brandy.
Uncle Liaos shuttered?
They have been closed for a few weeks, if you check the DOH website, they racked up a lot of violation points.
