Food, Drink and Tomfoolery

Until very recently, I thought margaritas were shitty blended drinks at Mexican restaurants. I’m sure some of you hailing from closer to Mexico would laugh at such an assumption. But just in case, I thought I would post the tasty drink I’ve been enjoying of late. I’d be happy to hear some suggestions as well. This recipe makes a good margarita for one person. For more, it might be worth it to put all the ingredients into a shaker first.

Ingredients:

• One quarter of lime
• The best tequila you can get your hands on (if it’s not 100% agave, make something else with it)
• Grand Marnier and/or Cointreau
• Salt, if you swing that way

First, if you’re going to salt the glass, run the quarter of lime around the rim of a rocks glass (an “old fashioned glass” for those of you reading this in 1955) and then plant it top-down on a plate of cracked salt and twirl until the rim is lightly salted. Then, fill the glass with ice, followed by the tequila (I’ve been using Don Eduardo Silver) – I usually just pour about half a glass or so of it. Top it with a splash of Grand Ma or Cointreau to taste, then squeeze the lime a bit before tossing it in the glass, and stir.

If you have good tequila, the only way you can fuck this up is by adding too much liqueur.

This is a simple recipe I have been meaning to post for a while now. It’s damn fast and pretty good.

• 2 Tbls butter
• 4 thick cut rib chops
• 5 Tbls dry white wine
• 3.5 ounces mild Gorgonzola
• Salt

Melt the butter in a skillet (preferably not non-stick), add the chops and cook over high heat for 6 minutes on each side. Transfer to a warm serving dish. Leave the skillet to cool, then pour in the wine to deglaze the pan and heat it gently until it is half evaporated. Crumble in the cheese and heat it gently until it is melted, salt to taste and pour the sauce over the chops.

Easy as hell and quite good. The musty flavor of the Gorgonzola goes quite well with pork.

I’ll probably make that gumbo from further down the page, so it better be good or I’ma be pissed.

This is so easy there is no excuse for you to ever buy pre-made garlic bread from the store (barring, of course, some wildly unforeseeable circumstance such as a blood feud with the only seller of fresh garlic in town or a disease that makes it impossible for you to slice your own bread).

Ingredients:

• a loaf of French or Italian bread (this is an ideal way to get rid of day or two old bread)
• fresh garlic (to taste – I use about 1 medium sized clove per two slices of bread)
• basil or Italian seasoning

Step one – pull out enough butter to thoroughly butter however much garlic bread you’re planning to make. Now, go do something else for a while so the butter can get soft. I recommend a short trip to Drift Mountain to attempt to drift into another dimension, but a repeat episode of Friends would probably kill the time just as well. If you don’t have time to let the butter get soft on its own, try breaking it into smaller pieces and microwaving it for about 7 -10 seconds.

Step two – preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step three- slice the bread. I usually lay the bread out horizontally and cut downward to get roughly circular pieces, but you can also cut lengthwise if you’re into that sort of thing.

Step four- mince the garlic into the softened butter. Like I said, I aim for about a clove per two slices of bread, but let’s face reality: you can’t use too much garlic in garlic bread. That is, unless you fear death by garlicitis – but fear is for the weak.

Step five- place the bread slices on a baking sheet and cover them in the garlic butter. Then top each slice liberally with the basil or Italian seasoning. Place into the oven on the middle or bottom rack.

Step six- when the butter has gotten nice and melty, turn the oven to the broiler setting and bring the temperature all the way up to broil as well. At this point, you’ll want to flip on your oven light and keep a close watch through the window (unless you’re like me and your oven was made in 1937 and doesn’t have a window, in which case you will be continually cracking the door open trying to peek in without singing off your eyebrows). Once the butter starts to brown and the edges are starting to get a little burnt, pull out the bread and serve.

I’ve been experimenting with ice cream for quite some time now. My recipe is simple.

• 3 cups cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 large egg yolks
• vanilla extract or vanilla bean if you’re fancy, or you can leave the vanilla out

In a saucepan, heat the milk, cream, and vanilla (or other flavoring), stirring constantly. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks. Add about a cup of the hot cream to the egg yolks to temper, then whisk the yolks into the saucepan with the cream. Continue to heat until it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain into a bowl and lay plastic wrap directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill for a few hours, then freeze in an ice cream maker.

If you want, you can make this ice cream using half and half. I like using a little more cream than milk because the texture comes out creamier, but if you want something lighter, you can change the milk to cream ratio to fit your tastes. Just make sure you have 4 cups total.

This is a really basic recipe, and it’s very easy to add other flavors. i like to play with flavors a lot, and so far the most popular have been basil, basil/strawberry, mint, and sage. Today’s flavor is basil/blackberry. Basically, find some flavor or combination of flavors that you like, and throw it in. Just play around with it.

If you want to make basil ice cream, chop some fresh basil leaves very roughly and add them to the cream and milk as you’re heating it to steep the flavor in the cream, then strain it out. If you like bits of leaves in your ice cream, you can throw some in a blender with about a cup of the liquid and puree, then mix it back in. This technique also works for mint, sage, or whatever else you can come up with.

When adding fruit, throw it in a pan with 1/2 cup or less of water and sugar to taste. Cook it down to bring out the juices, and then add to the ice cream base. You can strain it if you don’t like chunks of fruit in your ice cream. Also, you can let it cool a bit and puree it in the blender. This works with just about any fruit you like.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make ice cream by filling a 1 gallon Ziploc bag with a generous amount of ice and coarse salt. Then fill a quart size bag with your ice cream base and secure it very tightly. Put the smaller bag into the larger one, and secure that. Then shake or otherwise aggitate for about 30 minutes.

I’ve had mixed experiences with gazpacho: usually when I’ve ordered it at an eating establishment, I’m served an ice-cold version of tomato soup that tends to have a slightly bitter flavor. I’ve never been impressed, but the idea always sounded intriguing, so when I came across a slightly more traditional gazpacho recipe (namely diced instead of blended), I decided to give it a shot.

First, the quality of your ingredients should be addressed. Everything needs to be as fresh and ripe as possible – hit up your farmer’s market and find the freshest veggies you can lay hands on. Don’t worry too much if you can’t find exactly what’s on this list – this is just a guideline. Your olive oil should be extra virgin; you’re going to want it as thick and flavorful as possible.

Ingredients

• approx 1 lb tomatoes
• approx 1 lb of mixed veggies: My preferences include celery (1-2 stalks), cucumber (1 large), onion (small white or medium/large sweet or Vidalia), 1-2 cloves garlic
• any herbs that you’d like to add – I try to stick with parsley and thyme, and/or a small amount of dill if you’re into that sort of thing
• high-quality salt
• fresh pepper
• about 1/4 cup olive oil

Preparation is a simple matter: dice everything, and place it into a non-metal, non-reactive bowl. Allow it to chill for 1-2 hours (some prefer overnight, but I think it loses some of that delicious crunch).

Serve with hard boiled egg diced in ramekins, to be added as desired, and flavorful breads.

If you’ve got a Whole Foods nearby, they have a Rosemary & Olive Oil Focaccia that matches this perfectly.

Keep in mind when you’re serving that this is a light dish – you’ll need the bread to make it filling, but it does make for an amazing lunch on a hot summer’s day. Cool, crisp, and delicious!