Alcohol Infusions 201: Chile Vodka in a Coconut Muddle

Infused alcohol #2 - chile vodka.  Goes great in a Bloody Mary, but another interesting idea is this crazy recipe I found in Bon Appetit.  The infusion is straightforward, while making the drink is a bit more complicated.  You have to muddle something.

If you're new to muddling, take a step and consider if you have the right equipment to make this drink.  You need either a muddler (a mallet with raised ridges at the base to better mash up the ingredients) or a mortar and pestle.  In a pinch you can use the back of a large spoon, but there's no fun in that.  This could finally be your opportunity to buy new barware!  Plus, you'll be able to make mojitos afterwards, which are always good.

One Night in Phuket

Bon Appetit, July 2012

Recipe by Lucky Strike in Portland

Makes 4

• 1 cup vodka
• 1 red or green Thai chile (I used a jalapeno but tried for a serrano), pierced with a knife
• Simple syrup from 4 tablespoons sugar, plus more sugar for glasses
• 4 limes, each cut into 4 wheels, plus 4 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
• 40 cilantro leaves (about 1/2 cup) plus more for garnish
• 3/4 cup sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco López)

Combine vodka and chile in a jar and let stand, covered, for 2-24 hours (the longer it sits, the spicier it gets).  I went with 6 hours, and it was plenty spicy.  Discard chile.

Chile peppers + vodka = dangerously spicy drinks

Now make your simple syrup.  Don't worry - it's simple.  Combine equal amounts (by volume) of sugar and water in a saucepan, in this case 4 tbsp (1/4 cup) of each.  Heat over medium heat until dissolved, and allow to cool.  Store in a squeeze bottle, or use immediately, as in this recipe.  Once the sugar dissolves, you will have roughly 5 tbsp of mix total, but just assume that you should use 1/4 of the liquid for each drink you're making.

Place some sugar in a small flat dish.  Run 1 lime wheel around rims of coupe glasses to moisten; reserve wheel.  Dip rims into sugar to coat; set aside.

Run a lime wedge around the glass, then roll edge in sugar

The sugar will stick to the rim, but only when you use something sticky first, such as the lime

Using a muddler or the handle of a wooden spoon, muddle 4 lime wheels, 1 tbsp. simple syrup, and 10 cilantro leaves in a cocktail shaker.  Fill the shaker with ice.  Add 2 tbsp. chile vodka, 3 tbsp. cream of coconut, and 1 tbsp. lime juice.  Cover and shake vigorously 20 times.  Strain into a prepared glass.  Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 4 cocktails.  Garnish each glass with fresh cilantro leaves or lime wheels.

Muddle up all of the good stuff

Now add coconut cream, vodka, and shake

The drinks are rich and spicy, almost a meal in themselves

Chicken Stuffed with Fontina, Artichokes, and Sundried Tomatoes

As part of my quest to clear out recipes in my "to-do" box, I picked up some Fontina cheese today to make this dish.  On my way home, I thought - stuffed chicken breast... that probably means I'll be standing around beating the fight out of these chickens to flatten them out, which won't really go too well with my shoulder injury.  But to my pleasant surprise, this prep method was quite painless, and didn't require use of a hammer.

This dish came together very quickly, and with the right tools, it's fast, easy, and succulent.  I didn't know what to expect of the Fontina cheese, which is kind of like a Gouda but much softer, and perhaps smelled a bit more ripe.  This pungency survived the cooking process, and added a nice tang to complement the sweet herb flavor of the basil, the tartness of the sun-dried tomatoes, and the mellow garlicky base of the artichokes.  And to top that off, the mix was crammed inside of one of the most juicy chicken breasts I may have ever cooked.  Not too shabby.

I couldn't believe how moist these came out, and how quickly they cooked given their size.  Huge fan of this cooking method now.

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Fontina, Artichokes, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
from Bon Appétit, February 2008
 

• 1 6-ounce jar marinated artichokes, drained, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup grated Fontina cheese
• 1/4 cup (packed) drained, coarsely chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh basil
• 2 5-ounce skinless boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

The setup

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix artichokes, cheese, tomatoes, and basil in medium bowl. Using small sharp knife and working with 1 chicken breast at a time, cut 2-inch-long slit horizontally into 1 side of chicken breast. Move knife back and forth in slit to form pocket. Divide 1 cup cheese mixture among chicken pockets (reserve remainder for frittata). Press edges to seal. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.

Make your filling by coarsely chopping the ingredients and tossing together loosely to combine.  Don't squeeze it too tightly, or you'll end up with a cheese log.

This was way too much fun - slice through the side of the chicken breast and make a pocket, like you're opening a pita.  Don't slice through the opposite side, you want only one narrow slit and a huge cavern into which you will cram the filling.

Now spoon that filling in there, but don't overstuff

Heat oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over high heat.  I vote cast iron, but stainless steel will work if that's what you've got.  Add the chicken and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn the chicken over, and immediately transfer the skillet to the oven.  Bake until cooked through, about (note: about, not exactly) 10 minutes.

Note that the filling wasn't so tightly packed that it started escaping out the side.  You'll burn your cheese if you do that, and nobody like that.

Get a nice browned crust on one side, then flip and transfer to the oven.

How do you know when it's done?  Get out your digital thermometer, and test the center.  If it's not at 160 or higher, add another few minutes.  After 10 minutes, mine was at 130.  So I gave it another 5, and it was perfect.  If you want to be safe, bring it up to 170, but even that will start to dry it out too much.  Serve with a starch and some kind of green vegetable, but ideally nothing too powerful to drown out the flavors of this.

 

The finished dish, served over spinach with roasted potatoes

Alcohol Infusions 101: Bacon-Infused Bourbon in an Old-Fashioned

It's after noon somewhere, people - time to switch to hard liquor.  I can only post so many curry and stir-fry recipes, and figured you might want to see some of the more interesting drinks I've been trying to make.  So naturally, we have to start with a quintessential man-drink: bacon-infused booze.

Infused spirits seem to be hotter than that stupid song "Call Me Maybe" these days - everybody wants to have their alcohol taste like something else.  Now, whether this is because bars are trying to sell inferior alcohol or because it's a really interesting twist on making mixed drinks I can't say, but I do know this - infusions have been around for a long time, and they make awesome cocktails.  Typically you'll see herbs or fruit infused into an alcohol such as vodka or gin, but one of the more wild ideas that has come up has been to get the incredible healing powers of bacon somehow transferred into liquid form.  And since drinking bacon grease never took off, I'm all for this method instead.

Much like the underground city of Zion from the Matrix, this bacon infusion recipe is not the first, and probably not the last, that I will try.  We attempted this with vodka, and it was a dismal failure.  Then I tried following basic recipes for this bourbon online, and it didn't quite take.  This recipe is the third attempt, taken verbatim from the bar PDT's posting in New York magazine, although I made an adjustment to the bacon infusion process to make it more bacon-y.

Part One: Bacon-Infused Bourbon

• 3 or 4 slices bacon, or enough to render 1 ounce of fat (any extra-smoky variety will do)
• 750 ml of bourbon.  Something mellow - too harsh and no amount of bacon can save it

Always a good start to a recipe.  Or a Thursday.

Heat a pan over medium-low heat.  You're going to cook this bacon slower than you've ever cooked bacon before.  Why?  Because you don't want to burn any part of it, and you're trying to get the fat to drain out.  Now, cut the bacon into 1" squares or so.  Render down the bacon over this low heat, turning often, to convince the bacon to give you its tasty, tasty fat drippings, now in liquid form.  As the bacon cooks down, periodically remove the drippings from the pan until you have what you need.  If you start to see any black bits, you've cooked this too high, and I recommend starting over.  Run the fat through a coffee filter if you really want, but if you did this right you shouldn't need to.  Set the cooked bacon aside for your further pleasure.

Seriously, how can you do wrong when you've got the Gateway Meat in your corner?

The rendered fat should have no black bits floating in it

Now, let the fat cool slightly, and pour the bacon fat over the bourbon, which you've put in a clean mason jar.  Let the bacon fat sit with the bourbon for 24 hours at room temperature, then place in the freezer for up to a week.  The fat will rise to the surface and harden, and you can skim it off with a spoon.

Let the fat sit over the bourbon for a day or so at room temperature before freezing

After freezing for 1-7 days, the fat skims right off

I sampled my creation following this method and found that it didn't have enough bacon-y goodness, so I went and put some cooked, drained bacon in with the bourbon and let it sit for another week.  Then I ran everything through a coffee filter, and the finished product had what I would consider to be an appropriate amount of smoked bacon awesomeness.  In retrospect, I might have let the fat sit with the bourbon longer in the freezer, to see how much of a difference that makes.

Run through a filter at the end (if you used bacon pieces like I added later) to clean up the final product.  Enjoy!

What did I learn in this process?  Many things:

1. Low heat is key here.
2. If you don't cut up the bacon into small bits, too little of it will be in contact with the pan, which means it won't render down properly.
3. Thick-cut bacon may not make much of a difference, but high-quality, smoky bacon will.
4. Be sure to let the fat sit for a while with the bourbon, although room temperature for very long is probably a bad idea.
5. Adding more bacon to the recipe (say, a full pound of bacon) will not help make this any better.

Part Two: A Bacon Bourbon Old-Fashioned

from PDT recipe posted in New York magazine, April 2008

• 2 ounces bacon-infused bourbon
• 1/4 ounce Grade B maple syrup.  Yes, Grade B.  Go find it, it's more powerful than Grade A.
• 2 dashes Angostura or Regan's orange bitters
• Twist of orange

In a mixing glass, stir 2 ounces bacon-infused bourbon, maple syrup, and bitters with ice. Strain into chilled rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with the orange twist after running around the rim of the glass.

The ingredient list is short, and does not include a cell phone

I need a better picture of this to capture just how awesome it is.  Goes down way too smooth

Szechwan Eggplant and Peppers (Vegetarian)

My housemate delivered a bag of vegetables from a friend's farm, and I had to act quickly before they became one with the earth again.  So I laid them all out on the table and tried to figure out what I could make with them - eggplants, bell peppers, some other chile peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes.  While I'm relatively sure that not much can combine all of those except maybe some kind of curry or an eggplant dip with raw vegetables, I decided to leave out the salad ingredients and use just the eggplant and peppers.  And just as I was about to make a pasta dish, I revectored to a stir-fry, armed with new recipes from my friend (see here).  Thanks, Julia.

This recipe is completely homespun, borrowing some ingredients from this and some techniques from that.  I think the final product came out restaurant-quality - a little spicy, velvety, pungent from the ginger and Szechwan peppercorns, and filling.  Highly recommended if you find yourself with a couple of eggplants about to go bad, and you're sick of simply grilling them.

Don't forget your passport, because your taste buds are going on vacation

Szechwan Eggplant (with Peppers)

• 2 Japanese eggplants, cut into 1” pieces
• 2 small or 1 large bell pepper, cut into 1” pieces
• 1 hot pepper, cut into ½” rings
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp Szechwan stir-fry sauce (see this recipe for more detail)
• 1 tsp Szechwan peppercorns, ground (optional)
• 3 tbsp canola or peanut oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp sesame seeds, for garnish

The setup.  Notice what's missing?  That's right - meat!

Chop and gather all ingredients.  Heat wok until smoking over high heat, and add 1 tbsp canola and ½ tsp sesame oil to the pan.  Stir-fry half of the eggplant, stirring frequently to avoid burning, until sticky, about 3 minutes.  While eggplant is cooking, add Szechwan peppercorns, if using.  Remove to a plate, and repeat with remaining half, also removing to plate.

Make sure to have everything at the ready, or this will get screwed up

Cook the eggplant until almost sticky, and set aside.  The eggplant will absorb a lot of oil, so don't get crazy.  Just add what's in the recipe and keep stirring

Reheat wok until smoking.  Add remaining 1 tbsp canola oil to pan, and add garlic, ginger, and Szechwan stir-fry sauce.  Be sure to have the exhaust fan on high, and try not to breathe.  Stir for 10-15 seconds, then add all peppers and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Return eggplant to wok, and deglaze with Shaoxing wine.

Stir-fry the peppers after infusing the oil with the aromatics and stir-fry sauce.  This will basically create a mustard gas-like sinus nightmare, so get the fans going, and try as hard as possible NOT TO COUGH!

Stir in cornstarch and water mixture, and toss to combine.  Cook for another 30 seconds and plate immediately.  Garnish with sesame seeds, if desired.

Deglaze with wine and add some cornstarch (or tapioca starch) and water to thicken it up and provide a bit of a sauce

Split Pea Soup with Smoked Turkey

I tried a split pea soup recipe here as a vegetarian version, and it just lacked a certain something.  I'm pretty sure that something was meat, although it's always possible that it just needed more salt.  But the addition of smoked protein, whether ham or turkey, really changes this soup from bland to savory, from a snack to a meal.  Unless you're a vegetarian, in which case it's just awful, and you should disregard everything you read here.  But here's a different take on the same basic soup, adapted from a Food Network Kitchens recipe.

Split pea soup with smoked turkey.  Now with ten times more meat than ever before!

Split Pea Soup
Adapted from Food Network Kitchens

 

• 1 pound green split peas, picked over, rinsed, and drained
• 3 smoked turkey legs, about 1-1/2 pounds total
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 10 sprigs parsley
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 cups cold water
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Baguette, sliced thinly into rounds

The setup.  Note that the herbs are tied together with twine, making for easy removal later

In a large soup pot or Dutch oven saute mire poix (carrot, celery, and onion) in olive oil to caramelize slightly.  Add the peas, hocks, water, and salt.  Tie the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf together with kitchen string and add to mixture.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 1-1/2 hours or until the peas are tender.

Saute the mire poix of vegetables to begin to caramelize

Deglaze with water, and add remaining ingredients

Remove the pot from the heat and remove the hocks. Cool.  Remove the meat from the hocks, discarding the bones, fat and skin. Chop the meat into bite-sized pieces, removing the tendons and other less tasty parts.  Remove the herb bundle and discard.

Chop up the smoked turkey and reserve until serving

Puree the soup with a hand held blender or in batches in a blender.  Heat the soup to a simmer with the meat and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve in heated bowls with the croutons, if desired.

Toast the rounds in a toaster oven or conventional oven before serving

The final presentation could also be garnished with creme fraiche, sour cream, or a drizzle of sherry if you want another layer of flavor