A while back, I challenged AJ Rathbun of Spiked Punch to create a basil-based drink that would satiate and entice my herbal-loving palette. Initally, he suggested marrying some crushed basil with grappa. To which I very maturely replied, “Ew. Gross.” Grappa and I just don’t get along. Though my family breaks out a bottle most every special occasion, I’m convinced this traditional Italian drink is nothing but souped-up petrol oil. I don’t know how my relatives manage to pull shots of the stuff, it stings my throat just thinking about it. However, AJ assured me he could come up with something that would make me see grappa in a whole new light. And now, a mere few weeks later, he’s done it: I present to you, Tareva’s Tipple.
The drink combines gin, grappa, basil, and simple syrup to create a delicious potion that is sure to make even the staunchest of grappa nay-sayers spellbound. An interesting proposition, uniting English gin with Italian grappa. Though I imagine the lovely juniper-scented liquor will offset the grappa nicely. I will be ordering this while touring the North End, this weekend. Salute and Cheers to everyone this gray Boston Friday!
Sometimes my best ideas come out of pure desperation. Last week, I went out to a fabulous dinner at Orinoco in Brookline Village. The restaurant serves delectable Venezuelan dishes that range from simple arepas and empanadas to slow-braised beef loin and an amazing heart of palms salad. I ordered the Pollo Adobo, a chicken slow-roasted in spices and oregano oil served with gnocchi-like dumplings in a truffle cream sauce. Absolutely incredible. In an uncharacteristic bout of foresight, I decided to wrap half my dinner up to take home.
Lo and behold, Friday night I arrived home late from work, exhausted. Completely lacking the energy to grocery shop, I found the to-go container full of chicken. After a brief victory dance, I then plowed around in the fridge trying to figure out what to pair with it. And this is what I came up with:
Chicken, Peach, and Romaine Salad in an Ahi Pepper Vinaigrette:
Shred the chicken and mix up the vinaigrette. In a frying pan, add a little bit of olive oil and saute chopped onion and mushrooms. Place on salad when caramelized. Chop remaining veggies and peach, put the salad together and serve. Add crumbled feta on top, if you so choose. Serve with bread and cheese (like I did!) if you ultimately decide to leave out the feta.
I was searching the blogosphere to find a tantalizing drink recipe, when I found this post by Braiden Rex-Johnson (who has one of the best names ever!) on Amazon’s Al Dente blog, which I’ve talked about before. And lo and behold, the recipe is by my favorite drink author/expert AJ Rathbun! I can’t get away from this guy if I tried… then again, why would I even try in the first place? Besides being a fabulous person, AJ is by far the supreme knower-of-all-things-alcoholic, and the pages of his books are more dog-earred than my copy of Eliot’s The Wasteland from junior year of college. I still swear by his recipe for sangria from Good Spirits as the best I have ever tasted.
The drink featured on Al Dente is called the Rosé Squirt. The name makes me giggle each time… perfect for a light-hearted summer evening. What I like most about the recipe is the anticipation of the maraschino liqueur, which undoubtedly will offset the dryness of the white wine. Wine cocktails are making a comeback, people! Guaranteed.
Ingredients:
Ice cubes
2 ounces maraschino liqueur
6 ounces dry rosé
Chilled club soda
2 maraschino cherries, for garnish
Directions:
1. Take two glasses (highball) and fill with ice cubes until 3/4 full. To each, add one ounce maraschino liqueur and three ounces rosé. Stir
2. Top with club soda. Give it a swirl, top with a cherry, and sip away!
Inspired by summer’s sweetest fruit, I’ve come up with a quick list of delicious (and unexpected!) things you can do with watermelon. I’m thinking, beyond the traditional fruit salad and watermelon carving. Mmm, I think I’ll pick one up at my local farmer’s market.
What Can You Do With Your Watermelon?
1. Salt It. I hadn’t seen this before, but some people like to add a hefty dose of salt to tease out the juiciness of their watermelon.
2. Swill It. Try a watermelon mojito, a cool twist on this warm-weather classic (or every-weather if you’re anything like me). For the margarita lovers out there (here, here!), try the Watermelon Basil Margarita. Salted rim entirely NOT optional.
3. Cook It. Poonam over at Cooking Adventures got creative and made a “burger” patty out of her leftover watermelon rind. Talk bout innovation! Serve these patties with a side of fresh melon juice.
4. Greek It. Watermelon always makes a nice addition to salad– best with feta cheese.
5. Wear It. Okay, I don’t actually recommend this, but these pictures were just too weird to pass up.
This Fourth of July, I decided to honor our nation by tackling a hefty physical challenge: riding my bike from Boston to Cape Cod. Two friends and I packed up our bikes with clothes, camping gear, fuel (aka trail mix), and various other necessities. Last Friday morning, we set off on the Claire Saltonstall Bike Trail. The CSBT runs from Boston to Provincetown, over 140 miles. Sometimes you’re on quiet back roads, sometimes you’re neck and neck with zooming traffic. There are killer hills and awesome straightaways. Basically, it’s whatever the ol’ trail decides to throw at you.
We spent the first day biking from my house in Brookline to a friend’s father’s beach in Sagamore/Sandwich (the part before the Sagamore Bridge). We went through Dorchester, Mattapan, Quincy, Hanover, Duxbury, Tinkertown, Kingston, Plymouth… an endless assortment of Massachusetts towns that all blend into one another after spending that much time on a bike. That was a good 68-70 in one day, mind you. Plus, we ended the day clustered in a tent on the beach. Not exactly luxurious, but there is no other sound I’d rather fall asleep to than the rolling ocean waves.
Day Two took us across the Bridge and up to Brewster, where my aunt and uncle graciously took in the two remaining travelers (we lost one along the way… he’d had enough adventure after Day One), fed us, let us use the hot tub, and gave us deliriously comfortable beds to sleep in. The last day was a 40-mile race to the tip of the Cape, right up to Herring Beach in Provincetown. A victory lap around the rotary and we were done!
Why put myself through this, you might ask? Especially when we launched into this with absolutely no training and/or concrete plan? Because it was an adventure. The very same philosophy I use with food applies to my entire life in general: you have to try it once. I think it goes back to my mother’s “no thank you” helpings. At dinner, if we were ever served something new or something we didn’t think we’d like, we’d have to take a small, “no thank you” portion, just to try it. And so, this bike trip was my “no thank you” helping of long-haul adventures. And, come to find out (much like with eggplant and brussel sprouts), I loved it. Sure, I was s.o.r.e. SORE. But in the end, swollen knees and gridlocked quads can’t outweigh seeing stretches of ocean and forest from the seat of your bicycle. It took a lot of motivation, but we made it (well, two out of the original three).
I think a lot of our “making it” had to do with food motivation: bagels in Hanover, lobster rolls in Yarmouth, ice cream in Orleans, fresh fish in Provincetown. One thing that kept me going, however, was good ol’ fashioned Trail Mix.
This gorgeous specimen is the newest addition to my kitchen. I love basil. Italian basil, thai basil, purple basil; any kind of basil adds such flavor and freshness to a dish. I usually enjoy making Tomato and Mozzarella Toasts or chopping up some fresh basil and adding it to some rice cooked-with-chicken-stockand parmesan cheese. Many people believe that the use of basil is strictly an Italian invention, but au contraire! It is an incredibly versatile plant, and I’ve been known to add it not only to curry but to burritos as well. Once, I even stumbled upon a dessert recipe for basil: Basil-Blackberry Compote. I can’t wait to try that one.
Tomorrow, after a quick trip to pick up some dough, I’ll be making Fresh Tomato Pesto Pizza. I figure it’s the perfect end-of-the-day, eat-on-the-back-porch type of meal to have on a Wednesday. Mmmmm.
Fresh Tomato Pesto Pizza
4 cups Basil leaves
2 Garlic cloves
1/4 cup Chicken Broth fat-free, less-sodium
1 tablespoon Parmesan Cheese grated
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Italian Pizza Crust
3 cups Tomatoes , chopped seeded
3 Garlic , thinly sliced cloves
1 cup Provolone Cheese shredded
1/4 cup Basil thinly sliced leaves
1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
2. To prepare pesto, place basil leaves and garlic cloves in a food processor, and pulse 5 times or until coarsely chopped.
3. With processor on, add broth, Parmesan, and oil through food chute; process until well-blended.
4. To prepare pizza, place pizza crust on a baking sheet.
5. Spread pesto over crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border; top with the tomato, garlic slices, and provolone.
6. Bake at 475 degrees for 12 minutes or until the cheese melts.
I can’t take this rain. And it’s not even rain; more like a perpetual mist that seeps through every pore and fiber, dampening clothing and temperament alike. Everything in Boston is absolutely and utterly soggy. The air is thick and drenched. Summer hues peep out beneath long, dark raincoats. Faces are permanently shaded by nylon umbrellas. I think you’re getting the idea. This cannot possibly be June.
For me, rain breeds complacency. I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to go out on my bike, and thus must muster every ounce of will to go out at all; I don’t want to cook, because my body goes into hibernation and craves nothing but bread and chocolate. Add to this my most recent Trader Joe’s discovery:
It’s called “Chocotal” and it is an assortment of four delectably exotic and rich chocolate ice creams. Of course, I saved the Costa Rican Chocolate one for last. Wasn’t quite ready to see it go… Still, hello, heaven, I always knew you’d be in chocolate form.
Anyway, like a mourning shawl lifted from the hunched shoulders of an ancient babushka, today was the first sunny day in what seems like an eternity. I actually felt the warmth and heat of the sun! Such a blasphemy that we need to feel this way at the end of June! But, it was glorious, nonetheless. And so, I immediately hopped on my bike and rode out to my local Trader Joe’s for some red wine and cherries.
Yeah, those are pits. I got a little hungry during the shoot. Cherries, to me, represent the jubilant calling of summer. Their tartness, sweetness, juiciness, and vividness epitomize the food of this season. There is just about nothing better than biting into a chilled, plump cherry after a long day out in the sun. So, should the sun decide to tough it out for me, I’ll be making this Cranberry Cherry Relish to spoon over some grilled chicken sausage.
It is currently 90 degrees outside… do you know where your back sweat is? I kid, but seriously folks. It’s 90 in April. April. Then, it will be 60 tomorrow. Mother Nature and her hot flashes… I swear.
Days like this make me long for a nice, cool alcoholic beverage. Thankfully, I work at a book publisher with some wonderfully alcohol-adept people and books. My co-worker, Adam, posted this video of our author AJ Rathbun concocting one of his signature drinks. If only I didn’t have a class presentation to give at 6…
Have a happy Tuesday, everyone, and enjoy a cold one on me*!
*Disclaimer: All “cold ones” purchased under the assumption that I will be reimbursing their imbibers will not be honored and any claims of beverages enjoyed “on me” is heretofore null and void. Buy your own Corona, people. Yeesh.
