Gin
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José Andrés cooks paella on a barbecue - 8 Aug 2011
José Andrés makes paella on his barbecue grill. Okay, so he's a multi-restaurant owner and chef. But he thinks you can do it too. Here is a front row seat at his home-based demonstration. read more...
Chef Peter Smith is on the gin - 3 Jul 2011
The lunch shift is over and chef Peter Smith, owner of PS 7’s restaurant is surrounded by gin. No, he’s not relaxing over a drink. The gin is in bowls in an pre-formed state. It’s the mash, a mix of herbs and berries and peels and roots that Smith has worked out how to use in his food as flavorings. read more...
Monster ice cube trays! - 21 Jun 2011
Ever since I had the best gin-and-tonic of my life at Jose Andres' house in Bethesda, I've been searching fruitlessly for the ice cube trays that produced the monster square lumps that cooled the drink. They looked impressive, and they didn't melt so fast that the G & T became diluted.
The search is now over. read more...
Monster ice cubes - 26 Aug 2010
Ever since I had the best gin and tonic of my life at Jose Andres' house (no, I'm not ashamed of name-dropping), I've been trying to replicate it. I found the gin - Hendricks. The smashed mint leaves? Easy. So, too, the crushed juniper berries. It was the monster ice cubes that eluded me.
No more. read more...
Gin - which Mother's Ruin is it to be? - 20 May 2010
The best gin-and-tonic I ever had was at Jose Andres' house last spring. The ebullient chef behind Jaleo, Café Atlantico, Oyamel, Zaytinya and more made it with Hendricks, a gin from Scotland with a slight hint of cucumber in its flavor. Some bartenders see this as a pointer to add slices of cucumber peel. This is a mistake. Do as José. He crushed two mint leaves against the mound below his thumb and dropped them in, along with several lightly crushed juniper berries and some paper-thin slices of lemon. His tonic was Fever Tree.
But in a co-starring role were the ice cubes. Each glass could only take one, since it was a cube of around three inches. You can see one in the glass in my photo. The joy of this, aside from its beauty, was that it melted so slowly that the gin-and-tonic wasn't diluted. I haven't yet been able to extract from José the source of these gems but have had not a bad substitute using plastic yogurt pots cut down to size. Since you have to break them to extract the ice, my yogurt consumption has been forced to rise. read more...
A real tonic, this - a fizz with few calories - 20 May 2010
Gin and tonic is probably the best cocktail in the world. How often, how long in your life, do you plan regularly on knocking back Pina Coladas, Mai Tais or Sex on the Beach? A good gin-and-tonic is a clean drink, elegant and sophisticated. The PCs, MTs, SotBs are girly prom dresses. But like all cocktails it's high in calories, partly because of what the tonic brings to the drink. I'm picky about my tonics. If they're going to be so calorific, they'd better be good. So, no thanks, Canada Dry. And NEVER wreck my drink with a Slimline/Diet/Lite tonic.
Here, though, is a tonic to match the other fine tonic, Fever Tree, for flavor, with the bonus that it has 60 percent fewer calories. read more...
Lemons - some sharp advice - 9 Sep 2009
Across the Mediterranean and Middle East at the end of summer, lemons scent the warm fall air. So if you've got lemons, what do you do: make lemonade. (You knew that...)
Whether they come from Israel or California, buy them at their best in the early fall and freeze them for winter use in vinaigrettes, tagines, roasted chickens, lemonade and more. read more...
Raspberry Mint Sapphire Collins your new cocktail? - 26 May 2009
Looking for a refreshing new cocktail for summer? When the weather's grim, the color of this shot of spirits will lift yours. Spirits, that is. read more...
The lunch shift is over and chef Peter Smith, owner of PS 7’s restaurant is surrounded by gin. No, he’s not relaxing over a drink. The gin is in bowls in an pre-formed state. It’s the mash, a mix of herbs and berries and peels and roots that Smith has worked out how to use in his food as flavorings.
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