Reliving Friday Nights Past-8/28/09

August's issue of Gourmet had a whole article on Gin Punches. I didn't really plan on making them all in one night. That would not be recommended but that's what happened. I had scheduled the punches different nights throughout the month but I'd get busy on dinner and push the drink off to another night. Suddenly, with only 4 nights left in the month, I had all 4 to make and Richard would be out of town for one of them. Not that I expected to get trashed but I didn't think it was a good idea to do lots of drinking with him gone. Tonight seemed like the best night to just knock out the drinks and be able to compare one to the next if I was sober enough to taste them. Honestly, I didn't expect to drink much of each punch but I did want to be complete in my testing.
Each of the drinks seemed pretty similar at first glance. They all had a citrus addition, usually lemons and gin. The cocktail of the month, the Tom Collins, was a bit bitter for my taste. I think that was a product of the seltzer, not the drink mix itself. It was my least favorite of the four. The three punches were a bit sweeter, perhaps because they are designed to sit out for awhile after they are made. The Dr. Salmon's Punch was pretty heavy on the alcohol. I didn't have genever so I made the substitution with gin and whiskey. The nutmeg addition was gritty more than flavorful. The Limmer's Punch was a familiar punch, almost like a Mike's Hard Lemonade with a bit more fizz. I really liked this drink though I'm not sure how much the eighth of an ounce of orange flower water added. Obviously, I didn't make full bowls of punch for each of these recipes but reduced the ingredients down proportionately to get the flavor without gallons of extra punch. The Gowanus Club Gin Punch was Richard's favorite. The citrus mint blend was well balanced and the tea and pineapple added a complexity over the Limmer's Punch. I didn't buy Yellow Chartreuse for just one ounce but my sense is that this liqueur would have added more color than flavor.
I did make dinner before I drank all this alcohol. (For the record, I had only about a 1/2 glass of each drink and really didn't feel it until finishing the last one but by then it was time for bed anyway.) Tomatoes aren't particularly known for their alcohol soaking properties but I needed to do the Slow-Roasted Tomatoes on page 102 when I could be home most of the day. These tomatoes needed 8 hours to roast and though I did leave the house, I didn't want to be gone for hours with the oven on. The recipe said these tomatoes would be very reduced. I actually thought they held their size pretty well. They looked great but I wish that Gourmet had suggested some more things to do with them once they were roasted. Tonight, I just used them in my next recipe, the Turkey Club Salad with Avocado Mayo on page 59. This salad was much like last night's salad, a very complete dinner salad with many components. The bacon and avocado added some fat and the combination of cabbage with the romaine added a yummy crunch. The homemade croutons were good too. I liked this salad and thought it made a great quick weekday dinner.
Perhaps the best alcohol soakers of the night were the Olive Oil Madeleines on page 15. Perhaps the most difficult thing about making these simple cookies was finding a Madeleine pan. I finally found one at Williams-Sonoma after checking out several other home goods stores. I forgot to spray the pan with cooking spray (I didn't spring for the $23 non-stick pan.) but either because of the new pan or all the olive-oil in the cookies, they came out of the pan with a little coaxing. The lemon flavor was more distinct than the oil which was probably a good thing in cookies. These cookies were light and very yummy. Eyleigh ended up finishing off several after some initial hesitation. I snuck a few extra too at the end of my highly scientific drink testing.

Tom Collins-C
Dr. Salmon's Punch-B
Limmer's Punch-A
Gowanus Club Gin Punch-A
Slow Roasted Tomatoes-B
Turkey Club Salad with Avocado Mayo-B
Olive Oil Madeleines-A

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hambrick's-Party of Four!-8/1/11

Image
On August 24th of last year, I wrote a innocuous little post on this blog about my husband being a good sport about my creative culinary exploits.  And then....nothing....for over 11 months.  What happened, you may ask?  Well, the picture at left tells a rather significant part of the story but not the whole thing so I'll try to summarize here in case another 11 months go by before I post again.  (Okay, I will seriously try not to do that!)  The year 2010 started off on the wrong foot with the loss of our fourth pregnancy (Thankfully, pregnancy #2 had resulted in Eyrleigh!) at 18 weeks.  We were still reeling from the devastation of that event when my only sibling, my brother Ben, committed suicide at the end of February.  Then in April, Richard's company hired a new CEO and things professionally went south from there for him.  Since a blog is a public format and could therefor be accessed by anyone, including this individual, let me suffice it to say that after 9 years with th
Read more

I Don't Boil Lobsters...July in Review-7/31/09

Image
Gourmet's July recipes are in the bag and aside from the two recipes I refused to do, I made every recipe for the month. I suppose I should explain... I eat meat but I cannot actually kill the animal before I eat it. I suppose I should amend this statement. The mussels I brought home from the store said "Live mussels" but they sure didn't move or give any other indication that they were alive. Lobsters do, they move, they squirm, and whether you believe it's simply air escaping from their shells or not, they make a high pitched screaming sound when first put into boiling water. I just can't do that. The very thought of it turns my stomach and makes something I find fun, cooking, fill me with dread. So I didn't make the Boiled Lobster Dinner with Sesame Mayonnaise on page 54 or the Lobster Rolls with Lemon Vinaigrette and Garlic Butter on page 28. Everything else I made and here's my highs and lows from this month's issue. This month's best reci
Read more

Can you say "Tsatsiki"?- 3/12/09

Image
Ok , now is the time for honesty. How many of you have been at a restaurant, wanted to order something but hesitated because you didn't want the servers all laughing at you in the back about how badly you butchered the name of your wine or dish? I live in the South and people order " Gy -rows" at the Great Wraps. In fact, I just looked it up on the Merriam Online Dictionary and that is exactly what they said. I always thought the word was "he-rows" and have ordered them like that for years. Now imagine that with " Tsatsiki "? I tried to look that word up on the online dictionary and you know what is suggested instead? Testicles. Yep, could entertain a few servers for years with that one! Can you picture it? "That lady ordered Chicken Gyros with Cucumber Salsa and Testicles!" Ok , seriously, how do you say " Tsatsiki "? Do you just drop the t, like sat- siki ? Or does the ts make some other sound that is not common in English? But l
Read more