chemist cocktail corner: apogee

Husband has been experimenting again.  This apparently is a Franken-cocktail, assembled from the appendages of several recipes in his vintage recipe books.

The first incarnation tasted like a cherry life saver.  Seriously.  However, illustrating the amazing power of garnishes*, the addition of a twist of orange peel completely transformed the taste into a subtle, complex, super tasty drink.  Not at all resembling liquid candy any more.  Freaking magic.

Yes, these pictures were taken on my stove.  It was the only white background I could find.  

Don't judge me.  

Apogee
1.5--2 oz vodka
3/4 oz (ish) fresh lemon juice (~1 lemon, yes you read that correctly)
3/4 oz Creme Yvette or Parfait Amour**
2 dashes Regan no. 6 orange bitters
~1 Tablespoon simple syrup
splash of Maraschino
twist of orange peel (no pith)

Combine all ingredients except garnish in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice.  Shake well to mix and chill, and strain into a chilled glass.  Twist orange peel over surface of liquid***, rub along lip of glass, and drop into drink (or delicately balance it on the edge, if you can manage it).  Enjoy.

-----

* Seriously, don't skip garnishes.  They are not after-thoughts.  If anything, this adventure in vintage cocktail recipes has taught me that garnishes are totally legit ingredients.  Ignore them at your peril.  

** Parfait Amour is a violet-based liqueur.  Creme Yvette is a proprietary liqueur based on violet and a bunch of other stuff.  I like Yvette better on its own as a digestif, but weirdly tend to like Amour better when mixed into things.  The drink pictured was made with Parfait Amour; when made with Yvette it's more of a fuscia color. 

*** Yes, this really does stuff.  Reportedly there's slow-motion video out on the internet somewhere of the oils spraying out from the twist and infusing into the drink.  Need to look that up someday.  

-----
Previous chemist cocktail corner creations:

Tuscan Strawberry

bento friday: favorite recipe roundup

This week has been kind of hectic, and I've been sick, so unfortunately I have no bento to share with you.  But!  Instead, I've put together a roundup of some of my favorite bento recipes that I use so so often, in photo essay form.  NOTE: all pictures in this post are taken from justbento.com or justhungry.com, specifically from the recipes linked.  They are used here with permission from Maki.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Maki?  Maki is my hero.  My bento-hero, at least.

One of my favorite quick and delicious bento side dishes is carrot kinpira.  So yum.  

And hey!  Look!  You can make kinpira from other stuff too!  Rock on.

Maki's chicken teriyaki recipe taught me that teriyaki sauce is super easy to make, that it's very tasty, and that it's silly to buy pre-made teriyaki sauce in a bottle.  Apparently Japanese folks think that stuff sold in stores is kind of bizarre.  

Soboro is another super tasty recipe, though it does require prep.  It's not something you throw together on a weekday morning; rather, I'll spend some time on an occasional weekend making a big batch (usually from lamb), and then freeze small portions to use later as filling in onigiri.  

Bored of teriyaki?  Lemon chicken nuggets are a tasty alternative.

Tamagoyaki is a now-and-forever staple of my bento-making.  There's a bit of a learning curve to its construction, but once you've messed up a few it'll work out fine.  Super tasty, good reheated or at room temp, veggie-friendly, and Husband loves it.  Win. 

And finally, Maki's spicy lentil snacks get fantastic reviews and are apparently super tasty, but I still haven't gotten around to making the dang things.  I even bought red lentils months ago, and yet.  So I'm putting this one on here to remind me to make the darn things, and then I can tell you how it went!

Happy bentoing!

bento friday: one bento, two boxes

Husband's bento: microwaveable Pyrex

This week I threw together a super-simple bento from what happened to by laying about the house.  White rice in the magical rice cooker of AWESOME (I am madly in love with my rice cooker; can you tell?) with some frozen peas dumped in for color, butter-sesame chicken, and some Sriracha-and-saké-glazed carrots.   Simple, tasty, and it used up a lone freakishly enormous carrot that was lounging around in the fridge and the last four shiitake mushrooms.  Even if I did overcook the chicken a bit. 

my bento: cute little tiffin

Butter-sesame chicken
chicken, cut into bite size pieces
shiitake mushrooms
butter
soy sauce
sesame seeds

Sauté the chicken and mushrooms separately in plenty of butter (or on separate sides of a big frypan, like I did).

Mix it all together, add a splash of soy sauce, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and you're good to go.


Sriracha-saké glazed carrots
carrots (or singular carrot, if you've got an Arcturan Mega-Carrot hiding in your crisper)
toasted sesame oil
Sriracha
saké
brown sugar
soy sauce

Heat oil in a frypan, add carrots, then dump in a healthy splash of saké and cover.  This steams the carrots a bit, making cooking go much faster.  It also imparts yummy saké flavor.

Attack with Sriracha, some brown sugar, and a bit of soy.  Stir around to form and thicken the sauce a bit, and then nom.

bento friday: a favorite

A fried rice bento, lamb style

We are fortunate enough to have a source for local organic lamb, so once a year our freezer fills up with the stuff.  On Monday, Husband surprised me with pan-roasted lamb chops, spiced zucchini, and wild rice when I got home from work. 

Tasty. 

Strategically, there were two small lamb chops left over after dinner, so these were set aside for some bento action.  Lamb fried rice is something I've gotten pretty good at, and it's one of his favorites.  Like most of my dishes, it's pretty ad-hoc and not necessarily all that authentic.  But it's yummy.

Lamb Fried Rice

With sesame oil in a big fry pan, stir-fry whatever veggies need using up, diced small.  Onions, carrots, zucchini, peas, mushrooms, ginger, green beans, bean sprouts, bell peppers, cabbage, spinach, garlic... whatever, really. 

Push the veg to the outsides and plunk a pat of butter in the middle.  Scatter day-old rice over the butter and ignore it for a while.  It's really important to use day-old rice, because fresh rice is far too sticky.  Resist the urge to stir.  

Resist, I said!

(I over-stir.  It's a problem.)

When it's gotten a little browned and crunchy, go ahead and stir around a bit.  When you're satisfied with the crunchiness factor, stir everything up together and again push it all to the sides. 

Re-butter the center of the pan, mix an egg up with some soy sauce, and dump it in.  Stir *constantly* with chopsticks as the egg cooks, to make little scrambly bits.  

Little scrambly bits.  That's a technical term.  

Finally, toss in your diced lamb (or whatever meat), let sizzle for a very short amount of time, and mix everything together.  Finish with generous quantities of soy sauce, a healthy squirt of Sriracha, and some more butter.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds. 

Yum. 

chemist cocktail corner: tuscan strawberry

Having a chemist in the house sure does come in handy.  Husband happens to be a fabulous mixologist/bartender, owing partially to his chemistry training.  Our liquor cabinet is truly epic, and when I tell him to make me a drink, I often get very pleasantly surprised.  Case in point: last week's creation, the Tuscan strawberry. 

The Tuscan Strawberry: tasty in a glass. 

I don't always want a cocktail in the evening, but after getting home from work on Tuesday I decided to have a libation.  I had been unable to resist the lure of the crate of delicious-smelling perfectly-ripe organic strawberries at Costco over the weekend, so I suggested something involving muddled strawberries.  It was beautifully balanced; it's a 'girly drink' without being overly sweet, and has a very delicious complexity.

He made this. 

I drank this. 

I was happy. 

Tuscan Strawberry (a chemist Husband creation)

1 very ripe strawberry

pinch of sugar

1.5 oz vodka (vanilla recommended)

0.5 oz Maraschino liqueur

0.5 oz St. Germaine (elderflower liqueur)

1--2 oz sour mix (to taste)

splash vanilla schnapps (omit if using vanilla vodka)

splash Limoncello

splash lemon juice

dash Peychaud's bitters

Muddle the strawberry and sugar in the vodka.  Add the rest, shake with ice and strain into a short glass.  Garnish with strawberry slice.  Enjoy.