Old Shoes - New Trip

The other day I hosted a surprise birthday party for a friend. We had tacos and there was a huge bunch of fresh cilantro left over. Not wanting to waste 99 cents worth of cilantro, I decided to use $10 worth of Everclear to make liqueur with it. Sounds like a congressional approach to fiscal responsibility, doesn't it?

I threw that bunch of cilantro into a mason jar along with three cups of Everclear and one large whole lime. Four days later, I removed the cilantro and lime and this is what the alcohol had done to them.

And this is what THEY did to the alcohol...

After adding three cups of simple sugar syrup, the color went from an intense deep, dark green to this...

It's bottled and it is sitting in my pantry for a few months of mellowing. It should be ready to drink just in time for Cinco de Mayo.

This week the Sunday Small Bites ingredient is one of my favorite flavors (second only to anise.)

I didn't want to do a recipe that basically only used ginger to enhance the flavor of some other "main" ingredient, so I thought it might be about time to share a couple of my liqueur recipes.

I have two that use ginger. The first, (left glass), is Carrot Liqueur which does only use ginger as a flavor enhancement. The second, (right glass), is ALL about the ginger.

Here are the very, very simple recipes:

Carrot Liqueur

Put three cups shredded carrots and 5 slices peeled fresh ginger in a clean mason jar.
Add 3 cups grain alcohol
Steep for 20-30 days, shaking to stir up carrots every 2-3 days

Strain and add 2 cups cooled simple sugar syrup (made with 1 part water and 2 parts sugar, boiled until clear)

Tokyo Rose

Put two cups crystallized ginger piece in a clean mason jar.
Add 3 cups grain alcohol
Steep for 20-30 days, shaking to stir up ginger every 2-3 days

Strain and filter. Then add just enough Sadaf Rose Syrup ( one teaspoon at a time) to produce the color of pickled ginger.

Add 2 cups cooled simple sugar syrup (made with 1 part water and 2 parts sugar, boiled until clear.)

Ahhh, mushrooms! Is there any one single ingredient that lends itself better to a wind variety of appetizer options? I think not. Or maybe it's just that I love mushrooms.

Since the Sunday Small Bites gang at SlowTalk.com has been assigned mushrooms, I began playing out in my head all the potential "new" ways of using them in an appetizer. I considered, and discarded several dozen ideas. Mostly because, after research, I realized someone else had already thought of them. Especially anything that involves using a mushroom as a cup to hold other items. You could write an entire cookbook on stuffed mushroom recipes. Oh, wait...someone has!
It was during my contemplation of stuffed mushrooms that I suddenly had the brainy idea of using something else as the cup to hold the mushrooms. And thus was born

PORCINI RISOTTO in PROSCUITTO CUPS

Soak ½ cup dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups very hot water

Spray bottom side of a mini-muffin tin with oil
Cut pieces of prosciutto into roughly 4-5 inch pieces and wrap around the bottom of each muffin cup. You may want to do two layers for complete coverage, but don’t do more than two. Don’t worry about being perfect. Rustic is the look you are going for.
Broil in oven until prosciutto cups begin to harden, but not burn.

Remove tray from oven and transfer cups, right side up, to a thick layer of paper towel to drain and cool.

Drain and reserve porcini water.

Chop porcini into small pieces.
Cook risotto according to your favorite method, using olive oil, minced onion, minced garlic, any other spices you may fancy, the porcini soaking water and added chicken broth if necessary.
Mix in chopped porcini, and ½ cup fresh grated parmigiano

Fill cups with risotto mixture, top with grated parmigiano and stick back under broiler just long enough to begin browning cheese.

Serve hot.

In advance of our trip to Scotland, I wanted to do some research on potential distillary, brewery, & winery tours we might be able to take. So, before we left home, I visited a few of our local liquor stores, both the fancy high end ones with gleaming brass and polished wood, and the ones that smell like stale cigarettes and spilled beer.

We quickly learned that they just don't MAKE wine in Scotland. So that idea went out the window pretty fast. The king of spirits is Whisky. We had dozens and dozens of distillaries we could visit...in fact be booked our second week's rental based on its proximity to the Whisky Trail.

In the beer catagory, I noticed that the high-end liquor stores carried a Scottish brand called Orkney Brewing Company. What luck, we were going to spend a week in the Orkney Islands, we could book a tour of this brewery while there.

I also found some interesting things on the internet. Here is a blog entry by a beer taster in the UK who seemed to be fond of Orkney Brewing.

GoodPeopleEats blog.

And here's a couple of guys in a bar in Pennsylvania who appear to be pursuing the Gary Vanerchuk model of tasting television. Two Guys On Beer.
They need to develop a little more confidence. And they REALLY need to do better research and fact checking with the historical background they throw in. The Vikings were neolithic? Really?!? But these guys do have promise. I might watch them. The episode is #069, posted on 05/06/09. It's the first one on page 9 of their menu.

We were really looking forward to touring the Orkney Brewery, but when we called to check on schedules we kept getting a recording. Since it wasn't very far from our rental cottaqe we just decide to take a chance and drive over one afternoon.

Here is what we found:

A very small building, locked up tight. Barrels outside in the open - stacked everywhere. Noone around. That car in the foreground is ours.

Too late for us, but good news for anyone planning to visit Orkney beginning NEXT summer, they are adding on to their operation and will be including a tour center and tasting room.

Here is their website: Orkney Brewery

This week Jerry picked Olives as our featured ingredient for the Sunday Small Bites challenge. For me it was like getting a pass. All I had to do was go to the pantry and pull out a jar of my Kalamata Olive & Fig Jam.

I put a spoonful on a Scottish Oak Cake (to celebrate our recent trip to Scotland) and topped it with one of my very favorite Greek cheeses - Manouri (to pay homage to Jerry's recent trip to Greece.)

Here is my recipe for Kalamata Olive & Fig Jam:

3 cups good quality pitted kalamata olives boiled in fresh water to remove some of the saltiness. (change the water three times).

Simple syrup made with 1 1/2 cups sugar and 3/4 cups water infused with the peel of one lemon. (strain lemon peel)

- 2 cups diced figs, stems removed but not peeled. I used Mission but you can use any type fig you prefer. (If you can't get fresh figs you can substitute whole fig preserves and eliminate the simple syrup. Or you can substitute dried figs by boiling them in water first to reconstitute and then draining before using)

- one diced apple

Gently boil the fruit together in the syrup for about 10 minutes (or until you get the consistancy you prefer). Careful not to let stick or burn.

Pulse briefly in food processor. Don't puree. You want to see a few chunks of apple and olive remaining. The fig will have already melted down, but the seeds will still add a great texture.

Preserve by your favorite method (canning or freezing)