Spirited Dinner @ mk - April 29, 2008

Here's the menu for tonight's spirited dinner. As always, seating is at 6:30 p.m on Tuesday nights. $65 dollars gets you an aperitif, three courses paired with cocktails and my gesticulations.

However, if you ask nicely, I can serve these to you during the remainder of the week. Just give me a heads up and it's done.


aperitif

cilantro vodka, st. germain, lime juice, grapefruit juice

***
walleye
crispy skin lake erie walleye pike, pancetta, fava beans, dandelion greens, carmalized onion broth

great lakes cocktail
butter and olive oil spirit, lillet, cognac, sugar, lemon juice, dandy green tincture, lavender tincture

***
lamb

boneless rack of four story hill farm lamb, crushed fava beans, black trumpet mushrooms,
baby carrots, veal reduction

funky red
cranberry and blackness spirit, black tea-port-coffee bean sour, parsley tincture

***
citrus blueberry
orange blossom scented pavlova, citrus curd, blueberry sherbet

shattered bulb
fennel and orange spirit, moscato d'asti, club soda, fennel seed tincture

Drinks with Sugar Snap Peas

There are those of you out there who know of my current obsession: peas. Peas are the new mint! Here's why:

I started some research last year prior to a visit to Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans on odorant compounds and Odor Activity Values (OAV) (i.e., the things that make drinks, wine and food smell and taste good) and found that peas share a lot of similar odorant compounds as whisk(e)ys and cognacs. However, since pea season ended right after making this discover, I had to sit on a number of recipes. Here's my first recipe last year with peas:

Green Kathy
1 1/2 oz. whiskey (I used Suntory Yamazaki, 12 yr. )
2 oz. sugar snap pea juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/4 oz. lemon juice

Shake and strain into chilled glass.

The first recipe is a drink I created for the guys at The Violet Hour. They asked if I'd like to go on a distillery tour at North Shore Distillery with the crew last Monday. I had a great time. Derek and Sonja Kassebaum were hospitable and great as always. The picture taken above was of the Violet Hour crew and me with the Kassebaum's 250L pot still.

Anyway, as a thank you to those at The Violet Hour, I decided to take my base pea recipe ('Green Kathy') and tweak it to make my first bacon bourbon. I made the drink (enough for 5 - 6 people), put it in a cryo-vac bag and brought to the guys last Saturday.

Twenty Beds
1 1/2 oz. bacon bourbon
2 oz. sugar snap pea juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/4 oz. lemon juice

Shake and strain into a chilled glass.

MOTO'S Mike Ryan was the first person in Chicago I knew of who made bacon bourbon back in 2006. And given that there are a number of people in town making bacon bourbon (e.g., Adam Seger, Peter Vestinos, et al.), I decided to stay away and do things with duck fat, et al. However, in thinking of ways to add depth to my base pea drink, I decided to throw in the towel.

I settled on Ancient Age because of it's taste and price. I added 6 oz./wt. cooked bacon to a liter of bourbon in a bag. Infused under sous vide at 173.8 F for approximately 1 1/2 hours. Strained and froze. Strained again and bottled.

The next drink was an entry to Hennessy VSOP's recent cocktail competition. This drink seeks to have the peas subtly highlight the cognac in a dry, aperitif cocktail (which was a contest stipulation). Despite timing issues during my round (none of us finished within the alloted five minutes), I think the drink turned out great.

Dismissed Pea
2 oz. Hennessy VSOP
3/4 oz. 10 Cane rum
1/2 oz. pineapple juice
1/4 oz. grapefruit juice
2 - 3 sugar snap pea pods

Muddle pea pods with pineapple and grapefruit juices. Add cognac and rum and sharply shake and strain into chilled glass. Garnish with pea tendrils.

Writing Anew; Munster Cocktail recipe

A blog spot (windycitycocktails.blogspot.com) devoted to my cocktails and food. It's been a while since I've routinely written my newsletter about cocktails and libations; I've had my head down working on cocktails and spirits that excite me. A few of you got some newsletter-ish 'updates' about what I've been doing here and there with my spirited dinners (Tuesdays @ 6:30 p.m.; aperitif and three paired courses for $65. Contact me if interested) and other fun drinks. However, after talking with family members, friends, and industry peers (local and beyond) about how many of them actually read my musings on what I quit my day job for, I thought it necessary to begin my writing anew. Also, a recent Gourmet post (see below) has more people interested in your favorite half-Thai bartender's drinks.

Besides, I'm running out of room in the journals Jamie, my wife, makes for me.

So, for those who've known my work in the past, and those whose email addresses I've collected over time, here's an quick update:

• Selected as 2008 "Rising Star Bar Chef" Chicago by starchefs.com. The title is currently held by Nacional 27's Adam Seger. As you may note in the picture, I had a great evening the night before eating and drinking with friends. "Who's the pale, bloated guy holding this photo shoot up?" http://www.starchefs.com/features/editors_dish/rising_stars/2008/Chicago/index.shtml#top

• Gourmet magazine likes some of the things I pour http://www.gourmet.com/winespiritsbeer/2008/04/kindercocktail

• Journalist David Tamarakin shot a video story regarding some of the taste and techniques I'm using for my spirited dinners. Here 'tis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5_E_k93p9U

Of course, I can't leave you without a recipe. This one's from some experimenting my wife and I did with cocktails and cheese.

We bought some nice Alsatian Munster cheese and a bottle of gewurztraminer to drink with it. Unfortunately, the gewurz was flabby. So, rather than drink the wine begrudgingly, I decided to combine it with some kummel (german caraway liqueur) and white wine vinegar. The vinegar gives the drink a non-citrus acidity while the kummel brings alcohol and sweetness.

It's an incredible pairing! The fruit from the wine and the kummel's caraway spice combines with the barnyard aromatics in the cheese in a great way so that you're left with this note in your mouth that makes you want to do it all over again (i.e., the vicious cycle).

Munster Cocktail

1 1/2 oz. gewurztraminer

1 1/2 oz. kummel

1 t white wine vinegar

Shake ingredients and strain into chilled cocktail glass. No garnish.

Here's to sharing thoughts about cocktails. Hope to hear from you soon.