Spirited Dinner @ mk - June 10, 2008 (POST-GAME)

Here's the re-cap from this past Tuesday's dinner with Amy Smolensky (old colleague from pre-bartending days) and her friends. There were six in all. Here we go . . .

I started the ladies off with a Biter's Cocktail from "The Savoy Cocktail Book" (1930). I used Gabriel & Andreu cognac, fresh lemon sour and green Chartreuse. Dry, aperitif cocktail to get it started.

I changed the name on the menu of the next drink to Coastal Herb Cocktail because . . . well . . . Islay Herb Juice sounds like crap. I don't use a lot of herbs to infuse the vodka so that it remains subtle. 2:1 ratio of parsley and cilantro. This drink is based on a drink I did recently for starchefs.com gala in late May, Sawing Bunk, where I have the same spirit, but use lime juice instead of lemon, for a green acidity. However, with the lobster, I wanted to provide an acidity that people are familiar with when enjoying lobster. Also, rather than use some of the smoked grapefruit in the drink, I used an inland Islay malt, Caol Ila 12 yr., to provide the smoky nexus with the grapfruit.

NOTE: Of course, I've been tinkering with the drink since the dinner some more and will replace the grapefruit juice with orange juice for an even better pairing for Simmons' beautiful and tasty lobster salad.

As mentioned below, the Earthy Burg No. 4 brought me the most excitement from this week's dinner. The extraction proved better than I expected. I toned back the black tea and mushrooms because I wanted to see how the flavors worked. I bagged the drink up in my adult 'Caprisun' bags and temp'd them with the white wine.

The coolest thing about the drink for me was how the jammy strawberry flavor transitioned into the earthy mushroom. This transition plays well as mushrooms and strawberries share a number of the same aroma/odorant compounds. Also, I discovered through serendipity that my strawberry juice extraction caused a small amount of pectin to form in the spirit which ended up giving the drink a velvety smooth texture. Yum.

For the Coffee Cocktail pairing with the dessert, I used Ted Haigh's (a.k.a. Dr. Cocktail) recipe from his great book, "Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails" (2004). NOTE: if you've ever seen the movie Super Bad you've seen Haigh . . . he's the bartender who serves McLovin and the cops.