Beer&More – Smoking Fork

September 3, 2015June 24, 2016

Ginger Brown Sugar Simple Syrup

You can go to a store and buy simple syrup. I won’t complain. You can even go buy some fancy stuff that’s more than just the basic model.

But…. if you want to save a stupid amount of money and make something really tasty in less time than it takes to boil water, keep reading.

This is the part where I write stuff that’s happy and homey to convince you that I know how to put on an apron or mix a drink. Consider my job done and we’ll move on. I like to drink our house ‘panty dropper’ on occasion, and I’m just not going to buy simple syrup to make it. Here’s how you, too, can do it for yourself.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown (or light brown) sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup water
2 thumbs worth of fresh ginger

Put the sugar and the water in a small sauce pan on medium heat and stir just a little bit.

Peel the ginger and chop it into long, thin slivers, like fat matchsticks. Or however you want. Thin slices lets the good stuff out of the ginger, and longer slices means its easier to keep tabs on the things floating around.

Toss the ginger into a glass jar (I have a stash of Mason jars and pasta and peanut butter jars for these kinds of things).

Bring the water and sugar to heat but not to a boil. It doesn’t have to get super hot. Just enough to dissolve the sugar. Seriously, this should take like 5 minutes and you’re done.

This is HOT still, so let it cool a little, then pour it into the jar with the ginger. Let that cool to the point you can touch it before putting the lid on and putting it in the fridge. Leave it over night for best results so the ginger and the sugar can get all romantic.

I usually leave the ginger in there for the duration of use because it taste better every day. And I also use the ginger for a second round of simple syrup if it’s still fresh enough.

Yes, you can get super creative here and add black peppercorns, orange peel, cranberries, or anything that sounds fun. I love ginger and brown sugar for the drinks I mix. Go wild and have fun!

May 26, 2014June 24, 2016

Smack That Basil!

I’m not going to lie. I’m not a huge gin fan. Don’t throw something at me!

But I feel obligated to expand my horizons. I keep my eyes out for cool new flavor combinations. So hey – gin, lemonade, and basil. Why not?

My baby basil plants I started from seed were just big enough to produce decent leaves. As a fanfare to start the fresh basil season, I wanted to celebrate. Coinkydink? I think not. (That’s weird to see that word written down.)

Keeping it basic (seriously, some of these drinks recipes want you to steam or simmer the leaves beforehand), I settled for one part gin and three parts limeade over ice and basil leaves. Instead of muddling the leaves (green chunks in your teeth!), I opted to smack the three large basil leaves between my hands a few times to bruise them. Bonus is that my hands smelled good afterwards.

The Man did something similar with more gin, because he loves gin. Our gin of the night was Bombay Sapphire, something we readily have on hand. Again, The Man likes gin. And our limeade is generally Simply brand. No need for simple syrup or extra steps tonight. It’s Sunday and who needs that?

I think next round I’ll try more gin too because the flavor combination is quite nice. Citrus tends to highlight the best side of gin. And fresh basil will make almost anything taste awesome.

Repeat:
Old fashioned glass
Medium ice
3 large basil leaves, smacked like they asked for it
2 fingers of gin
Top off with limeade (or lemonade)

Great for a rainy Sunday evening.

[Girl21]

November 1, 2011

Ba na NA ner NA Ner Na na … Tequila!

Milagro Silver Tequila

The thing about the Tequila song is that you can sing it after drinking tequila. It’s a beautiful marriage of practicality and fun. There’s only one word and you say it only three times. The rest is just instrumental, which can conveniently be ‘played’ using whatever is handy nearby for the dirty sax and percussion.

I can barely hear anyone mention tequila without hearing the sax start playing in my head. And everyone has a tequila story, so when drinking stories come up, tequila is mentioned. This is one reason I was in my thirties before I tried the stuff. Dread of acquiring a half-remembered tequila story of my own.

But yes, tequila entered my life eventually. Not the cheap stuff that makes you feel like Ron Jeremy the next day. The good stuff that costs enough to remind you to drink it slowly.

By now most people know real tequila comes from the actual region surrounding Tequila, an actual place in Mexico. And the tequila association will send coa-armed jimadores after you if you erroneously label your bottle tequila instead of mezcal. Oh and yes, we’ve all been updated that the worm was a marketing gimmick and nothing else.

Tequila is either 100% agave or ‘mixtos’, 51%+ agave and the rest made up of other sugars. There are generally five different categories of tequila based on how long its aged: blanco/silver aged less than 2 months, reposado/rested aged 2 months to 1 year in oak, añejo aged 1 to 3 years in oak, extra añejo aged more than 3 years in oak, and the oddball joven/young which is a mix of blanco and reposado. So just look for the agave content and the age length to determine what you’re actually buying in that strikingly trendy bottle.

That out of the way, let’s talk about Milagro. With over 900 brands of tequila to choose from, you could get arrested 50 times over before you try even half of them. And tequila is like all other liquors. There’s the good and the bad, which have nothing to do with price or fanciness of bottle. You’ve heard of Patron if you listen to hip-hop, and Jose Cuervo if you listen to country. Don’t get caught up in the marketing or you’ll be eating worms.

Of the easy-to-acquire, Milagro Silver is one of the nicer ones for price, taste, and quality. It’s 100% agave, and blanco, so it’s fairly young. There is the typical grassy and succulent agave fragrance at first, followed by citrus. It has a very wet mouth feel but a peppery flavor and an alcohol burn at the end, leaving a slight bitterness. For shots, it’s not bad, but makes an excellent mixer.

The night we emptied this bottle of Milagro, we were doing shots. It went surprisingly fast. Many of our guests felt fine the next day. No one committed a typical tequila blunder like urinating in a closet. It was remarkably tame. Almost spooky. I guess it could have been worse.

Milagro
Silver, 100% Agave
750 mL | 80 proof
$40-60 bottle

[Girl21]