Manhattan

The Manhattan must be one of the simplest cocktails of all times, and one of the very best.  I discovered it at the insistence of my sister-in-law, Paula, and I thank her for that.  Two ounces of whiskey, one ounce of Italian Sweet Vermouth, and a couple of splashes of Angostura Bitters, garnished with a cocktail cherry - how easy is that?  It's a cocktail that needs no recipe, and even grandpas like me can remember how to make one.

But it may also be one of the most flexible cocktails ever.  First you get to pick the whiskey.  Kathy and I like to use Rye, but Bourbon makes a great Manhattan, too.  I understand that some people even use brandy instead of whiskey, but I'll not be trying that any time soon. 

The Manhattan I just made for this picture used a rather overpriced brand of Rye in a too fancy bottle, called (ri)1, which is made by Jim Beam.  I have to tell you that it is good, but not good enough to justify the price, which I am embarrassed to have paid.  Old Overholt, a cheap brand and a standard in New Orleans, makes a good one, and I have read that Sazarac and Rittenhouse brands are excellent at a fair price. Perhaps there will be further experimentation at a later date.

Then there is the vermouth.  Brother John suggested a tiny little splash of dry vermouth with the sweet vermouth, and I think that does a lot for the drink.  And you can choose to use French vermouth instead of Italian, as I did for the one in the picture, and I can attest to how good that can be. 

There are a lot of variations that have official names, and they undoubtedly are good, but I suggest you experiment, and don't be swayed from what you like by cocktail snobs that want to tell you that you are not making a Manhattan correctly.

Grapefruit Cocktail

The idea for this Grapefruit Cocktail came from a recent issue of Fine Cooking, and I have included their version with my recipe.  Kathy and I tried theirs, and it was good, but thought we could make one a little more to our taste.  After a number of tries, we figured out it out. (Maybe anything would have been good by then?) 

This is another good summer cocktail -- not too sweet, and very refreshing.  Since we first tried it and the Hemingway Daiquiri, I have been surprised to learn how many people like grapefruit juice.....

Be sure to use a good 100% blue agave silver tequila.  These were made with Patron, but there are a lot of others out there.

One last thought - a blender wouldn't hurt this drink a bit!

Papa Doble (Hemingway's Daiquiri)

Thinking about Cuban Sandwiches also made me think about Black Beans and Rice, Chicken and Yellow Rice, Filete Salteado (all on my list to talk about sometime) and Caribbean cocktails.  And what more appropriate than this week's cocktail, the Papa Doble or Hemingway's Daiquiri.  It was served to Ernest Hemingway at El Floradita Bar in Havana, although the version served to him was said to have been made with 6 ounces of rum.  A variation on a standard daiquiri, it contains grapefruit juice and a hint of cherry provided by maraschino liqueur in addition to the standard white rum, lime juice and simple syrup. I have provided two versions, and both are excellent, but you will have to experiment and decide whether you like the sweeter version or the one that is more tart.

I like 10 Cane Rum, which is made directly from sugar cane juice, instead of the more common molasses, and the maraschino liqueur is Luxardo, made in Italy using the flesh and pits of marasca sour cherries cultivated exclusively by Luxardo.

Cuban Sandwich

Kathy and I first learned to love Cuban Sandwiches when we lived in Tampa in the early 70's and had the benefit of living in a city with a major Cuban heritage. I never really thought a recipe was necessary - they are about as simple as a sandwich could be.  But someone asked and I realized that there are a lot of people that have not been so lucky as to have experienced the Cuban foods that are such an integral part of life in Tampa and Miami.

As with many traditional foods, there are those that will get pretty snooty with you if you don't follow their idea of what the traditional recipe is. Some say that you should butter the (inside) bread before putting the sandwich together.  Most recipes say that mayonnaise does not ever belong, but I like mayonnaise anyway.  I also like additions and substitutions like provolone or some hot sauce or slivers of hot green chiles.

The cookbook from the Columbia Restaurant, a very famous century old Spanish restaurant in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa has this to say: "The authentic Cuban sandwich has roast pork that has been marinated Cuban-style with sour orange juice, garlic, and oregano.  Sugar-cured ham cut in thin slices is a very important part of this delicious sandwich.  And it has to have hard salami, not bologna which some people use.  There's also Swiss cheese and sour pickle.  Most everyone today uses dill pickle, but it should be sour pickle.  Yellow mustard is spread on one of the slices.  It has to be cut diagonally, and it has to be wrapped in tissue paper.  If it's not wrapped, with a toothpick through the paper, it's not right."

If you feel like taking the effort to make the sandwich like the Columbia Restaurant does, you can't go wrong.  My advice though, is to use the general recipe idea and enjoy whatever variation you like.  The one in the picture above was as good as any I ever had in Tampa.

Gingered Pork Tenderloin

In my introduction to Jim's Place for Food and Booze, I mentioned how good a simple grilled tenderloin could be.  This Gingered Pork Tenderloin recipe is an great example.  The marinade uses ginger and soy sauce, giving it a great Asian accent, but it is very flexible - the leftovers from last weekend became an integral part of a great Cuban sandwich.  Buy only unadulterated pork tenderloin for this dish, avoiding the kind packed with all kinds of sodium filled marinades or preservatives.  Cook it over good charcoal (preferably the natural lump kind) and don't overcook it - if you follow the original recipe you will get leather, so use a thermometer and aim for about 150° to 155°.  It will be slightly pink inside, but entirely safe to eat.

Serve it with something simple, maybe a nice pasta salad with lots of vegetables in it, or some good stone ground grits (with cheese if you prefer) and a salad.  Just none of those Quaker quick or instant grits...

Add a nice India Pale Ale and you are set.

Summer Margarita

 I thought that with the grilling and chilling season just getting underway, it might be a good idea to start off this blog with a Summer Margarita.  The recipe came from Rick Bayless of Chicago's Frontera Grill, and is among my favorite summer drinks.  The usual orange liqueur is replaced by cucumber, and the result is very light and refreshing. Be sure to use a good 100% blue agave silver tequila, because you will want to drink more than one, and you don't want to be punished for cheap tequila by tomorrow's all-day headache.

My New Blog

It's really fun to discover that little hamburger joint run by old hippies out in the country and miles from civilization.  The one where you go get your beer out of the cooler and chill while you listen to great music that you enjoyed while you were in college, and that your kids still enjoy today.  Where nobody is in a hurry and the sign says "if you want fast food, you can find it 15 miles down the road."  And the burger comes and you enjoy it as much as any meal you have ever had, even as much as the ones you have had at Commander's Palace in New Orleans.

I enjoy discovering new foods and their recipes, and learning how to make them at home.  Whether it is a Cuban Filete Salteado, Thai Chang Mai noodles, the world's best Tiramisu, or just a simply marinated grilled pork tenderloin served with stone ground grits, you can eat very well, even in Kerrville, Texas.

Booze is good, too.  Not what you get at most bars - the watery, overly sweet Margarita made with cheap headache-producing tequila or the Old Fashioned with too much sugar and barely a trace of bad bourbon. I am talking about a simply made Manhattan made with good good quality bourbon or rye, the kind where a single drink can satisfy.  The subject of the Friday cocktail of the week.

Kathy and I enjoy the discovery and the food and the drink, but our greatest pleasure comes from sharing. We don't get to see most of our family and very best friends as often as we like, though, so our sharing has been inconsistent - a mix of emails, calls, Facebook postings, photos and texts from cell phones to supplement our too infrequent visits.  Credit goes to my cousin's wife Dolly for reminding us that we needed to be more consistent with our sharing. (In particular, those Friday night cocktail experiments.)

Jim's Place for Food and Booze is my attempt to focus our sharing effort a bit.  As we make new discoveries, I will share them here, and over time I'll repeat some of the recipes (as links to PDF files you can easily print or save) and places I have previously mentioned to some of you.