Mixology Monday: Food Pairings
Monday, October 15th, 2007
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To be honest with you, I didn’t really have much of a chance to prepare for this month’s Mixology Monday. In fact, when Natalie emailed me a reminder earlier today, my first thought was, “Oh, f*ck!”. And as much as I loves me some Mixology Monday, I’ve been a little out of the loop this week. There are a few reasons for this:
- I’ve been very busy with the bar.
- I’ve been very busy building websites.
- Today is my birthday.
However, I was able to put something together on the fly while making dinner tonight. This might come as a shock to some of you, coming from a lowly barkeep and all, but I’m actually a fairly adept cook. So while I was putting together dinner, I whipped up a cocktail with some of the ingredients I had in my liquor cabinet. And to my surprise it turned out pretty okay. In fact, I think this would be a wonderful first course.
The food:
Butter Leaf Salad
With buttermilk-tarragon dressing, late-summer tomatoes and country bacon
¼ cup buttermilk
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
1½ tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp freshly chopped tarragon
Whisk ingredients together in a non-reactive bowl. Cover and chill in a refrigerator for one hour to meld flavors.
Meanwhile, slice ½ pound bacon into thick chunks and cook over medium-high heat until fat is rendered and bacon is near crisp. Drain of fat and pat dry with a towel.
Seed tomatoes and dice. Let drain and set aside.
Toss washed butter leaf lettuce with dressing. Garnish with tomatoes and bacon.
Herbsaint-Scented French 75
With Beefeater gin and organic lemon juice
3 oz dry sparkling wine
1½ oz gin
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
Herbsaint
Rinse chilled champagne flute with Herbsaint or other anise-flavored liqueur. Combine gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and sparkling wine and stir with cracked ice until chilled. Strain into flute and garnish with lemon twist.
I liked the idea of the lemon juice and sparkling wine cutting the fat of the dressing and the bacon. I went with the Herbsaint because I thought it would pair well with the anise notes of the tarragon, and given that Herbsaint is one of the drier absinthe substitutes out there I think it pairs really well with this particular salad.
Try it for yourself and let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks for reading, and thank you for hosting, Natalie!
15 Oct 2007 at 11:00 pm 1. Natalie - The Liquid Muse
Happy Birthday, you old fart!
xo
15 Oct 2007 at 11:10 pm 2. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Thanks! Wait, am I older than you??
15 Oct 2007 at 11:34 pm 3. Dominik MJ
Happy Birthday, Jeffrey. Hopefully you can enjoy your evening with a nice bottle of champagne, or whiskey, or both!
And nice drink-idea - I have to try it also out (maybe not with Herbsaint but with Absinthe or Pernod…).
Cheers!
DMJ
15 Oct 2007 at 11:56 pm 4. Paul
Crap! I knew it was your birthday, but then I, uh, you know….
Happy birthday, man!
16 Oct 2007 at 12:01 am 5. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Thanks, you guys!
16 Oct 2007 at 6:30 am 6. anita
Happy birthday. And yum.
16 Oct 2007 at 7:43 am 7. Dan
Happy Birthday! Keep the liquid knowledge flowing, I love it!
16 Oct 2007 at 8:44 am 8. erik_flannestad
Happy Birthday to another cocktail obsessed Libra!
16 Oct 2007 at 9:10 am 9. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Erik, I always knew there was something I liked about you!
16 Oct 2007 at 10:08 am 10. Jamie B
Harry’s ABC barguide mentions adding a drop or two of pastis to the mix, and credits themselves for inventing the French 75 in 1925. Are you sure you weren’t a Parisian bartender in a past life?
Happy B-day!
16 Oct 2007 at 2:56 pm 11. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Those bastards! I guess I should have hit my library before posting that, but fortunately I didn’t deign to be the first one to try that.
But don’t you think “Herbsainte-scented French 75″ sounds better than “French 75 with a drop or two of pastis”?
17 Oct 2007 at 12:24 pm 12. Dr. Bamboo
Happy Birthday! I’d suggest you celebrate by having a few drinks, but I’m sure you’ve done that already.
19 Oct 2007 at 7:40 am 13. jenny
ok, so the salad was absolutely delish- I went ahead and grabbed a baguette and fryed up some croutons, using some of the leftover bacon grease- added lots of salt and pepper… yummy!
22 Oct 2007 at 8:18 pm 14. Shawn
Outstanding salad. Of course, anything with bacon wins my heart.
As for the cocktail, I love the idea of rinsing the glass with herbsaint. A subtle touch.
27 Oct 2007 at 4:45 pm 15. Jeff Frane
1 fresh lemon juice?
1 WHAT? fresh lemon juice
tsp? Oz? liter? peck?
28 Oct 2007 at 1:34 am 16. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
OOPS! Fixed that, Jeff, thanks!