SUPER SIPPERS LIII

The Super Bowl is always a big event in our house. Its pretty much the makings for a perfect party, and we love the fun of harassing friends and family who take it too seriously. Its a great time to indulge in all the food we’ve been avoiding (or at least tried to…) during the month of the January. And to whoever created the ridiculous concept “Dryjanuary”, please have a drink this Sunday. Maybe two…

The Bowl is the perfect time to pair team against team, and city against city. In that spirit we have a few ideas for your Super Bowl Sips and Guzzles.

GO GOLD! GO BLUE!

We’ve created Margaritas in RAMS’ GOLD (Pineapple), and PATS’ BLUE (Pomegranate/Blueberry). Margaritas are such a versatile pairing for any food. Literally. And they’re not too foofie for the testosterone junkies, just enough mixology for the foodies, and you can limit the calories by controlling the sweetener.

We often make Margaritas in our house in both frozen and ‘rocks’ form. If you choose to make these on Sunday, chances are you’ll be making a bunch of them. A ‘rocks’ version can be mixed before people arrive, making for a little less prep at drink time. I wouldn’t hesitate making these a couple hours before serving, as long as you can keep it all cold. We always list recipes in parts so you can multiply them to feed your team.

PINEAPPLE MARGARITAS in RAMS’ GOLD
per serving:
3 parts pineapple juice
1 part silver tequila
1/2 part Triple Sec (or Agave syrup)
Juice of one Lime
Salt-frosted glasses*
Mix all of the ingredients in a pitcher. BOOM! Done!
Serve with ice in individually salt-frosted glasses*, with some fresh fruit for garnish.

POMEGRANATE/BLUEBERRY MARGARITAS in PATRIOT’S BLUE
per serving:
3 parts pomegranate/blueberry juice (we use Pom Wonderful, available nationally)
1 part silver tequila
1/2 part Triple Sec (or Agave Syrup)
Juice of one lime
Salt-frosted glasses*
Same plan as above- mix all the ingredients in a pitcher and you’re good to go.
Serve with ice in individually salt-frosted glasses*. Adding some fresh fruit looks great, and offers a nice aroma.

*SALT-FROSTED GLASSES*
Margarita served in the traditional glasses are great, but they’re awful to balance while you’re walking around a party. You can salt the rim of any glass by rubbing a quarter piece of any citrus around the rim, then dipping the glass into a pile of kosher salt.

BEER VS BEER!
This Super Bowl is a coast vs coast rivalry. Where does this rivalry exist in the beer world… IPAs! This week I have my own Super Bowl of IPAs…SAM ADAM’S NEW ENGLAND IPA vs. LAGUNITAS WEST COAST IPA.

Four Quarters, just like the big game-

1st Quarter: Color.
They both pour with impressive heads and leave beautiful lace on the glass. Lagunitas is a warm copper color, whereas Sams has the expected golden haze of a NEIPA. They are both pretty impressive, but Sam scores a field goal in this color quarter.

2nd Quarter: Aromas.
Lagunitas has a piney smell. Sams offers a citrusy mango aroma. I’d say its an amazing half. Both teams scored a touchdown. This makes our score 10 to 7 in favor of Sam.

3rd Quarter: Taste.
Lagunitas has a grapefruit bitterness of hops with the pine undertones that make an IPA great. The citrus notes of Sams eventually gets lost the more you drink it. I’m missing the grassy notes you expect of a well-balanced NEIPA. I give a touchdown to Lagunitas. Our score is 10 to 14 with Lagunitas taking the lead.

4th Quarter: Finish.
Lagunitas brings caramel. Sams gives you a light piney finish. This not what I have come to expect from an NEIPA. I’ll give a field goal to Lagunitas.

Final Score: 10 to 17, with Lagunitas taking the win, but these are both great beers. Have your own taste test on Sunday. Don’t stick to my choices. Both of these are available nationally, but see what you can find locally. Pick two craft beers that represent these styles, or regions. Make a game of it, and let people score them. Offer a prize- a six-pack of the winning beer?

Or keep score yourself- buy equal amounts of two beers and see which type is left on the field. Let us know by posting a comment on this blog post!

SUPER SIZED SIPPER!
Make enough for your whole team.

We’re fairly sure everyone remembers JUNGLE JUICE from college (not high school, Mom. nope. no way. not me...). The recipe for my peeps was any booze we could get our hands on mixed with Hawaiian Punch and a seemingly infinite variety of fruit juice and fresh fruit. I even remember one party of the waterpolo team where we bought a new giant, plastic garbage bin and filled it entirely.

Now as a much more sophisticated adult…. I’ve figured out that the basic difference between the Jungle Juice of my youth and Sangria of my adulthood, is pretty much a red solo cup. Maybe wine. Maybe a few decades. But the concept is the same. Get some wine- red or white. Add your favorite fruit-flavored vodka and fruit juice. Dump in a bunch of fresh fruit, and you’ve got a reasonably priced way to make a delicious and personalized party drink for a lot of people.

We’re going to offer a recipe, but please know we blend Sangria ‘to taste’ every time and with every season. Following this form, I can’t really think of way you could mess it up. The only issue to think about is how much sweetness you’d like in the final sip. You balance sweetness by choosing either a drier or sweeter wine, and balancing that with fruit juice. If you choose a dry red, balance it with sweeter fruit juice, for example. Taste as you go, and make Sangria/Jungle Juice your own.

BASIC RECIPE:
1 bottle wine- red or white
2 cups fruit-flavored vodka
3 cups fruit juice, three different flavors
Lots of fruit- two kinds of citrus, apples, pears, berries, and pineapple are our faves
MIX! And keep it cold, or serve with ice.

SAMPLE RECIPE: This is the recipe we used for the batch pictured above.
1 bottle (750 ml) Merlot
2 cups cranberry vodka
1 cup cranberry juice
1 cup pomegranate juice
1 cup white grape juice
Blood oranges, gala apples, limes, cara cara oranges, frozen raspberries

Remember- you can’t mess this up if you choose flavors you love!

Enjoy these ideas for a great Super Bowl LIII party. We’d love to hear what works for you. You can leave us messages on this post, or our social media on Face Book and Instagram.

Poizin your guests this Halloween with Zinfandel

Wine to die for….serve this Zinfandel at your next Halloween party. POIZIN by Armida Wines of Sonoma is perfectly poised to be a deep ruby hit this time of year.

POIZIN, Zinfandel (plus Petite Syrah), Armida Wines, Sonoma, CA, $22

The wine features a deeply dark and inviting color. The nose is pure fruit- think cherry and plum. The flavor is pomegranate to me, on the brighter side of the grape. The texture is more medium-bodied than many examples of this style. There is an appreciated and subtle linger of vanilla in the finish. There is a bit of Petite Syrah added which accounts for some fairly strong tannins.

As a party wine this would pair well with spicy and even smokey foods because of the bright fruit- buffalo wings, ribs, those stupidly good meatballs simmering in something tangy and fruity. For a meal I would serve this with any lamb dish, certainly anything Middle Eastern because of the surprising pomegranate hit, and even the more hearty Asian dishes like General Tso’s or a curry from any cuisine.

You can have a lot of fun with the cool bottle this time of year. Slurp up a syringe-full at your next Halloween gathering.

Wine and beer with the perfect mango chicken burger

We're refusing to give up on summer.  The fact that temps in upstate NY this week have exceeded 90 degrees helps our case.  One of our favorite burgers to enjoy is this chicken, mango and jalapeño burger.  We've been convinced it is healthy, and it is certainly delicious. The flavor combination makes for a seemingly unique twist on a traditional griller.

A few of our followers ask why we have only featured our recipes in pairings with wine.  In reality, pairing beer and cocktails with food can be an equally rewarding process, and we do it all the time.  For purely whimsical reasons, we're suggesting two pairings for this burger- a wine from Alsace, and a beer from upstate NY.  Choose one, and make this delicious and simple burger before summer fades!

CHICKEN, MANGO BURGER with JALAPEÑO

We can't remember how this burger evolved, but we've enjoyed it for years.  Last year we made it for the person we have credited for years as its creator, and he told us the dish was new to him. Go figure!

Its evolution continues as we've added a new ingredient that might surprise you- parmesan cheese.  At one point we used a few breadcrumbs to bind the ground chicken and the mango, but we've found parmesan accomplishes that task and offers a flavor that supports the stars nicely.

Burgers:
1 lb ground chicken
1 mango- skinned and chopped
1 jalapeño, diced finely (use this ingredient to taste; sometimes we eliminate it)
1/2 c parmesan cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the burger ingredients and form into 4 patties.  Grill or pan-fry. In either case, be sure your grill or pan is freshly oiled, and hot before you place the burgers.  In either method we cook them on each side until they are firm to the touch.  Remove to rest for 5 minutes before assembling.

This is how we top our burgers these days, but stack and slather things your family enjoys!

Garnishes:
4 brioche buns (use your favorite, or even leaves of butter lettuce as a bun)
4 grilled pineapple rings
4 slices of tomato
4 thin slices of red onion
Teriyaki sauce
Mayonaise

Don't wait too long to assemble, because a slightly warm burger paired with an ice cold beverage makes the combination even more interesting.  Here are two beverages that pair perfectly with these puppies:

 

DRY HOPPED SAISON, Paradox Brewery, Schroon Lake, NY, $4
This super dry, effervescent belgian style saison married perfectly with these burgers.  The sour edge of the beer highlighted both the mango and the teriyaki angles, while the brighter citrus notes of the beer perked up the chicken and parmesan patties.  The beer is lighter bodied, and the slight musk- expected from the saison yeast- supported rather than overpowered each bite. We've respected the brews of this southern Adirondack brewery for a while, and the food pairing possibilities of this flavor-packed, hazy saison are vast.

Another beer pairing option for this burger would be one of the juicy NEIPAs. The citrus spectrum these beers offer would support the burger nicely.

C'OTES D'AMMERSCHWIHR, 2014, Domaine Maurice Schoech, Alsace $18
This beer was recommended by my friend Kim.  Food pairing may be its super power, but this lighter bodied, Alsacian makes for a delicious sipper.  The flavors of pear, melon and even mango, its respectable acidity and toasty finish allowed the mango and jalapeño flavors of the burger to pop.  The finish is brief, but plenty of time to allow the musty parmesan cheese to pair with the toasty linger of the wine.

Another wine option would be a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with its traditional tropical fruit flavors.

This burger is simple, delicious, and offers a spin on tradition.  Whether you're a wine or beer person, we've got you covered in boozey ways to enjoy it, and these final days of summer.  Enjoy!

A perfect pairing for Summer

Though we swing for the fences every day, sometimes you hit it out of the park. Andy created an utterly delicious bbq sauce that we've been enjoying all summer. About a month ago a new wine came through the store- Lapostolle's hearty Chilean pure Syrah.

The collision of this wine and this bbq sauce slathered on a grilled pork tenderloin pretty much happened because of circumstance.  We had all three, and so we made the best of it.  If you're a home cook you might understand how this went.  And the result was truly a perfect pairing.

We liked this combination so much we tried it the following two weekends, just to be sure it was the heavenly combination we discovered the first time.  It was...

The sauce is the perfect balance of tangy and fruity.  The wine is fruity, slightly spicy and voluptuous even though I'd describe its viscosity as medium.  The weight and complexity of the mineraly Syrah supports the slight smoke of grilling the tenderloin.  If you want to experience how a delicious wine and a well-balanced dish can pair to elevate both, make this dish and buy this wine!  

SYRAH- Apalta Vineyard, 2012, Lapostolle, Chile, $18
The Lapostolle family has been producing industry recognized wine and spirits for centuries- this is the family who created and produces Grand Marnier. Yeah.  Their Chilean plantings produce delicious wines.  You can taste the old world vines, meeting new world soil- this means hearty fruit balanced nicely with minerality.

The wine is medium-bodied, but offers a voluptuous mouth feel.  The first taste is fruit- plums, even blackberries, followed quickly by some spice- pepper and allspice, a touch of smoke, and even some menthol.  The taste lingers nicely.  The first sip offered light tannins that seemed ideally balanced to the smokey and earthy flavor.  It was a very pleasant sip.

ANDY'S PEACH BBQ SAUCE

5 c peaches, peeled and sliced (we use fresh when available, but frozen works, too)
1 large onion
1 c brown sugar
1 c apple cider vinegar
1/3 c soy sauce
2 T garlic, minced
2 T ginger, minced
1/2 t chipotle powder
1/2 t liquid smoke
1/2 t Worcester sauce
1/4 t black pepper

Sauté onions and peaches, salt lightly, until soft.
Add remaining ingredients.  
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and let it simmer for 10 min.
Using a hand blender, pulverize to desired consistency.  (We tend to leave it slightly pulpy.)
Remove from heat.  Let it sit for 30 min or longer, allowing the flavors to merge.

GRILLED PORK TENDERLOIN with ANDY'S PEACH BBQ SAUCE

2 lbs of pork tenderloin, (2 small tenderloins work nicely)
Andy's Peach BBQ Sauce

Bring the tenderloin(s) to room temperature. Salt and pepper the pork tenderloin.  Spray lightly with olive oil. Start the tenderloin on the hot side of a gas or charcoal grill. Cover. Start looking at the grill side after 8 minutes, depending on the size of your tenderloin.  You're looking for caramelization and a little color.  When you're satisfied, turn the tenderloin over. 

Slather a healthy dose of the BBQ sauce on the grilled side of the tenderloin. After 8 minutes, again check for caramelization. Once you're satisfied, turn the meat over again, and move the tenderloin to the cool side of the grill, slathering this newly grilled side with BBQ sauce.

We tend to repeat this action a few times.  Make sure the hot side of your grill is hot enough to create an oven effect.  We keep up this process until the sauce is nicely caramelized on every part of the tenderloin.  Make sure you're grilling the tenderloin until it reaches at least 140 degrees.
A general guide- Medium-rare  145 to 150; Medium 150 to 155; Medium-well 155-160. But remember that cooking will continue, meaning the temperature will keep rising, as the meat rests.

Let it rest, covered with foil for at least 10 minutes before slicing.  

This recipe produces enough sauce to slather a couple pounds of tenderloin, leaving plenty to serve with the completed dish, and some leftover you could use on chicken thighs, chicken breasts, or more pork. 

If you try this combo, send us a pic and any comments.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Mimosa Mayhem!

Mimosas and Bloody Marys duke it out every weekend in bars, restaurants and homes across the world.  In our home, one of us prefers the sparkle of a Mimosa, while the other one prefers the tang of the spiciest Blood Mary he can find.  

Traditionally made with orange juice, we are advocating you mix up Mimosas by topping something sparkly with a different kind of juice.  We also want to pass along our advice for which bubbly to use.

The classic recipe for a Mimosa is equal parts sparkling wine and orange juice.  We advise pouring the bubbles into flute-champagne glasses about halfway up the glass.  Then top with the juice.  This allows the juice to swirl with the bubbles.  This ratio should be managed to taste.  If we're serving a dozen people, we're likely to be a little more conservative with the sparkling wine.  Some traditions call for a splash of Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur.  We occasionally do this, especially if we're substituting a juice other than orange.  It just offers a little more complex layer of flavor.

SPARKLES-
A delicious Mimosa can be made with any sparkling wine.  Our favorite is Cava- Cristalino, Korbel, or Freixenet; it has the buzz of strong bubbles, and adds a bit of tasty dry wine musk to the drink.  Adding high-end champagne makes little sense to us because you're diluting the flavor you're paying for.  And though Prosecco is an option, they can vary widely in sweetness and bubble factor.  If you spend more than around the $10 mark for sparkling wine for Mimosas, you're wasting your time. We've also mixed up the color of wine from time to time by adding a sparkling Shiraz or bubbly Rosé.

MIX UP THE JUICE-
In a pinch we will take the traditional route and use orange juice from a store-purchased container.  Though here are some suggestions for adding a little creative flair-

FRESH SQUEEZED ORANGE JUICE.  If you've only tried prepared juice from a carton, try using fresh squeezed.  The freshness of this blend really amps up the flavor.  It tends to be a little less sweet, and we find it allows the flavor of the sparkle to boost the citrus element.

SOME OTHER CITRUS JUICE.  Grapefruit or Blood Orange juice will change the color and taste of a traditional mimosa.  Both fruits tend to be less sweet than orange juice, so we'll often add a splash of orange liqueur after adding the juice to the bubbles. Or even make your own blend of fresh squeezed citrus juice, combining your favorite flavors and colors.

CRANBERRY JUICE.  It makes for such a beautiful look and the dry flavor of cranberry, offset with a splash of Grand Marnier, is pretty much heaven with a sparkly Cava.

PEAR NECTAR.  We find prepared pear nectar by Goya in our Latin food grocery aisle.  Replacing the orange juice with pear offers a more hearty mouthfill to a traditional Mimosa. We've also added a splash of Amaretto to enhance the nutty flavor of the pear.  This may be a drink someone else has named more creatively, but we just call them Pear Mimosas.

With any juice, now that you've gone this far.  Advertise the contents of your mimosa to your guests by garnishing the flute with a slice of fresh fruit reflected in your recipe.  A small slice of orange can be perfect for any flavor combination, if not grapefruit or pear.  

And remember- there are no rules when you customize a drink, and an amped up mimosa can be the perfect launch to a delicious brunch.  Try one of these less traditional options to mix up a batch this weekend!