Michael Ruhlman's Blog, page 3

FCH: The White Negroni

Today’s cocktail is a White Negroni and is a lesson in how to invent a cocktail. I’ve heard a couple versions of how this came about but what is certain is that Wayne Collins decided to pair a French and a Swiss ingredient with gin for this refreshing elixer. He used the tried and true negroni formula—1 part each of gin, the bitter Campari and the sweet vermouth—and he exchanged the slightly bitter Swiss apéritif Suze for the Campari, and Lillet, the French apéritif, a gently sweet aromatized wine with nice fruit notes.

It’s a lovely cocktail, sunny in color from the Suze, as shown in the below video by Katherine Guanche.

Happy Friday, all!

Next week, a haircut!

Print


The White Negroni


an ingenious variant of the classic

Course CocktailCuisine AmericanKeyword friday cocktail hour, Gin, lillet, monkey 47, suze, white negroni

Prep Time 3 minutes

Servings 1




Ingredients1 ounce gin1 ounce Suze1 ounce Lillet1 grapefruit twist (or lemon)
InstructionsCombine the ingredients in a glass. Add ice and garnish with a twist.If you would like to serve it up, chill thoroughly and strain into a coup.

NotesThese are good proportion but sometimes I want the drink to be more gin forward and so couple the gin, as I do for a traditional negroni.

Friday Cocktail Hour: The Whiskey Sour

I’m reposting the Whiskey Sour, my third favorite cocktail (after the Martini, followed by the Negroni) because when I restarted the Friday Cocktail Hour, I didn’t have a videographer. Now I do! Thank you, Kat Guanche.

I’m also reposting this cocktail because it’s one of those very special cocktails that you can make in a batch for a group of people the invariably love it so much they tend to remark not only how good they are but also that they didn’t even know they could be so good.

Another example of how “convenience” products like packaged sour mixes bastardize greatness to the point that we don’t even know what greatness looks or tastes like.

And in tribute to greatness, a reading in the video of a favorite poem by Charles Simic.

The below recipe can be halved for two people or even quartered for one, but even if you want just one, make two because I’m telling you you’re going to want another.

Print


The Whiskey Sour


One of the great cocktails, excellent to make in batches

Course CocktailCuisine AmericanKeyword Bourbon, egg white, Lemon, Lime, sour, Whiskey

Prep Time 15 minutesCook Time 0 minutes

Servings 4 people


Cost Depends on the bourbon!
EquipmentHand blender or standing blender.
Ingredients8 ounces bourbon4 ounces citrus juice, or more as needed lime, lemon, or a mix,4 ounces simple syrup, or more as needed sugar dissolved in an equal amount of water2 egg whites
InstructionsCombine all the ingredients in a large measuring glass and blend with a hand blender. (This can be done in a standing mixer as well.)Taste! Think. If it's too sour, add simple syrup. If too sweet add citrus. If you would like it stronger add 2 to 4 more ounces bourbon. Up to you!Fill the measuring glass with ice and stir to chill.Strain into four glasses over ice.

Friday Cocktail Hour: The Paloma (a variation)

The Paloma, a variation using fresh juice and soda (and mezcal)

I arrived in the West Village in New York City after celebrating son James’s 21st birthday. It was hot and so I wanted a refreshing cocktail, with fresh juices of lime and grapefruit, seltzer and mezcal, a variation on the great cocktail combining tequila and grapefruit soda. (Because I needed so little, I juiced by hand, but there’s a good site on the whys and wherefores and how-to’s of juicing called Sprint Kitchen, if you’re into juicing!). Here I am on my fire escape, a lovely NYC haven where I will stay till I’m safe to return to Rhode Island.

I was heartened to see almost everyone wearing masks. It now is clear that masks are a genuine deterrent to spreading the Covid virus (see Florida), and I was also glad to see spaced tables at two favorite restaurants on West 12th Street, the Beatrice Inn and Cafe Cluny with full outdoor tables (as I got a killer burger from @angiekmar, chef-owner of Beatrice, perfectly cooked), but I was a little dismayed walking along Hudson Street which felt like a street party, with tables too close together and no one at tables wore masks (as if being at a table put an anti-Covid forcefield around you). Be smart, people.

The Paloma is a steller summer cocktail, and a snap to make if you have grapefruit soda and tequila on hand. I had neither. But the drink let’s you know that tequila and grapefruit go well together. I had some excellent mezcal, aged in oak, and grapefruit and some lime Le Croix to make a refreshing variation. As shown in the below video by @katguanche, with a reading of a Mary Oliver poem.

I should note that I misspeak when I imply that mezcal is tequila. Tequila is made from the silver agave only, whereas mezcal is made from various agave plants. I meant to say that mezcal or tequila is good to use, and they differ widely. Also, to clarify, the way I phrased the statement about being married in the park behind me suggested it was Mary Oliver and I who married (she died in 2019)–in fact I married Ann Hood there! Happy Friday Cocktail Hour! (Wear a mask!). And happy independence day everyone! Let’s keep our Democracy strong!

Print


The Paloma (a variation)
.wprm-recipe-rating .wprm-rating-star.wprm-rating-star-full svg * { fill: #343434; }

Tequila and grapefruit cocktail

Course Cocktail

Prep Time 5 minutes

Servings 1




Ingredients2 ounces mezcal2 ounces fresh grapefruit juice2 ounces seltzer water (or to taste)1 wedge lime1 Mary Oliver poem optional but recommended.
InstructionsCombine the liquids. Add ice and a squeeze of lime. Read Mary Oliver if desired.

NotesA traditional paloma: 2 ounces tequila, 4 ounces of grapefruit soda, ice and a squeeze of lime, also delicious.

Friday Cocktail Hour: The Rusty Nail

This past Sunday I was thinking about my dad, Rip, who died in 2008 and whom I miss every day. Yes, every single day. I was seven or eight when, one Christmas after dinner, I asked to taste what was in that teensy wine glass he was drinking from. He said “Drambuie” and asked if I’d like a taste. I said yes. I would eventually taste his martini, which was naaaasty. That night he handed me his cordial glass. I tasted. This Drambuie astonished with its sweetness and the way just a drop of it seemed to bloom in my mouth, an actual expanding cloud of flavor. I’d never tasted or experienced anything like it. I asked for more.

From then on, every Christmas I’d get a wee dram of Drambuie and would take the smallest of sips to let them expand in my mouth and make it last as long as possible. I come from a thorough middle-class WASP family which loved and still loves its cocktails (thus the FCH!). When my Grandma Rose, my father’s mother, saw little me served a small cordial glass of Drambuie, she nodded sagely and said, “You’re going to be a Scotch drinker.” Her version of the Hogwarts Sorting Hat.

It was my father, who, once I was of age, introduced me to The Rusty Nail, this heady blend of Scotch Whiskey and Darmbuie, sweet and powerful. It was never a pre-dinner cocktail in my parents house—that was exclusively the gin martini. The Rusty Nail was rather the best nightcap ever. (Does anyone know why they’re called nightcaps, instead of, say, The Cocktail You Really Don’t Need and Will Be Better Off Without Come Morning?)

The Rusty Nail is a great cocktail, and one you really can’t mess up. I recommend starting with the standard ratio, 2 parts Scotch, 1 part Drambuie. But for some that maybe too sweet. If so, add a little more whiskey. Laphroaigh was my dad’s favorite single malt—but he was too frugal to use this sipping whiskey for cocktail. He’d only have used the cheap stuff. Which I can no longer bear. Some people call a Rusty Nail made with a peaty/smokey whiskey a Smokey Nail, which I kind of like.

This cocktail is always served on the rocks; ,because the drink is so strong, the dilution is welcome. For special guests, my dad would send our cubes through a countertop ice crusher (a truly vintage fifties or sixties appliance‚ I wish we still had it).

Cheers, post-100-days in quarantine, and happy Friday!

How to make a Rusty Nail, one of my dad’s (above) favorite cocktails. (A video by Annabelle Mei Adrain and Katherine Guanche.)





Print


The Rusty Nail


Classic scotch and drambuie cocktail

Course CocktailCuisine AmericanKeyword cocktail, drambuie, rusty nail, schotch

Prep Time 1 minute

Servings 1




Ingredients2 ounces scotch1 ounce Drambuie1 lemon or orange twist (optional, thought a true cocktail requires at least 3 ingredients)
InstructionsCombine liquor in an old-fashioned glass. Add ice (and twist, if you wish).

NotesThis is the classic proportion. But if you find it too sweet, add more whiskey! I’ve seen recipes that are 4 parts scotch to one part Drambuie. I’m not a fan of blended scotch, so here I used laphroaigh, one of my favorite whiskeys, famously peaty. Use whatever scotch whiskey you prefer. Change it to Bourbon and it’s a Rusty Bob!

Homemade Bagels Are Easy

You’d think bagels would be difficult, highly specialized. But in fact they’re no more difficult to make than Dutch oven bread. Maybe easier. The dough, this one at least from North Carolina baker Bruce Ezzell (which I posted about years ago but wanted to do again in this baking during quarantine), is very stiff and easy to work with. And after mixing the dough only requires 10 minutes of resting and 10 to 15 minutes of resting after being shaped.

If you plan ahead by making the sponge the night before you want your bagels, you can have finished bagels in about the time it takes to make waffles.

The process is simple: mix equal parts water and flour and a little yeast. The next morning, add the remaining ingredients flour, salt, honey and malted barley syrup. Rest, portion and shape, rest. Poach them in alkaline water, then bake.

The sponge, quadrupled in size overnight.



After mixing the dough, portion it.



Shape the bagels (these could use a little work!), and let them rise for 15 minutes or so.





Poach for a minute or so per side before baking.



Bake for 12 minutes at 450F.

That’s really all there is to it—they’re fabulous and fun, with an almost crisp crust and chewy interior.

Print


Bruce Ezzell’s Bagels
.wprm-recipe-rating .wprm-rating-star.wprm-rating-star-full svg * { fill: #343434; }



Course Breakfast, BrunchKeyword Bagels, Baking, bread, Sourdough

Prep Time 4 hours

Servings 13 bagels




IngredientsSponge500 grams flour (3.5 cups)500 grams water3 grams active dry yeast (3/4 teaspoon)To Make Bagels18 grams kosher salt (a tablespoon of Morton's coarse kosher salt)18 grams honey18 grams malt syrup (you can substitute molasses if you wish)446 grams flourBaking soda (1/2 tablespoon for every 2 liters/1/2 gallon water)Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse salt or other garnish recommended
InstructionsSpongeCombine the ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer and mix with a spoon till the ingredients are combined. Cover and set aside at room temperature for at 4 to 14 hours. Do this before going to bed if you want fresh bagels in the morning.To make bagelsAdd salt, honey, malt syrup, and flour to the sponge. Attach dough hooks to your mixer and mix at low speed for 8-10 minutes. This is a stiff, bucky dough so don’t walk away from the mixer if it has a tendency to walk across your counter top. I’ve had more than one mixer hit the floor and it is distressing. (This can also be mixed by hand.)Fill a deep pot filled with water on the stove to boil (measure the water so you know how much baking soda to use). When I boil I typically use a pan like a wok filled with water. Once the water comes to a simmer add the baking soda (1 tablespoon per gallon). Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.Once the dough is mixed remove it to your counter and cover with a cloth to let it rest for 5-10 minutes.Divide the dough into 12-13 (3-4 oz) pieces. Round each piece and set aside to rest for a few more minutes, covered.To shape take each ball of dough and flatten out slightly using the palm of the hand, making a disc approximately 3.5 inches wide. Make a hole in each using your thumb and place back on the counter, covered, to rise.After 10 minutes flip each bagel over so the bottom is now facing up. When this side begins to get slightly puffy and rounded it is time to boil. This may take as little as 5 minutes, but depending on the temperature of your kitchen, how cold your countertop is, etc., it might take longer. When the bagel looks and feels a bit puffy, it’s ready to boil.While your bagels are in their final rise bring your water to a simmer, then add the baking soda.Drop the bagels 3-4 at a time into the simmering water (depending on how large your pot is). They should float immediately or within a few seconds. Let them simmer for one minute, then flip them over using a chopstick or spoon and let the other side simmer for one minute. Remove from the water using a skimmer or large spoon. I like to bake them on a half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper. They can also be baked on a pizza stone.Sprinkle them with sesame, poppy seeds, salt or whatever you prefer immediately after removing them from the water, or alternately, brush with an egg wash and sprinkle after that.Bake for 12 to 13 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes“On occasions that I have run out of malt I have substituted molasses and received excellent reviews. Some might consider it blasphemy, but really, who cares? My customers are much more pleased with overall flavor when I boil in an alkaline (water with baking soda) solution than when I boil in a sugar water solution.”

New From Scratch Podcast

A new podcast is up, with chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Nick Kokonas of Alinea in the last of our restaurants during quarantine. Listen here or wherever you find your favorite shows.

Happy Father’s Day 2020

Me and my dad, circa 1968

Wishing happy Father’s Day to all fathers, especially those many fathers without fathers. My extraordinary dad died twelve years ago and I miss him as much now as I did then, if not more. The pain of the loss is gone but the lasting effects of his absence never go away.

It is the happiest of stories, Christopher Buckley reminds us in his great memoir, Losing Mum and Pup: The grandfather dies, the father dies, the son dies. A reminder also to appreciate those we love while we can, especially around a big table of food! My dad was never so happy as when he was feeding people, which certainly affected my love of the same, and of food and cooking. Thanks for that, Dad, and for everything else.

On this Father’s Day, I’m reposting his own butter baste for grilled chicken, how I miss it, and him. Happy Father’s day all.

Print


Rip’s Tarragon Butter Baste


Make this baste and slather your chicken with it as it cooks over live coals.

Course Baste for Grilled ChickenCuisine AmericanKeyword baste, butter, butter chicken, tarragon

Prep Time 10 minutes






Ingredientsjuice from 1/2 lime3-finger pinch salt1 tablespoon minced shallot1 stick butter, cut into 5 chunks1 tablespoon mince tarragon1 tablespoon dry mustard1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder
InstructionsCombine the lime juice and salt in a small sauté or sauce pan then set over high heat. Just as the juice begins to simmer, add the butter a chunk at a time, swirling continuously until the butter is completely melted. Add the remaining ingredients and remove from the heat.This will make enough baste for one whole chicken. My dad bought spit broilers, but you can also cut the chicken up or spatchcock it, a word he'd have loved.

Friday Cocktail Hour: The Martini

The perfect cocktail.

Without question, this is my favorite cocktail. Why? is the question. I love powerfully flavored, herbaceous, sweet-sour, complex cocktails. But I think it’s precisely the oppositeness of all those qualities that draws me ever back to the Martini. Bone dry (just a capful of cold vermouth for torque and contrast), minimalist, powerful, finished with a shimmer of lemon. (An olive makes it almost a different drink.)

I love the brutal straightforwardness of it. Akin to the flinty minerally nature of a great Chablis, the Martini’s appeal lies in it’s stoney spareness. Also, it packs a punch—a good measure of its pleasure.

I asked Laura Lippman, venerable crime novelist (this one features some excellent kitchen/cooking scenes), former newspaper reporter, essayist, and one of the few friends for whom the martini is The Choice, why. She wrote back without a definitive answer, uncommon for this most definitive of intellects: “Maybe the martini is my little black dress?” Indeed. (Laura has a book of essays out this August, highly recommend.)

In the video I read her personal convictions on the martini; I mix my own very personal martini—not shaken, ever (I loathe a Martini with an ice floe atop), and this one is not even stirred; and I conclude with Dorothy Parker’s venerable ditty.

Mixing the perfect Martini.

Happy Friday one and all!

Print


The Martini
.wprm-recipe-rating .wprm-rating-star.wprm-rating-star-full svg * { fill: #343434; }

A recipe for the perfect version of the perfect cocktail.

Course CocktailCuisine AmericanKeyword beefeaters, dry vermouth, Gin, lemon twist

Prep Time 1 minute

Servings 1




Ingredients3 ounces gin (as close to frozen as possible)1 frozen martini glass1 capful chilled dry vermouth (see notes below)1 capful cold water1 lemon twist
InstructionsRemove the gin and the glass from the freezer.Combine the gin and the vermouth in the glass. Add the water and the twist.

NotesTo simplify making the martini and dispense with the stirring to chill it, I freeze my gin and add it straight to a frozen glass. To compensate for the dilution one would get from stirring it with ice, I add a little water. This makes the flavor of the gin more accessible.
As for vermouth—I want to know it’s there. None of this wave a bottle of vermouth over the glass business. But I don’t want the flavor to be pronounced, either; I want merely the suspicion of vermouth. I can go as high as a 6 to 1 ratio of gin to vermouth—that would be about 1-1/2 teaspoons for a 3-ounce pour. A capful is about a teaspoon, and it’s right there, ready to be of measuring service.
I prefer Beefeater. I also love Hendrix, and for a martini, Plymouth. I’ve recently tasted the pricey Monkey 47 and it’s fabulous, but again, a special occasion martini.

Rhubarb Pie Season

Rhubarb Pie with 3:2:1 pie dough

Making a pie is an accomplishment. And a perfect way to spend an hour of a quarantined day. Certainly a slice of pie is a fine dessert, but I think it makes an even better breakfast.

So when Ann arrived from a Whole Foods run (still a fraught errand) with five fat stalks of rhubarb and a quart of strawberries, there was little question that a pie was in our future. Step-by-step pix below.

Rhubarb is an astonishing vegetable and the pie it makes so wondrous, I remember the very first one I ate. I was home from college and running a house-painting business, and was in the kitchen of one of the painters. It was the only time I was ever in John’s kitchen but it was a game changer—he told me to try the rhubarb pie. I couldn’t believe 1) how good it was and 2) that I’d never had rhubarb before. A revelation.

It’s hard to describe the flavor—I guess you might say it’s like a very tart apple. It’s fairly neutral in flavor, so the pie is dependent on the right amount of seasonings, here cinnamon and cloves. And plenty of sugar because rhubarb’s fundamental attribute is tartness.

Strawberries, thanks to Driscoll’s worldwide network of berry farms, are available year-round, but not rhubarb. Get it while it’s here. Makes great sauces too, for sweet and savory dishes (roast pork with a rhubarb sauce for instance). Herewith a classic rhubarb pie, with a lattice crust.

First step: the crust using a 3:2:1 pie dough, 3 parts flour, 2 parts butter, 1 part water, perfect every time. Important to dice the butter first. For a very flaky crust the flour should be mealy with small chunks of butter visible.



I make mine in a mixer but you can do it by hand as well. First flour and fat are mixed, followed by ice cold water.



While the dough is chillin’ in the fridge, dice your rhubarb and mix your sugar and spices.







Roll out your dough and cut your lattice strips, before you mix the fruit with the sugar (otherwise the sugar will begin pulling the water out of the fruit and the mixture may turn soupy before you add it to the pie plate).



Lay out 6 strips vertically. Then interlace them by folding alternating vertrical strips down, laying a horizontal strip across, then folding the opposite vertical strips down, and so on, until you have covered the pie with a lattice. The lattice crust, besides being pretty, allows more evaporation of the very juicy rhubarb than a closed lid crust.



Bake at 425F for 60 to 75 minutes. Here’s the pie after 45 minutes (notice that it’s still fairly liquidy; the liquid will be syrupy when the pie is done as in the first photo, which is the finished pie).





Print


Rhubarb Pie with Lattice Crust


Classic Rhubarb pie with a simple 321 crust

Course DessertCuisine AmericanKeyword Pie, rhubarb, Rhubarb Pie

Prep Time 1 hour1 hourTotal Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 8




Ingredients15 ounces flour (about three cups)pinch salt10 ounces butter, small dice (dust your butter with flour to make the dicing easier)5 ounces butter1-1/4 cups sugar1 teaspoon cinnamon1/4 teaspoon ground cloves1/3 cup corn starch1-1/2 pounds rhubarb, small dice (or a mix of strawberries and rhubarb; you'll need about 5 cups diced fruit)
InstructionsPreheat your oven to 425 degrees.Combine the flour salt and butter and cut or work the butter into the flour till the flour is mealy and some of the butter is in pea-sized chunks.  Add just enough ice water to bring the dough together.  Divide in two, about 60-40 as you'll need more dough fill the pie plate than for the lattice, form each half into a disc and refrigerate for about twenty minutes or up to a day.In a large bowl combine the sugar, spices and cornstarch and stir to distribute the spices and cornstarch. Roll out your larger piece of dough into a large circle about 3/16th of an inch thick.  Lay the the dough into the pie plate leaving about an inch of dough overhanging the edge. Roll out the smaller piece of dough so that the center strips will extend from rim to rim of the pie plate. Using a pastry wheel or knife, cut eleven ¾-inch strips the length of the pie plate (not all need to be that long, but at least five do).When your pie plate is ready, add your rhubarb to the sugar mixture and toss until it’s evenly coated (if you do this too early, the sugar leaches out too much water before it goes into the dough).  Pour the rhubarb mixture into the pie plate. Place six strips of dough horizontally at even intervals across the pie.  Fold the first, third and fifth strips back to the edge and lay one strip of dough vertically across the horizontal strips.  Fold the first, third and fifth horizontal strips back then fold the second, fourth, and sixth strips back to the first vertical strip.  Lay a second vertical strip an equal distance from the first one.  Fold the second and fourth strips back.  Repeat the process with the final lattice strips. Trim the dough around the edges as needed and fold and crimp the overhang along the rim of the pie plate, pinching it along with the strips together.Place pie on a baking sheet and bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hour or until the fruit is bubbling and hot and the crust is golden brown.  Allow to cool completely before cutting.

NotesThis makes more than enough dough. I always err on too much since I don’t like being caught short. But if you’re economizing and skillful with the rolling pin, you can reduce the flour butter and water to 12, 8, and 4 ounces.

Friday Cocktail Hour: The Boulevardier

The Boulevardier: whiskey, Campari and sweet vermouth.

Some cocktails allow you to time travel. They can take you back to a specific time when you had an especially fine example of one. The Boulevardier, not unlike the gin and tonic, takes me back to Treman, on the Bread Loaf campus, the cottage where fellows at the oldest literary conference in the country room and wherefaculty congregate. The last time I was there, the subject of cocktails came up, as it will, and the writer Chris Castellani announced that he had brought the fixins for a Boulevardier—could he make one for us.

Indeed, he could!

This is a negroni variant, swapping in whiskey for the gin. Proportions vary depending on who’s making it. To be consistent with the negroni, you would use equal parts bourbon, vermouth, and Campari. I, as with the Negroni, find this ratio to be a bit too sweet and so double the amount of bourbon.

Chris, who is also the artistic director of Grub Street in Boston, one of the country’s leading creative writing centers, made the drinks for us and my wife, Ann, who was also on the faculty that summer, and we enjoyed this fabulous elixir on the porch in the summer twilight. Photographic evidence shows that Chris, who was soon to publish Leading Men, his excellent novel reimagining the relationship of Tennessee Williams and Frank Merlo, had brought Aperol as the bitter component (an acceptable variation, one that might allow for another great summer cocktail, the Aperol spritz later in the week). And now that I think about it, Chris and his husband were the last people Ann and I had for dinner before lockdown this past winter.

Long ago in a faraway land…

So cheers to all on this Friday in the time of Covid—we’ll be having Boulevardiers and remembering more carefree summers past and imaging more carefree summers in the future, together.

Mixing a batch of Boulevardiers, reading, bloopers. (Video by Katherine Guanche.)





Print


The Boulevardier


A classic Negroni variant, here done as a group cocktail for four.

Course CocktailCuisine AmericanKeyword Boulevardier, Campari, sweet vermouth, Whiskey

Prep Time 3 minutes

Servings 4




Ingredients8 ounces bourbon4 ounces sweet vermouth4 ounces Campari4 orange twists
InstructionsCombine the liquids in a large measuring glass (I use a 4-cup Pyrex measure).Fill the measuring glass with ice and stir to chill.Strain into a frosty coup or into a double-old fashioned with ice.Garnish each with an orange twist.

NotesThis is one of many great cocktails that can be made in batches, well before serving. When you use an actual measuring cup you can simply pour the ingredients to the desired markings on the glass. This will make two cups exactly (plus a little extra once the ice melts).