Hope whatever you celebrate is filled with good food, friends and of course, good drinks.
We celebrated our Christmas yesterday, on Christmas Eve. We're a mixed family of believers who never go to church, regular church goers (including sunday school), agnostics, and atheists. But we've always celebrated Christmas by getting together, exchanging drawn-named gifts, giving to the youngsters and enjoying a meal that's usually a bit 'nontraditional'.
This year I made borscht the way in which my college professor told me it should be made (although in his version he uses cabbage and prepared corned beef), yellow split pea soup, and beer bread. My mother made sour dough rolls. My sister laid out a spread of various cheeses, pickled items and crackers. My brother in law smoked salmon that day (delicious).
For dinner we had all local wine. A red rhone blend from
Milbrandt Vineyards. A
dry Riesling from Chateau Saint Michelle, which is honestly one of the best wines I've had the entire season. I've had it a few times now, and every time I drink it I'm amazed at it's balance, fruity flavors, and perfectly dry finish. Great food wine, I take that back. Great wine, period. We also had a
Sauvignon Blanc from CSM.
But the highlight of our drinking came after dinner. I'm a subscriber to
Saveur and enjoy the magazine quite a bit. I rarely, if ever, actually make one of their recipes, rather I enjoy the magazine for its articles (something a lot of the other food magazine miss, in my opinion--they inundate you with recipes but rarely really write about food). There was a good article about punches.
A few years ago, I got in an online argument about mint juleps. Long story and boring, I'm sure. But in proving myself correct, I had to do a bit of research and what i found was that cocktails didn't come into being until the mid 20th century.
I'm sure most of you know this. But it was a bit of a shocker to me. I always envisioned southerners siting on their porches, drinking mint juleps while their slaves, you know, slaved away. One of those images of our past that's horrible, yet intriguing (to me anyhow--just the obvious wealth vs poor).
Southerners (and others) did indeed drink mint juleps, but it came from pitchers. And that was the way in which many people drank 'cocktails'. They weren't singularly made drinks, but punches made in bowls or pitchers. It was common to mix a punch to take on picnics. I liked that idea.
Fast forward to a month ago when we got the new issue of Saveur to find an entire article devoted to the lost art of punch making (and we're not talking those highly sweet punches with sherbert floating on top found in the bottom of churches after various community gatherings). The author shared three recipes, some dating as far back as the 18th century (I believe, I don't have the magazine in front of me). I decided we should make one of these punches for an after-dinner drink. I did, and it was delicious. I recommend it highly, and I'll share my version as I didn't read the directions properly and realized that a pineapple syrup was to be made, taking 8 hours. In the end, it worked out well as my sister-in-law is highly allergic pineapple, so she was able to enjoy this punch with the rest of us. Also, the recipe called for things that are impossible to get in my area, so again the modified recipe is something that most people should be able to get, therefore make.
Modified Regent's Punch
Ingredients:
3 lemons
2 oranges
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 green tea bags
2 cups boiling water
1 cup brandy (cognac if you've got it--but it's not worth it to spend the extra $$ on it in this mixture)
1/2 cup dark jamacian rum
1/2 cup
arrack or
cachaca (the rum used to make mojitos--if you can't find either arrack [south east asian liquor] or cachaca, or feel the need to spend the bucks on a slightly expensive alcohol you could just use white rum or vodka)
2 bottles brut sparkling (again no need to spend major bucks on something fancy, but don't use cooks--this is the main part of the punch so get something decent. We used
Domain St. Michelle's brut sparkling [retails from $11-$8], but a nice cava from spain would work well, etc.)
freshly grated nutmeg
Method:
1. Make simple syrup by combining 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup water and heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Set aside (or if you've got really cold temperatures like we do--put outside).
2. Using a vegetable peeler, or very sharp knife (but be careful), peel the rind on the oranges and lemons--careful not to peel the pith away (the bitter white part of citrus). Place the peels in a motor, or in a strong bowl and use a muddler with 1/2 cup sugar to muddle the peels. The citrus oils will breakdown the sugar so you should end up with a slushy mix of sugar (that's orange and yellow in color) and rinds. Place this mixture in cheese cloth or a very fine strainer and set aside.
3. Juice the oranges and lemons
4. Seep tea bags in 2 cups boiling water for about 2 minutes. Remove teabags.
5. Place cheese cloth or fine strainer in/over a very large bowl (or punch bowl if you've got it). Pour hot tea over strainer to dissolve the sugar (may have to do this twice to get all the sugar). Toss rinds. Add simple syrup, and fruit juices to the tea and citrus-infused tea. Place outside (or in fridge) to cool mixture.
6. Once mixture is cool, add alcohol. (works best if alcohol is chilled as well).
7. Garnish punch with nutmeg and large blocks of ice if you're not keeping it outside (like we did), or in the fridge. Use as large pieces of ice as you have -- or plan ahead and make large blocks of ice from the bottom of milk cartons, etc. These will not melt down as fast and water down your punch.
Serve, Drink and enjoy!
If you want the 'real' recipe, go
here.
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