Dale DeGroff is a smooth operator and just about as handsome as Dean Martin. He was among my instructors for the BAR certification program and I can vouch for his storytelling ability, and is a living legend in the mixology world. So imagine my delight that he'll be at Astor Wines this evening from 5 - 8 pm, shaking up drinks to go alongside his wife Jill's book signing.

While you may not have the benefit of sitting next to the Astor Wines tasting bar (I can get cocktails without even stepping outside!), you are invited to come on down and taste Dale's wares. For free! I'm sure you plan to be very abstemious during Lent, so it is only right that you should celebrate tonight with something rummy and yummy.

 

You likely know Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer, and if you’ve had it, you know that Castries Peanut Rum Crème is a deliciously silly tipple, so in pursuit of a presidential cocktail for the 39^th president, I naturally wanted to incorporate the stuff.

I’d encountered plenty of sweet, froofy Castries cocktails at Tales, but wanted to create something more complex and maybe a little manlier, as well – after all, Carter was in the Navy. Bourbon? But it is hot as Hades out now, and a brown spirit base with a milky component just sounded wrong, like so much nog. And then it hit me: beer.

A Nutshell History of American Beer: proliferate and reflective of European beer traditions until Prohibition; stagnant during Prohibition; dominated by the “big three” in the post-Prohibition era (Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors); and relatively recently, somewhat slowly, flowering into a full-blown craft beer culture.

Why has it flowered? Arguably, thanks to legislation that was passed during Jimmy Carter’s presidential tenure, signed off on by the cardigan-wearing New Southerner himself. For whatever reason (oversight on the part of lawmakers or conspiracy at the hands of the big three, take your pick), home brewing had been illegal in the United States since Prohibition. Its legality led to a greater awareness of good beer, more people attuned to brewing it, interest in craft breweries and hey presto, great suds at every corner store in the city.

And so in my presidential series, I celebrate Jimmy Carter with a cocktail based on good American beer: Anchor Steam’s Anchor Porter, an intense, hoppy, coffee-and-chocolate beer made with care in San Francisco by an early beneficiary of the interest in craft brewing - one of the country’s finest, smallest, and most traditional breweries.

To give the cocktail a little characteristic sass – after all, Carter did lust, even if only in his heart, and never holds his tongue when criticizing current world leaders - I served the drink with a rim made from a couple of crushed peanuts and equal parts salt and sugar. It ends up being roasty, nutty, and even a little refreshing.

The Jimmy Carter

3 ounces Anchor Porter

1.5 ounces Castries Crème 

Shake ingredients over ice and strain into a coupe rimmed with a salty-sugar blend. Top with a scant scrape of nutmeg.

 

I've got a side project in creating a cocktail for each of the 44 presidents. This drink is named after our 8th President despite his performance managing the Panic of 1837 and the historical abomination that is the Trail of Tears. I've named it after him because he was said by his opponents to "wallow in raspberries", a criticism of his extravagance and appetite for luxury.

Although we have different conversational flourishes for describing a flashy gent nowadays, raspberries are still dear, even in the age of commercial farming. I prefer to enjoy mine only when they are in season and I can buy them at the greenmarket. One way to extend their availability and to make the most of a $5 pint is to use them to flavor spirits - their shelf life becomes very long, and one pint will give you about a quart of liqueur if you follow these simple instructions:

Raspberry Liqueur

Wash your pint of berries and place them in a quart mason jar with a tablespoon of sugar to get their juices flowing. Cover the berries with two cups of high-proof spirits (I use Devil's Springs vodka, but if you have access to higher proof stuff, go for it) and allow to infuse for at least four days and up to a couple of weeks in a cool, not-too-bright place. Shake the mixture from time to time. Strain, rinse your quart jar, put the strained vodka back in the quart jar, and top with two cups of 1:1 simple syrup. Hey presto - homemade raspberry liqueur. 

You can get raspberries at the market through August, but if you don't have access to fresh berries or inclination to make things at home, I recommend you use Mathilde Raspberry liqueur, or for real Van Buren-esque decadence, use Clear Creek's Loganberry liqueur.

The Martin Van Buren

• 1.5 ounces Sazerac Rye - chosen for its creamy notes and peppery finish
• 1.5 ounces raspberry or loganberry liqueur
• Two dashes orange bitters
• Orange twist 

 

Shake the rye, liqueur and bitters with ice until frothy and a deep violet color. Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice and garnish with the twist.

1. German Helles Lager - Brewery: Augustiner Brau - Munich, Germany
2. German Style Pilsner- Brewery: Stoudt's Brewing Co. - Adamstown, PA
3. German Hefeweizen - Brewery: G. Schneider & Sohn - Kelheim, Germany
4. Belgian Witbier - Brewery: Brouwerij St. Bernardus - Watou, Belgium
5. Belgian Strong Ale - Brewery: Brasserie d'Achouffe - Achouffe, Belgium
6. Belgian Abbey Tripel - Brewery: Brouwerij Westmalle - Malle, Belgium
7. American Pale Ale - Brewery: Smuttynose Brewing Co. - Portsmouth, NH
8. American IPA - Brewery: Green Flash Brewing Co. - Vista, CA
9. American Brown Ale - Brewery: Smuttynose Brewing Co. - Portsmouth, NH
10. German Dopplebock - Brewery: Braueri Aying - Aying, Germany
11. English Style Porter - Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. - Chico, CA
12. English Style Stout - Brewery: Rogue Ales Brewing - Newport, OR

For years I've gotten groceries at Japanese food haven Sunrise Mart - decent frozen dumplings, abundant enoki, cheap enough kim chi if I don't have the steam to get to K-town - and I've even grabbed an onigiri on the fly for a quick snack. But I'd never really thought much about their prepared food before today.

I was in there getting some monkfish liver for a quick decadent dinner (rinse, broil until firm, drizzle with lemon juice and soy sauce, serve on buttered toast) after tonight's Libations class, and realized I could get lunch as well. I chose one of a selection of grilled fish bento boxes - salted salmon - a nice slice of fish on a bed of perfectly cooked brown rice, accompanied by a dumpling, a little nondescript tempura, some cooked mushrooms and some sliced lotus root.  Sprinkle it with some togarashi and you have a generous, reasonably healthy lunch, all for a mere $5.25.

I should have taken a picture but I ate it too soon. Not to worry as I'll be back to try the mackerel as soon as tomorrow. In the meantime here's a thumbnail of a bear eating salmon.

Kimberly and I made whipped lardo today!

We have a new wine class on our roster starting Monday night and we're integrating some little nibbles into it - nothing too elaborate, but some cheeses and salumi to elevate the grignolino and the pignoletto et al that we'll be quaffing. I thought whipped lardo on toast would be a nice change from the normal cured meat.

Lardo is rich, unctuous, cured pig backfat. You'll see it draped over roasted meat, melted on salty foccacia, or sliced thin as a whisper and eaten on a salumi plate. All delicious, but the finest lardo I've eaten is whipped up as the dreamy alternative to butter at Del Posto. (Whipped lardo is also occassionally available jarred up like jam at Marlow and Daughters, as is very generous advice about whipped lardo if you call and ask nicely.)

We used La Quercia lardo, cured with rosemary from Berkshire pigs raised up fat and sassy in Iowa. It was a really messy and greasy process. You have to blend it up or put it through a food mill before you can whip it. Basically, chop up a pound of lardo, grind it, whip it in a stand mixer, and strain it through some mesh.

That last step makes the difference. I got the skinny from one of the chefs at Del Posto: it isn't just the whipping, it is the straining. Putting the lardo through a chinois (a peice of restaurant equipment that home chefs should adopt, as it makes your soups smooth and your sauces lump-free) turns your lardo from something rustically indulgent into something as elegant as pastry cream.