Showing posts with label White Russian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label White Russian. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

What to Drink While Viewing the Jeff Sessions Testimony? Start with an Alabama Slammer!




Washington has become a kind of running reality show or a series … It’s all too Game of Thrones.

While today’s testimony from the Attorney General Jeff Sessions, may not have the celebrity accorded to last week’s James Comey media event and it’s party-like halo that prompted me to write a pertinent post about Cofveve Cocktails - today is still a must-see TV day to watch or listen -- to the proceedings.

You can watch or listen today as Sessions testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee at 2:30 ET on all major media, including PBS.

Because Mr. Sessions hails from the Camellia state or the Yellowhammer state (so named for the state bird, a type of woodpecker), an Alabama Slammer seems most appropriate.

The Alabama Slammer’s history stems from the 1970s and was developed near the University of Alabama to celebrate the Crimson Tide.

The Alabama Slammer is a cocktail made with amaretto - this is key, Southern Comfort, sloe gin, and orange juice. It is served in a Collins glass. It is also sometimes known as a Southern Slammer. This is a sweet, fruity drink.

And Mr. Sessions is hoping he doesn’t end up in the slammer! See, you can have some fun with this…



Ingredients:

3/4 oz Sloe Gin, 3/4 oz Southern Comfort, 3/4 oz Amaretto, Orange juice

Method:

Pour Amaretto, sloe gin, and Southern Comfort into glass of ice. Fill with orange juice and stir.

Serve, on the rocks; poured over ice into a Tom Collins glass.

Garnish:

Maraschino Cherry, slice of Orange, or Lemon Wheel -- or all three!

You can substitute Jack Daniels for Southern Comfort and add in lime or lemon, and add Grenadine -- the main point is to make you see Red!
(In keeping with all the fury on both sides of the issue…. Ha!) 

How about watching the news with a new drink: The Recuser?!





This cocktail is from my upcoming book, Finishing Touches the Art of Garnishing the Cocktail - and it’s called the Mediterranean “Sunrise” in the book. But I thought it looks a bit like the Slammer. And besides, it’s delicious.

Ingredients:

1 jigger ouzo

1 jigger tequila

8-12 ounces orange (or other fruit juice)

A few dashes of peach bitters or grenadine

Method:

Pour the juice into a tall glass over ice, top with the liquor so they float like some drifting iridescent Aegean sea plankton, followed by the bitters.

Garnish:

With speared fruit wedges and a red swizzle licorice stick! The licorice flavor complements ouzo’s anise for a pretty and fun presentation. Place the licorice swizzle sticks in a red glass for a shot of color to boost the cocktail composition, adding red and white or blue and white striped cocktail napkins. Stretches the American-ness of the proceedings, don’t you think?

Try ouzo with Kahlua for a wicked take on a “Fireball.”

Need a drink to celebrate bailing out the boat? Then there’s the Dark & Stormy made with dark rum and ginger beer - I very much like the Gosling’s brand of ginger beer.


And because all this hubbub is supposed to be about Russian spying or interference, after all, you can always soothe your anxieties with the classic cocktails: White or Black Russian (I’m calling this one, Glasnost). They are easy to make, quite luxurious and offer a lot of comfort. Interestingly, the White Russian made its way West in the 1930s with the proliferation of vodka’s appeal; the Black “Glasnost” sibling didn’t follow until 1949. Can’t go wrong with either drink.

White Russian

Ingredients:

2/3 oz (2 parts) Coffee liqueur, such as Kahlua or --

1 2/3 oz (5 parts) Vodka - I suggest Royal Elite, or LIV , Tito's or Belvedere. I sampled the handcrafted 1857 Vodka last week at the Greenmarket - bought a bottle, too. But it doesn’t taste good… has a kind of cosmetic aftertaste that took over a martini - disrupting a prime feature of vodka - meaning it plays well with other flavors. Try the recommended vodkas - you won’t be disappointed.

1 oz (3 parts) Fresh cream or milk

Method:

Pour coffee liqueur and vodka into an Old Fashioned glass filled with ice. Pour the mix and float fresh cream -- or milk - on top and stir slowly. You can do this layering using the back of a spoon over the drink and slowly pouring the cream over the “sled” of the spoon.

Garnish:

What could be better than whipped cream? Well, topping the froth with fresh, shaved chocolate! Or a toasted marshmallow!








Black Russian or Glasnost

Ingredients:

⅔ ounces or 2 parts Coffee liqueur - Kahlua or… 1 ⅔ (5 parts) vodka (see above recommendations)

Method:

Mix the ingredients into an old-fashioned glass, poured over ice cubes

Pour the ingredients into an old fashioned glass filled with ice cubes. Stir gently.

You can also add a splash of cola - to make it a kind of

Garnish:

Maraschino Cherry skewered on a diamond hat pin or similar-looking Shashka Sabre!

Cheers!