Author Archives: erik.ellestad

Posted on by

Usage Guide for Savoy Stomp

I have discontinued posting to this blog.

I will give you some good starting points for using the blog.

First, and foremost, the blog was started to document my quest to make every cocktail in the Post-Prohibition classic, The Savoy Cocktail Book. The posts start with “The Abbey” and continue until “The Absinthe Frappe“. Another way to access them is through the “Savoy Cocktail Book Index“. Along those lines, one of the most common questions is how to interpret the cocktail recipes in the Savoy Cocktail Book, this post, “Savoy Cocktail Volume“, covers my thoughts on that matter. I’ve also started on a Savoy Cocktail Book ingredient glossary, which is cross referenced to the cocktails containing those ingredients: Savoy Cocktail Ingredients

The whole Savoy Project culminated with a trip to London organized by Plymouth to celebrate Craddock’s Birthday in 2013. “Once in a Lifetime“, about sums it up.

My adventures in bartending are categorized under “Crazylandia” and begin with the post, “Homework“.

Aside from that, probably the most popular topic has been my coverage of The Great Kina Lillet Controversy, which started with “The Quest for Kina Lillet” and culminated 4 years later with “Kina Lillet, 2012“.

The ingredient “Hercules“, also generated a fair bit of interest, this posts cover most of the details, “New Life Cocktail” and “Hercules Redux“. The most recent recipe is here, “Savoy Sunday, Dec 2012“.

Over the years, there have been a lot of “Food” posts, along with the cocktails. Probably the thing I make the most often is still my version of New Orleans Take Out‘s Jambalaya, here posted for a “Bachelor Dinner“.

Most recently, I experimented with soft drinks, delving into the history and ingredients of Root Beer. My favorites are still the Bitter Beers I made, like this one, “Bitter Beer v1.3b”

Finally, I experimented with yeast fermented Ginger Beer, which I really enjoyed. My favorite was this vinegar acidulated version, which I called “Switchel-ish“.

Posted on by

Alma School Punch

Every Christmas my Mom asks me to host a cocktail party for her friends. Every year I make basic drinks and some featured thing, usually something I am enthusiastic about at the time.

The first year, I made a featured menu of classic cocktails. The second time, I made Spritz.

This fall, I’ve been making punches, so I made a Punch for her party.

This one is a traditional punch, roughly based on Regent (or is it Regent’s?) Punch. I just tweaked it a bit for what was on hand.

If you haven’t read David Wondrich’s writeup on Esquire, you should.

Regent’s Punch

It leads with, “The Prince Regent was a pig.” and expands from there into some pretty awesome territories.

The other thing which had an influence on the Punch was the section of Jeff Berry’s “Potions of the Caribbean”, where he talked about Haiti. Specifically the Barbancourt Rhum Punch of Joseph Cesar at the Grand Hotel Oloffson with its associations with Graham Greene, Papa Doc, and the film “The Comedians”. Though, I am not exactly sure why I was thinking of a brutal dictatorship while staying in an Arizona gated community.

Regarding the method, I’ve found doing this size oleo/sherbet in a quart zip lock bag works great. Just put the sugar and peel in the zip lock, let it sit overnight. Then the next day, make your spice tea. Steep for a bit, cool slightly, then strain into the quart bag with the oleo (syrup and peel). Re-seal it, and you can squish and shake it until the sugar dissolves, then just throw it in the fridge. Ready to be strained into your bowl the next day.

image

Alma School Punch
3 lemons, peeled;
1 cara cara orange, peeled;
1 cup sugar.

1 cup water
1 stick cinnamon
7 whole clove
2 bags green tea

375ml rhum barbancourt, 8 year
187ml Calvados
187ml American Brandy
375ml Taylor’s Cream Sherry
1/2 pineapple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 Lemon

750ml gruet blanc de noir, chilled
500ml sparkling water, chilled
Freshly grated Nutmeg
1 whole cara cara orange, sliced.

METHOD:
Reserve peeled citrus. Combine Lemon Peels, Orange Peel, and sugar in a ziplock bag. Let sit for 24 hours, massaging occasionally. Steep tea and spices in boiling water and cool slightly. Pour into peel and sugar mixture and shake to dissolve sugar. Chill.
Strain spiced tea syrup into a punch bowl. Juice citrus and strain into punch bowl. Add Rum and Brandies. Add diced pineapple and chill. When ready to serve, add Sparkling Wine, Sherry, and Sparkling Water. Taste and adjust dilution if necessary. It also doesn’t hurt to have a spare lemon around, in case you’d like your punch to be a bit more tart. Garnish with sliced orange and freshly grated nutmeg. Serves 4-15, depending on their level of thirst and time available.

image

Peel and sugar.

image

Peel and sugar, after a day.

image

The bar.

image

Serving the Punch.

image

Holidays with the family.

Posted on by

Oven Braised Brisket

I grew up with pot roast, but have only ever made corned beef brisket.

Giving a try to a more traditional Beef Brisket Recipe.

This was based on a recipe from Chef Suzanne Goin.

Oven Braised Brisket

3-4 Pound Beef Brisket
Curing Mix (2 Parts Sugar, 1 Part Salt)
Fresh Thyme
Black Pepper

Rub beef with curing mix and spices, rest overnight in the refrigerator.

image

1 Large Onion
2 Small Carrots
2 Sticks Celery
Bay Leaf
Dry Thyme
Dry Oregano Leaf
1 bottle dark beer (stout)
1/2 Bottle Dry White Wine
Stock

Dry brisket with paper towels or cloth. Heat a heavy roasting pan over a burner. Brown Brisket on both sides. Remove to a plate. Add veggies and saute until tender. Add Beer and White wine and reduce slightly. Add Brisket to pan, fat side up, baste with veggies and liquid. Add stock to bring liquid half way up the brisket. Cover tightly and cook in 325 oven until a fork goes into the thickest portion of the meat easily (probably 3-4 hours).

image

Cool and strain veggies out of cooking liquid. Return veggies and brisket to pan and refrigerate overnight.

3 Onions, sliced.

Saute onions until tender.

image

Defat cooking liquid. Slice brisket and add to oven proof pan. Cover with onions and some cooking liquid. Heat through in warm oven.

Thicken remaining cooking liquid with cornstarch or roux to make a gravy.

image

Serve with Horseradish Mashed potatoes and a vegetable.

Posted on by

Atholl Brose

John Birdsall helped me write up the Atholl Brose cocktail I created for The Coachman on Chow.com:

Erik Ellestad’s Atholl Brose Cocktail, chow.com and John Birdsall

(Check the link for photos!)

When Erik Adkins, bar manager for the Slanted Door Group of restaurants in San Francisco, visited Clover Club in Brooklyn a few years ago he had a drink they were calling Atholl Brose: Scotch stirred with honey and topped with lightly whipped cream. In Scotland, Atholl Brose is a traditional beverage typically composed of the liquid from soaking oats—when you make oatmeal from raw steel-cut or stone-ground oats, you soak [the oats] in water so they prehydrate and don’t take as long to cook. To this, Scots would add honey, whisky, and cream.

When we started talking about the drinks for The Coachman, Atholl Brose was on the short list of cocktails Erik Adkins wanted to do, but we didn’t want to just replicate Clover Club’s drink. Plus I wanted to include some form of the traditional oat infusion, which the Clover Club had left out.

I tried a bunch of different combinations of these ingredients in various iterations and was starting to think I wouldn’t find a really good drink. Then one of the Coachman’s cooks, tasting an early test version, told me I needed to find some way to heighten the flavor of the oats. I took the roasted and soaked oats home and made oatmeal from them.

Eating them for breakfast the next day, I realized that the coffee I was drinking was heightening the roasted flavor of the oats without overwhelming them, kind of like bitters behave in a typical cocktail. I bought cold coffee concentrate on my way to work. As soon as I tasted the combination I knew we had a winner.

Atholl Brose (Scottish Breakfast)
Makes 1 cocktail

1 1/2 ounces blended Scotch whisky
1/2 ounce honey syrup (*recipe follows)
1/4 ounce cold-process coffee concentrate
2 ounces oat-infused milk (**recipe follows)
Freshly grated nutmeg

METHOD: Combine Scotch, honey syrup, coffee concentrate, and oat-infused milk in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a glass and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg. (It is also really tasty warm, instead of chilled.)

*Honey Syrup
Add 1 cup honey to 1 cup hot water. Stir until honey is dissolved. Store in the fridge.

**Oat-Infused Milk
Heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread 1 cup steel-cut or stone-ground oats onto a rimmed baking sheet and place in the oven for a half hour, then stir to redistribute and bake another 15 minutes, until they’re evenly tan and smell a bit like popcorn. Set aside to cool. Pour 1 quart whole milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and place over medium heat. Warm until almost simmering (i.e., scalded). Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 cup sugar, and the roasted oats. Add the hot milk, cool at room temperature, and refrigerate overnight. Next day, strain the oats, squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Save the oats—you can make oatmeal by adding 2 to 3 cups of water and cooking over a low heat for about 45 minutes.

Posted on by

Cape Fear Punch (Revisited)

A while ago I made a version of Alton Brown’s Cape Fear Punch for a party, but wasn’t really thrilled with the way it came out.

A friend invited us over for a party recently. When he mentioned that he had a bunch of Rye Whiskey, I thought I might remake/remodel the Cape Fear Punch using the more classic punch proportions/methods from my Hock Punch.

Cape Fear Punch (revisited)

3 Lemons, peeled
1 Orange, peeled
1 cup sugar

1 cup water, boiling
2 tsp Green Tea
1 tsp whole clove, crushed
1 tsp whole allspice, crushed
1 tsp whole coriander seed, crushed

Juice of 3 lemons
Juice 1 orange
375ml Rye Whiskey
375ml Sparkling Wine, chilled
500ml Carbonated Water, chilled
Nutmeg, freshly grated

METHOD:
Reserve peeled citrus. Combine Lemon Peels, Orange Peel, and sugar in a ziplock bag. Let sit for 24 hours, massaging occasionally. Steep tea and spices in boiling water and cool slightly. Pour into peel and sugar mixture and shake to dissolve sugar. Chill.
Strain spiced tea syrup into a punch bowl. Juice citrus and strain into punch bowl. Add Rye Whiskey, Sparkling Wine, and Sparkling Water. Taste and adjust dilution if necessary. It also doesn’t hurt to have a spare lemon around, in case you’d like your punch to be a bit more tart. Serves 4-8, depending on their level of thirst.

The mistakes I’ve seen in just about every modern punch I’ve tried are that the flavors are too concentrated and the punch is too boozy.

I believe this comes from applying the principles of super saturated paradigm of modern soft drinks and/or cocktails to Punch.

What you want from punch is for it to be “more-ish”.

Punch should be complex enough to be interesting, light enough that it doesn’t overwhelm the palate, and weak enough that it can be drunk as a session beverage.

Posted on by

Pasta alla Norma, The Wrong Way

image

The other day at work one of the cooks (Yo Josh!) made a delicious side dish for our staff meal. It was Kale dressed with puree of roasted eggplant and curry flavors.

When I saw Bittman’s boring revisit of Pasta alla Norma in the NY Times (A Recipe for Pasta Alla Norma, Mark Bittman’s Way), Josh’s eggplant puree came immediately to mind. I like the components of Pasta alla Norma, but why not dress the pasta with a sort of Eggplant Pesto?

Our late season dry farmed cherry tomatoes are plenty sweet without roasting, feta is more interesting than ricotta salata, and everything is better with a little bacon.


Pasta alla Norma, The Wrong Way

1 Eggplant, roasted and somewhat cooled

2 Cloves Garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh Oregano Leaves
1/4 cup Toasted Pine Nuts (reserve a few for garnish)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes, halved
2 Tablespoon fresh Mint Leaves, thinly sliced
Salt & Red Pepper Flakes
Splash Olive Oil
Splash Balsamic Vinegar

Feta Cheese, crumbled
Bacon, Cooked and crumbled

1/2 Pound pasta

METHOD:
Heat a pot with enough salted water to cook a half pound of pasta. When it comes to a boil, cook your pasta.
Roast Eggplant in a hot oven (or on a grill) until tender. Peel Eggplant and add to a blender (or food processor) with garlic, oregano, pine nuts. Start pureeing, and add olive oil as you go. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Combine Cherry Tomatoes, Mint Leaves, Salt, Pepper Flakes, Olive Oil, and Balsamic Vinegar. Toss to combine.
Dress pasta with some of the Eggplant puree, loosening with salted pasta water as necessary. (You will probably have too much eggplant puree, but hey, stir in some tahini and you’ve got baba ghanoush!) Plate and make an indentation in center of pasta. Add Tomato ‘salsa’ and sprinkle on Feta, Bacon, and reserved pine nuts.
Serves 2 as a main dish.

Posted on by

Hock Punch

Every year, some friends who live in Napa have an Octoberfest party. Or maybe it is an “Oystoberfest”. There is Riesling. There are Sausages. There is Chablis. There are Oysters.

This year I vowed to create, or find, a Riesling Punch for the party. I didn’t have any luck finding an official, vintage, “Hock”, (as Rielsing used to be called,) Punch, so I applied the usual Punch Making Principles. The result was quite delicious.

Hock Punch

image

Oleo Saccharum:

6 Lemons, peeled
2 Oranges, peeled
2 Cups Powdered Washed Raw or other Demerara style sugar (When I need powdered sugar, I simply put Washed Raw or Demerara sugar in the blender and pulse for a few seconds.)

Reserve peeled fruit. Combine citrus peels and sugar and leave overnight, mixing occasionally.

image

Spiced Tea Sherbet:

2 Cups Water
2 tsp Green Tea
1 Cinnamon Stick
9 Whole Cloves
4 Whole Allspice
Oleo Saccarum (see above)

Bring water to a boil, cool slightly and pour over tea. After an appropriate interval, strain solids out of warm tea. Add warm tea to citrus peel and sugar mixture. Stir to dissolve sugar. Strain peels out of what is now your Sherbet and refrigerate.

image

375ml Brandy (I used a reasonably priced Armagnac I got on sale from K&L Wines.)
375ml Rum (Mostly Appletone V/X, but I also added in a little of a mostly empty bottle of pampero anniversario. Punch. Always a great opportunity to get rid of odd and ends of bottles lying around your liquor cabinet.)
1 Cup Batavia Arrack
2 Bottles Off Dry chilled Riesling
Juice from the 6 lemons and 2 oranges (see above)
Spiced Tea Sherbet (see above)
1 liter Chilled Sparkling Water

Combine ingredients and serve to festive partygoers!

image

Posted on by

Step-Mothers Are Cool

The following comment on facebook from my step-mom made my day.

“I [Bartend] at [the switch’d in Nekoosa] and also at Tamarack Pub in Wisconsin Rapids. I’ve been in the business since I was 9 years old. I am 66. I love people and making their day a little better with a laugh. They are only “shot & a beer” bars with food but I love it. I’ll still be doing this til I’m 90 or so.”

Posted on by

Hibiscus/Jamaica/Sorrel/Karkade

One of the last big family trips we took, while I was in the early years of college and “cough” smoking a pipe was to Egypt.

A lot of things about that trip were revelations for me: Savory Breakfasts, Grain Salads, Middle Eastern Tea, African Coffee

But one thing that stuck with me was a hibiscus beverage that was served from spigots by men carrying tanks of it on their backs.

I’d always liked Red Zinger tea, and it was similar, as well as the Mexican hibiscus beverage called “Agua de Jamaica”, but none of these were as cool as the sort of steam punk aesthetic of these men serving hibiscus beverage out of tanks on their backs.

When I started thinking about a second Milk Punch to make for The Coachman, our bar manager remarked that he really liked the color of the first Milk Punch I had ever made. It was a recipe for a Rum based Milk Punch colored with Hibiscus, which I’d adapted from the bar Drink in Boston.

Rum Hibiscus Milk Punch

Not wanting to simply repeat myself, and the guys at Drink, I thought a bit more about it and decided to blend that recipe with the Pisco Milk Punch I’d made for the SF.Chefs.Unite benefit for Japan. Pisco is floral, so it seemed like a natural combination with dried Hibiscus flower tea.

The Punch turned out awesome, but what I’ve been really enjoying is a compound non-alcoholic beverage made with the spiced Hibiscus tea I used to sweeten the punch.

As you know I am often frustrated by the qualities of so-called non-alcoholic adult beverages in the US (Lack of Adult Beverages). I would really like something that is close to wine in sweet/tart balance in intensity, but not alcoholic. Shrubs often come close, though are often made too concentrated. This beverage is the closest I’ve come so far to an enjoyable compound shrub.

Quick Hibiscus and Cranberry Shrub

In a pint glass, combine a quarter cup of chilled, spiced hibiscus syrup* with a quarter cup of chilled, unsweetened cranberry juice and a generous teaspoon of natural cider vinegar (Hey! A fine use for the Cider Vinegar from the Bragg Foods health food cult! Try not to used distilled vinegar, it’s pretty harsh, dude.). Top up with chilled soda water and enjoy this refreshing and bracing beverage. Feel free to add booze, Rum or Tequila are awesome. Also, a fine all hallows eve beverage, as it looks like you are drinking a pint of blood.

image

*Spiced Hibiscus Syrup

3 Pints Water
3 Cup Sugar (Washed Raw Sugar or Demerara preferably)
1 Cup Dried Hibiscus Flowers
2 Cinnamon Sticks
9 Whole Clove
1 teaspoon Whole Coriander
1/4 Cup Yerba Mate

METHOD: (If the Hibiscus Flowers are really dirty, put them in cold water briefly and allow the dirt to settle out. Grab floating hibiscus flowers off of settled dirt.) Bring Water to a Boil with Sugar to dissolve. Add remaining ingredients and steep for a few hours or overnight. Strain out solids and filter a second time through coffee filters. Refrigerate in a non-reactive container.

Posted on by

Workers’ Bill of Rights Gains Traction

Workers’ Bill of Rights Gains Traction, Marisa Lagos, SF Chronicle

An interesting article, but I found these two sections with quotes from Jen Piallat, owner of Zazie, the most informative.

—

Jen Piallat, owner of the successful Cole Valley restaurant Zazie, offers her employees full benefits, a matching 401(k) retirement account, and maternity and paternity leave.

Perhaps more unusual, her employees have the same schedule every week. If they need a shift covered, it’s their responsibility to find a colleague to work. And if business is slow, she never sends employees home unless they volunteer to leave.

Far from hurting her business, Piallat believes her policies have been intrinsic to her restaurant’s success. While her business is not part of a chain, she’s been one of the business owners whom City Hall leaders point to as they push for a “Retail Workers Bill of Rights.” The proposed city law is designed to make life easier for hourly, low-wage workers at the city’s 1,250 chain-store locations, including retail and fast-food businesses, hotel chains and banks, by discouraging on-call scheduling and encouraging access to full-time hours.

—

Piallat, the restaurant owner, said she believes her worker-friendly policies have helped her bottom line. In an industry with high turnover, she hasn’t had to hire a kitchen worker in more than three years – four have been there for well over a decade – and more than half of her wait staff have been there for more than seven years. That experience makes her workers more efficient, she said, lowering her costs and increasing her revenue – and their tips.

“Restaurants have always had schedules that are announced the day before you have to be there, which makes it next to impossible to go to school, book doctor’s appointments, child care – anything white-collar workers just assume they will have in their lives,” she said. “I thought it was ridiculous.”

She initially instituted policies such as set schedules and benefits “because I wanted to sleep at night,” but she quickly realized it was making her business more profitable.

“You can tell people, ‘Do it because it makes you happy, it makes your customers and employees happy – or you can do it because you will save money,’ ” she said. “There’s this (narrative) that employers are pure evil … but I’d like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I think they are doing these things because they have always done it that way, and they don’t know any different. If we give them other options, they will use them.”