Hungry Mouth

Trio of Cocktails

When I saw that this month's IMBB? (Is My Blog Burning?) would feature eggs I just knew I had to enter. I thoroughly despise eggs so what a challenge for me. I'm not allergic to them. I can eat them if they are cooked and hidden as in a cake. But the thought of eating them raw or undisguised nauseates me. I can't abide the taste, the smell, or the thought of them. It's a genuine food fetish, one of the few I haven't been able to overcome (for the first half of my life I wouldn't eat onions either!).

So what could I make and eat that used either raw or undisguised eggs? I puzzled over this for several weeks and almost gave up when I had a brainstorm. Of course. Mix them with booze! I'm Irish and I'll always try an alcoholic drink at least once! Traditionally, eggs or their whites were added to cocktails for viscosity and foaminess. So here are three examples.

Many thanks to Viv of Seattle Bon Vivant for hosting this month's IMBB?

Pink Lady

2 oz gin
2 t whipping cream
1 t grenadine
1 t lemon juice
1 t sugar
1 egg white

Skake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice cubes for at least one minute. Strain into a small cocktail glass.

Acapulco

2 oz light rum
1/2 oz triple sec
3 t lime juice
1 t sugar
1 egg white
1 sprig mint

Shake all ingredients except mint in a cocktail shaker with ice cubes for at least one minute. Strain into a rocks glass filled wiith ice cubes and garnish with mint.

Green Fizz

1 t Creme de Menthe
2 oz gin
6 t lemon juice
1 t powdered sugar
1 egg white
club soda

Shake all ingredients except soda in a cocktail shaker for at least one minute. Strain into a cocktail glass. Add 2 ice cubes and fill with club soda.

My favorite was definitely the Acapulco.

Tip: I found that first whipping the egg white briefly with a wire whip helped it combine better than adding it straight to the shaker.

Peach Daquiri Starburst

Another trip to the Brentwood farms today, this time to pick white peaches, white nectarines and boysenberries. Then invented a marvelous new drink.

First prepare the glasses. Rub the rim of a martini glass with a slice of lime and then dip into sugar to coat rim.

Puree ripe berries (we used boysenberries), then press through a strainer to remove seeds.

Make a batch of daquiris in the blender using one 12 oz can of frozen lemonade concentrate, 1/3-1/2 can of white rum, 4-5 peeled, chopped peaches. Fill blender with ice and blend til smooth.

Place two teaspoons of berry puree in bottom of each martini glass. Pour on peach daquiri. Cheers!

Fresh cherry pie

So I drove out to Brentwood and picked fresh bing cherries. My favorite cherry farmer grows a small crop, they sell out almost immediately, of a Bing relative called "Coral Champagne". Best bings ever. They are huge and sweet. A tip for those of you who pick your own cherries: taste a cherry from the tree before you pick...in the same grove, trees vary widely in sweetness.

I love picking my own fruit/vegies. Not necessarily less expensive, the cherries were $2/lb, but I get to pick and choose perfect fruit. As the season progresses I'll pick strawberries, boysenberries, ollalaberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, corn, squash, etc.

Is that a beautiful pie?

I confess I am not a talented baker. I never even made pie (the crusts were so bad) until I found this easy recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

In a food processor combine:

2 1/2 c flour
2T sugar
1 t salt

Add:

12 T cold butter
8 T crisco

Process for 5-6 one second spurts

Pour into bowl.

Add 6-8 T ice cold water. Stir in with a spatula. Divide into 2. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling. Roll out two crusts (top and bottom).

Filling (you can substitute any fresh fruit/berries but need to compensate for juiciness):

6 cups fresh cherries, pitted
1 c sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t all aspice
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t lemon zest
2 T cornstarch

Mix all. Pour into bottom pie shell. Dot 2 T butter across top. Top with other crust. Brush with 1 egg white whipped with a bit of water for shiny crust. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and cook another 35-40 mintues.

Ok...I couldnt wait til it cooled down to cut it, so it was still a bit runny. I like thin juices for combining with ice cream. If you prefer thicker juices just add a bit more cornstarch.

Hanger Steak on the Grill

Wandering through a fancy grocery store, I discovererd a piece of hanger steak in the discount meat bin. Yes, I confess on occasion I buy meat from the discount bin. It hasn't killed me yet. I decided to buy it because I had never cooked hanger steak. My local grocery stores don't carry it and when I do see it for sale it's prohibitively expensive due to its current restaurant popularity. The fact that there is only one hanger steak per cow might also drive up the price.

The hanger steak is a piece of meat that literally hangs from the diaphragm of the cow. It's similar in texture to the skirt steak (diaphragm) which we encounter frequently as fajita meat. Sometimes it's referred to as hanging tender or butcher's steak (traditionally the butcher claimed it for himself rather than offering it for sale). Hanger steak is a flavorful but tough, grainy piece of meat like skirt and flank, so it must be cooked and carved with care in order to be appetizing. Cook it over high heat briefly to rare-medium rare and slice it thinly against the grain for the best results.

Marinate a hanger steak in olive oil, minced garlic, and fresh herb sprigs (thyme or rosemary work well) for 8 hours to overnight. I find it's easiest to marinate in heavy-duty zip-lock bags.

A few hours before dinner peel an English cucumber, slice thinly at a slant and toss with S & P and a few T of white wine vinegar. Let sit.

Slice a handful of radishes thinly.

Prepare a tomato vinaigrette. Cut a shallow cross in the bottom of 3 large ripe tomatoes. Drop them in boiling water for about one minute, then drop them in a bowl of ice water. The skin will slip off easily when cool. Remove the core and dice tomatoes (get rid of juice). Stir together 4T EVOO, 1 T white wine vinegar, 1 T horseradish, 1 T chopped fresh tarragon (or parsley or basil if you can't find tarragon), and S & P to taste. Toss with tomatoes.

Heat a grill to high heat. Pat steak dry and grill to medium rare, a few minutes on each side. (As you can see I erred on the rare side.) Allow steak to sit covered with tin foil for 5 minutes.

To serve toss a bunch of arugula with the radishes, EVOO, splashes of balsamic vinegar and S & P to taste. Slice steak thinly across the grain. Divide arugula between 4 plates. Fan steak and cucumber slices around arugula. Drizzle tomato vinaigrette over all.

This is an easy light dish that was inspired by a recipe on a CBS news website.