A Good Dish

making food simpler

Refreshing Summer Cocktails

A Campari and an Aperol Spritz tumblers by Julia Galloway
A Campari and an Aperol Spritz
tumblers by Julia Galloway

Summer days can be hot and humid and one bit of relief is a refreshing cocktail at the end of the day. I think the best summer drinks are light on alcohol but with just enough to help us forget the blazing heat and not enough to knock you silly. I am actually such a lightweight that I enjoy a cocktail in one hand and a glass of water in the other. I know many people love a margarita but since I haven’t been able to smell, much less drink, tequila since high school, you won’t find me recommending it. Bartenders and cocktail aficionados everywhere are coming up with new and inventive drinks all the time but some of my favorites are still the traditional ones. With the holiday weekend approaching, here is a reminder of some easy and reliable cocktail standards.

Q is a good quality brand for mixers with pure ingredients
Q is a good quality brand for mixers with pure ingredients

A classic summer highball is the gin and tonic. I go light on the gin (but make sure it is a flavorful one like Hendricks) and heavy on the tonic. Q is an especially delicious tonic, with no strange or chemical ingredients (just agave, bitters, quinine and citric acid in carbonated water) and not sugary sweet. Another good brand is FeverTree but Q would be my first choice. Just pour a shot of gin over ice and fill your glass with tonic. Add lots of lime slices and sip away.

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One of the tastiest summer drinks on a hot afternoon is a Campari or an Aperol Spritz, the former redder and more bitter and the latter more orange and a bit sweeter but both herbaceous. Sipping either one, you could almost imagine yourself under an umbrella on an Italian piazza. Both are made with a 3-2-1 recipe – 3 parts Prosecco or another sparkling wine (I think Cava works well here if you don’t have Prosecco), 2 parts liqueur and 1 part soda water or seltzer over ice. You could garnish with an orange wedge or not.

Use St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, (only around since 2007 although the old fashioned bottle would have you think otherwise),  to make a St. Germain cocktail, one we often serve to guests during the summer. The proportions are just a little different from the Spritz – 3 parts sparkling wine, 2 parts bubbly water, 1 part elderflower liqueur – which makes for an even lighter drink. Citrus slices and halved strawberries make a complementary garnish.

Pimm's Cup in a tumbler by Julia Galloway
Pimm’s Cup in a tumbler by Julia Galloway

Similarly tasty but quite a different flavor is the Pimm’s cup. Pimm’s is an herby, gin-based liquor (I can’t tell you exactly what is in it since the recipe is a secret) traditionally mixed with carbonated lemonade or ginger ale and garnished with a cucumber spear, mint leaves and any combination of apple, orange, lemon, cherries or strawberries. I think it is delicious with ginger beer, which is a bit spicier than your ordinary ginger ale, or Q ginger, made by the same company that produces the good tasting tonic water.

Shandy fixings - just pour together and enjoy
Shandy fixings – just pour together and enjoy

Another thirst quenching summer beverage is a shandy. Ok – you are probably thinking, why ruin a perfectly good beer with lemonade or ginger ale? When it’s hot, you want a little less alcohol and a little more refreshment hence the half and half mixture of any lager or ale you enjoy with lemonade, ginger ale, ginger beer, a lemon-lime soda or even fruit juice. A sprig of mint is a fitting garnish, if you feel it needs one.

Whenever we have a party, I always like to make a pitcher of a mixed drink to make bar tending easier for us and for our guests. In winter, I might mix whiskey sours or bourbon and ginger but in summer I prefer something lighter, like the St. Germain cocktail, which is easy to mix in a big batch. A pitcher of white sangria made with white wine, a little cognac, lemon juice and sugar or agave with peach slices or red sangria with lots of cut up fruit is festive and easy to drink. Traditional red sangria can pack quite a punch because it is fortified with brandy and sometimes also Cointreau or another liquor. In summer, I simply mix red wine with some orange juice and bubbly water with just a dash of liqueur and load up on fruit for a less potent version.

Lastly, one of my favorite drinks, no matter the season, is a sweet red vermouth on the rocks with a twist or slice of lemon or orange. (For comments on different brands, see my post on a Continental Drift). My old Mr. Boston Bartender’s Guide mistakenly calls this an Americano (which also contains Campari) but I just call it refreshing. 

Sweet Vermouth on the rocks tumbler by Julia Galloway
Sweet Vermouth on the rocks
tumbler by Julia Galloway

A Lighter Cocktail

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Porcelain tumbler by James Makins

Scotch. Bourbon, Rye. All delicious. But sometimes you want a lighter drink with lower alcohol content. There are days when even a glass of wine or a beer seems too heavy. In those moments, I reach for the sweet vermouth. Yes, sweet vermouth. What is usually thought of as an ingredient in a Manhattan or Negroni, makes a delightful drink on its own. I find it refreshing as the weather starts to warm up and a stiff drink would make me too woozy.

Vermouth, a fortified (added spirits) wine with botanicals, is made in many countries. It is thought to have originated in Turin, Italy. There are more and more brands of sweet red vermouth (as opposed to the dry vermouth used in a martini or the blanco I just read about which is white and sweet) marketed in the U.S. and the taste runs from syrupy sweet to medicinal. We bought several bottles to try since our local liquor stores have started carrying a wide variety of vermouths in a range of sizes and prices.

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The more aromatic varieties, like Carpano, which makes Antica Formula, and Punt E Mes (both Italian), are preferred in upscale bars and restaurants. My palette finds them somewhat bitter on their own but they are the most complex of the vermouths we sampled. Cinzano and Martini & Rossi (Italian) are more old-school and a bit sweeter and heavier. Dolin and Noilly Prat (both French) lie somewhere in the middle and are a little more sherry-like. The best tasting solution, for me, is to mix one of the traditional Italian sweet vermouths with any of the others. It’s fun to experiment and see which brand or combination you prefer. Let me know what you choose. My current favorite blend is Cinzano with Dolin.

In Italy, a sweet vermouth on the rocks is a classic aperitif. It is a lovely drink on a warm afternoon but I think it is made even better with a splash of seltzer and a squeeze of an orange. If you prefer your drink less sweet, squeeze in lime or grapefruit instead of orange juice and add a slice of lime or grapefruit rather than an orange. If you want to get adventurous, you can try adding a dash of sherry (it’s been sitting in your cupboard anyway, right?) or a few drops of bitters. My husband prefers it with both sherry and bitters (we used Angostura). A piece of mint in summer could be refreshing. Try naming your concoction – that is always a fun diversion. Hmm. Perhaps a  vermouth tasting would make a festive spring or summer get-together? Salute!

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CONTINENTAL DRIFT (or make up your own name!

  • 1/4 cup sweet vermouth
  • 2 Tbs orange juice or a squeeze of half a small orange
  • Splash (or 2) of seltzer or sparkling mineral water
  • Piece of an orange (I cut a medium orange in 6 pieces)

Stir together in a glass and add ice.

Warming Ginger Tea

The first Thanksgiving I didn’t travel home to see my family, a friend joined me to cook a meal.  Neither of us knew much about cooking but she brought some store-prepared food and I think I managed to compose a salad. Mostly, we focused on feeling grown up and independent.  This friend had just broken up with a Turkish boyfriend whose positive attribute was that he had taught her how to make ginger tea. Once we had finished our meal, she showed me his technique and we thought it was exotic and delicious.  I have since fiddled with the very simple recipe and although I don’t make it on Thanksgiving anymore, I do make it whenever someone has a stuffy head or scratchy throat or needs warming from the inside out.  It was perfect this week in New York when we had single digit temperatures. Add or subtract honey (I like it pretty sweet) or substitute agave or maple syrup, if it tastes better to you.

GINGER TEA

A big (3″) knob of ginger, (skin scraped off with a spoon so you don’t lose a lot of flesh) – about 1/2 cup packed

1/2 cup honey (I like raw wildflower here but any will do)

Juice from 1 – 2 lemons, depending on how juicy they are – about 1/4 cup 

5 cups of water

Coarsely grate ginger into a saucepan and cover with the water. (If you are in a big hurry, you can simply slice the ginger but it won’t be as strong)

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Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for 10 – 15 minutes.  Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes. (If your head is stuffy, cover your head with a towel over the pot and breathe in the steam once you turn off the burner – just don’t get too close or you will burn your nose!)

Add honey and stir to dissolve.

Stir in lemon juice and strain tea into cups.  

Sip while steaming.

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mug by Ayumi Horie

If you have some left and want to reheat it, don’t boil – just heat until it starts to move so you don’t overcook the honey and lemon.  This tea stores well in a glass jar overnight in the refrigerator and tastes so good re-warmed in the morning. It is also delicious mixed into tea, especially green, about half ginger mixture and half tea, cold, as a bracing ginger lemonade or as a replacement in a mixed cocktail for ginger beer.

Great Coffee Every Time

I gave up on electric drip coffee makers a long time ago. After a few uses, the coffee never tasted right, even after cleaning the machine with vinegar. I chalked it up to the plastic plumbing and parts. And then there is the pot sitting over an electric warming burner that leaves the coffee tasting burnt and reheated. Every time we were in Williams Sonoma, my husband and I would ogle the Technivorm, which heats the water to the perfect temperature but, alas, also has plastic tubing, costs too much and takes up way too much room on the counter. Perking coffee was out of the questing since boiling coffee creates a kind of nasty toxicity I didn’t want any part of and didn’t like the burnt flavor anyway. I liked the ease of a French press and I thought the coffee tasted good but when I read that it was healthier for coffee to run through a paper filter, I moved on. For years, I used either a Melitta drip cone, when it was just one or two of us drinking coffee or a glass Chemex when we were serving a tableful. One problem with the Melitta was that I didn’t like using a plastic cone, even if it was lined with paper (my personal paranoia). The other problem was that the coffee often got clogged up in the bottom and when I would stir to release it, the filter would tear and grinds would end up in my cup.

Last summer, my lovely husband did some research online and for my birthday bought me a Kalita Wave drip cone with filters. If you’ve never seen one, this is a gleaming stainless steel dripper that sits on a cup (or whatever you choose – we use a glass jar so we can make 2 cups). It uses fluted paper filters that look like a condensed mini version of a mr. coffee style filter.

The wave has a flat bottom with 3 holes through which the coffee drips – not just the single melitta hole. There are lots of reasons Kalita says this filter system works so well – the angle, flutes, 3 holes in a triangle, etc. The reasons I like it are also multiple – no plastic, cleans and stores super easily, and the coffee tastes great. Isn’t that what you want every morning?

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While traveling recently, we ordered coffee in an upscale market hall at a cafe where they used a Kalita wave to make drip coffee. Watching the barista, I had to bite my lip not to laugh or make a snide remark at the fastidiousness of his process (I’m not a usually so snarky but this performance was like a parody you might see on SNL). First, he weighed out the beans. Then he ground the coffee and weighed it again, swiping out a few grains at a time until his measurement was perfect. A tap dispensed boiled water at the perfect temperature and he wet the filter and let the water flow through. Then he set the dripper on a cup, added the perfectly measured coffee, and wet the grounds with a splash of boiled water from one of those long spouted Japanese kettles. (I have eyed them in the stores as they are very beautiful but do I really need another pot in my kitchen?) Once the grounds were sufficiently saturated and had time to bubble and settle, he kept a slow but continuous trickle of hot water pouring into the coffee. A few minutes later, I had my cup. Was it amazing? Not in the least. Although you could weakly taste the flavor, I thought the coffee was swill – way too watery for my taste.  But what do I know?  Only what I like – a strong, bold, wake me up shot of coffee to get me going in the morning and this was not it.

Now we use the Kalita every morning (so should I be laughing at myself?), but in a simpler way. I do grind my coffee in a burr grinder (a Bodum Brooks found on sale in bright orange that cheers my morning), wet the filter (as per the instructions) and give the coffee a moment to “bloom” after the first pour of boiling water (as per the instructions), but I don’t weigh or measure and the water comes directly from my tea kettle. The whole process takes about 2 minutes.

How do I like my coffee? Smooth, full bodied and strong, not too acidic and never flavored but flavorful. I use the organic sumatra estate (medium roast but dark and smells amazing) coffee from BJ’s warehouse club – 2 1/2 pounds for $16 which lasts us about 4 – 5 weeks. Whatever coffee I make (sometimes I buy the organic Ethiopian or fair trade breakfast blend at Trader Joe’s), I always use more than the recommended amount. And I put a little cup hook under one of my kitchen cabinets so now the wave doesn’t even take up any room on my counter.

I can’t swear that the coffee made in the Kalita actually tastes better than when it is dripped other ways. But it is stainless steel, easy to use and clean, takes up almost no space, and makes delicious coffee – win win all around.