Quick Shrimp & Penne With Bleu Cheese Vermouth Sauce

If you've heard the old saw that forbids the combination of fish or seafood with cheese, this is one recipe that dispels that misguided advice. Lets be real, there are loads of dishes that ignore that rule including Sole Romano or Flounder with Parmesan Crumbs; Lobster Mac n Cheese; Shrimp, Crab & Scallop Alfredo; or even good old fashioned tuna casserole. So go ahead, it's perfectly delicious to cheese up your fish with abandon!

Quick Shrimp & Penne

With Bleu Cheese Vermouth Sauce

Serves 2

• 12 jumbo shrimp, tails removed, deveined
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 4 T dry white vermouth
• 4 T half and half
• 4 T bleu cheese, crumbled
• 2 small green onions, sliced across - reserve 1 T of the green bits for garnish
• lots of fresh ground black pepper
• freshly shaved parmesan cheese for finishing
• 2 C cooked penne

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes - stir, but do not brown. Once the garlic has softened, add the shrimp. Cook until just pink on both sides. Remove just the shrimp to a plate and set aside.

Add green onions to the oil, garlic and red pepper in the skillet, then add vermouth. Stir up all the good stuff from the bottom of the pan. Add the half & half and stir again; add bleu cheese and stir until smooth. Season with pepper.

Plate the penne in two shallow bowls (to hold all that creamy, cheesy sauce), then divide the shrimp and sauce between them. Garnish with green onion and shaved parm. Add a green salad and dinner is ready in minutes!

NOTE: This really is a quickie recipe...as long as you have cooked pasta on hand, and I did. 

Pro Tip: Cook that whole box of pasta even if you only need part of it, and freeze what's left for fast future dinners (just be sure to cook it only to the al dente stage before freezing in 2 C portions). 

Classic Spirits Making the Cocktail Scene All Over Again

Everything old is new again...or so they say. In the cocktail world, it seems to be absolutely (no pun intended) true. Without a doubt, the resurgence of classic cocktails and/or craft cocktails is the reason for some old time, classic spirits making the scene again.

Having an ear that's occasionally tuned to the current trends in spirits, I sometimes enjoy hearing about what's "new" these days. Take Fernet Branca for example, it's so hot right now! Um...Mark and I started enjoying it in the early 80's while on a trip to Monte Carlo and the French and Italian Rivieras. Every meal was followed by Fernet as an after dinner digestif by tourists and locals alike. When we bid adieu, there was a bottle of Fernet tucked into our bags!

Then there's Campari. This is another spirit Mark and I enjoyed many years ago - back in the late 60's! These days, the Negroni is THE cocktail to make with Campari...and I DO love me a well-made Negroni. (Thank you Acacia and Shane.) In those days, we simply mixed it with tonic or (wish we could still find this one) Schweppes Bitter Lemon. Clean, crisp, bitter and thoroughly refreshing on a warm, sunny day, the Negroni just hits the spot.

And then there's sloe gin. If you think the late 60's were far back, it was the mid 50's when my parents were sipping their favorite Sloe Gin Fizzes while playing Five Hundred around the kitchen table with Aunt Anna and Uncle Bert. We kids would occasionally be treated to a sip (or two if we were quick!) of the nose tickling beverage. 

Sloe Gin is back in style, too. Not the Jacquins my parents used in their cocktails - that sweet, syrupy stuff wasn't even real, just artificial flavors and coloring. Now Plymouth gin makes a very fine version with actual sloe berries! Not sweet, but tart and a little bitter. And that gorgeous red is natural!

With all these new-again liquors (with memories attached for me), I've been experimenting. Here are the recipes for the successful results, along with the recipe for a classic Negroni. Mix one of these up for yourself and a guest and sip...and maybe even conduct a little cocktail trial and error of your own. Research can be such fun!

The Classic Negroni

Makes 1

• 1 oz. gin
• 1 oz. Campari
• 1 oz. Sweet Vermouth
• a swath of orange peel

Gently stir gin, Campari and sweet vermouth in a mixing glass with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with orange peel. If desired, serve over ice.

GinGinGinger

Makes 1

• 1 oz. gin (I used Bluecoat)
• 1 oz. Plymouth Sloe Gin
• 1 oz. Canton Ginger Liqueur
• a large slice of candied ginger (or smaller pieces on a cocktail skewer)

Gently stir gin, sloe gin and ginger liqueur in a mixing glass with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with candied ginger. If desired, serve over ice.

Aloe and Sloe

Makes 1

• 1 oz. gin (I used Bluecoat)
• 1 oz. Plymouth Sloe Gin
• 1 oz. sweet vermouth
• 1/2 oz. sweetened aloe juice
• barest splash of seltzer
• a long ribbon of lemon peel

 In a cocktail tin, add gin, sloe gin, vermouth and aloe juice. Add ice 3/4 of the way up the tin. Cap tightly and shake until the tin is frosted on the outside.  

Strain into an ice filled cocktail glass, add just a splash of seltzer, give it just a gentle stir to keep the in the effervescence and garnish with lemon peel.  

Cheers!    


   

    

Gin Class at Tender Bar & Kitchen

The sun shone, it was almost noon. A queue of strangers was forming outside Tender Bar & Kitchen in Lawrenceville waiting patiently for the doors to open. 

Passersby may have thought the worst of us. We may have appeared to be overly thirsty for our first drink of the day, but that wasn't the case at all. We were there for a class on gin. We were thirsty for knowledge.

You can study gin?! Yes, you can. Our instructor for the day was Marie Perriello, the Education Director at Tender, assisted by Jeff Catalina, the owner of both Tender and Verde Mexican Kitchen & Cantina in Garfield. I don't know about you, but I LOVE a bar with an Education Director! The more I know about what I drink, the better I like it.

The long bar in the narrow, former-bank-turned-bar, was lined with 18 students awaiting Marie's cocktail enlightenment. Each of us had our own station and equipment - tins, both a cocktail AND a julep strainer, barspoon, glasses, etc. everything we needed to make our own drinks.  
  
It was a real treat to start off with an old-fashioned, non-alcoholic vanilla phosphate. I hadn't had one of those since I was a kid on a spinning stool at the drugstore counter! Plates of the kitchen's fresh-made potato chips with aioli and bowls of piping hot hush puppies kept up our energy throughout the class.

Marie and Jeff conducted a gin tasting before we started mixing cocktails.  We tasted and learned the differences in taste and the suitability for types of cocktails by sampling Beefeater, Plymouth, Old Tom and Bols Ginever. I couldn't decide if I like the Plymouth or the Bols best - all four were excellent.

The cocktail making began with a Martinez, a stirred gin cocktail. Here's where we used the Haymans Old Tom Gin we had tasted earlier along with Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur, Sweet Vermouth and Boker's Bitters. Stirred gently with ice in a circular motion, strained with a julep strainer into a coupe glass and garnished with lemon peel, it was delicious. And beautiful, don't you think?

The Martinez

 
Next we moved to a shaken cocktail called The Last Word - the perfect name for the last cocktail of the day. I chose Plymouth gin...the smooth sweetness would complement the other components of the cocktail. Luxardo was used again, Green Chartreuse (another fave of mine) and fresh-squeezed lime juice. 

The Last Word

After shaking and double straining the liquid into a cocktail (martini) glass, we were ready to raise a toast to the education in gin that we'd gotten in a short, but sweet, two hours. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday at all.

One of the things Marie stressed was the adaptability of a cocktail...how you can swap out one spirit for another, a modifying agent or spirit for another. She gave us confidence to take what she taught and experiment on our own.  

Marie mentioned using Mezcal in place of gin in the Martinez and, in fact, I've enjoyed a cocktail she makes that does that very thing. So I tried messing with spirits and other additions myself and came up with this little number. Here's the recipe first for Marie's classic Martinez.

Want to learn that cocktail confidence yourself? Sign up for upcoming classes at Tender! I'll see you there!

Martinez - Marie Perriello

• 2 oz. Haymans Old Tom Gin
• .5 oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• 1 oz. Sweet Vermouth
• 2 dashes Boker's Bitters

Stir all ingredients in a mixing glass. Use a julep strainer and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon peel.  

Mezcal Martinez - my version

 

• 2 oz. Wild Shot Mezcal
• .5 oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• 1 oz. Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
• dropper full Bittermens Elemakule Tiki Bitters

    
Stir all in a mixing glass. Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with lemon peel. 

Mezcal Martinez - my version

Cocktail education really is Marie's specialty. In addition to bartending at both Tender and Acacia, she owns her own cocktail education business, Stir Society. 

Marie conducts demonstrations and classes in homes to delight and amaze your friends or businesses as a team-building exercise or entertainment for clients. Check it out for your next party or business meeting...it will be an event to be remembered!



 
 

Bar Marco: On the Cutting Edge of Ice

Bar Marco has an ice program.  No, not a show featuring Tai Babilonia or Dick Button -  nor even Sidney Crosby now that he apparently has some time on his hands.   

In the bar business, an ice program is one that only the best of the best cocktail establishments are taking on these days. They make ice.  Hand cut ice.  From the clearest, food-quality ice sculpture grade ice available.  And Bar Marco is the very first bar in town to bring that quality to Pittsburgh. 
 
Bar Marco partner, Bobby Fry (yep, that's Bobby behind the bar up there), recently spent almost two weeks apprenticing with Derek Brown at the famed Washington, DC speakeasy-ish Columbia Room hidden behind the equally-famed classic cocktail bar, The Passenger.  Yes, nearly two weeks of training went into learning just how to carve and perfect the right ice for your drink. 

Last Thursday was a stellar fall day to witness the ritual cutting of the ice outside Bar Marco in the Strip District.  The sun was shining and the temps were in the 80's...let the demo begin!

A large block of ice was set up on a cutting board outside and let to sit for a while.  The wait time reduces the chance of the ice fracturing at unwanted spots and angles, it's less brittle and more maleable.  Just right for carving. 

 

One big hunk of ice waiting to become perfect cubes.

The first ice-taming tool to come out of the chest is a cleaver worthy of any horror movie.  It isn't used to hack the ice, however.  It gently and smoothly scores guidelines into the surface.  (For right now the mighty cleaver is the tool being used. A similar looking Japanese udon noodle knife with a much finer blade is the preferred choice - Bar Marco is just waiting for it to arrive!)

Getting ready to score.

And then the manly tools come out, the testosterone surges and a crowd gathers on the street to witness the show.  Yes folks, the chainsaw!  The call of the chainsaw never fails to summon curious onlookers and lovers of a streetshow.  Honestly, it's such a spectacle they could pass the hat for tips as the engine roars and the ice chips fly!

Do not try this at home!

The ice block slowly and carefully becomes slabs of ice, then each slab is deeply cut, again using the chainsaw but not all the way through, into precise columns.

And the columns of ice are then cut evenly into cube-ish shapes - again, not all the way through.

Now the cleaver is brought back into play to gently, but firmly, separate and trim the ice into nearly perfect cubes approximately 3" X 3" each.  Beautiful.   

One beautifully clear cube reflecting the sun and the scene.

   
But what's the point?  Why produce ice in such a time-sapping, laborious process?  What makes it better than what comes out of your refrigerator door?  It's the speed of the melt and the resultant controlled dilution of your drink. It's the attention to detail when creating a cocktail of the very finest ingredients...top shelf bourbons and ryes, peerless gins and liqueurs, the Perfect Manhattan or Martini made perfectly. 

Who wants a precisely made cocktail that in a minute or two is diluted beyond recognition with chipped ice or normal cube ice?  Probably not you and certainly not me...nor any discerning cocktail afficianado.  If you're the sort who appreciates the contents of the glass, the aroma, the mouthfeel, the subtle flavors vying for your tastebuds' attention, you're also just the person to appreciate the effort of an ice program to preserve your experience to the very last drop. 

Remember hearing about Derek Brown at the beginning of this post? What?! You don't know the Passenger or the Columbia Room?  The bar was named to GQ's 25 Best Cocktail Bars in America and to Food and Wine's 50 Best Cocktail Bars. Who is Derek Brown?  Only the owner of those esteemed establishments and himself a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation Outstanding Wine, Beer or Spirits Professional Award in 2010 and was featured in the Wall Street Journal's article, "Master of Mixological Science."  He knows his stuff.

GQ magazine also applauded Derek for making the best martini in America.  While Bobby was working with Derek he taught Bobby how to make his Perfect Martini.  Bobby shared the handed-down martini wisdom with me.  And now, I'm sharing it with you.  Here's how.

The Perfect Martini

• 1 1/2 ounces London Gin - Bobby used Martin Miller's London Dry Gin
• 1 1/2 ounces Dolin Vermouth
• 1 dash Bittermens orange bitters
• a wide strip of lemon zest, no white

In a martini pitcher, place 2 large, beautiful cubes of ice.  Measure in the gin, vermouth and the dash of bitters.  Stir 60 smooth turns gently around the pitcher.  

Two beautiful cubes in one beautiful martini pitcher.

Strain into a chilled martini glass and twist the lemon above the glass, forcing out the oils.  Rub the rim with the yellow side, if you wish.  Cheers!

 

 
 Bar Marco
2216 Penn Avenue in the Strip District
412 471-1900